oh, where to begin?

Spring in the City

2012-02-11T19:39:00.000-05:00

Today I took the LSAT. Ugh.

Actually, it was a better experience than it probably should have been, as I had somebody to do it with.

That was in Chattanooga, an hour south of here at 8:30 this morning. For reasons that I shan't mention, but that were loosely related to the fact that I took the LSAT this morning, I ended up in Spring City, 40 minute north of here this afternoon. I vaguely remembered––or imagined––that Alex Green, one of my colleagues at Triangle, had recommended that I drive around there sometime. So I did. It was interesting. You should click on the picture below to zoom in and see what it says on the side of the red shed. It's worth it.

un-chillness

2012-02-03T22:27:00.001-05:00

I spent today recovering from yesterday. Yesterday wasn't anything unusual. Just loads and loads of the usual.

Ever since the mailroom decreed that they would not put Triangle––the campus newspaper that I work for––in student and professor mailboxes unless we deliver all 800 of them folded by 9:00am, we have had to get up at 7:30 to get them all done. Hands black with ink, I went to the library to finish editing a paper for a class later on in the day about The Dream of the Rood, an Old English poem. Then it was three consecutive classes. Since it was Thursday, each one of those was an hour and a half long.

Since it was a beautiful day, I couldn't resist going for a run. This may have not been a good idea, as I think I may be sick. But I enjoyed it. After that, I had to finish recording a video story with one of Triangle's reporters who had never done one before, which is always a little extra challenge. Then it was back to the library to one of the iMacs to spend four hours straight editing. Normally I have all weekend to do this, but because the story was time sensitive, it needed to be finished by the next morning, so I figured I had better get it done.

So that was yesterday. Today was much more chill, as honestly, most of this semester has been. Below is one of my video stories. Not the one that I did yesterday, but one that I worked on last week with Clari... who is really good at it. It required me to do math. Which is interesting, as I picked my major partly in order to avoid math.

a few brief snapshots

2012-01-25T23:15:00.000-05:00

If you're not one of my friends from home (which makes most of you) and didn't read my post a couple weeks ago, then you probably don't know who my friend Chris was. He very sadly passed away two weeks ago tomorrow, and I've obviously been going through the emotions you would expect. I've also been, along with the other people who knew him, reflecting on the great times that we had together. One of those times was a trip we took to Buffalo in 2010 to see the Canadian post-punk band Tokyo Police Club and Freelance Whales. I recently found some video that I had taken of our trip on one of my external hds and decided to post it here both in his honor and to share with those who knew him––and those who didn't as well.

Here is also my blog post that I wrote about the trip shortly after it occurred. While it leaves out some of the more colorful bits of the adventure like our elaborate and highly successful scheme to convince the bouncers we were over 21 and such, it should put the above video in better context. Otherwise, it just shows a few brief snapshots in time of a guy who I really, really miss, but am very glad to have known.

Occupying Chattanooga

2012-01-22T21:22:00.000-05:00

For not having anything that I needed to do today, it was remarkably busy.

This morning I attended Westminster, where I was able to try out using my nook as a Bible. It worked quite well. So far that's the only book I've put on it besides The Brothers Karamazov, which I bought for 99¢. It's an interesting story, and suitably depressing for me right now. I've really enjoyed using the nook so far... it unexpectedly overcame several problems I have always had with reading, such as how to hold the book comfortably and getting lost on the page. I decided quickly that I needed a case for it though, and also wanted to see what was different about using it at a Barnes and Nobel Cafe. This meant a trip to Chattanooga.

I went by way of Hixson, where I was almost killed in two separate incidents of road rage. I stopped at Target and bought a lamp for my room, which I had been wanting for a long time and then went to Moe's. At Moe's the cashier looked at me funny for a very long and awkward, moment as if trying to make up his mind about something, and then asked me if anyone had ever told me that I look like Michael Cera. Too my knowledge no one has, and what's more I'm very okay if it stays that way.

I don't really see it.

After Barnes & Nobel, where there was no room to sit in the cafe, and it took me forever to decide which case to get, I drove across the city to Fletcher Hall at UTC. I'm taking a very long, very intense exam there in a few weeks and decided that I had better figure out where it is now so that I don't have to worry about it the morning of. After locating the building, parking, and finding it unlocked, I let myself inside and looked around for a few minutes.

From there I headed across town to the Greenlife, the only grocery within 100 miles that sells the kind of oatmeal that I like to eat for breakfast. On the way there, I drove past the city Court House, and saw a dozen or so tents in the yard in front of it, banners, and a small group of people holding signs. Could this be Occupy?

Intrigued, I parked half a block away, walked up to the site, and asked: "So are you guys like, Occupy Chattanooga?". As it turned out, they were indeed, and they informed me that they were about to have their weekly General Assembly in just ten minutes and I was welcome to join them. So I stood there in the relative cold and more-than-relative cigarette smoke for about an hour while they talked about drafting a petition to end campaign contributions over $100, whether or not people with firearms should be asked to leave the premise of their encampment, and whether it was appropriate for them to have their literature set up at the UTC Young Democrats table.

Even though there were only about 20 of us standing in a circle in the middle of the lawn of the Chattanooga Courthouse, they still used the code of hand signals (jazz fingers for applause, a chopping gesture for 'object' and raising your hand to speak) that I understand was developed for use in New York when there were thousands of people who couldn't hear each other. While on the one hand, this seemed a little hilarious, it worked well, and by the end of the assembly, I decided that it was actually a kind of interesting way of making decisions.

One thing that struck me was the diversity of people who were there. There were obviously the college students and "professional activist" types that you would expect, but there were also a good number of younger professional people and middle-aged folks as well.

So it was interesting... and all because I just happened to drive by.

The Long Patrol

2012-01-19T21:09:00.000-05:00

Somehow, I feel like this semester is a lot more than two weeks old already. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.

It may be that there's enough continuity between this one and the last as far as projects I'm working on and people I know that I feel it's just a continuation of the fall. While I haven't had a ton of classes, I've worked on a good number of different things: videos for the school's MLK Service day event, studying for the LSAT, etc. I feel like it's more than that though.

Chris passing away may be a big part of it. While that didn't directly affect anything here, it definitely changed my own little world in some way or other. Maybe just looking at how things were last week and how different they are now is what accounts for the fact that it feels so long ago.

This is my last semester of course. I guess I feel more ambivalent about that than anything else. I'm not in a hurry for it to be over, but then, neither do I want to drag it out as much as possible.

One thing is for sure: If things keep going how they have so far, it will be a very long semester.

My Friend Chris

2012-01-14T23:51:00.001-05:00

This is a picture of my friend Chris.

I've only ever had a few close friends, but Chris was one of them.

We were very different in some ways, but maybe that's why. He had a really hard life. Probably the worst life of anyone I've ever known. But he was also the most optimistic (to the point that it bothered me) and generally happy person I've ever known.

One thing we did have in common was music, and that was our main connecting point from the time he first moved to New York where we met. We were both learning to play guitar at the time, and while he quickly surpassed me, he was always my favorite person to jam with. We liked some of the same bands, and he introduced me to more and probably shaped my musical tastes more than any other one person.

I heard in some class or other that for men, your friends are individuals that you do things with. And while fate and geography kept us separated for the vast majority of our time, whenever we were in the same part of the country, Chris was somebody that I did things with, whether it was playing guitar and talking about music late at night on the balcony of his first apartment, sneaking into bars when we were underage, or driving all night to see a band and explore a city we had never been in before.

If you know me, you might be thinking some of that sounds out of character, and maybe it is, because Chris was the only guy I ever did that kind of thing with. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I think part of it was how much he enjoyed life... even when it didn't go as planned. Things that would have ruined my day normally just felt like part of the adventure when I was with him––something that would make a story we would laugh about months or years later.

And there are a good number or those stories. I'll always be glad to remember them. Sadly, though, there won't be any more, because Chris died on Thursday. And I don't know what to do.

I will miss you my friend.

A Walk with Mom

2012-01-10T23:33:00.000-05:00

I kept very busy the last couple days of Christmas vacation, and that busyness continued up through my return drive to Tennessee the day before yesterday. My break up until that point was blissfully lackadaisical, interrupted only by activities such as attending functions related to my extended family; the dynamics of which could be reasonably compared to the politics of Europe sometime between the World Wars, unintentionally becoming an accomplice in a drug deal in New York State; an experience which caused me to cross drug-dealer off my list of potential occupations, and eating extremely well. This lifestyle was brought to an abrupt end when I decided––for reasons that were not entirely clear to me then or now––to take the LSAT this February. Since to the best of my ability to discern my own desires, I do not want to continue my education or be an attorney, I cannot tell you what combination of subconscious suggestions by relatives, boredom, or the vague idea that I someday want to be wealthy and respected could have prompted me to sign up to take the infamous academic achievement test for entrance to law school. I can tell you, however, that I decided to while on a walk with my Mom, which brings us to the real point of this post.

One of my favorite things to do whenever I'm home, you see, is go for a walk with my Mom. I really only did once this vacation, and it was a rather cloudy day. Realizing I had taken nearly no photos all break though, I decided to grab my camera. It turned out the battery was almost dead, so I only had a limited number of shots. Sometimes I feel like that sort of thing can actually make for more interesting photos though. So here, in a mostly unedited sort of extended photo essay, is my Walk with Mom:

A January 2nd sky in Coryland PA.

Gas spilled on the pavement. The colors used to fascinate me to no end as a young child.

My Mom.

When I was little, I can remember my parents pushing me past this tree in a racing stroller. I always loved looking at the roots, which were visible because of erosion. I came home this time to find it had been chopped down. You can still see the roots though.

This vehicle was abandoned (I hear the owner has threatened to kill anyone who touches it, but for all practical purposes, abandoned) beside our road several years ago, and has not moved since. It vexes my Mom to no end.

Some kind of mechanism on the telephone line, the function of which I do not know, but can vaguely remember being told that it has something to do with squirrels.

Our walking companion of the last several years, Bella. For some reason my shots of her are always blurry. I could be using a DSLR or a cellphone. The result is the same.

Returning to our house at dusk.

My best photo is not here, unfortunately. You see I ordered a print of it for my Mom and I don't want her to see it here before she gets it. But maybe I'll post it later.

Finding the Real Tintin

2011-12-30T11:00:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit

This past Monday my family and I went to see The Adventures of Tintin by Spielberg and Jackson. I don't frequently post media reviews on this blog, but I feel like writing one about this movie for a number of reasons.

After reading a number of scathingly negative reviews about the film adaptation of the comic book hero that I had loved as a child when I first read them in installments in the long-since defunct children's magazine, EXPLORE, I was uneasy about the film. That, combined with the fact that Spielberg has been the mastermind behind a lot of monstrosities in recent years that it seems I was always dragged to by guy friends and then regretted it afterword––think Transformers––I wasn't at all sure that I even wanted to see The Adventures of Tintin. Thus, when my family decided to take me to see it with them, I didn't say no, but was not too excited about it all the same.

My main fear was that they would end up changing Tintin's character into something awful. American movies tend to follow a very strict formula in which the protagonist starts out thinking or doing one thing, and then at some point makes a decision to change. This formula ensures that the protagonist is what English professors would call a "dynamic" character, that is, a character who changes. This tends to work well. The problem is, when Hollywood tries to adapt a story with a "flat" character who doesn't go through flux, they don't usually know what to do with it. Rather than venturing from the dynamic character mold, they often change the character. This is what ruined the Chronicles of Narnia for me, when they changed Peter, who C.S. Lewis created as a relatively flat character to make him seem more "human." Tintin, as Hergé created him, is an extremely flat character; always the impeccably good guy, which is something that set the Tintin series apart from most of the rest of the morally convoluted world of comics. So there was a myriad of ways in which I could imagine Spielberg changing him.

I ended up being pleasantly surprised. The Tintin in the movie was at least close to what I had imagined from the books, and importantly, stayed remarkably consistent. That's not to say that other characters weren't altered to fit the Hollywood formula––just that Tintin for the most part was not one of them. I'm not enough of an expert on the stories, or literature in general to say for sure what happened, but my feeling was that they ended up altering Captain Haddock's character instead, making him a more "dynamic" character who drinks because he has low self-esteem––not just because he's a swaggering sea captain, and ultimately has to make moral choices to be a better person. While this may or may not be true of what Captain Haddock was supposed to be, I feel like it's a small tragedy compared to Tintin being drastically changed to fit the mold of a normal movie plot.

As far as the technical side of the movie goes, it was beautifully done (and being produced by Jackson, I wouldn't have expected any less). It's the first fully CGI movie with realistic human characters that I've seen in which I wasn't left with the unsettling feeling that something about them "wasn't quite right." In fact, I often forgot that it was even an animation. The comedic use of simple things like people running into each other felt just the same as Hergé used it, most obviously with the bumbling detectives Thompson and Thompson, but more subtly throughout the rest of the film as well. The locations in the film are also beautifully rendered, and the quick change from one to another was a page right out of the books.

As to the gratuitous action sequences that some critics have claimed are alien to the books and Umika Pidaparthy called "Indiana Jones-esque," I don't really have anything to say. I've become resigned to the fact that they are just a sign of the times, as it were. All movies seem to have them, and I think they will just be something people in 20 or 30 years look back on and say "that's so early 2000s" just like excessive use of fade-through transitions in the mid 20th century or slow motion fight scenes in the late 90s tend to date movies from that time. They may not be in the books exactly, but if a few explosions or a drawn out motorcycle chase are the worst thing to complain about, then I think we have escaped rather well (and contrary to what I've read some critics insinuate, the books do actually have motorcycle chases, like the one in King Ottokar's Sceptre, even if it didn't last nearly as long or end nearly as well).

While the movie has its flaws, I felt like it captured at least some of the spirit of the books, and managed to be intriguing without turning Tintin himself into some kind of psychologically confused star. And Tintin being Tintin is I think what made the books what they are. While his guesses weren't always right, his motives were. While he appeared to be worldly-wise, he was at the same time innocent, which made his ventures out into the crazy, convoluted, and at times evil world the real adventures that they are.

The meek shall inherit the Earth, but....

2011-12-29T10:46:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I bought a game that I had been considering for a while, Sid Meier's Civilization V.

Having quite a bit of free time, I've been in the mood for some kind of slower, deeper, more thoughtful strategy game. This one seemed to fit the ballot. The only thing I wasn't sure about was whether or not it would run on my computer, and in the reviews and forums, it seemed like a lot of people had had trouble with it. I finally found a forum post that was a quote of another forum post in which a German user said he ran the game on the same model Macbook Pro with the same AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics card as mine. The way he worded it though was so ambiguous that it was difficult to tell whether or not he was saying that it worked or not. The download, however, was only $15 on Amazon and because of gift cards that I had from trading in text books it ended up not costing anything, so I decided to chance it. After waiting seven hours for it to download, I was not disappointed, as it installed and has been running so far without any trouble.

In between phases, the game gives quotes by famous influentials throughout history, and I found this one to be quite true in light of my families struggle over maintaining mineral rights on our land in the past five years and current situation in which the drilling company involved has been delaying payment or royalties for five months over technicalities:

"The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights." - Jean Paul Getty, American industrialist.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T10:14:00.000-05:00

I don't have anything profound, insightful, or humorous to say this morning––which is not to imply that I usually do. I just wanted, however, to wish everyone within and without the blog world and a very merry Christmas.

The Sun Never Sets

2011-12-18T21:19:00.000-05:00

This evening I started getting birthday wishes from friends where it's already tomorrow, and it made me think about how blessed I've been this year to somehow make friends in so many hemispheres.

Last march, as I was in Latvia for a mission trip kind of thing over spring break that I decided to participate in on a sort of whim. I was also in the process of ending my membership in an online game I'd been playing, Travian. The server was closing, and to avoid losing contact with one of my teammates, I messaged him my email address. It turns out he was from Iran, and I ended up having some very deep and interesting conversations with him and one or two of his friends that I connected with online. This was all while I was in Latvia, not sleeping because of jet-lag, and meeting lot's of Latvian high school students, a few of whom I've managed to keep in touch with. That week feels like a blur in my memory––but I think part of the reason is how much happened and how much I learned.

Over the summer came the journey that I had actually planned for: my internship in Beirut. Not only did I find myself in another foreign country, but I was also living and working with people who had come there from places far beyond the Middle East. Between visiting friends in Jordan and meeting new people there, traveling around Lebanon just talking with people, and hiking in the Lebanese mountains with people from Canada, Korea, and just about everywhere in between, I got to know and learn about the lives of more people with more diverse stories than I had ever imagined I would in my life.

On the way home I got to visit SBI back in San Lorenzo, Italy, where I was able to see people whom I hadn't in almost three years––back when I went to school there. I guess that was where it all started in a lot of ways. It was a little strange being there without my classmates from that semester, but looking at where they all are now, I realize how lucky, and wonderfully improbable it was that I got to meet all of them back then.

So looking back on this year, for someone who isn't very social or good with people, I feel like I've been really blessed to get to know so many from so far––and for the technology that gives the means for us to keep in touch. There's an old saying from back when Britain was still very much an imperial power that "the sun never sets on the British Empire," which was referring to Britain having colonies in nearly every time zone. The British Empire may be long gone (and that may be a good thing) but I think it's amazing that we live in a world today where it can be said that the sun never sets on our friends.

The Best Ever

2011-12-14T12:28:00.000-05:00

I spent this morning finishing up my last four assignments for Intro to Teaching English as a Second Language, the rather horrible online course I've had this semester. After preparing each of them in .pages documents, I quickly cut and pasted them all into the submission fields on the class website and hit submit. And I was like, "Well, glad I'm done with that." It took me a couple minutes to realize that those were the last thing I had to do this semester. That's always a good realization––when you have it.

It was a crazy semester, with it's share of excitement, depression, and downright weirdness. Before Thanksgiving break, I was tempted to say, for the first time in my college career, that time flew by. But somehow, after Thanksgiving, I started looking back and thinking "Did that really happen this semester?" And suddenly, it seemed like a long period of time again. Still I feel like it went faster than ever before. In fact, despite all of the ways in which it was a horrible semester, I think I have to say that it was probably my best experience yet (not counting SBI). I'm not sure if that's a happy thing or a sad thing. The standard for being my best semester ever has not exactly been set high by my previous experiences.

Half way through, I raised some eyebrows here and at home with my recap of the first half, and I remember wondering then if the second half would be as crazy. I guess I'm glad to say that it was not––at least for me personally. I think over fall break I kind of gave into the emotional exhaustion and didn't feel like fighting anymore... and have pretty much been in that state since then. So it will be good to have some time to (hopefully) recover here.

I'm heading back north tomorrow. Without my car, which may make it an interesting Christmas vacation. My car is in need of a couple thousand dollars of replacements before it's really in condition to drive 800 miles non-stop, and just the gas alone is over $100. So I'm riding back with Jana and Meagan all the way to Penn State, and then hopefully having my parents pick me up there.

So it's back into the howling hills of northern Pennsylvania for Christmas. I hope it will be a better one than last year. Of course, considering that I spent last Christmas Eve packing up sales kiosks at a Mall in Lynchburg Virginia for free, it shouldn't be hard to beat. But even beyond that, I do hope, and intend for it to be a good time, even if that just means seeing people I haven't seen in awhile.

But first I have to get there.

What 90s?

2011-12-03T23:06:00.001-05:00

I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic about the 90s. I've always rather resented people who borrowed nostalgia from times that they don't even remember, but the fact is, I lived through all of the 90s, and, culturally speaking, I may as well have not lived through them. Between being dyslexic, homeschooled, and Mennonite, my cultural knowledge of the decade during which I was a child is very, very limited.

I guess this feeling was spurred on by listening to The Cranberries. I know their song Dreams, but as a cover done by Passion Pit. When I originally heard the song by the people who wrote it, I thought it was like an acoustic version of the one that I know. It was in fact, the original though, and after some research, I found out that it was released in 1993... when I was three years old. That's so weird––to think that a song that I really like now was popular way back then. It leads me to wonder what else I may have missed.

On the other hand, there is probably a lot of stuff it's good that I missed. But it still feels strange. I often hear people who are my age talking about how they remember music and movies and such in the 90s as being "their time" and everything now as being something new and strange. While I have a lot of memories from the time period, they are entirely confined to myself, my family, and perhaps my churches. My earliest memories of the world as far as the outside culture are concerned date to the early 00's at best.

Again, that may be a good thing, but it's also something I wonder about sometimes.

A Reflection on Portfolios

2011-12-01T23:15:00.001-05:00

Back in the dark old days––which are separated from the dark new days by only a few years and a few thousand miles––I had to compile a lot of portfolios. In order to get a diploma, Pennsylvania requires homeschool students to turn in a portfolio at the end of every academic year showing evidence of all the courses they have taken, field trips they have gone on, books they have read and reports of general activities and such ilk. I was a homeschool student in PA. Thus, come April every year, there was this frenzied scramble to find, categorize, and assemble the massive amount material for the damned things so that they could be scrutinized by our evaluator, and then delivered to the office of the superintendent of the local high school. I suspect that this person––who generally hated us––never actually looked at them, but that's neither here nor there.

Entering college, one of the few things that I really enjoyed the first year was the fact that I did not have to turn in a portfolio. I got home every May to find my five younger siblings busily at work on theirs, while I myself had not even had to think the word portfolio except perhaps in some dark subconscious dream-state in which everything that bothered me as a young teenager still bothered me now––which it generally does, come to think of it, but back to the issue at hand.

So I felt almost something akin to nostalgia when I found out that one of my classes this semester would require the compilation of a portfolio. While I put off working on it till half way through the class, when I did, I conjured up all my years of portfolio experience and created a sleek, narcissistic monument to myself that bedazzled everyone who beheld it and was even deemed by the student worker girl who actually grades the things (when she isn't making snide remarks about my considering that I may be called a life of celibacy in the margins of my "Where do I want to be in five years" papers) to be the most "interesting one" out of the class of 20 or so.

That was due on Wednesday, and yesterday I found out that I will have to do another portfolio for the Long-Term Campaign (upper level comm class jargon for "group project from hell") in my persuasive comm class due on Monday. Then I remembered that I have another portfolio to compile for my internship over the summer, which is also due Monday. So by the end of the semester, which is mercifully close-at-hand, I will have assembled three portfolios. Basically one for every year that I didn't do one since I was no longer homeschooled. It's amazing how life comes around and bites you when you think you've escaped.

Thnxgiving in Tally

2011-11-28T20:47:00.001-05:00

It's been raining amazingly hard all day and all of last night. In fact, it started yesterday afternoon as I was driving back from Tallahassee.

I had spent Thanksgiving break in Florida with my cousins––just like last year––and it was a good time. Between running in the Tallahassee Turkey Trot (my 3rd time doing that... the first was long before last year), going to sporting events, and eating an obscene amount of food, I somehow had some downtime and was able to relax.

The race went well. I got a 21.13, which is my fastest for the event, and also for any 5k in general. So that was cool, although I still think the most enjoyable part of it may be going to east Krispy Kremes afterword, which is part of the tradition.We took our annual photo in front of the Krispy Kreme sign, but I don't have it yet, so that will have to wait. Here is one from the race though.

I once again went Black Friday shopping with my cousins, and once again, hardly bought anything. This year though we didn't go out nearly as early (8am as opposed to 4) which was really fine with me.

It was weird saying goodbye to everyone. It's not like I won't see them again or anything––I just probably won't be back for another Thanksgiving anytime soon. You never know though. It was a great and unexpected opportunity to be able to spend the last couple with them, and who knows what will happen in the next year.

The drive back, as I said was rainy, and also quite long due to ridiculous traffic south of Chattanooga. I somehow picked up a couple Bryan students in Tallahassee for the ride back though, so it was at least more interesting than doing it by myself.

They are saying it could snow tomorrow, which is kind of crazy.

Always running from time

2011-11-20T13:05:00.001-05:00

Drafting my research paper for intro to teaching English as a second language and finishing the video story about National Gaming Day that had started last Saturday pretty well consumed the last three days of the week. There was also preparing for the last official class meeting of Senior Seminar, which meant having my portfolio––something supposedly supposed to represent the last 3 and 1/2 years of my life finished, dressing up, and having a mock interview at 8am Friday morning.

Saturday I woke up early-ish again and ran in the 5k for Kenya run that SIFE holds as an annual fundraiser for Gethsemane International to help AIDS orphans or something like that. I learned this year that it's technically only 2.9 miles, not quite a 5k, but the hills and the fact that it's largely off-road make up for it. I finished in 22.13, which is better than I did last year if I recall.

I unfortunately had a class/brunch that I was supposed to be at in Dayton at the same time as the race was happening, so after stopping for a few minutes at the finish line, I just kept on running the half mile or so to the house where the event was. It was the final meeting for the Chicago Story Conference group, which was more interesting than most of my classes, and I also ended up eating a much more substantial breakfast than I otherwise would have, which was probably good after the run.

I spent the rest of yesterday chilling out and today haven't done much but go shopping quickly this morning and then doing a take-home exam for Law of Criminal Justice, which was much more straightforward than the first one and I finished in just a little over an hour.

I'm starting to feel like I'm really over the hill with this semester. There's still some work to be done for sure, but several of my classes are over already, and of those that aren't, the projects that I was kind of dreading all semester (dreading is probably too strong a word––more like 'not looking forward to) are mostly finished.

So much has happened this semester. I think it's the first one during which time kind of got away from me. The beginning doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but if I think of everything that's gone on, it starts to seem like it was.

Productive... or not

2011-11-14T23:22:00.001-05:00

I was rather down last week for some reason. Also came down with a bit of a cold of some sort that's been going around campus. Have generally been keeping up with assignments a little better than I was during the first half of the semester though. I guess those woe-is-me times can sometimes help me focus, or at least feel guilty enough about vaguely defined but terrible shortcomings that I perceive in my life to not want to add to them by squandering my education and money by not actually doing "productive" things. This weekend I finished up production on the latest video for Triangle, and started filming interviews for another. The one that just got posted, is––if not the most profound––easily the most entertaining of the year to date. Most of this is thanks to Alex Green, and his amazingness. But then, I did spend about 8 hours getting it to look the way that it does in post, so I guess I can take a little credit for it. Enjoy:

Cognitive Dissonance

2011-11-06T21:27:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time since I was actually inspired enough by something that I learned in school to post about it. I think Cognitive Dissonance, a term coined by Leon Festinger, which is the idea of conflict existing in your mind between either ideas, or an idea and your current lifestyle is worthy of mention though.

If you know that not sleeping is bad for you, but you make the choice to not sleep, that is cognitive dissonance. That's just one example. You can apply it to almost any subject.

Some people can apparently tolerate rather high levels of cognitive dissonance while others can tolerate less. I like to think that I can tolerate very little of it, but that may be inaccurate.

Here is some from my own mind. I kind of agree with both of these articles:

In Praise of Capitalist Inequality

and

Fix Education, Restore Social Mobility

This is an issue––or rather set of issues––is one I've been struggling with for a while. I've even interviewed people from both sides of the issue about it. But I can't decide.

Forums & Foliage

2011-10-31T00:11:00.000-04:00

This past Thursday I went to the Free Market Forum. It was a valuable experience. I intended to post about that. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a post to express it well, so I will just have to say that it was good.

Friday was all the conference from dawn to well after dusk. The next morning Andrew and Lee, the two other students who went to the conference, drove back without our professor who found a ride with someone else. By the time we got back, I was pretty tired and planned on not doing much for the rest of the day.

Kevin, one of my housemates though, asked if I wanted to go rock climbing in the Pocket wilderness area. I've had a lot of opportunities to climb over the last few years, but always turned them down for one reason or another. Yesterday was beautiful though, so I finally decided to take him up on it.

As it turned out, I was about as bad at the climbing as I figured I would be. After that we went repelling though, which was a lot more enjoyable, especially considering that we were doing it during peak leaf season.

Different Worlds

2011-10-24T17:39:00.001-04:00

I'm beginning to think that I may be one of the most bipolar people in the entire world as far as my political views and affiliation are concerned.

Just an hour ago, I was forced to make a choice as to how I would spend my week: Would I go to Chattanooga and cover Occupy as they crash a campaign fundraiser by Congressmen Chuck Fleischmann and Speaker of the House John Boehner, or would I go to Atlanta for three days (expenses paid) and attend the Hillsdale forum on Markets, Government and the Common Good?

When one of my professors told me he had a vacancy and that he'd like me to go to Atlanta with him after class today, I was torn, not because I had to do either, but because I found them both to be very attractive opportunities. But how different could the possibly be? You probably couldn't ask for events from a more divergent ends of the political continuum.

I the end, I said yes, to my prof's invitation, but I still plan on attending one of the Occupy events. In fact, I found out that there is a group even closer than Chattanooga, which makes more sense if I cover it in the campus paper, because it's supposed to be local.

So hopefully I'll get the best of both worlds. But what different worlds they are.

Discombobulating

2011-10-21T20:57:00.002-04:00

It's kind of unfortunate that fall break is already over. I feel like I just got here. I didn't get to see several of the people I was hoping to, but then, I saw a few people that I wasn't expecting to see at all. I did absolutely no school work, but I read quite a bit––for me at least––both of which things are good in my opinion. For better or worse though, I'll be heading back to Tennessee at 4:30am tomorrow morning.

Part of the reason it seemed like a shorter break is probably because it was. Because of hitching a ride up with someone else to save money and miles on my car, I left a day later than I probably would have, and now, because I'm riding back down with my family, I'm leaving a day earlier than I would otherwise. At least I don't have to drive the whole way by myself though.

While any kind of break is nice, I usually feel like these little week long ones are difficult. It probably takes me more than I week to really emotionally adjust to being anywhere, so spending just a week is always kind of discombobulating, and I don't know if it will necessarily be easier or harder to continue with school work now.

And that's when I saw it....

2011-10-17T23:38:00.000-04:00

Over the last few days I've been inspired to write a number of posts for this blog and have actually gotten as far as completing two of them. Unfortunately, they were both rather inflammatory in nature, and I realized that I just don't want to deal with that now that I'm back home for a week. So, I haven't posted them.

In the meantime, I decided to do an experiment to see if I could combine an animated model that I created in blender with real footage to make a video. This was the result:

So, I got a little carried away with it. But it was at least a good proof of concept.

My trip back from Bryan with Jana went well, at least until we hit West Virginia's "Bridge Day" celebration. That's probably a post in itself, but I'm unfortunately a bit tired right now.

Oh, Controversy - A Somewhat Inside Perspective

2011-10-12T00:46:00.001-04:00

The semester, hard to believe, is nearly at its halfway point, and if I had to pick one word to describe it, that word would be Controversy, with a capital C. Thus, I thought it might be interesting to list some of the major disputes and events that were not approved of by many on campus.

On September 2, just as the school was recovering from the unexpected death of a student, my editor and chief at Triangle, Cat, published our first opinion piece, objecting to perceived abuses of authority by RAs, using a specific example that she had witnessed regarding a heated exchange between two RAs and a commuter. While the parties involved were kept anonymous, it still generated a large amount of controversy and judgment (which was more against the editorial than the RAs judging by letters to the editor) on campus that continues even to the present with the RAs being forbbiden to comment on the piece, several of them forming a pact to not speak to Triangle about anything, ever again, letters to the editor pouring in, and more letters attacking previous letters pouring in atop those.

The night of the day that that editorial was posted, an event occurred that was so shocking (at least for Bryan College) that it took more than a week for us to figure out what actually happened. I first heard about the incident in which a group of Bryan Students were flashed by an obese women in the back of a van driven by men wearing clown masks from another student while sitting down for lunch during one of my very infrequent visits to the cafeteria. While it was second hand, and seemed too ridiculous to be true, I decided that it had to be a story, and started following up on it that very afternoon. I found one of the few people whom I had been told was in the group of students and asked him if he would be willing to give me an interview and put me in touch with some of the other students. He confirmed he was there, agreed, rather enthusiastically, and gave me his number. When I sent him a text a few hours later though to set up a time, he backed out, and said that furthermore, he didn't think we should even publish a story about it because of "negative connotations" that might arise from it. I told him I felt we were obligated to publish it, if only to inform students of what had happened so that they could know how to respond (or not respond) if it happened to them. He was adamant though, and I moved on to look for other sources.

The same thing happened over and over. I would talk to one person who would confirm they were there, agree to an interview, and then text me back an hour or so later saying that they had changed their mind about the whole thing. It got to be pretty frustrating, and a little bit creepy after a while, and I almost thought I'd have to drop the whole thing.

Then one person who refused in the manner mentioned above, tipped me off to two people they thought might be willing to talk. I found them, and they were. In fact, they were a little more willing than I had anticipated. I learned with a certain amount of chagrin, (and I have all of this audio recorded, which I had asked permission to do, making it especially ironic later when both of the sources claimed that they hadn't known they were being interviewed or that I had any intention of quoting them directly) that the students had been on make-out patrol––a somewhat institutionalized prank in which students walk or occasionally drive around at night with flashlights and "preach the Word" to couples who they find becoming physically affectionate in the darkness––at the time when the event occurred. Furthermore, rather than being stalked by the clowns driving the van with the flasher as the original rumor that I heard said, they had actually been in communication with the clowns for at least a minute or so before the flashing occurred.

By the time I was done with the first interview, I knew the article was going to be a lot more controversial than I had previously thought (or hoped) and by the time of the second one, I was genuinely somewhat perplexed at what I knew I would now be obligated to write if I were to tell the whole story. In the end though, I decided I had to, and brought my paper to our weekly meeting that night. When my editors and adviser read it, they were as shocked as I was, but were even more intrigued by the concept of "make-out patrol" which many of them had never heard of before. The idea came up that I should make it into more of an editorial piece about make-out patrol. I said I wouldn't be comfortable with this, so it was decided that I would keep mine, if not as an unopinionated news story, then at least as a less opinionated news feature. An editorial, however, would be written, by Shane Vicry, to accompany my piece in our first print edition that very week.

The print edition came out, and all hell pretty much broke loose. I, for better or worse, happened to be in Chicago at the time for a conference, but was forwarded some of the ensuing letters to the editor that came in almost immediately from everyone from concerned freshman to the people I had interviewed claiming they didn't know they were being interviewed––which is nonsense on stilts––to people I had named claiming that I had promised not to name them––which, were it even permissible in a news feature, is an outright lie.

While I managed to be out of town for the peak of it, the controversy has continued to simmer, with people still bringing it up to me on occasion (almost a month later!) and a recent letter to the editor being published in which the concerned writer calls my story "half-accurate" without ever saying how it was so, states that the parties interviewed were "completely unaware of the fact that they were being interviewed" (which I find to be quite puzzling since I clearly said I was with Triangle and asked them if I could tape-record their answers––and they agreed) and finally refers to the action of driving around campus with the windows rolled down shining flashlights and yelling at people as a "private area of our student body" which should not be talked about in public.

As if all this wasn't enough to happen before fall break, the student body just found out, by means of the trickle-down effect, that the administration is considering cutting fall break down to two days (starting next year obviously). What is upsetting many people (meaning the majority of campus) isn't so much the proposal (which would mean that going home for break would be impossible for anyone who lives more than ten hours away––and there are many of us here) but the borderline conspiratorial way in which they have tried to ram it through.

They never officially announced this to the student body, or even many of the faculty for that matter. Then is the timing. They will make the final decision on it the day before break, so anyone who is upset about it will have to wait until after break to voice their concerns. Then there is the coincidence that this is the week when both of the faculty who represent the student government happen to be out of the country on prearranged trips for the school. Then there is the issue that when SGA finally found out about it through the grape vine and scheduled a meeting with the president, he postponed it until after the deadline, ensuring that they would have no direct voice and reducing them to getting signatures on a petition.... something that historically hasn't been too effective around here. We just got an article out about it, which I hear is quite good, but I actually haven't read myself, because it was posted as I was writing this.

So, that is a brief chronicle of the controversies surrounding the first half of the semester. I won't speak for anyone else, but I am rather ready for fall break––even if it's the last full fall break that Bryan has.

A generation goes and a generation comes

2011-10-08T01:05:00.001-04:00

Here are a couple videos I did this week for Triangle this week. Was interesting, although a lot of work.

It's homecoming weekend here. Kind of interesting because I actually know a number of people who are coming back this year, as opposed to only a couple people last year, and absolutely no one the year before. It's kind of strange to see people back here, and hear about what they're doing now. I'm honestly not sure that I like it entirely, although it's nice to see them again. I don't think I can ever see myself coming back for one... but who knows, maybe that will change.

This evening I went out to Jacob Myers with some friends... first time I've gone to a regular restaurant in weeks, and the first time I've been to Jacob Myers since they moved to their new location and became an actual restaurant. It was good, and after that we went and played Halo for a few hours, which was kind of nostalgic. It's only the second time all semester that I've played Halo. Which is funny, now that I actually have a 360 here, I have almost no desire to use it. I also have a bunch of computer games, but hardly touch them either. I can remember a time well when I thought video games were like the best thing next to I don't know what, but now I'm just not that interested by them. Which I didn't think would ever happen. Funny how we change.

There's only one more week of school until fall break, which will be nice. There hasn't been anything too terrible about this semester as far as classes go, but there are a few things that are starting to wear on me a bit, so it will be nice to get away for a while.

Some random events

2011-10-04T23:52:00.000-04:00

It's been a good bit since my last post. Nothing extraordinary has happened, but that isn't to say that nothing has happened.

I created my first video story for of the semester for Triangle. It was about this Genesis Symposium that the Bryan Institute is hosting in Chattanooga. I was able to interview to of the profs. behind it and make what was at least a technically decent video about it. Maybe I was still seeing red some of the controversy earlier this semester, but they got the impression that I was being negative in how I portrayed it, which wasn't my goal, but it may have come across that way... so I had to put that fire out. It all ended well, and I had a good talk with both of them, but it was stressful while it was happening.

I got invited to go to England over spring break to attend the L'Abri retreat that Spiritual Formation does annually. While I was kind of honored that they thought of me, there was a significant caveat––it costs $1500. There are also the issues that I don't really like being around people that much, and I tend to get morbidly depressed when I think about philosophical/theological questions, both of which I would have been doing on the trip. So I had to say no.

Classes have been going alright. I keep getting behind in my two comm courses. It isn't that they're particularly difficult, or even that I don't have time. I'm just still not particularly motivated to do the assignments, or even remember that I have the assignments to do, which isn't really good. But then, I haven't been too worried about it, which is a plus. One of the classes is Senior Seminar, which is about getting ready for life after college or something like that. The annoying thing is, I already, by some fluke of the registrar, had to take a similar course as a sophomore (makes so much sense right?) at Mansfield. So I feel like I've already sat through a lot of this before.

When I didn't sign up for the meal plan this semester, it was because I didn't want to pay for it. After the first week of cooking for myself however, I was afraid I might end up spending more money than if I had gone with the plan. I finally added up my receipts from the last six weeks of school though, and it worked out that I've been spending only $30 a week on food, which I was somewhat impressed by honestly, and is definitely cheaper than if I was eating at the cafeteria.

I haven't been back to the farm since my last post, and it was nice to finally have a weekend with pretty much nothing to do after over a month of not having a free weekend. Unfortunately, I may need to cover homecoming this Saturday, which means I may not be able to go back this weekend either.

Last week I was assigned two video stories for Triangle, working with writers this time to interview the subjects. So it's still a lot of work filming and editing them, but at least a little leg work is cut out of it by having someone else to make the appointments and ask the questions. I finished one of them tonight, and after it's posted tomorrow, I may embed it on here (I was planning on doing that with the first one about the symposium, but then I got so upset about the whole thing that I didn't feel like it).

I guess that's all for now.

The Spinach Symposium

2011-09-24T16:03:00.000-04:00

I can't remember if I mentioned before, but I started working at a farm on the weekends. At any rate, I worked there yesterday evening, this morning, and the better part of the afternoon.

It's relatively hard work, but it's kind of relaxing in a paradoxical sort of way. I used to hate doing stuff like it, but after spending ten hours a day for the last three years either in front of the computer or reading, it's kind of nice to go and do something with your hands.

Last night we were harvesting peppers, and today spinach. The spinach takes forever, and I can't imagine that there are enough people who eat spinach to consume all that we harvested....

Aside from being relaxing, it also pays more than any other jobs around here would, which is a plus. The only drawback is it's about 30 miles away, which means that somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of what I earn goes into gas.

I'm done with that for the weekend now though, and amazingly, the one paper that I had to work on got postponed, meaning the only thing I need to do is finish a video I'm working on for Triangle about the Genesis Symposium the school is holding in Chattanooga. I got the interviews for it done on Thursday though, so the rest of it will be mainly editing.

So it looks like it will be a remarkably chill weekend, which I can't say I mind after the last couple weeks.

People are fantastic liars

2011-09-19T23:00:00.000-04:00

The rest of the story conference, that is, since my last post, went really well. The last day included all kinds of fabulous food from deep dish pizza to urban mix to fruit to Costa Rican food.

We also had the chance to explore some of the city, which was fun. Left is a photo of Chicago showing train tracks leading past the Salvation Army Headquarters and toward the downtown area.

Ian Cron spoke on the last day of the conference, and he was easily my favorite speaker. He read a bit from his personal memoir, and it reminded me a lot of Roald Dahl, one of my favorite authors.

On the morning of the last day before departing for Tennessee, we went out on Navy Pier––a beautiful place.

The ride home was interesting. We created a mix CD to which everyone contributed two songs. I introduced everyone to Miike Snow, and then, to LCD Soundsystem, which was much better received than I had expected it would be.

On getting back, I was greeted with the controversy surrounding my latest article.... People are fantastic liars. As an adherent to reformed theology, I believed this before, but it has now been confirmed yet again by my experience.

The people that I interviewed for the story are now claiming that they didn't know that I intended to directly quote them. I told them it was an interview for Triangle, the campus newspaper. What the hell did they think I was going to do? Transliterate their remarks into an interpretive water ballet?

And of the three people who refused interviews but confirmed their involvement, one or two wrote my editor in chief that I had told them that I would not publish their names. I did nothing of the sort. And yet they say that I did.

I had a pretty good conversation with one of them today, and it turns out this person was more upset with the accompanying editorial than with my story itself. As for the others, I can only say that their response has actually made me glad that I published their names.

Stories In Chicago

2011-09-16T01:29:00.002-04:00

Chicago has been good so far. We started out last night at a sort of adult story-hour/potluck/open mic, which was in a bar and ended up being a little on the far out side (okay, more than a little, but I will spare you the details). This morning we headed into the city from the house we rented and attended the conference, which was great. I got to see, among other people, John Mark McMillan, Ted Dekker, and Sean Astin, who wasn't even on the program, but turned out to be one of the highlights for me. It's also like the Mecca of hipsters, which I guess I'm okay with.

Over lunch break we went into the city center, and after a somewhat stressful experience parking, were able to walk around whatever the park area that is there, which was beautiful.

Left is the "Bean" or something like that, which was fun. The photo at top is actually our groups reflection in it.

Below is the auditorium in which the conference takes place. John Mark and his warm up band, All The Bright Lights have been doing most of the music, along with some other group that is a little strange but still interesting. There has been lots of cool free stuff too, which is always fun.

This evening we went to a show at a theater that is owned by someone who spoke at the somewhat questionable story-hour from the first night. It was excellent. So today was good, if tiring, and hopefully tomorrow will be good as well.

Oh... and that article, along with the accompanying editorial came out today in Triangle's first print edition of the semester. Apparently it is causing quite a stir on campus. I started getting the blow=back from it on my black-berry this afternoon. Interestingly, I was standing in the lobby right in front of Ted Dekker, who was talking about the importance of writing accurately about darkness, even if it's controversial. So even if my piece was only about clowns, it seemed strangely reassuring at the moment. If you're interesting in reading it, here is the link to Triangle, although, it is somewhat graphic in the quotations... so consider yourself warned.

Maybe it was something I ate in Lebanon

2011-09-14T00:43:00.001-04:00

It's been a crazy week, and it's almost over, even though it was only two days long.

I'm going to Chicago tomorrow for Story Conference which is a meeting of Christian media and creative professionals. I'm stoked about the trip, but it meant that I had to compress all of my school for the week into the past 48 hours and the weekend. On top of that, I was working on the biggest, most ridiculous, and potentially controversial news story for Triangle that I've ever done. I obviously can't go into specifics, but it involved talking with like 20 people before I found anyone who was even willing to talk about it, and the interviews weren't even nailed down until two hours before my deadline for the entire article. Safe to say, ridiculous as it is, it may actually be a good thing that I'll be 500 miles away when the print edition hits the mail boxes on Thursday or Friday.

I've never really felt the motivation to chase a story this hard or this far. I'm usually preoccupied with other things, and besides, I tend to be a pushover, and pressuring people at all for information they don't want to give up usually makes me want to throw up. Heck, writing stories isn't even one of my job requirements as MM editor. I guess I was just frustrated with enough of the underlying issues that ended up surfacing in the story itself––or more accurately the underlying reasons that people wanted to suppress it, that I suddenly had this desire to blow the whole thing up whether people would help me or not and name names whether people wanted to be named or not... and that feeling stayed with me consistently until I submitted the final draft to my editor.

Now I'm hoping I didn't go too far, but I guess I won't know that until I get back from Chicago, or possibly when the chatter starts on fb. I really don't know what that feeling I had was from though. Maybe it was something I ate in Lebanon.

Black Light

2011-09-08T01:12:00.002-04:00

Today was a crazy day. This morning was international opportunities chapel, and because of my experience this summer I was asked to speak for a couple minutes, which ended up being kind of fun, but still took some planning. Much more planning though went into the event that my persuasive comm group and I have been working on for the last week or so.

The class consists of two marketing campaigns, short-term and long-term. In the short-term you promote an event, which would be pretty straight forward except that you also have to envision, plan, organize, and create the event from the ground up. We chose to do a black light ping pong party, which sounded like a really strange idea, but was something that we felt would draw people from across multiple social groups (a difficult thing to do). After a promotional video, announcements, and a facebook page, we had generated a lot of excitement, but it wasn't until we actually had everything together about an hour before crunch time that we actually knew it would work at all. It ended up being beautiful though. We were able to transform the room above into the room below (only it looked a lot cooler in real life) and had over 300 recorded participants, which on a campus of only 700 or so is no small feat.

While there were a ton of problems getting everything that we needed today, and we over spent our budget by about 15%, it seemed like everyone who attended really enjoyed it, which I think is the important thing....

So On It Goes

2011-09-01T22:26:00.003-04:00

It's been a strange week. There was the usual chaos of a new school year starting up; getting an idea of what classes will be like, running around with add/drop forms, trying to figure out what I absolutely need to take this semester if I want to graduate in the Spring, petitioning for substitutions to that end. Basically the usual routine. Then early Tuesday morning I woke up to my alarm, turned it off and stood up. Jonathan, who had been awakened by my alarm looked over at me and said something to the effect of "Hey, I'm really sorry to tell you this right now, but Meaghan Jones died last night."

Still dazed, my first thought was something like, "which Meaghan," which sounds weird, but I know several, and there were actually two Meaghan Jones on campus, which is a bit odd for a school of less than 1,000 students. I only really knew one of them, not remarkably closely, but we had gone to DC a couple times on the same conferences, first CPAC and then GPG, and had talked about politics occasionally (we were both poli-comm majors). She knew a lot about DC. Just as I was recalling all this, I checked my phone and found a voicemail from my editor at 1:22AM informing me of the same thing and asking for logins to pages I had been managing so we could start covering it, which sounded kind of surreal to me. In fact, really everything that day seemed kind of surreal, and I had a hard time giving a [expletive of your choice] about add/drop forms, substitutions, the paper I was supposed to submit that morning, or plans in general.

There was a big memorial service that night––which is not to say that the service itself was big––just the amount of people that attended. It was definitely the most emotional gathering I've seen since I've been here and it brought a lot of people in the community together that normally wouldn't have been.

So it has been a very strange feeling week since then. Despite the strangeness, and all of my suddenly strengthened inability to care about add/drop forms, papers, and such ilk, the registrar's deadline for me having my semester in order is still Friday, and my professors will still fail me if I don't turn in my papers. So on it goes.

This evening I went to the Norquist's house for dinner, and to meet the other members of a group that will be going to Chicago in a few weeks for a conference. It was a good time, and I think it will be a fun trip.

On the way back my car started smoking. Greatly disturbed, I pulled over in downtown Dayton and started frantically inspecting it. It's a 2000 Audi A6 with 216,000 miles on it, so I wasn't entirely surprised that something went wrong. The fact that it appeared to be on fire was a bit disconcerting though. The smoke fortunately seemed contained to one of the wheel-wells, and after explaining the symptoms to my Dad on the phone, decided it was probably just the brake caliper, and decided to attempt the trip back to campus, I made it, and parked safely away from any other cars or buildings, in case the unthinkable happened and the entire thing burned up––it happened to a friend of mine once. It continued to smolder for a half hour or so, but last time I checked it had stopped. My Dad told me a test I can do tomorrow after it cools down to see if the brakes are locked, but it appears that the A6 lives to die another day. So on it goes.

Out of [into] the wilderness

2011-08-29T00:48:00.000-04:00

First week of classes went rather well. It wasn't a full week of course, so it's probably too early to come to conclusions, but I think this is going to be an easier semester than the last couple have been.

On class that hasn't started yet and that may make things a lot busier than they have been is newspaper production. I'm working for the Triangle again, only now as the multimedia editor. While on the surface that sounds like a lot of work––which it probably will be––I don't think it will be too stressful, because while I'll be working on a couple web/video projects every week, I won't be required to write anything unless I really want to.

One of my first tasks has been to create an animated version of the Triangle logo to go at the beginning and the end of video stories. I've been having some trouble with that, because I haven't yet been able to get a version of the logo in the right format to allow for a transparent background (or at least the software that I have isn't reading the one my editor... or I guess I should say boss now that I'm an editor too... gave me).

After being foiled for a while, I decided it was high-time I learned how to create images with transparent alpha zones in photoshop.... so I did. In the end though, I still couldn't get FCE to read the files with the transparent zones... which was really the entire point. I exported the image from CS3 in every single format and combination of settings within formats I could think of, and even followed the very explicit steps that I had for doing it in a tutorial by Izzy Video... and it still wouldn't work. So the next step I guess is to try it out on some of the school's machines, using CS4 and Final Cut Studio. Until then I'm dead in the water, as it were.

One thing that did come out of the whole chaotic little adventure was the above image though... and even though it does nothing to help me, I thought it was interesting enough to post here.

The Flare

2011-08-22T22:54:00.000-04:00

I'm back at Bryan as of this afternoon and moved into my townhouse. One of the nice aspects of being here is that the internet upload speed is close to 20x faster than ours at home. Thus, I have spent the last hour or so uploading lot's of things that I've wanted to all summer. One of them is this video of I shot of the gas flare in our field:

It's difficult to get an idea of how intense the sound is from the video, but just imagine it being as loud as you possibly can, and then make it louder, and you probably have a good idea.

Looking Up

2011-08-21T22:06:00.000-04:00

After packing until about 2am last night, I woke up early, said goodbye to some of my family, drove to Canton Mennonite Church, gave a presentation, got my neck adjusted by my friend Nick (a chiropractor... my neck had been screwed up for the last couple days) and then set off on the trip back to Tennessee in the pouring rain.

While this all could have very easily turned into a very bad day, I was blessed with everything going extraordinarily well. I got packed, my presentation went well and it looks like I'm going to get some serious help paying the deficit that I had in my support (which is both a big and unexpected relief). The drive down so far to where I'm staying in Virginia has gone smoothly, and even my hotel room is awesome. It's definitely a lot easier to do it this way than driving 14 and half hours all at once.

So anyhow, things have been looking up a bit, which is good. I don't know if this post has much of a point, but I feel like my last few have been kind of depressing, so maybe this is just to keep it balanced.... like Fox News... only not, but I won't get into that. Speaking of news though, there's some interesting stuff happening in Tripoli right now... so you should check that out.

Home

2011-08-21T01:57:00.000-04:00

(has a couple rated R-ish parts.... so consider yourself advised)

40 Foot Flame

2011-08-15T23:55:00.000-04:00

This morning at 3am I was awakened by my cell phone, got up to turn it off, and realized that it was light outside. Then I looked at the clock, saw the time, and knew that something different was happening. Then I looked out the window, and discovered that there was a forty-foot flame shooting out of our field illuminating the entire western sky in red.

So it's finally happening. After weeks of hydro-fracking, months of drilling, two years of prepping, and half a decade of speculation, there is gas flowing out of a pipe––or rather four pipes––in our field. Good news indeed. Could have used it sooner, but hopefully it isn't too late.

Back In the [Other] Real World

2011-08-12T20:30:00.000-04:00

It's been up and down since I got back. On the up, it's good to relax again, see my family, and not fight with taxi drivers every other day. On the down, I'm bankrupt, and I'm afraid my asthma which I have not had a problem with since I was eight or nine may be mysteriously returning. Of course I can't find out for sure, because I got dropped from my family's health insurance policy. More dire than that, I am technically not allowed back on campus until I have health insurance. So it seems the logical thing would be to buy health insurance, but as I just said, I'm bankrupt. Actually I do have enough money, but the problem is I still owe money from this summer's little adventure, and I had slated the bit of money that I had left to pay for that in case I couldn't raise all my support––which I couldn't. So now new developments have put me between a bit of a rock and a hard place, as it were. So that isn't fun, but there is a chance a couple things could work out that will make it work, so hopefully they will.

Other than worry about that stuff I haven't really done too much since I got back. I've been dabbling with selling some of my photos on stock image sites, but I'm afraid I don't have too much of a chance at that, since most of it qualifies more as travel or art photography than stock photography, so even if it were good, which I'm not saying it is, it probably wouldn't get accepted.

Assuming that I actually can go back to school, which isn't really certain right now, I think I'm actually looking forward to it, which is unusual for me. So I guess it's good that that is coming up soon. Although, it could just be because there is now the possibility that it won't happen that I actually want it... seems that that's how my mind works often, which is too bad if you're trying to be happy.

Marco Polo

2011-08-03T13:02:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that my week in Italy is almost at an end. Tomorrow I go to Marco Polo International at like 3:30am (my flight isn't till 7:00 or so, but other people are earlier) and begin the journey back.

It's been a good week. It was a surreal feeling, getting back to the SBI campus after a couple years away. While it felt a little weird being here without the people I was with back then, it was still a great time meeting back up with the other interns and swapping stories about our summers working in different countries.

This afternoon we went to Venice, which is definitely one of my favorite places in the world to hang out. It hadn't changed––aside from a few billboards that is.

Where, oh where, oh where....

2011-07-31T17:26:00.001-04:00

It's been a couple weeks since I posted from Bcharre, the halfway-point of the LMT. I've been unimaginably busy, and, as has been the dilemma on so many occasions this summer, I'm faced with memories of far too many amazing events and experiences to possibly cover on my blog. So rather than going through the day by day details of the hike, I'm afraid I will be reduced to posting a few photos, which will hopefully communicate something of what I would like to:

After finishing the hike, I completed my final video (which was about the hike) went to the emergency room (I had become progressively more and more ill during the hike) went out and experienced some of Beirut's night life, burned dozens of DVD's, and got flew to Italy, where I am now. So that was the last week. Sorry for the lack of details and/or eloquence, but I hope you enjoyed the photos, and also that I'll have a chance to tell many of you the stories behind them in person.

On The LMT

2011-07-17T07:27:00.000-04:00

Warning, I've not had time to proof read this at all, so please ignore any embarrassing type errors.

Well, I'm currently sitting at an internet cafe in the town of Bsharri overlooking the Kadisha Valley, a World Heritage Site, and among the more beautiful places I've ever been. The entire group is here, taking a well deserved break from the first week of trekking the LMT. And let me tell you, it has been a crazy experience.

The trail turned out for the most part to be not really a trail, but rather scrambling up cliff faces, over jagged rocks, camping in fields full of scorpions, and drinking questionable water. Everyone (except for our former Lebanese Army guide, Joseph, whom we have affectionately named "The Chuck Norris of Lebanon") has been sick at least to some degree, and exhausted beyond belief. So that's the negative... or the stuff that has made it such an epic adventure, depending on your perspective.

Every night we have stopped at a place that was seemingly more beautiful than the last, and while I may have been too tired to completely appreciate it at some points, I have tons of photos, which I will look forward to sharing, perhaps in this post, or perhaps when I'm in a place that I don't have to pay for internet by the hour.

I've never met so many hospitable people, been invited into so many homes, or drank so many cups of tea or Arabic coffee. It's interesting how the more remote and primitive the village, the more welcoming and interested the people are, so in some ways the times that have been the hardest have also been the best.

Got to sign off now,

Take A Hike

2011-07-09T09:47:00.000-04:00

It's been a good week back in Beirut. Tomorrow, however, I'll be leaving again––this time for a two week hike.

I've spent the last couple says shopping and figuring out how I would pack my backpack. I apparently have the smallest backpack of anyone in the group, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. I mainly just didn't feel like spending a couple hundred bucks on regular backpacking pack back in the States, and besides, I've lived out of my little North Face Recon one for more than a week before, and that was carrying a computer too, so I think I'll be fine.

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon shopping for a wide brim hat, only to be disappointed several times. Everything was either cheesy looking, or about four times what I was willing to pay for it. In the end I bought this biker headband thing that I will probably use in conjunction with the desert scarf that I bought in Jordan... so I will look like a Bedouin... but then that's probably appropriate.

So I think this will be a fun couple weeks. There are a lot of variables... like the people I'm going with, many of whom I haven't met yet, and whether or not my now overstuffed little backpack will be adequate, but I think it will work out.

With Lawrence

2011-07-05T03:41:00.003-04:00

Yes, in the below picture I am sitting with two Bedouins in Wadi Araba holding a gazelle's head. How I got into this situation is a rather long story, however.

Yesterday, two friends and I decided to take a trip out into the Jordanian desert––in the car pictured below:

After visiting Mt. Nebo, the place where––according to tradition––Moses looked out on the promised land he would not be permitted to enter, we drove down to the dead sea, something I had always wanted to see. Since we were planning on camping out in the desert that night, and it is almost mandatory that you take a shower afterwards, we decided not to go swimming. So that will have to be for another trip. After that we headed south along the sea and made the 200-some kilometer journey to Aqaba. Along the way we made two stops; several to pick of hitchhikers, and one to run out and frolic in the sand... and discover that our Honda Compact was not the greatest off-road vehicle:

Another was to walk with wild camels:

When we finally reached Aqaba, I had the strange sensation that I had seen the place before... and then I realized that I had––in Lawrence of Arabia. We then went down to the beach and rented a paddle-boat. The Gulf of Aqaba isn't exactly the kind of place I ever pictured myself using a paddle-boat, but it was fun in a hilarious kind of way. It was also a cool experience because from the Gulf of Aqaba it's possible to see four countries at the same time: Jordan to the North-East, Israel to the North-West, Saudi Arabia to the South-East, and Egypt to the South-West.

By the time we finished it was getting dark and we headed back out into the desert. After traveling into Wadi Araba we left the highway and drove along dirt (or sand, rather) roads until we found an abandoned hut-kind-of building with no roof and a walled in courtyard in back. The stars were just coming out when the first Bedouins came.

They spoke with Brett for about fifteen minutes and kept repeating that it was very strange for us to be there and that they had never seen anything like it before. They finally left and we went back to taking care of the fire. Just a few minutes later though, another one showed up, talking on his cell phone. He was followed by two more, and they were all adamant that it was not safe for us to stay there, telling us we would probably get shot or robbed or something along those lines. So it was evident that at this point the entire valley knew we were there––and wasn't particularly pleased about it. The also added that if any of these things happened it would reflect badly on them, since it was their territory. Thus, they insisted that it was their duty to take us to their home. We in turn insisted that we would leave and return to Aqaba and camp on the beach instead. They however, would not hear of this, and twenty minutes later we were following their white Toyota pickup back to their house.

So I spent the evening drinking large amounts of tea, sitting on cushions, and listening to Brett converse with them in Arabic for several hours. It was a surreal experience, and I'm tempted to write another post just about it.

They woke us up at six-thirty that morning with more tea, and flat-bread, which gave us more than enough time to get to Petra where I had arranged to meet my friends and professor from Bryan for the day.

Petra is something I had dreamed of seeing since I was nine or ten, and so coming to Jordan it was the main thing I was looking forward to seeing. In the end though, and even though it exceeded my expectations thoroughly, it seemed more like icing on the cake.

Late that afternoon, I parted ways with Brett and Jonny and took the bus back to Amman. I had some work to do there, and also wanted to spend some time catching up with my friends. I was still a little sad to see the previous two days come to an end, as they were definitely some of the craziest and best ever.

The Original Philadelphia

2011-06-28T16:19:00.001-04:00

I arrived in Amman Jordan yesterday afternoon after a quick flight from Beirut, took a bus, took a taxi, walked a few blocks, and made it to the flat where I'm staying. It's in a really fun part of town, so even though I was more or less on my own the first night, I definitely haven't been bored.

I got up around 8:30 this morning and went down to this little plaza overlooking the city where there had been guys playing flamenco guitar music and smoking argyle the night before and saw a placard indicating the significance of different buildings that could be seen from that place. One in the distance was labeled as "Umayyad Palace." Having no pressing obligations, I decided to walk there. While it was probably only half a mile away as the crow flies, it was on another hill, which meant I had to cross the expanse in between. Complicating matters further is the fact that few of the roads here go in a straight line. So all said and done, it turned out to be more like a two mile hike, and that was with a good bit of shortcuts through private property and up near-cliff faces... on the way I ran into this little guy, who insisted on me taking photos of him posing....

It was well worth the trek though, as the place that I ended up is basically the historical and archaeological center of Amman Known as "The Citadel," it has ruins dating back to the bronze age and coming up through Bible times, Greek rule, Roman Rule, Byzantine Rule, Umayyad Rule... etc. I ended up getting a private walking tour of the place for about 45 minutes by a guide who was there... I got a sunburn, but it was worth it I think. Interestingly, Amman was once called Philadelphia. Below is stone head that I saw in the museum––I can't quite place it, but I'm almost sure I've seen her in a book before.

This afternoon I met up with two friends from school. It was really weird––surreal almost to see them here in Amman after not seeing anyone that I've known previously in over a month. But there they were, walking toward me on the sidewalk. We definitely had some serious stories to exchange over pizza from the past month and a half since we left Bryan for the summer.

The Cedars of the North

2011-06-25T04:49:00.000-04:00

While I had gone to see the cedars in the South about three weeks ago, a number of people told me that the cedars in the North were much more impressive. Yesterday I got the chance to see them, and they did not disappoint. What I enjoyed just as much as the cedars, some of which were 1200 years old and bigger than any tree I've seen in real life, was the drive up.

The northern cedars are in the mountains more than two hours of winding roads and switch-backs out of Beirut. By the time we arrived there we had risen several thousand feet in elevation, and you could actually see snow on some of the higher peaks. It was also extremely cool and clear, which was a wonderful departure from the hot smoggyness of Beirut and the coastal areas.

The mountains on the way up reminded me very much of the mountains in the Greek Isles, which is interesting. I know nothing about the geology of the area, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were once part of the same land mass. They are just a few hundred miles away, after all.

On the way up we stopped at a restaurant along the side of the road and had a delicious Lebanese meal with hommos, tabbouleh, fattoush, flat bread, and fries (oddly enough). I honestly think I may miss the food here more than anything else. I suppose there is always the Mediterranean section at Wegmans, but I'm not sure it will cut it for me anymore.

all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon

2011-06-20T10:21:00.005-04:00

This weekend I did many things that I had always wanted to do, and several that I had never wanted to. I swam in the Mediterranean Sea, visited the city of Sidon, got lost in Sidon, stayed with a friend in Tyre, road around the ruins of a Roman Hippodrome (the same one where the chariot race in Ben Herr was filmed) on the back of a moped––without a helmet, laid eyes on Occupied Palestine, or The Zionist Entity, or Israel, depending on your political views from a distance, played Texas Hold 'Em with a group of Druze, had my foot partially run over by a taxi, and did a number of other things that my insurance company must never find out about.

Above is what I believe is a crusader castle in Sidon or Saida. I was rather rushed there trying to make a connection and got rather disoriented in the Souk or market that reminded me a bit of Venice without the water, and thus didn't have time to take many shots. Things got better when I finally made it to Tyre or Sour, as the locals call it. I promptly went to the beach and spent most of the next day getting a tour of the city from the back of a moped driven by my new friend, Jonny.

Tyre is full of Roman ruins––the most I've seen since I was in... well... Rome. Parts of a number of major movies have been filmed here, and I thought these below were particularly beautiful. If you look at the hill just visible on the horizon directly to the right of the palm tree in the center, you are looking at the Holy Land. That's how close we were to the border.

That evening on the Corniche we met this elderly woman and her grandson. I had a very long one-sided conversation with her. One-sided because it was entirely in Arabic... not really my strong suite. Jonny had borrowed my camera just before and was kind enough to capture the moment.

oh, where to begin?

2011-06-20T09:45:00.000-04:00

Yes, the name of my blog did in fact change. It became Where Soul Meets Body after I deemed the previous name, Just Like A Real Boy, to be too depressing, and the one that preceded that, The Floating World, was appropriated by an adult entertainment company (a discovery made––much to my chagrin––by my grandpa when he tried to find my blog by googling it... awkward). At any rate Where Soul Meets Body was intended to be a temporary title until I could come up with something more creative and that didn't immediately label me as a DCFC fan. After about a year now, I finally have come up with something that I fancy a bit better, and that I think pretty generally expresses my life right now... which is what it's supposed to do I suppose. I don't even know where to begin when describing this past weekend which I spent in Tyre... but I'll give it a shot in my next post, which should be up presently.

Thanks for reading!

The Jesus-Mobile & Other Discoveries

2011-06-18T03:27:00.001-04:00

I spent a lot of time in the Borj Hammoud neighborhood this week wandering and taking photos. I've found that people are starting to recognize me there now––which is kind of cool and kind of intimidating at the same time. One women even remembered me from when I was there with a friend almost two weeks ago, just after I arrived in the country. She told me I should come to her shop if I came back. Just after I ran into her I passed these two women sitting in front of a house. I thought the colors were rather striking and asked if I could take a picture of them, while the colors turned out better than I expected, what really makes it, I think, is the expression of the woman on the right.

That day I also stumbled upon this vehicle, which I have since dubbed "the Jesus-Mobile." Borj Hammoud is populated mainly by Armenians, who are, culturally at least, very Christian––and they wear their religion with a swagger. Cross tattoos on muscular arms, images of Mary above the cigarette counter, rosaries hanging from mirrors, and of course, the Jesus-Mobile.

This next day I found myself not too far from Borj Hammoud photographing/playing soccer with a group of Turkmen children. The Turkmens, from what I gather, are kind of like gypsies with a semi-refugee status who migrate around the Levant working and begging. These little guys spoke about zero English, and I still speak about zero Arabic, but somehow it didn't matter too much once we started playing. It was a blast.

External Microphones

2011-06-16T02:03:00.000-04:00

The microphone I've been using with my α55:

They make a similar version for the αNex:

For stationary recording projects such as song covers, a microphone like the one below may be more useful. It can still be plugged into the camera in the same way:

You may also need a stand to do this:

Clouds Over Beirut

2011-06-14T09:40:00.000-04:00

It's been delightfully cool and breezy the last few days. Sunday we went to a forest (the Lebanese definition of forest is quite liberal) a few minutes out of town and went for a hike. It was quite hot and I got my first sunburn since I've been here. That night though it cooled off and has been nice since. We even had rain last night, which looked quite dramatic over the city.

In other news, it appears that a new government has been formed after being without one since February or March if I remember. It collapsed last time because Hezbollah withdrew forcing a shutdown when things didn't go their way, and now the new government is composed even more so of them and their allies. The government hasn't been given the vote of confidence yet, but it will be interesting to see what the response from the West is if that happens.

According to one local news website there was some rioting yesterday with some major highways being blocked, but I didn't see anything like that (although I did think I noticed more security forces than normal while I was out walking the corniche yesterday afternoon.)

While on the corniche I met an interesting (and somewhat inebriated) man sitting on the railing overlooking Pigeon Rock. I ended up talking with him for almost an hour before he tried to get me to pay someone $50 to take a photo of the sea rocks from under a nearby restaurant, at which point I made an excuse to leave. I walked all the way back to downtown, which is a good hike. It was beautiful weather for it though, and I saw some rather interesting things, like people deep sea fishing, and workers accidentally spilling a bag of sand from the 15th story of a high-rise under construction.

Just to keep em' guessing

2011-06-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

On my flight from the US, a man in Amman told his son that I was Italian. Yesterday I walked up to a checkout counter at a grocery store and the cashier started talking to me in Arabic and then seemed surprised when I gestured that I didn't understand. Today someone randomly asked me if I was Russian, and then, after explaining that I was from the US and conversing for a few minutes, he said "so you said you're from London?" I'm apparently no longer recognizable as an American. That's not to say that I look Lebanese or Arab, just that I don't look entirely American.

I remember the days back in Italy and Greece when people would automatically start speaking English to me when they saw me, and I would sometimes hear "Americano" said in hushed tones as I walked passed. So what happened? Are the Europeans just more perceptive at identifying Americans? Or perhaps I look different now. I know that I dress differently, so that could be it. At any rate, the world being what it is today, being mistaken for something non-American is probably a good thing, and I guess I will choose to think of it as such.

And they're talking it to me

2011-06-09T14:59:00.001-04:00

Standing at an intersection for an hour can be exhausting. Taking two Arabic lessons for two hours is exhausting. I did both of those things today... one after the other, since my Arabic teacher unfortunately had some kind of issue with her in-laws or something like that. At any rate, I ended up standing on the curb with the taxi drivers where she was going to pick me up for more than an hour.

She got there eventually though, and I was able to take my second Arabic lesson. They are pretty intense. I had tried to study Arabic a few times before, but it was modern standard Arabic, which is quite different from Lebanese Arabic––a whole different ball game. Things are generally spelled the same, but pronounced almost completely differently. Apparently people in other Arabic speaking countries consider it to be a kind of snooty, pretentious version of the language, kind of like Castilian Spanish vs. American Spanish or something like that... which is kind of funny.

I was originally only planning on taking a couple lessons, but even though it's kind of demanding, I decided I'll probably keep doing it as long as I'm here... when else will I have the chance to take private Lebanese Arabic lessons?

A Night On the Town - Rave In Sniper Alley

2011-06-06T15:11:00.002-04:00

Last night I went on a walking tour of Beirut––the only walking tour of Beirut. We started at the American University and 15 or 16 stops later ended up on the other side of Centerville. Along the way our guide, who was really cool, told us about interesting and ironic things, like the Holiday Inn that was occupied dozens of times by almost every army in the region (and I don't have a photo to post of it, because it is still being occupied by the Lebanese Army, and they don't like people taking pictures) houses where the rent is only 250 Lira (a few cents) a month, but have been unoccupied for decades, and a Synagogue in a part of the city where there are no Jews that was destroyed by the Israelis and is now being rebuilt by the Lebanese government. Below is one of our last stops: "Sniper Alley." Apparently there are no snipers there today... just a few old residents who occasionally throw tomatoes at passing tour groups.

Just before that we passed Hariri Mosque, and the "Egg," the dark concrete structure in the foreground. It was apparently the city's first modern structure. Its real claim to fame, however, is that after it was blown in half during the civil war, it became popular with ravers. That's right, ravers. People came from all over the world to dress up like zombies, trip on acid, and dance to techno music in a bombed out structure in the middle of the ruins of post civil war Beirut.

Just before the Egg, we stopped at Martyr's Square and our guide gave one of the best (or at least most concise) explanations I've heard of the political situation in Lebanon, highlighting the role of protest––specifically protest where we were sitting, in Martyr's Square. He also remarked on Lebanon's current state, one that it may have never been in before: the most stable country in the Middle East. He did end with some rather foreboding words, that he felt in the next few months, as the UN releases the findings of its investigation into the killing of the late Rafik Hariri (for whom the above mosque is named) that Lebanon will be plunged into turmoil again. "You will be glad that you came now," he said. I of course wondered if by "now" he was referring to a period as long as seven weeks... if he meant a shorter period of time, I suppose that I may not be glad that I came "now." Or just maybe I will be, but who knows.

At any rate, it was a great walking tour, even better than the one I went on in Dublin a couple years ago (has it really been that long?!). Rather than joining our guide for a happy hour at one of the local establishments near where the tour ended, we hiked back down to the Souks and went to a traditional Lebanese restaurant where I enjoyed my first Mezza, replete with hommos, olives, skewered beef and chicken, tabbouleh, and two kinds of fried cheese that I can't remember the names of.

We walked back to the car and just as we were getting in fireworks started shooting up from just a few hundred meters behind us and continued for ten or fifteen minutes (Beirutis are all about fireworks, apparently). It seemed like a fitting end to the evening.

Falafel Anyone?

2011-06-04T15:52:00.001-04:00

Aside from getting over a cold, the last few days have been amazing. While I'd spent some time this week walking around Beirut, today was my first chance to get out of the city and see some other parts of the country. We ended up going to Beit Eddine, which is a castle/palace about an hour south of the capital. On the way there I was amazed by the scenery in the valleys, which were full of banana plantations. Up a few hundred feet it looked like you would expect a Middle-Eastern country, with olive trees and bare rocks. Up a few hundred more and it started to look more like Colorado with evergreen trees and much cooler temperatures.

It would have been worth going just for the scenery on the trip there, but Beit Eddine, when we got there, almost made me forget about it. It was easily one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever been in... if it can really be called a single "building" - it had multiple courtyards and wings other architectural elements that I have know idea what to call.

After spending most of the early afternoon walking through the castle and taking tons of photos (of the palace, and some Lebanese kids who wanted me to take pictures of them) we headed north by a different route. Along the way we stopped at a restaurant where I had my first ever falafel. I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into when I first saw it, but it was actually quite good.

Our next stop was a national park sort of thing where I got to see Lebanon's national symbol: the Lebanese Cedar. Apparently the cedars in the south are "only" 400 - 500 years old, and thus not as imposing as those in the north. They were still beautiful though. Mark explained that long ago much of the country had been covered with trees like this, and it becomes easy to see why the Bible so often refers to the natural beauty of Lebanon.

Heaven & Hell

2011-05-31T09:14:00.001-04:00

I've been extremely busy the last few days, and have ended up seeing more of the city than I planned to. It's a really diverse place. I had been expecting that I guess, but even so it was a surprise.

Yesterday I went went exploring in a rougher, perhaps more traditional neighborhood. It was basically what you would expect a Middle-Eastern city to look like, replete with beggars, run down buildings and cars that looked like the one below. I'm not sure if those are bullet holes, or some method of repairing a dent in the fender, but either way, I noticed several cars with similar punctures in their bodys.

I stopped at a little cafe/hooka bar on one of the streets and my friend Trooper struck up a conversation with the owner who turned out to be an Armenian (the ethnic group, not the theological persuasion.) The guy was, to put it plainly, rather scary looking, ripped, shaved head, heavy metal t-shirt, face studs, tattoos on his hands and neck, etc (I wanted badly to take a photo of him, but he wasn't really the kind of guy you just walk up to and take photo of....) "Welcome to hell," he said, with a big smile on his face when we told him we had both just arrived that week and had never been in the city before. Amidst the hookah's, beer bottles and posters of different hard rock bands in his shop, I also noticed a number of pictures of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and several saints prominently displayed on the wall above the espresso machine. An interesting contrast... or maybe a paradox?

An even greater lesson in contrasting came just half an hour later when we hopped in a cab and took the three or four minute ride from that neighborhood to Centerville, the posh shopping district on the edge of the sea. Even though we were just a handful of blocks (and a security checkpoint or two) away from where we had come, we might as well have been in a different country. There were American and Italian outlet stores and snazzy looking cafes and clubs. There were no beggars, and the only cars in sight were Ferraris and SUVs with dark tinted windows.

Today I spent more time in the Centerville area and went to the newly completed Hariri Mosque (dedicated to the Lebanese leader who got blown up in his car several years ago) I also had a chance to see some of the towns farther up in the hills above the city, which are beautiful enough to hold their own against just about anything. I would upload some photos of those right now as well, but internet in Lebanon is pay as you go, and I don't really want to burn my host's bandwidth with a ton of uploads, so they will have to wait for now.

So that's how I got here

2011-05-27T02:38:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke up and wasn't sure where I was. I looked out the window above the bed I had been sleeping in, and there was the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea––and I suddenly remembered something about my Dad driving me to New York City, getting on a plane full of screaming Arab babies for 14 hours and meeting a very nice Jordanian man from California; a seemingly endless layover in Amman, Jordan––where they fortunately have Starbucks; lots of people speaking in Arabic, being mistaken for an Italian, losing track of how many times I'd gone through security, another flight next to two teenage girls who completely ignored the rule about cellphones during take-off, walking through customs in Beirut, getting my bags, meeting my friend Mark, crazy drivers, cool buildings, cool buildings with bullet holes, a military checkpoint with a tank; lots of explosions... which turned out to be fireworks from a Shakira concert.

So then I remembered: I'm in Beirut.

This Is Happening

2011-05-24T15:53:00.001-04:00

I'll be leaving again, for two months. This time tomorrow I'll be in NYC getting ready to board my flight, and this time the day after tomorrow I'll be in Lebanon. That is of course if God ordains that the volcano that just started erupting again in Iceland and the airstrikes in Libya don't cause a problem, that the plane[s] doesn't have mechanical difficulties, and that I don't go and get lost somewhere along the way. So I'm planning on being there anyway––and there have already been a lot of things in the last few weeks that I thought might keep me from getting there, but amazingly everything has come through so far.

In some ways I really don't want to go and leave my family and home again right now. I'm gone far too much these days. I'm also, as I almost always am, torn between things that I think I should be doing, and the fact that much of the time I really don't want to do anything. At the same time though, I'm really ready to go. Ready for a new adventure, new friends, and a new perspective to see the world from. Ready to learn and do something real––or at the very least, be frustrated trying to do something real instead of being frustrated with myself for not trying.

These two weeks at home have been great, and I've been blessed with a time that has been relaxing, but also been able to accomplish more than I had hoped for in the way of preparation. I think the fact that it's time to go now is really a good thing more than a bad thing.

I am drinking some coffee right now and enjoying a somewhat rare moment of confidence, and it is quite probable I'll feel completely different about it soon, and quite nearly inevitable that I'll feel completely different about it in the next two days to two months. Right now though, I'm excited about it.

Sound & Lights

2011-05-17T11:16:00.001-04:00

I've been keeping fairly busy preparing for Lebanon this past week. I've been going through a video course by Israel Hyman on using final cut, and while I had used the program for several projects before and understood the basics of it, I've learned a huge amount of functions that I had no idea how to access. I would highly recommend it if your reading this and it's something you're interested in learning.

I've also been practicing driving manual with my Dad's car, as automatics, like my car, are apparently non-existent in Lebanon, just like Europe. I don't really plan on driving while I'm there, but I figured in case of emergency I should probably at least be familiar with it.

I have just about everything that I need for the trip now, except possibly the most important thing: my passport. I've had my passport for a long time, but it had to be sent away to the Syrian consulate a get a visa that I may need over the summer. Unfortunately they've been having some political (and other) problems, which seem to have slowed the process down.

The gas drilling in our field, which was in full operation when I arrived back, just keeps going. They are now working on the 3rd well, which is apparently closer to our house than the rest, and it has been getting quite loud at night. It's fairly consistent, so I haven't had trouble sleeping from it, but I'm really glad it's not any closer than it is. The picture below shows what it looks like at night. So strange to see this in our field!

The Scenic Route

2011-05-07T23:31:00.001-04:00

Had a good trip home from Tennessee the day before yesterday. My Dad had a stove delivery somewhere down south, so he showed up at Bryan around 8:30 Thursday morning, just as I was finishing my last final. We spent a couple hours stuck in traffic in Virginia, because a sinkhole opened in the middle of 81, but after a detour we almost completely made up the time, and the drive ended up being a lot prettier as we took 11, which is more of a historical route with lots of pastures and old houses and things.

I wasn't at home for an entire day when my Dad already had me helping him cut down trees, which seems to be one of the main things that we spend time doing around here. I never really thought about it much when I had only ever lived here, but we cut down a lot of trees. There are certainly enough of them though. 80 years ago or so there were no trees in this part of Pennsylvania at all, as they had been logged. Then the depression hit and never really left our area, and the trees came back and filled in all the the farmland, and are still doing so. So while other parts of the world suffer from deforestation, we, for the last 60 years or so have had massive re-forestation. Despite their abundance, I was a little sad to see this one go. It was a really old one (one of the few that survived the logging 80 or 100 years ago) and had marked the corner of our lower driveway ever since it was built. It was half dead though, and probably would have fallen down soon, so I guess it was necessary. We're now in the process of burning out the stump, which will probably take a few days.

Last summer I arrived home to find that the "gas pad," the massive foundation which Talisman Energy was to use to drill for gas on our land had been completed. Drilling is in full swing now. I can actually hear it from across the field as I'm writing this (although it isn't actually as loud as I was afraid it would be.) Above is a picture of one of my sisters with the drilling rig in the background.

They probably won't start hydrofracking (the process used to get gas out of shale) until after I'm gone with ACTs, but it will be interesting to see if how it turns out. Hopefully they won't ruin our drinking water, and hopefully they will strike a substantial amount of natural gas. There are some definite environmental concerns from the process, but all things considered, I don't think it's really as bad as a lot of people make it out to be, and when you consider what the potential financial benefits could be, I feel like it's definitely worth it, especially with the financial situation my whole family has been in for the last five years or so.

The Sound of Rainbows

2011-05-04T16:32:00.000-04:00

Yesterday it rained almost all day, but sometime after dinner the clouds broke for just a minute off to the west. I thought the sky looked kind of cool, and still getting used to the new camera, I decided to go out and take some pictures of it. Stepping out the back of my dorm to the east though, I suddenly say a huge rainbow. It was so tall that most of the arc was unfortunately hidden by clouds and only the bases of its legs were visible at all. Still, it was great to be in the right place at the right time like that.

I finished two papers for the intro to lit late last night, marking the end of that class, and I spent a good bit of today running around trying to sell the text book. After checking with the kiosk that buys them back on campus, I decided to sell it back to Amazon instead, as they'd give me about ten dollars more in the form of a gift card, which I will hopefully get in time to put toward some extra batteries for the camera. I would also like to get a stereo microphone attachment for it. The mics that are built into it are actually surprisingly decent, but since a large part of what I'll be doing with it will be video it would be nice to take things to the next level. The most basic one I can find is about $120, and I haven't yet decided if I want to (or should) spend any more money right now.

Today I have one more paper to write and a bit of studying for my Worldview final at 8:00AM tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will be leaving with my Dad soon after that to make the trip home. I haven't seen my family in almost four months, so it will be nice to get to spend a few weeks at home before embarking upon more untold craziness. But first I need to write that paper....

Sky Falls and It Feels Like a Beautiful Day

2011-04-28T23:10:00.002-04:00

"The heart is abloom. It shoots up through the stony ground." - U2

All of yesterday and last night the Southern US (as I'm sure you've probably heard by now) was slammed by what is now being called the worst storm cluster in the regions history. We had four separate tornado warnings over the course of the day starting around nine in the morning and lasting well into the night. Miraculously, the campus didn't get anything but some rain and an amazing lightning show that evening. Many people around us were not so lucky. The storm's death toll is now approaching 300 and six of those deaths occurred last night on Dayton Mountain, just ten or fifteen miles from campus.

This afternoon, Daniel Jackson, another Triangle staff writer, ran into me and said he thought we should go up to Dayton Mountain and try to get some photos, and possibly interviews for our online edition of the paper (the print edition was cancelled due to the printing house losing all power from the storm). Providentially, my new camera (a Sony a55 ) had just arrived in the mail this morning and it seemed like this would be a good opportunity to use it. So after gearing up and paying someone an extortionate amount of money to use their car, we headed up the steep road onto Dayton Mountain.

We were going on only vague directions, and I felt like we would be fortunate if we found a few downed limbs to take a picture of. This was, after all, the same storm that had passed harmlessly over us on campus just a few miles to the east. So I was in no way prepared when we ran into scene after scene like this:

There was one area in which what I would guess was about five acres of trees had been completely stripped of branches and snapped off at the middle. The trees that were left standing were tangled with thousands of plastic bags and mangled telephone and electric lines. We passed at least one road that was still being blocked off by the authorities, and one man that we ran into said that it was even worse further up the mountain.

So in the end I was glad the we decided to go, although it's sobering to think that these were people's homes, and that some of these people were in them when they were destroyed.

A Day In the Life

2011-04-22T11:35:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago I had the chance to work on a story about a guy that I know here on campus, Brian. Due to a medical condition he is confined to either a wheelchair or crutches, and Kaity, my editor decided to interview him about handicap accessibility on campus. She ended up asking me to film the afternoon that she spent with him and make it into a video for the Triangle website. Throughout the interview I was really impressed by Brian's willingness to share and be open with us (there was even a good bit of stuff that I had to decide not to put in the video) and his attitude toward the whole situation. If you have a minute I've posted it below.

A Dear Old Friend

2011-04-22T01:12:00.000-04:00

Today I said goodbye to a dear old friend: my very first mac, and really, the first computer that belonged to me. I was a bit sad to see it go, after all, we'd been through a lot together: a harddrive change, a RAM upgrade, backpacking around Europe, rendering 3D animations, processing countless Gigabytes of video, three and a half years of college, and all the papers a BA degree entails, World of Warcraft, work, trade-shows, another trip to Europe, this time involving a 24 hour HD video editing marathon on illegally obtained software which we finished fifteen minutes before our deadline, and during which we had to import video for other teams as well because it was the only computer with FireWire.

Safe to say, my MacBook was a pretty big part of my life for the last almost four years, and I felt a little tinge of sadness parting with it. The good news is though, it's not dead, just passed on to someone else. And I was even able to get a good bit more than I thought for it. Being as old as it is, I was only thinking I might get a couple hundred for it, but after researching what they are going for online, and even talking with someone who works for Apple, I discovered that macbooks, and this model in particular, have a remarkably high resale value. So in the end I had no trouble selling it for $500. In fact, the demand was such that if I had ten more of them right now, I'm fairly certain I could sell them all on campus for the same price without a problem. People were practically fighting to get it from me!

So anyhow, that will go further than I thought toward paying for the new one that I just bought :)

Early to Rise

2011-04-16T13:19:00.001-04:00

Yesterday it rained from two in the afternoon until two am this morning, so things are still a bit soggy. There was also a pretty serious lightning storm, but we didn't get any tornadoes as they did in other places, and as far as I know, the power didn't go out like it did a couple times last week.

This morning I walked down into Dayton to buy some things that I had run out of... like toothpaste. Bryan is on a hill, so it drys out quite quickly and never floods. Down in the valley was another story though, as you can see to the left.

I know I could have probably found some one to ride down with (like the five or six Bryan people I ran into at Harmony House) but for some reason I felt like a walk this morning instead of sleeping in.

It was probably because I'm still in a pattern of waking up earlier from the GPG conference... which I don't really mind. I'm afraid that I'm actually very slowly becoming a morning person, which I thought would never happen. It used to be that I couldn't think until after like one or two in the afternoon, and my best hours were from about 11pm to one in the morning. All this semester though, I've been waking up early enough to eat breakfast at the cafeteria and doing most of my study there. Of course, considering that I've been doing rather poorly in my study-intensive classes this semester, it might be that I would be better off going back to my late night routine. But for some reason I just don't feel like it anymore. Last night I could barely stay up past midnight, even though I new I had nothing to do this morning.

So anyhow, it wasn't a terrible week, which is always good. I had a lot to catch up on from being gone at the conference toward the beginning, and then a I had to spend a lot of time working on a video project for Triangle but that was okay. We also had our last formal cabinet meeting, which got a little out of hand (there were literally people throwing things... it was on video, so if it gets up I'll post it) but I kind of enjoyed it. So hopefully next week won't be bad either.

It's hard to believe how close the end of the semester is getting. It really is.

GPG 2011

2011-04-11T22:16:00.002-04:00

I had a great time in DC this past weekend. The Global Prayer Gathering was phenomenal. I was really unsure about it to begin with, but it ended up being one of the best experiences I've had in a while.

It started with the rather long eight or nine hour drive up from Dayton, which we did in three 15 passenger vans + a minivan. There were 47 of us, and when we got to the two day pre-conference event for students, we made up more than half of the people who were there.

Then the actual conference started though, and there were 1000 other people. And they were mostly really cool people too. It all kicked off with a formal banquet Friday night, which was awesome. The next day the actual "prayer gathering" started, in which we broke up into smaller groups of 30 to 100 and went to rooms dedicated to specific countries to spend 45 minutes or so praying together about issues there (IJM, which hosts the gathering, deals mainly with human trafficking, sexual abuse, and forced labor in developing countries).

I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive that this was going to be either really boring or really weird, but it turned out to be neither, and I definitely came away with a much bigger appreciation for the global church and prayer in general (and a slight desire to go to law school....)

The last night we went to a great French restaurant, where I had a really good cappuccino, as seen below:

The event was in Tyson's Corner, which is just across the Potomac from the actual Capital, and since there were several people in our group who had never seen it before, we decided to go into the mall that night. It was the second time I'd been there at night, which is always breathtaking (or at least it has been the now two times that I've seen it). Below is the Lincoln Memorial, and a couple friends...

The ride back was interesting. On the way up I had been in the van in which everyone wanted to sleep. On the way back down, I somehow ended up in the van in which everyone wanted to listen to loud hip-hop music and dance––which we did––for like five hours.

Thunderbolt & Other Conversation Pieces

2011-04-06T02:11:00.000-04:00

Sorry for not posting in a while. This week and the one before have been extremely busy, and this past weekend I didn't feel like doing much of anything at all. There has also been a lack of extremely interesting events... just nose-to-the-grind-stone (what does that really even mean?) school stuff.

One exciting thing did happen though, and it is actually very exciting to me: I got a new computer! I had been in the market, as it were, since last summer, since I've been wanting something more powerful for encoding (and possibly with a discreet graphics processing unit that would let me play games other than Age of Empires... but that was secondary).

This spring I started to consider it even more seriously, looking at a MacBook Pro as the obvious upgrade to what I had at the time. All the forums I looked at though said that the next major upgrade was probably just around the corner, and I decided it would be wise to wait for it.

Sure enough, the week before I left for Latvia, they announced the new lineup of Pros, just last week I worked up the guts to buy one (it took some effort... they aren't exactly cheap and I always tend to over think financial decisions). Anyhow, it was worth it though. I got the 15" model... not so much because of the size (I was always perfectly happy with my 13") but because that model is the one that makes the step up to a Quad Core processor and a discreet Raedeon GPU. It also has the new I/O called Thunderbolt, which is apparently something like ten times faster than USB 2.0 and has created such a stir in the tech community that some people are now calling this edition the "Thunderbolt Macbook." This sounds really cool, but the problem with really new technology is that there is nothing to use it with yet, so for the only thing I can really do with it is talk about it....

So I finally have a new computer, and almost as a good omen, I found out just after buying it that Rome: Total War Gold Edition, possibly my favorite strategy game ever, was just redone to run on Macintosh... so in the end, that was what I did last weekend (along with some homework, naturally).

I'm right now in the midst of at least the 2nd, craziest week of the semester so far. I had a fairly major presentation today in Intro to Lit. Tomorrow I have a test in Spanish 2, a major paper on Hamlet due Thursday, and a take home math test which is due next Monday, and another video project for Triangle, which is complicated by the fact that Thursday morning at 5am I will be in Washington DC at an IJM convention and not getting back till late Sunday night. So I'm not really sure when I'll do all of it, and feel like it may have been a mistake even writing this post when I could have been sleeping or studying... but then, I've spent most of the last 16 hours doing those things (only about two of those hours were sleeping) so I guess it's okay....

Hopefully DC will be fun. Will def. try to post from there.

Oh, the Irony

2011-03-25T17:07:00.003-04:00

It's been a kind of strange week. I was working on several projects for school and the Triangle (which I guess is technically school too, but doesn't really feel like it). Atop that, I had a two day trip to Atlanta in the middle of the week to meet with the mission agency I'll be working with this summer. One of the projects I finished just before I left was this little piece that I did of "Barbarian Wars," a campus event that they do every spring here. The video is cheesy, but then, considering that the event consists of people in cardboard armor attacking each other with eggs while music from Gladiator and Halo 3 plays in the background, I decided that to try and have the video not be cheesy would be journalistic dishonesty ;)

While in Atlanta, our group also visited a Hindu Temple and a Mosque, where we spent a couple hours talking to a representative from some Islamic group in Atlanta. Both were interesting. I was a little disoriented on the way back though, as I kept thinking of how while I had obviously completely disagreed with both of them, neither had disturbed or offended me as much as the church I visited last Sunday. At first I wondered if that was a problem.... but I now I think it probably isn't. I may just have an overdeveloped sense of irony.

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-20T17:53:00.001-04:00

Here is some more personal, vlog style video from Latvia. Of the three video projects I wanted to get done this weekend this was my last priority, but due to the Mac Lab being locked, it is the only one I finished. Enjoy:

Skeleton Bones

2011-03-19T10:43:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I feel like work and stress are all really relative. For instance, this semester has been really intense, and I was completely ready for spring break to come when it did. But then, my spring break obviously ended up being crazy, and even more intense than the semester so far. Getting back to work on Monday, it almost felt relaxing, even though it's still just about as bad as it was before the break. So who knows? Would be a good I idea to always have a stressful spring break?

On the down side, I finally caught the illness that everyone else was getting in Latvia. It's not terrible so far, but not fun either. That combined with some fund raising set backs (or rather deadlines I didn't know about) have had me feeling a little overwhelmed for the last 48 hours or so....

I did do something really fun on Wednesday, right before I came down with the cold. I went to see John Mark McMillan in Chattanooga. It was really, really good... probably the 2nd best concert I've ever been at.

In the House of the Flying Frog

2011-03-14T23:03:00.000-04:00

Back in the U.S. now. The trip back was remarkably good––at least as far as I was concerned. There were a couple mishaps: I almost got thrown up on, and two people in the group lost their luggage. Somehow I made it back safely though, and even enjoyed the flights for the most part... especially the last one from Chicago. We flew right past the skyline at sunset, and it was one of the more beautiful things I've seen. We left from Riga airport, and the evening before we toured the city with Mark, the missionary we were staying with. Below are some pictures of the city, which I really liked. The architecture reminded me a lot of Austria, but with some more modern elements (and ancient elements too) mixed in.

Out front of the train station.

Latvia & the EU

On a bridge in a park. A spot popular with lovers.

At The Flying Frog - an awesome restaurant.

Cities and [Sleepless] Nights

2011-03-12T17:19:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a crazy week... perhaps the craziest ever. Steve and I got our film completed... by the skin of our teeth. It was stressful and I pulled my first all-nighter in longer than I can remember. I met some really cool people along the way though, and I think the girls that we did the movie for enjoyed it, which was really the point.

I also toured Cēsis, where they have a Castle, an art museum, and cappuccinos that rival anything I had in Italy. Below are some pictures from that:

The castle... and me under a bridge.

Good old Lenin... lost his place in the town square in 1991 and is now in a huge box behind the castle.

Looking down an alley in downtown Cēsis.

Some fried pike that I ate at this delightful little traditional Latvian restaurant in the middle of one of their national forest areas.

After the award ceremony for the films, which was stressful... as only one of the films was technically completed at the beginning (the rest were all in different stages of rendering and were finished as the show was going) and there were about 200 people there, we went back to the church and hung out with the kids until about 3AM... meaning that my sleepless night of editing with Steve nearly became two sleepless nights.

This morning we said goodbye to Limbaži and headed for Riga. We spent the afternoon touring the historic part of the city, which was beautiful, and reminded me a lot of Austria. The train into the city was interesting as I had a drunk Latvian man fall asleep in my lap. Yes, you read that right, but I'm far to tired right now to go into details... so you'll have to ask me later.

The Boundaries of Language

2011-03-08T14:03:00.003-05:00

It's been quite the experience so far. On Monday morning we went into the schools. This was relatively intimidating at first, since we were basically set up in front of a class of Latvian students with the general direction to answer questions about America and try to help them improve their English. The first class was kind of tough, as the students weren't very talkative. It all improved from there, and by the third class I was actually starting to enjoy it.

That afternoon the kids arrived at the church to start the film project. I was teamed up with Steve, a film major from Bryan, to work on a movie for a group of 15 year old Latvian girls. The way it is supposed to work is the kids write a script and then we help them turn it into a movie. The girls, however, only had a vague idea what they wanted to do, so I soon found myself in the middle of the sanctuary surrounded by five or six fifteen year old girls chattering in Latvian and and questionable English and typing down ideas to try to come up with a coherent story. It was definitely one of those surreal "Is this really happening?" experiences.

Today we got our first real start on filming, which was fun, although the girls kept changing things that they wanted to do. It looks like the rest of the filming won't be done till tomorrow night when we have an appointment to come to one of the girl's teacher's house to film something.

The living situation has been a bit of an adventure so far. I've only had one [cold] shower so far since we left the U.S, and the room we all sleep in is heated by a fireplace, which I would be used to from home, except that it only holds enough wood to last for about 45 minutes. So as an alternative to waking up every 45 minutes, I've gotten used to sleeping in about as many clothes as I wear in the day time.

Today after we got done with filming I took a walk around Limbažu and looked at some of the old churches and things, which are beautiful. It was then that I took most of these pictures.
Tomorrow we will hopefully finish up filming. Thursday we are supposed to take a break and travel around the country a bit. There are several people in the group who feel like we are all behind on the filming and should skip the travel day to get done with the editing. I kind of agree with this, but at the same time I was really looking forward to seeing some parts of the country outside Limbaži and Riga, so it will be interesting to see what conclusion is come to.

In Latvia

2011-03-06T15:09:00.004-05:00

[please excuse any typos or sentences going to nowhere... I'm still a little jet-lagged]
After a long but fortunately smooth trip, we arrived in Riga Latvia around lunch time yesterday (Latvian time). The first person we met was Janis, the pastor of the church that we were to be staying in. He took us immediately to a Latvian restaurant in the airport. I can't say that I cared for the food that much, although it could have just been because I ate quite a bit at the Frankfurt airport where we had been just a couple hours before.

I hadn't slept in more than 24 hours at this point and was feeling pretty crumby. Fortunately I was able to get my first sleep on the trip in the van on the way to Limbaži. Thus, I don't remember how long of a trip it was, but it didn't seem that far.

I woke up as we were pulling up the street toward the church, and after unpacking felt like going right back to sleep. Janis, however, had a very different idea. After eating some soup, which I still wasn't really hungry for (although it was significantly better than what I ate at the airport) we unpacked and headed off for our next destination: the house of a Latvian family, and more specifically the traditional Latvian sauna belonging to this family.

By the time we arrived it was dark––and quite cold and windy. There was more than two feet of snow on the ground, and it was starting to drift over the roads. Thus, you can imagine my surprise when I learned that part the sauna experience was going to involve jumping in the snow and possibly jumping in the river.

When we arrived at the house we met the Latvian couple, who were really cool and ended up being fed yet again. After pizza we went to the sauna... which was a very interesting experience, and definitely made me feel like I was in Latvia. It was bigger than I expected, with an entire building dedicated to it.

Sitting inside the hardwood room with steam emanating off of the brazier full of red hot stones in a room with five other guys––several speaking in strong Baltic accents––I realized "Yes, I'm in Latvia."

Just this evening we met the kids we will be working with, and tomorrow we will go to the schools to do ESL in some of the classes. I have know idea what that's going to be like, but am letting

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.

2011-03-04T00:55:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe, but God willing, I'll be in Latvia within 48 hours.

My team leaves campus at 11:15 tomorrow morning for the Knoxville airport. From there we have a connecting flight to DC. Then it's across the old Atlantic Ocean to Frankfurt (where there hopefully will be no more delays from the terrorist attack there two days ago) and then on to Riga, the capital of Latvia. From there on I'm not exactly clear on what's happening, but apparently somebody from the Church in Limbaži is picking us up at some point and taking us there.

So that's the itinerary. Always subject to change of course––I understand that the last group got stranded in Holland overnight or something like that––but the itinerary it is nevertheless.

Anyhow, I've had this line from Bilbo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring going through my head for the last few days:

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.... You step out onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might get swept off to."

Crossing the Iron Curtain

2011-02-27T23:45:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting in a seven days. I was insanely busy all week, and then spent the weekend in such a state of relaxation that I didn't feel like posting.

On Tuesday and Thursday last week I had two relatively major papers due. I also had math homework from the week before (when I had two tests) to finish and submit late + my normal math homework + catching up on Spanish homework from the week before + my regular Spanish + research for a mock presidential cabinet in which I'm supposed to be Ronald Kirk, US trade rep. + a human interest thing I was supposed to be working on for the Triangle and an essay about a "cultural experience" for my missions class (which wasn't actually due that week, as it turned out, but I didn't know that).

By Monday night I was feeling so overwhelmed that I decided to write it all down on a piece of paper, which sometimes help me organize myself. In the end I got everything done but the piece for the Triangle––and that had more to do with the story falling through then with me not working on it.

Saturday morning there was a campus activities fair for potential students who were on campus interviewing for the Presidents scholarship (the biggest academic scholarship Bryan gives out) and I helped out for an hour or two with the booth for the Triangle (or more just stood there as we ended up having more help than we needed).

That afternoon I walked down into Dayton. Without a car, getting off campus feels a little like crossing the iron curtain or something, because it's cut off from Dayton by a four lane highway with no crosswalks. So you have to either cross the highway, which is quite dangerous, or hop over a fence and go under a bridge, which is less dangerous, but adds to my feeling like criminal or refugee or something. Once you actually get there, Dayton is pretty nice to walk around in though, as it's small and rather flat.

This morning I went to Church in Chattanooga with a friend. It was an Anglican church, which I had never been to before. In fact, the only other liturgical church I'd ever been to before was a Catholic Cathedral two Easters ago in Graz, Austria–and they only spoke German. So this morning was a new experience for me. It was actually very good, and I think I shall end this post by commenting on the infinite superiority of of taking communion with real wine.

Free Climbing & Frisbee w/ Taylor Swift

2011-02-20T22:58:00.001-05:00

It was a good week/weekend. Really busy through Wednesday, but then Thursday was day of prayer and we got off from classes. One of the events for today was to go and pray with a group in the Pocket wilderness area, which is an abandoned mining zone with lots of mountains and ravines and waterfalls and other interesting topography. My suite-mates, Drew and Drew and I (also Drew), decided to break away from the group and climb up the face of Buzzard Point, which is a mountain/large hill with a huge rocky outcropping at the top (you can actually see it from campus, although it's several miles away.)

After hiking straight up the steepest part of the hill we decided to try and climb the face by going through a set of almost vertical tunnels and crevasses. I had never done any rock climbing before, so it was a new experience for me. I'm not particularly afraid of heights or claustrophobic, but after about fifteen minutes of squeezing through little fissures in the rock with a 15ft. drop that very rapidly turned into a 500ft. drop below, I found that my legs were shaking almost uncontrollably. Then I squeezed through one last hole that was the smallest yet, and was suddenly on top, and surround by grass and trees again instead of rocks... which was a very good feeling.

We still had to climb up one last outcropping to get to the highest point, but that was comparably easy and the view from the top was great! The little plateau I took this picture from was isolated from the rest of the Point, so we had to take a pretty good leap over a crevasse to get to where we could hike down easily into the valley again.

From there week hiked about two miles down the hill, across the river, and up the other side of the valley to get to Laural Falls.

It's February of course, but that day it was in the upper sixties, and we were hot from hiking all day, so we went under the waterfall. I'm pretty sure that was the coldest water I've felt since that time I went swimming in a lake in the Dolomite Mountains in Austria in April. This seemed even colder though, because the water was moving.

I had a hard time believing I had never been to Pocket before even though I've been in Dayton for over a year now. I guess that day made up for it though, as I did just about everything you would normally do there. I also managed to do something I haven't since I was about eleven or twelve years old: skin both my knees and elbows. So it was with a definite sense of accomplishment that I left that evening.

Last night I went somewhere else that I had never been before: Nashville. I went with about six other people, only two of whom I really knew, to see a hockey game.

We started the evening by going to the burger joint that Jimmy Buffet allegedly wrote the song "Cheeseburgers In Paradise" about. We were there at the suggestion of one of my friend's friends, who allegedly has played Frisbee with Taylor Swift (he goes to Belmont, where she had a boyfriend for awhile). It would have been really cool, except that an entire boy scout troop showed up, and we had to wait almost two hours for our food. By the time we got it the game had already started. We ate as fast as we could, made a mad dash for the cars, got separated, lost, had a nightmare finding parking, and missed the first period of the game. Fortunately no one scored during the first period though.

I hadn't been to a hockey game since I was nine or so, but I enjoyed it a lot. I didn't really even follow what was happening that closely... the atmosphere of a hockey game is just fun to be in.

After that we had to find our way out of Nashville, which took a while, and probably wasn't aided by our singing along with really loud MGMT... but it was fun.

Mid-Semester Blues

2011-02-14T22:57:00.001-05:00

It's getting to be that time in the semester when the rush from new challenges starts to wear off and no matter how crazy my routine may be, it is still that: a routine, and my main thought is "now I have to keep doing this for the next three months. blah."

Well it's not really quite that bad. I'll be going to Nashville for the first time ever this weekend, and the number of days between now and Break for Change is growing rather small. In fact, all things considered, this will probably be my most exciting and un-monotonous semester yet. Still, I think I'm starting to get that mid-semester feeling when it's still much too far to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I have my first in-class test for Spanish this week, and my first test for Contemporary Math. After reviewing the concepts that I have to know for the Spanish one today, I feel like it will go at least somewhat better than I had thought before. I can't say that for the math one. I've really only understood about 40% of everything that we're supposed to have learned by now. It's a survey course, and our professor promised that the concepts would get easier as we went on. For this first test I have no idea what I'm going to do though.

The weather has been quite beautiful the last couple days. In the 60s with blue skies. If the wind would stop blowing so hard it would be perfect, but then, it is February, so I shouldn't complain. Back home I think they had about two feet of snow last week.

Grass Skirts and Such

2011-02-08T22:16:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday my Break for Change team had its long awaited fundraiser breakfast. We had originally planned to do a Christmas themed pancake breakfast, but after poor planning, procrastination, and losing our Santa costume to a school play, we decided to postpone the idea until this semester. The obvious problem then was that we could no longer have a Christmas theme, because it was now February. Fortunately, someone had the bright idea to go in the complete opposite direction and do a Hawaiian themed breakfast, with banana pancakes, pineapple pancakes, blueberry pancakes (which is not really Hawaiian, but they were delicious anyways), and several other things.

This time we made sure that we actually planned it out and advertised, and we were expecting at least 20 to 30 people to show. When we opened at 8:30, we weren't expecting anyone to be there that early, but a whole crowed came, and kept coming. By the time it was over, we had served somewhere around 70 people, which is a lot more than we were expecting.

I somehow got appointed the unofficial liaison between the our group and the cafeteria, and because of the extra people, I had to make four or five unplanned trips to stock up on fruit and coffee and things like that, which was tiring, but fine as we made about twice as much money as I had estimated we would.

The next day I was feeling tired from the fundraiser and kind of depressed (for reasons unrelated to the fundraiser) and decided not to go to church. I also had no intention of going to watch the superbowl either, but over lunch, my friend Steve, who will be coming with me to Latvia, invited me to a party near Chattanooga.

I didn't really watch much of the game, because I was working on homework, but early that afternoon, I played three extremely intense games of ultimate frisbee. I had a number of collisions, almost dislocated my shoulder, and am still sore from it today. It was fun though, and I'm glad I ended up going.

PS. I feel like this post should include some kind of tribute to Brian Jacques, one of my favorite authors from my early teens, who passed away a few days ago. It's been a number or years since I read the Redwall series though, so I'm not sure what I'd write, but I felt I should at least mention him.

Tripping

2011-02-04T00:56:00.000-05:00

After my last class at three today I went down to Rudd Auditorium to meet with some of the people I'll be going to Latvia with in a little over a month.

We decided that we would film a documentary sort of thing to introduce ourselves/show what Bryan College looks like (the teams have been going for five or six years now, and as far as we know, none of them have ever done this).

One of our leaders, T.K. had just bought this awesome new canon 60D and a boom mic, so it was really fun to play around with that stuff, even if we did look a little awkward trailing around campus with all of it.

Interesting story - after they had filmed my introduction and I was showing 'them' around the cafeteria on the video tour, this guy completely tripped and fell on his face right in front of the camera. It looked pretty natural, but we kind of suspected he had done it on purpose. That night I had a class with him asked about it, and he did in fact mean to do it. We kept the take, so I wonder what the kids in Limbaži will think when they see it?

I seem to be miraculously done with my homework for the week. That's good though, because tomorrow I have to try and catch up on my story for Triangle this week. I haven't really worked on it at all yet. Speaking of that though, my two stories that I've written so far are live now, so if you're at all interested, they are here and here.

Symbolic Logic & Sea Cucumbers

2011-02-02T17:54:00.000-05:00

I've had a lot of ridiculous homework this week. In contemporary math, which everyone told me was supposed to be an easy course, we've been going through symbolic logic. To the left you can see my pitiful attempts at creating circuits from truth tables.

It's really fairly interesting, because this is sort of the way that computers work... but I'd rather let someone who is smarter than me think about it. Speaking of people who work on computers though, interviewed a few of them for my article for the Triangle this week. It's about these guys who created a photo sourcing app for bloggers called Wylio.

That one won't get published for a couple days yet, but my article from last week is up on the Triangle website. It's under the sports section if you're interested. Several people said they liked it, but I still feel like this week's will be a lot better in general, since it was a topic that I'm actually interested in.

Anyhow, I have to go eat now, but you should check Wylio out. You can find legally usable photos of just about anything... like say, a sea cucumber.

On Think-Tanks & Stockholm

2011-01-28T21:57:00.000-05:00

It was a long week. While I'm glad the weekend is here, I'm afraid it's not going to be quite as much of a break as I wish it would be. I have a take home test for Spanish which I already started on it this evening, though I still have more than half of it to go. I'm also going to try and work ahead a bit on some of my homework so that next week doesn't end up like this week, with me skipping lunch and staying up until 2am everyday to get everything done.

I feel like things turned out alright though for the most part. I got my first story published in the Triangle, which is cool. I also had what is hopefully a breakthrough with my next story, and it looks right now like it's going to turn out to be a lot bigger and more exciting than I thought it would be when I asked for it. My interviews aren't scheduled till Monday though, so I'll let let you know about it when it unfolds.

Classes went a bit rough today... I had a quiz which I bombed for Spanish and homework do for my Logic/Algebra class that I didn't understand. Fortunately I did well on all my other Spanish stuff, and a friend saved my life on the math this time. I'm a bit worried about it for the future though, because I know I can't rely on that happening forever.

Last night our ACTS Project class met for the second time this semester at the Benson's house. It was pretty fun, but we were given our syllabus, and that class is going to be a lot more work than I think anyone thought. My friend Andrew and I were talking about it a bit as he drove us back to Bryan. We had both assumed that all we would have to do was read some books and discuss them together. Instead we have assignments due every week, a presentation, and these "cross-cultural experience" activities that sound like they will have us running across Dayton and Chattanooga... so-so much for an easy class.

In other events, Break for Change is picking up speed as we get closer to the date. I got my flight itinerary, and it sounds amazing! I was next to ecstatic when I found out that one of our connections on the way back is in Stockholm... some place that I have wanted to visit lately. Unfortunately, the layover is only about 50 minutes, so there won't be enough time for me to sneak out troll around places mentioned in the Millennium Trilogy... alas. Our fundraiser that we are finally doing looks like it will be well attended (and if you are in the Dayton area reading this, you should totally come).

In Political Communication, the only class I have that isn't stressing me out right now, we had a guest speaker come from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) which is a Neo-Con think-tank in DC. It was quite interesting, and I learned a lot about what think-tanks do. It actually sounds like it would be a cool place to work someday, so I took the guys card.

I have so much stuff going on right now it's crazy (like the length of my posts lately has been crazy - I sincerely apologize). I used to always think that if I had such a full schedule and so much hanging over my head it would be like the worst thing in the world, but it really hasn't been so far. In fact, sometimes I almost think that I'm happier like this. Of course, it could just be that with so many issues, I never have time to worry about one thing for too long. Or maybe it's because this is only the 2nd full week of it, and I'll completely burn out on the 3rd or the 4th, or the 17th. But that hasn't happened yet, and for now I think I'm doing okay.

The 4th Estate or Something Like That

2011-01-25T23:50:00.001-05:00

It's been a long week so far... and it's only two days in. As I said in my last post, I started working on the staff for the Bryan Triangle, the campus newspaper. I was given a story to work on at the first meeting, but it unfortunately got shut down because certain faculty felt that it shouldn't yet be public knowledge, which was annoying. By the time they actually told me this, however, the week was already half over. One of my editors gave me a new story to work on about the start of the intramural basketball season, which I wasn't really thrilled about, because I don't normally follow sports very much and had decided early on that I would avoid sports stories as much as possible. Despite my misgivings, I took it, not wanting to have to come to the second class empty handed.

While not really being as interesting as my original story, the new one was much more complex. Instead of just interviewing one person I had to do a half dozen, not to mention sitting in on four or five games which is not really my favorite thing to do. I also had to take a lot more pictures, and get a lesson on how to use an SLR. On top of all that, I had to basically learn about the entire event from scratch, as I've never been familiar with basketball, let alone something as specific as intramural basketball and the unique nuances that surround in on one campus. Somehow I actually started to enjoy it though, even if it didn't convert me to being a sports fan, the challenge of it all was kind of a rush... which is good, because I'll probably be doing a lot more stuff like it this semester.

I had my story peer edited at the meeting last night before going to more games to take pictures and see if I could beef it up at all (although it's still probably shorter than they want). This morning at nine I had my conference with the department's journalism professor to do a final edit. He made some minor adjustments but told me that it was quite good overall and that he really liked my style of writing, which was good to hear, because sometimes I wonder about it. Then it was off to class. I spent my lunch break writing a response to a "A Rose for Emily" for Intro to Literature, which I didn't write last night because I unexpectedly ended up covering two more games for Triangle. I'm afraid it probably wasn't a very good response, because I was pretty tired and rushed, which is a bad combination.... The rest of my classes went well though, and I was able to make the final tweaks to my story and submit it to the server. So it should be in the paper Thursday morning.

I'm a little worried because while I was watching the state of the union address with my Poli-Gov major friends I got several texts from one of the staff editors asking me for more details about the games last night, which could mean that they want to add to it. Yesterday I basically rewrote it twice and finally felt like it flowed well (which my professor commented favorably on) so I really kind of hope they don't go and change it all around. At any rate, I can't do much now but wait until Thursday and see, and regardless of what happens, I'm glad that I'm done with it.

Raking & Reporting

2011-01-18T22:10:00.000-05:00

Rather than taking MLK Day off, Bryan has a rather long tradition of making it into a community service day where students go out in teams and spend most of the day helping people and organizations in the local community.

Last year, I was sadly unable to participate, and ended up having an experience that held some parallels to most descriptions I've heard of the zombie apocalypse.

This year fortunately, I had no such problems and spent the better part of the day raking leaves in Cleavland Tennessee my Break for Change Team. It was complicated by the fact that much of the ground was still covered with snow, and that which wasn't snowy was still extremely wet. It ended up working okay, although I was rather muddy by the end of the day.

That night I was feeling extremely tired, and questioning the wisdom of what I had just done while still technically recovering from strep and the flu. I also spent some time questioning if I should go to the first meeting for the school newspaper. I had wanted to join last semester, but told myself (and the editor & chief) that I couldn't because I was taking 19 credits. Now it's this semester, and I'm taking 19 credits again... so I really have the same dilemma. It's something that I have felt like I should do though, and this is my last chance to do it while my friend Katie is still editor, so in a way, I feel like it's now or never. So last night, I psyched myself up and went to the meeting.

I was the only new person joining the staff, everyone else having stayed on from last semester, so I couldn't help but feel a little intimidated. I am, after all, the new guy stepping into the workings of a team that's been together for awhile. Katie had said something to me about just coming and checking it out to see if I liked it, but comfortable or not, I somehow ended up with an assignment, and a person to interview, and a deadline. So it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Once In a Long Time, Eh?

2011-01-12T22:01:00.001-05:00

Shortly after transferring to Bryan this time last year, Dayton Tennessee had a major snow storm. This, the locals assured me, was extremely unusual... something once in a decade. Well, how about now?

Being rather ill yesterday, I was unable to make the journey to Tennessee by myself, so my Dad drove me down. As we made it further and further south, we observed something relatively unusual. Rather than getting warmer and there being less snow, the temperature stayed remarkably stable, and the amount of snow-cover increased until we finally got to Bryan College here and found a full five inches on the ground.

I like the snow really, but the thing is, whenever I drive 13 hours due south, I tend to expect it to get at least a little warmer. So it's a bit disappointing when I go right from one winter wonderland to another.

Speaking of disappointment, I had some this afternoon when I found out one of my friends I was planning on going to Latvia with over spring break will no longer be able to come. Apparently a lot of people were unable to raise the necessary 50% of funds by the deadline, and because of a new set of policies regarding payment, were simply told that they would be unable to go. So I'm not really looking forward to finding out how many more people in the group, which was already small, may no longer be going.

Other than that, my first day back on campus went pretty well. I really only had one class. Normally I'd have two, but because of the snow, one of my profs canceled. The one that I did have was contemporary math, that legitimate higher math course that I'm finally taking after literally years of remedial courses due in combination to my abysmal scores in high school and academic red tape in college. So even though I'm terrible at math, I'm almost looking forward to this, because after I'm done it will finally be over.

I think my strep is starting to react to the medication now, which is good. I still feel a little tireder than usual, but the general bad feeling of being sick is mostly gone, so that's good.

In addition to friends from the past two semesters, I also saw Sam and Samuel Spatola from Italy who are here for a missions conference that runs for the rest of the week. I talked to them twice; once after chapel, and then again when I ran into them in the library. Sam wanted to make sure he had never promised to give me money if I sent any friends to SBI, since I did in fact send two this fall. I assured him that he hadn't. We did however, agree upon a price if ever send anyone else, so if you ever do have the interest to spend three months studying and traveling in Italy in a Christian environment, tell Sam that I sent you ;)

Hopeful

2011-01-10T20:16:00.000-05:00

I have been quite ill the past few days. I woke up Friday morning with something that felt like a bad fever and then felt miserable for the rest of the day. That night I barely slept and felt even worse on Saturday. This seemed to be terrible timing as my break was ending and I was expected to return to Bryan by today (Monday). As it turned out though, a huge snowstorm hit the South-East today, and Bryan canceled operations and asked all students not to return until it had passed. That was a bit of a relief but I was still feeling pretty down... especially after I got the bill for maintenance on my car, and found it was about three times what I had been expecting. Since I had time now, I decided to go to the doctors, where they gave me a strep throat test.

As I was in the room waiting for the results, my Dad texted me with the news that Talisman Energy, the company that has been leasing our land and preparing a drilling pad for the last year or two is finally starting to drill! This is great news, as it means we may finally see the payback from all the stuff they have been doing around our farm, and, it just may be enough to seriously help my parents with their financial situation.

Just as I was replying to my Dad's text, my doctor came back in and informed me that I did indeed have strep. While I'm not exactly happy to have it, I'm glad that it's that instead of the flu, because it means I can take a prescription for it, instead of just waiting for it to go away (which I had been doing unsuccessfully for the last three nights).

It kind of makes sense now... considering that I've felt kind of run down for most of Christmas break. Although that could have been just from how busy I've been. In the three weeks I've been back, I've take care of so many annoying logistical things: traveling to Lynchburg with my Dad to pack up the Soul display, getting my car inspected, getting my car's window repaired, renewing my drivers license, and mailing out lots of support letters for an upcoming missions trip; all combined with the normal social obligations of the holidays and people that I needed to visit because I won't have another chance for months... it almost didn't seem like a break.

Anyhow, I had been feeling a little hopeless the last few days. But then, I usually do when I'm really sick. Now that I will apparently be able to be cured (even if I haven't actually taken the stuff yet, because the Walmart pharmacy is running a full three hours behind schedule) I feel a little bit better. And the are drilling on our land... which could potentially solve a lot of my other problems too... so that's hopeful.

A Place In New York

2011-01-03T23:29:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was able to go down to Queens to see a few oldish friends of mine, Pete, Amanda, and Hannah Wells. I met all three of them at SBI and hadn't seen them since, so it was really great to catch them while they were, at least relatively speaking, close. Pete and Amanda, who are the main part of the band The Perennials are leaving for England tomorrow to start a tour or Europe, which I hope will be great for them.

I spent the afternoon at a house of a friend of theirs, and that evening listened to them play a show for some of their friend's friends. There ended up being thirty or forty people there, all from the Queens area, and it was cool to meet all of them. I've never known anyone from NYC before, which was probably the main reason I so seldom go there. That may change though, as I had several people invite me to come down for a weekend sometime.

The show was great. I was amazed to hear how much both of their skill has improved since playing with Pete back in the day. If you're at all interested in their music, you can check out their myspace page here.

A Couple Years & a Couple Continents

2011-01-02T00:24:00.000-05:00

Happy New Years Day! By the time I finish this post, it will probably be the 2nd, but know that I started it on New Years Day ;)

I had a pretty good time celebrating. I started with a bit of a New Years Eve-Eve party with my friend Chris at my place. We stayed up till the wee hours of the last day of 2010 playing SWAT on Halo Reach. The next day we drove back up to Corning where I met my family at the Cornfield's house where I spent most of the evening talking conspiracy theories with Joe - something I haven't done in a while. We went home at nine and my Mom and sisters started watching this perfectly horrid James Stewart movie from the 60's. In addition to being perfectly horrid, it was quite long, so we ended up staying up past midnight. My sisters all said that they had no interest in watching the ball drop as we usually do, and since they were using the TV for the movie, I tried to set it up on the computer. Unfortunately, while CNN.com was showing streams of all the people in Time Square, they weren't actually showing the ball drop. Then, at about 11:59, my sisters suddenly changed their minds and decided that they did want to see the ball drop after all. What followed was a frantic scramble to pause the horrid James Stewart movie, fix the antenna, and find the right channel to see the drop. They missed it by seconds.

Tomorrow we will be in NYC for real though. I had decided this summer to go down and visit my friends Pete and Amanda in the city as they are briefly staying there before going back to Europe. I had originally wanted to go down earlier this week, but because the mechanic took several days to inspect my car, I was delayed until tomorrow. Then, when I explained my plans to my parents, they decided they wanted to come along... and take their car, which means that I didn't really need to wait all this time for mine to be legal. Anyhow, it should be fun, and I'm glad I'll get to see my friends again... it's been a couple years and a couple continents since I saw them last time.

That was back in Italy of course. Speaking of which, I spent this evening visiting one of my other friends, Nicole, who I accidentally convinced to go to Italy this past semester. It was interesting to hear about her experiences... how they were similar and different from mine.

So now I should really be getting some sleep, but after spending the last few days staying up so late, I just can't. I tried for about half an hour, but the longer I lay in bed, the more awake I got, so I decided to blog instead to see if maybe it would reverse the process. I'm afraid I haven't been successful.

And Dreams by Passion Pit is the bomb. Just stayin'

What Cold Feels Like

2010-12-26T17:25:00.001-05:00

I had a good Christmas here at home with my family. It was rather different, since instead of spending Christmas Eve with my extended family as I usually do, I was in Virginia with my Dad working at a mall. An old business partner of my Dad had decided that he wanted to try selling the glass jewelry SOUL that he and my Dad based a business on several years ago. They had spent the month trying to sell it at a Kiosk in the Lynchburg mall since before Thanksgiving, and my Dad and I just went down to help pack up and bring things back. That day we worked at the kiosk a bit and it was interesting. While I made hundreds of them at our workshop back in the day and worked with the original artist who created them, I had never tried selling them before. It was kind of difficult really... I have so many bad memories associated with it because of stuff that happened back then that I have honestly developed a dislike for it, so it was weird trying to pitch it to people. At any rate, we didn't get back until 2AM Christmas morning.

While I wasn't able to do the traditional party thing, I did end up seeing my Grandparents and my Uncle Bruce, which was nice. It also turned into a very white Christmas. There was just a bit of snow on the ground in the morning, mostly left over from a week or so before. By lunch time though, it had started snowing again, and by that night we had several inches.

It has stayed very cold all day today, and I went out in the field to check on the gas well drilling site. I don't think I've felt cold like that in at least a year. Whatever the temperature was, the wind sweeping over the huge field that the site is on always plunges the chill below zero:

Below is a picture of the kiosk in Lynchburg:

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T10:51:00.002-05:00

Was in Virginia the last two days where I was helping some old friends pack up their kiosk at a mall in Lynchburg... Didn't get back until 2am Christmas morning. I kind of had this song in my head... enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

My Guide to Speeding In the Eastern US

2010-12-21T13:25:00.000-05:00

After making this trip several times by myself and countless times with family and friends under a variety of circumstances and vehicles ranging from sports cars to moving vans, I've decided to post my impressions about it. They may perhaps be of service to someone, and at least entertaining to others.

New York: danger - too many squad cars (which is probably why their taxes are so high).

Pennsylvania: Freedom!!!

Maryland: moderately safe.

West VA: moderately safe.

Virginia: danger - speed traps, unmarked cars, motion cameras, (although I'm pretty sure the "Aircraft" that they constantly threaten will enforce the speed limit don't really exist).

Tennessee: Freedom!!!

Georgia: You might as well just shoot yourself now and get it over with.

Florida: moderately safe. Enough squad cars, but the general traffic tends to move 15 to 20 over the speed limit, so just stick with the herd.

The Endlessly Repeating Final

2010-12-16T21:12:00.001-05:00

It was a rather intense week of finals. The two that I had on Tuesday went about as expected, that is to say that my psychology final went really well, and my Spanish final went quite badly. What I didn't expect was today. Both my finals were with Palmer, which means that theoretically, they should have been easy, and indeed, what I actually had to do was easy: just answer an essay question and then give a brief presentation on the findings of my semester research paper to the class and answer any questions they might have. The problem is, there were thirty other people who all had to do this, and in both classes, we ended up going over the two hours allotted for the finals.

Of course, none of this was helped by the fact that I stayed up late last night celebrating the end of the semester with some friends off campus, and that my first final this morning was at 8:00AM. By the time I was done with the first one, I was feeling completely drained, and by the time I was done with the second one, at 3:30, I was feeling so bad that I thought I might be coming down with the flu or something. Fortunately, I started to feel better soon afterwords, when I realized that this not-so-fun semester was finally over.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening packing, and now have everything moved into my car so I should be able to get an early start on the 750 odd miles between me and home.

So yeah... I'm done.

Semester's Last Weekend

2010-12-12T17:11:00.000-05:00

Now is that odd time of the semester when some classes are done, others are about to have their biggest assignments come due, and everyone is generally in a state of discombobulation. You can start to feel the relief of the semester being over, but you still have some of the hardest tests right in front of you. Three of my classes, as of last week, are finished completely. For those that aren't, I have four finals next week. Only one of them is going to be at all difficult, and two of them will be mostly just discussion. Unfortunately the said discussion is going be on the topic of what we wrote in our semester papers, and the professor who teaches both of those classes didn't tell us anything about the papers until last week. They're both short though, so it really isn't that unreasonable. It was just a bit of a surprise when I got the email.

Yesterday was rather interesting. That morning I was walking around with no real destination when two of my friends, Katy and Bryce, pulled up next to me and started gesturing for me to come over. It turns out they just got engaged, which is great. After that I went and watched Scrooge, which the school drama department was performing. I spent most of the evening (aside from when I was watching Taliban on CNN, which is very good, and you should try to catch the second half this evening if you read this in time) hanging out with the freshman on my hall and watching first Elf, and then Christmas Story. They are really a cool good group of guys, and I've felt bad that I haven't spent more time getting to know them. It's just been a bad semester I guess, but anyhow, most of us at least will be here next semester too, so hopefully I'll do better.

This morning it was snowing quite a bit, and although it doesn't really stick on the ground here, it at least added a nice effect. I decided to wake up and go to church, even though I had stayed up till after two last night playing Halo Reach with some guys over on Long 4th. I road with Drew, my RA/Suitemate to Westminster Presbyterian, which is generally where I go while in Tennessee. It was kind of a Christmas praise/devotional service, and while most of it was nice, it seemed like it took about three times longer than it usually does. Maybe it was just that I stayed up late though.

At the sad rate that I have been posting recently, this may well be my last entry from Tennessee for now, unless something particularly interesting happens of course. I can't really express how much I'm looking forward to getting home... less than a week now.

Masquerade

2010-12-05T21:49:00.001-05:00

I was fooling around with a project in Final Cut Pro this afternoon and I did this almost by accident. It looks kind of cool, so I thought I'd share it. The original video is from a church in Austria:

Last night I went to my first banquet here at Bryan, it was fun, although I still don't really understand the point of them too much more than I did before. The theme was a masquerade ball, so I brought my Carnevale mask from Venice, which was cool. I wasn't sure if I'd ever have a need to use it again. Afterward my group went to Panera in Hixson, which was fun, except for getting there, which was a little rough, because several of the girls who planned the whole thing wanted to keep where we were going a surprise, which considering that two of the drivers including me were those from whom it was supposed to be kept, made for an interesting situation. We made it though, and after we got back we all watched White Christmas in Mercer, which was good... I had been hoping I'd get a chance to see it this Christmas but wasn't sure I'd get a chance with the semester lasting as long as it does.

I'm very, very ready for the semester to be over (ok, I have felt like that since about the second day, but that's beside the point). Last week I just kept telling myself that I'm almost done, but now last week is over and I still have more than another week to go....

Thanksgiving in Tallahassee

2010-11-27T23:09:00.004-05:00

This evening is my last night in Tallahassee, where I spent my Thanksgiving break this year with my cousins. I had a kind of rough trip down, but my time here has been great. It began with the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning, which my Uncle had been trying to get me to run in again ever since my whole family spent Thanksgiving here several years ago. That was the first race I had ever run, and I was looking forward to hopefully getting a better time this year. It was a huge race, with over 5000 people showing up for the entire event, and running in that big a crowd was a different experience for me. As it turned out, I did get a better time, 23:17 as opposed to 24:12 back in 2006. I was a bit disappointed by this, as this Spring I got a 22:something in the Bob Bridgman, which is a significantly harder course. Still, for not having trained much this semester, I felt ok about it. I also beat my Uncle, which is something I could not say before. After the race was over, we all, in accordance with tradition, went to Krispy Kreme, thus, the picture above.

Aside from running, I played a lot of other sports with my cousins, and their other cousins, which was fun. Left is a picture of us playing "Rolly Bat" a sport that I have never heard of anywhere else, but is a favorite of my cousins here.

After all this, I was pretty tired and sore, but still decided to go out with everyone at 4:00AM on Black Friday. I had never been black Friday shopping before, and it was an experience. We went to Walmart, Target, Starbucks (the first place that I actually bought something), Sears, Macys, several stores in the mall, Atlanta Bread CO. and several stores in another outlet before finally bringing the day to an end. It was fun to do once, but I'm not sure if I will do it again.

Left are Abby and Jordan at Target, where we weren't able to buy anything because of the line that literally stretched all the way around the store.

Speaking of new experiences, I went to my first college football game today. My Uncle's brother-in-law somehow new someone who was able to get Jordan and I tickets even though the game was only two days away (not to mention it was the Gators-Seminoles game which was their biggest rivalry game of the year). It was pretty crazy, but a lot of fun... especially since FSU won by an unexpectedly high margin.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading back to Tennessee to buckle down for two and a half more weeks of classes. I suppose I can't expect it to go better than the rest of this semester has, but it's a short enough time now that I think I can buckle down and get through it.

The Death of a Turkey

2010-11-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

I have only one class left before Thanksgiving break begins. I won't be going home, as I would end up spending almost as much time driving as I would with my family. Instead I'm heading for Tallahassee Florida to spend the holiday with my cousins. It should be fun, as I'll get to run in the Tallahassee Turkey Trot with them like I did four or five years ago.

Last night I had the first of what will probably be several turkey dinners at a house on the hill with some friends. Left is Tomas carving the turkey.. He employed a very interesting technique that none of us had ever seen before....

Aside from watching Bryan win the first game of the NIAI national championship, I haven't really done much else that was particularly interesting. I'm really tired of most of my classes, but then, I was tired of most of them by the end of the first week, so that's really nothing new. Hopefully I will have an interesting Thanksgiving post... regarding the Turkey Trot. Also, Black Friday is a possibility, as I know my cousins are usually in to that. Not that I really have money to spend on anything like that, but it might be interesting to experience once.

Where I Live

2010-11-16T23:49:00.000-05:00

Looking back on my last few posts, I realize that rather than saying anything interesting about anything to anyone, they are more soliloquies intended for my own future reflection. So if you have been reading and happen to be someone other than me, I apologize for the rambling chronicles of my weeks that I've been dumping on here without any real thought to an audience.

Anyhow, I took this photo today because a new weather front was moving in and the light looked really cool. This, in case you ever wondered, is where I live. It's slightly newer and has a different layout than the dorm I stayed in last semester, and having actually had the knowledge to make an informed decision this semester, I decided to move here.

When I took this picture, I had actually just got back from a run. I had been out jogging around Bryan Drive and I saw a great rainbow. I ran back to my room and grabbed my camera. By the time I got back out though, it had already faded away completely, so I had to be content with taking some pictures of the fall foliage around campus in the changing-weather-front light, which was still really cool looking.

Feeling Like Lawrence

2010-11-14T22:03:00.000-05:00

It was an awfully long week since my last post. I had my second meeting with my BFC Latvia group on Wednesday, and we agreed on our first fundraiser, which is good. That afternoon I had my interview with OM, which I felt went really well, although I'm honestly a bit intimidated by the next step in the process, which is sending them my resume, along with links to some examples of my video work. Thinking in that direction, I spent the next evening down in the communication department's Mac lab working on Final Cut Pro. It's really great... and I need to get a copy of it for my own machine as soon as possible (although, I could also use a new computer to run it on too... but one step at a time) When I got back to my room, I realized that I had made probably my stupidest mistake all semester... aside from taking Spanish with Pascucci instead of French with Paige that is, and completely missed my first ACTS Project class. I was relatively upset. I've realized recently (though not for the first time) that I'm not very good at dealing with stress, or letting things go when they were my fault. So I'm trying to work on that.

It's getting to the point where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for a couple of my classes. Not with Spanish though, the bane of my existence this semester. We're getting into these stem changing verbs, which I think really ought to be banned as a crime against humanity. We have so many tests for that class as well. I got A's on the first two, and a B on the last, but only after studying for hours. They just keep coming. We have another next Friday, and then I think at least one more before the final. If I don't have a breakthrough in understanding, which I doubt will happen, I'm afraid I'll be getting C's on them from here on out. The tests aren't even the most frustrating part though. Pascucci has us do a huge amount of in class exercises based on the material she just gave us in class. I'm terrible at these, because I rarely learn anything in class (I always have to learn it from the book), so I'm generally lost, and everyone in the class knows it. It's been really depressing this semester to have to get up everyday and go to something that I know I can't succeed at. So anyhow, that's my self-pitying rant about Spanish.

Today I started working on my homework as soon as I got out of bed in order to set aside a solid five hours to watch Lawrence of Arabia. It's a movie I have long wanted to see, both because it's a classic, and also because I was intrigued by the historical and geographical setting of the film. I was not at all disappointed, and would heartily recommend it if you have five hours to spare. As the plot developed, I found myself identifying more and more with Lawrence, which is unusual for me (to identify with movie characters, that is). Not in the sense of him being an Alpha type personality and not letting anything stand in his way (not me at all) but rather how in the second half of the film, he becomes more and more conflicted in what he wants. He seems driven to do crazy things without knowing why he wants them and then only gets satisfaction from things that he doesn't want to do. And while I may not be blowing up trains in Saudi Arabia or leading a revolt of Bedouin Tribesmen, I somehow feel like I'm often faced with the same dilemma.

Missional-Cynic?

2010-11-08T23:12:00.001-05:00

This evening I meandered down to Rudd Auditorium and ended up listening to Shaun Groves. I've been familiar with Groves' music for a long time, and while I didn't dislike it, it seemed to be the kind of thing that my local Christian radio station played... a genre I had tried to escape from ever since I started buying my own music. Still, when I found out in Chapel that he was on campus, I couldn't resist the urge to go down this evening and check it out. I must say he was very good. Not quite my style (rather far from it actually) but very enjoyable to listen to none-the-less. He also had an awesome stage presence, which never hurts.

During the concert he was encouraging people to sponsor children through compassion international. That's something I always thought would be a rather difficult sell on a college campus, but it seemed like there was a fair amount of interest. It made me think back years to the very first concert I ever went to... Rebecca St. James... and how my family started sponsoring a girl in Ethiopia as a result.

It seems like I've been encountered by lot's of missions-oriented things lately, both at school and from pastors and ministries that I've listened to for a long time. It could be because right now I'm on the verge of doing some things that could be classified as "missions", and so I'm sensitive to it. Or perhaps there is just a bigger movement toward it in the Church in general right now... which wouldn't be a bad thing in my opinion.

Speaking of ministry and the Church... I was thinking the other day about both of them. I want to help people, yet at the same time, my experience with the Church has honestly left me far less than inspired to try and spread it. I know that's a problem, but it's just where I am. I started to think that maybe because I've become so cynical I really have no business doing anything related to ministry or aid or anything like that. But then I had to ask myself the question: Is that really a good reason not to do it? Does not feeling like my heart is in the right place mean I need to wait for it to be? I think I've spent most of my life since I was a little kid feeling like this and thinking that I had to wait until I felt differently before I did anything. I think I could easily wait my entire life telling myself that someday I will "feel right". Should I risk spending my whole life waiting for that? Even as the cynic that I may be, I'm starting to think that I shouldn't.

And It Keeps Coming

2010-11-04T16:25:00.001-04:00

My time between posting keeps getting longer and longer these days. Classes have been as busy as usual, and the last couple days I've had the added stress of registering for classes. That shouldn't really be stressful if you've done everything the way you're supposed to, but I never have. All the uncertainty resulting from transferring, studying abroad, changing major once, and not knowing when I should or can graduate has made it chaotic. I thought I had everything figured out, but then, yesterday, I found out I had some course requirements that I didn't know about, and now it looks like I will definitely be graduating in Spring of 2012.

When I transferred to Bryan I assumed that that was when I would graduate, but this summer, looking at what I thought where my required courses, I had started thinking that I might be able to do it by next fall. I know staying that extra semester isn't the end of the world, and it will really look like I'm just graduating on time anyway, because it will be Springtime. But it's kind of depressing, because almost all of my friends from Italy will be gone by then. Also I'll be 22... which isn't terribly old, but when I think how my three cousins who are close to my age will all have had their Master's by that age, it's a little depressing as well.

Yesterday Bryan kicked off it's Symposium on Human Trafficking (alternately known as the SSTOP conference). Yesterday I listened to lectures by Dr. Paul Marshall, an authority on religious persecution. It was excellent, and I got to talk to him a little bit afterwords. Listening to someone like him makes me really see a reason to be doing the things that I'm doing... rather than just torturing myself for no reason at all... which tends to be more my general state of mind. This morning we heard from a State Department official from their bureau on trafficking (I forget the technical name). That was a bit ironic, as yesterday was the deadline from their summer internship, which I did not apply for, and therefore will not be doing. I did however, get accepted to Acts Project, so I will probably be doing something with them. That could possibly involve doing something with IJM, which is an organization we will also be hearing from this week.

Halloween passed since my last post. Last year I ended up in a crazy and unexpected situation on Halloween... and this year was kind of a repeat. I had been kind-of, sort-of, invited to a party/haunted house/rave last Saturday night, but decided not to go because I was feeling extremely tired from the week. On top of that, I had to watch The Oedipus Story that night. While at the play, I ended up running in to Kaity and her boyfriend Bryce. When asked if I was doing anything that night, I told them about the party, and they asked if I would consider going if they came along. A couple hours later, we arrived. By that time the haunted house was over, and there were only a few people dancing. Then another group of people arrived... and the atmosphere changed a bit. Let's just say it got a little out of hand... and every time I've run into them this past week we've had a good laugh about it.

I had my first meeting for BFC meeting last Wednesday. At this point our leaders were mostly just talking about raising support. I sent out most of my letters over fall break, and I've been really thankful for the response I've already received. I'm really excited about our group and what we will be doing over there. It's another one of those few things that just occasionally makes it seem like it's all worth it. I wish I could feel like that all the time, but unfortunately I can't.

Contradictory Weather

2010-10-26T22:49:00.004-04:00

I realize that my last post ended with a bit of a cliff hanger, me being stranded in an airport terminal 100 miles from my destination and all. I also realize that I then neglected to ever post what happened. So sorry. I did make it back, but then I was too busy to post for the first few days. After that, nothing interesting enough to inspire a post happened for the rest of the week.We did have a close one today though. Well, it wasn't actually that close, but it was exciting.

This morning I woke up to very strange weather. The wind was blowing hard, and the sky was overcast, and it looked like it should be a crisp late October day. But when I stepped outside, it was a balmy 75 degrees. The sky started looking stranger and stranger as the day progressed, and by mid-afternoon the alert went out on campus that a tornado had touched down in Rhea County, and we were under a warning.

In the end we didn't get a tornado anywhere near the college, but the sky looked pretty spectacular. Around seven, it started looking like we might finally be in for something, and I decided to go for a walk around Bryan drive with my camera and see if there was anything interesting. It started raining a bit, and I ducked into the Library just as the wind picked up and torrential sheets of rain commenced to pound the building for more than half an hour.

While I was trapped in the Library, I decided to start reading Civilization and Its Discontents again, even though I had decided to stop before because I felt it was contributing to an overall sense to depression that I was experiencing. Somehow, reading it up in the library with lighting flashing all up and down the valley and rain and leaves driving against the giant glass windows beside me was an experience unto itself, and not really a depressing one.

Closing Walls & Ticking Clocks

2010-10-17T15:59:00.000-04:00

So, according to the plan, I was supposed to be back in my room on Woodlee 2nd Short making up for only getting three hours of sleep last night. That was the plan.

My parents dropped me off at Elmira Airport at five this morning. My flight which was supposed to depart at 6:20 didn't even board until 6:30, and by the time we got to Detroit I was already about thirty minutes late. That would have been workable if I ran fast, but then there was some regulatory confusion with them not letting us get off the plane for ten minutes after we landed even after everything was in place for us to do so. Safe to say, I missed my connection.

The next flight to Chat wasn't until 5:30am the next morning, so I was going to have to wait around all day, go to a hotel, and then show up again at like four. Instead I asked if they could put me on a plane to Knoxville, which they did. So hear I am blogging from the Knoxville terminal. I have a friend coming to pick me up, which is great, but I still have to figure out how I can get back to Chattanooga to get my car this week. So anyhow, I guess it could have been worse.