Hey, what’s going on?

A lot’s been happening lately. Busy, busy, busy. Except, of course, for the long reading breaks I take. Lately, my book reading has involved The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. It’s an epic fantasy novel of immense proportions. The paperback is over 800 pages long, and this is only the first of over a dozen books. Unfortunately, I only own the first one, but that’s where the used book shop will play into future plans.

Last Saturday was a busy day. Navigator’s had a Fundraising Banquet around noon that my parents came to. After it ended, I talked to some people I know including a few UNL Nav alumni and friends. My parents left to head back to the hotel at that point.

Later Saturday evening, the Navigator’s 2004 Formal occurred. Good times, of course. We had a large group this year: Amy H. and I, Phil and Rachael, Double-J and Lauren A., Cora and Nathan J., Jake, Jenny, Tracy, and Hank. For dinner, we consumed food at The Olive Garden. They have excellent breadsticks if you were wondering.

The dance itself was great fun. Latrice deejayed with assistance from Steve and a few others. At my request, they played P.O.D. – Rock the Party. It was one of my favorites of the night ’cause it gives all the guys a chance to rock, jump around, and pretend to mosh. (Real mosh pits are much more painful, or so I hear.)

Amy and I both had a lot of fun. This year’s formal was different from the last two because there seemed to be less pressure and a lot of that is simply due to my own approach to the event. It went as well as and better than I had expected.

Today, I’ve got to rewrite the five page paper I messed up last week (wrote on the wrong topic). Thursday, I’ve got a fifteen page paper due. Basically, I need to start researching, forming ideas, and writing. Pray for me, please. Latez!

Categories: Friends, Life
Tags: college, Cora, Double-J, Hank, Jenny, Navigators, P.O.D., Phil, Robert Jordan, The Olive Garden, Tracy

What’s up? Ok, so I thought I’d post something real. Not significant, not life altering, but hey, why not tell you what’s going on?

I got the newest Yellowcard album yesterday courtesy of my youngest brother’s ex-girlfriend. He’d already bought it but then after they broke up she bought it for him as a Christmas gift. I’ve now inherited it. w00t. Lyrics to Twentythree are posted. The lyrics and style of this song are reticent of the entire album — lots of influence by women and the usual disappointment that comes from them being a pinnacle to which men flock.

I’ve started getting some work done on my English class. I’m currently (although entirely distracted at the moment) working on Lesson 4. There’s a total of 13 lessons and two exams. The exams need proctored so I’m waiting till I get back to Lincoln to do them, but I can get the rest of the writing done now.

So, you’ve probably read the essay I wrote recently. If any of you have comments, please leave them. I’m interested in getting responses even if those comments disagree with me.

(Side note: Phil’s having trouble with his website right now in case any of you wonder why he hasn’t had any new posts recently. It’ll be fixed as soon as possible.)

I bought a couple books from the used bookstore today. They should keep me busy for a while. One is about the “Great Train Robbery” and the other is a fantasy novel by Robert Jordan. That’ll give me something new to read once I’ve finished re-reading Ender’s Shadow and it’s sequels.

The dog rocks. Look at her stretch. She wags her tail when mom is around. She mopes when mom isn’t around. Whatever’s going on though, she’s always up for some frisbee in the park across the street.

Hmm, a song by Demon Hunter is on the radio. Never heard them before. ’80s band? I don’t know.

There’s been news lately about a couple of album mixes. Somebody mixed Jay-Z’s “Black Album” with The Beatles’ “White Album” to create the “Grey Album”. Now, somebody’s mixed the “Black Album” with Weezer’s “Blue Album” to create the “Black & Blue Album”. Interesting stuff, for sure, but I can’t personally recommend Jay-Z. He’s a typical rapper, and by typical I mean plenty of swearing and whatnot.

Categories: Life, Music
Tags: college, Phil, The Grey Album, Yellowcard

This weekend has been swell. Friday night after Navs I went to Amigo’s to hang out and talk, and after that went to Varv’s apartment, played Rummy, and we talked for quite a while. It was good times to get away from crowds and get some real conversation going. Not that the other conversations I had in the night weren’t real, but there’s some things you can’t talk about in crowds of ten people who don’t know you.

Saturday = ZOO! Omaha’s The Henry Doorly Zoo, to be precise. My favorite animals were the Polar Bears (in Japanese -> shirokuma), sharks, octopii, and penguins. It’s amazing to watch those animals and think how incredible it is to be separated mere inches from them because of modern technology and ultimately the marvels and wonders of God’s creation. I mean, there’d be nothing to put in the zoo if he didn’t make the animals and no way to hold them in if there wasn’t the technology. I think it would be even more incredible to see some of those animals in the wild. They’d be a lot more fearsome, eh?

Another fun aspect was being there with Jake, Amy Hatcher, April S., and Kanako. Kanako knows Jake and Amy and the other Navs who went to Shizuoka, Japan last summer. Anyway, it was good to spend time with some friends in a different environment than usual and enjoyed speaking a bit of Japanese with Kanako, although I know I could learn more of the language if I tried harder.

Saturday night was Brandon’s birthday. Went to that with Jake and knew many other people there, too. For Brandon’s birthday we made him a 25 song CD. It was Jake’s idea and a good one at that. 11 of the songs on the CD were Copa Cabana.

Today I’ve just done usual Sunday fare — church, ate dinner out at a house, napped, and read various items most of the afternoon. I occassionally find myself with a shortage of real bookmarks due to the amount of books I have being consumed or awaiting consumption at any one time. Today I read parts of The Bible, Wild at Heart, Spiritual Disciplines, The Passion of Christ, and Eyes of Heisenberg (odd sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert — not that good).

This week will be tough for school. I’ve got two midterms on Tuesday, each of which I’m inadequately prepared for. I will study much tomorrow and hope it to be enough. Thursday I have a paper due. But, joy of joys, FREEDOM of sorts comes Friday with the end of the school week and beginning of a Spring Break to be filled with its own busyness and not less requirements than usual, but different. (i.e. I must finally finish my English class. Must.)

Oh, and Phil’s site moved: http://philabowl.f2o.org/ http://thebolls.com/

Categories: Books, Life, Religious
Tags: Amigos, Amy, college, Jake, omaha, Phil, Runny, scifi

Oh wait. No. I’ll let you figure this one out on your own. I’m going to bed.

Update: Thanks for the pie, Tracy.

Update 2: Uh…. ok. So I’m not thrilled with life lately. There ya go, I told you. Not that you couldn’t tell if you’ve seen me in the last couple days, but I digress. I’m frustrated with a lot of different things related especially to the impending future and numerous details I don’t even want to consider yet.

I heard somebody say today “12 weeks left in the semester.” I don’t wanna hear that! Why? Because that means 12 weeks + a summer course and I’m done with college forever. I’m thrown into the world and don’t know where I’ll go. I’m afraid to leave my friends behind, I’m afraid about how difficult it will be to find a job.

Presently, I’m afraid of all the books I should read, papers I should start writing, my IS English class that I won’t have done on time. The first “paycheck” I’ve had in a long time I’ll use to extend the deadline for the English class (web design — thanks for the contact, Jenny). I can’t do what I want to on my birthday because I’ve got other obligations.

There’s also the woman issue, but I don’t even know what to think of the whole thing right now. Being so near to no-clue-about-what’s-next, my mind is more than partly cloudy.

I can guarantee you I haven’t been looking to answers for these problems in the right place either.

So, what should I do now? What, eh, what? Oh, right. Well, that would be the obvious answer. So obvious that sometimes it’s the most difficult thing to do.

Categories: Life
Tags: college, Tracy

Last night was only the second Nav Nite I’ve been to this semester (out of three). I enjoyed it quite a lot. More than anything, I enjoyed being around my friends. I got to sit next to the venerable Jesse Luebbe and the wonderful Cora (both of whom are featured prominently in the quotes).

At dinner yesterday I discovered that I could interpret Jesse’s expressions to a third party. I was amused and so was he. I guess that’s one of the benefits of living around a person for so many years.

Nav Nite Message Summary: Don’t waste the opportunities you have, because life is short. Live for God and tell others about him.

After Nav Nite, six of us packed into Misty’s car and headed down to The Mill. Didn’t get anything to drink (I figure on being broke until at least 2007), but I played cards with The Varv, Cora, and Brian (an Edge member visiting from UNK). Brian and I ended up winning in a “winner-takes-all” hand playing 10-point Pitch.

After my initial dissapointment with having to take another three credits of arts/humanities to graduate, I’m not too angry about it. In all honesty, it’s a mistake of my own that caused me to still need that class. I’ve still got to hammer out the details, but I’m hoping they’ll still let me go through the ceremony in May, then I’d take a three week History of Rock & Roll class, and then Florida for a Navigator’s Summer Training Program.

I’ll let you know how it works out. (And maybe those CDs I ordered in December will finally get here today!!!)

As a final piece of joy and cheer, I leave you with the newest addition to the quote database: “My purity today has been compromised by a naked orange.” – Jesse Luebbe

Categories: Life
Tags: college, Cora, Luebbe, Misty, Navigators, quotes, The Mill, The Varv