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

I drove down to the springs yesterday afternoon. Met up with Jake and Phil at Castle Rock to follow them down the rest of the way. We met in the Walgreens parking lot.

A black SUV is driving by Walgreens and yells out the window “Hey dude, you need any home stereo stuff? We got some free with our purchase.”

uh… “How much?”

“You want to see?”

“Sure, I guess.”

Jake and Phil both stated a desire to leave immediately.

The black SUV spins round a couple corners and drives up in the parking lot to “show me the goods”. The driver gets out quickly, opens up the back and says “Here they are.” I see about six full stereo systems in boxes in the back. He quickly continues, “They’re originally $1,600 each, see.” He points at the tag. “How much will you pay for one?”

“Uh, I don’t have that kind of cash.”

“You got any? Can you get some?”

“No, sorry man.”

He complains, “Then why’d you ask ‘how much?’” as I walk back to my car.

Immediately both guys get back in the SUV and haul off. I stand there thinking how odd the whole situation was and wondered about the offer’s speed. The glances and nervousness in the man’s voice also bothered me.

Driving away following Jake back towards I-25, several police cars pulled down a road south of Walgreens and appeared to be surrounding a suspect. I never saw who they stopped, but I have strong suspicions.

Categories: Life
Tags: Colorado Springs, Jake, Phil, police, Walgreens

Later today I’m gonna head down to Colorado Springs. Planning on meeting Jake and Phil in Castle Rock and driving our little caravan down together from there. Gonna hang out with Kevin tonight.

Tomorrow afternoon/evening I’m going to chill w/ Chris K., another guy I know in the Springs. After that, I’ll probably head home.

Should be fun… I’ve been wanting to hang out with Chris again. The last time I visited him was the end of summer. Anyway, looking forward to the break. I get to ignore homework entirely when I’m gone. Waha! It’ll betray me later and I’ll lack sleep for days on end to make up for this adventure, but I don’t care.

Categories: Life
Tags: Chris K, Colorado Springs, Jake, Kevin A, Phil

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