This is the begining

Today I went school shopping today for the first time in my life. Printer, backpack, pens, stapler, etc. Yesterday I ordered a USB hard drive for back up and such. I still have a few things to do to get ready, but I'm getting closer. I'm getting excited and a little scared. This will be the first time I've actually gone to classes at an actual school. I'll have to take notes and study and take tests. Yuck.

I'm gone.

What the crap?

I'm really not liking how a lot of our "core group" at youth group seems to be more and more distant. I'm not only talking about Nate. There are others. And I hate it. I hate seeing people I love so dearly become distant from us....and possibly distant from God. I am not in any sort of position to make such a statement. This is because of the very simple fact that I am not God, and thus cannot make a judgement on anyone's standing with God other than my own. I am however heartbroken at the thought of it even being a possibility.

Why are we so quickly swayed? Why do we chase the wind? Why do we take delight in what is fleeting? As believers why do we not only settle for less, but actually desire it more than the truth?

I have to go now. I vomited about an hour ago. And now I'm hungry, so I think I'll go eat it.

Fin.

Yes, the rumors are true...

...I do use black women's shampoo.

Last night I called my good friend Josh. He was home for Christmas. He left this morning at 7 for special training. He's supposed to be there for about a month.

Recording was awesome. We went from 10am to 5pm. It was intense vocally. 7 hours of screaming can start to hurt a little. I think everything turned out really good. It could have been better, but with the time we had it turned out awesome. We also did some video recording. I don't know if we'll have that online, but it should be good...and kinda funny, or maybe annoying depending on your sense of humor.

Day one (6 hours)

Today was the first day of recording. We didn't actually do a whole lot of stuff. Travis set up everything. Jordan did a 2 hour sound check on the drums. Dustin and I got our guitars dialed in. The action on Jared's bass was messed up (for those not down with the lingo, that means that his one sting was too close top the fret board and it rattled). So, tomorrow we'll get him set up. Overall it was a fun day.

Day two starts at 10 am tomorrow.

..and now a word from our sponsors

So, Christmas. It was nice. Lots of family, food, and fudge. I think Mia and Mark are leaving tomorrow. They've been here since Monday night.

This is officially my first post on my new computer. It's a dell. I like dells. It's not the newest or fanciest, but it's not bad at all. almost a gig of ram. a 32MB video card. ATI Radeon mobile graphics card. and Windows XP......thank goodness it's not Vista.

In other news...
We're recording soon. I believe this Friday and Saturday...then Monday I think. Because it's the 1st of the month and there's no school.

That's what she said

So, tonight we spent the evening at Kairos talking and solving Rubik's cubes. Fun times. Brian Has my cube. He's going to lube it for me. Oh, and I completely blew away my old record for solving the 3x3. It was 2:30 and I did it in 2 minutes even. Oh yeah...

As far as the band goes I'm actually really excited. It sucks going through a transition like this, but I'm excited for the change that will be happening. Dustin kind of feels the same thing too. And that's good. It means we'll be refocusing, building energy, and all that good stuff.

This is going to be my last post using this computer. I'm going to be packing it up in a few minutes. Of course I'm going to clean out all of my personal files and programs completely and clean up the drive. I don't want those nosy school Nazis going through my personal things. Not that I have anything they'd object to, it's just I don't want them looking at any pictures or reading any documents....that's just creepy and wrong. I have all my files copied, and I should have a laptop by this time next week. So, I think I can live.

THIS JUST IN.
According to Dustin, Seventh Star broke up. That's sad. I was really looking forward to seeing them again at Cornerstone.

fin.

I JUST GOT A TETANUS SHOT....AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

The above title serves a dual purpose tonight. First, because I got an actual tetanus shot yesterday. And second, because that phrase is one of the funniest and fondest memories I have of Nate.

Nate made the decision last Sunday that he would no longer be a part of 300 Foxes. It hurts a lot. I didn't think it would, but it does.

So, yesterday I had to get shots and all that wonderful stuff for school. The first two were a cake walk (by the way, that saying doesn't make sense). The third, a tetanus shot, was just as simple and painless as the others. For some reason as soon as the needle went in I thought of Nate. My mind in that moment recalled Seneca Hills work day. Scraping the paint in pool. And Nate screaming the phrase that serves as my title as fast and as loud as he could for no seemingly reason. I couldn't help but laugh out loud, nervously trying to stop because I knew my laughter was changing to tears.

It's like candy...for your skull

So, the shopping trip was today. Fun times. Fun times.

Lunch with just the leaders was nice. I actually enjoyed it a lot. Although the booth we were sitting in was awkward and uncomfortable. And the food was yummy yum yum.

As far as shopping, I didn't do much. I tried to look for stuff to get people, but they didn't have what I was going to get Russ and I couldn't find anything for anyone else. That's ok though, I prefer shopping here, where I know the stores and all that. I did however get one thing for myself. New ear buds. I lost my old pair, and anyway, they never fit right and always fell out. The ones I got are a brand called Skullcandy. Believe me, it is like candy. Awesome quality and great, although not absolutely perfect comfort (they are ear buds after all).

Anyways. Or as I like to say...In other news, I finally finished school yesterday. It feels good to be free. And it was very nice that the first day of my freedom was spent in such a way.

In other, other news...Mia is coming here for Christmas again. This means Maura. Which is very good. Other people's kids are cute, but they're nothing compared to her.

fin.

I'm an empty nester.

This weekend is a Pine Valley Christmas staff retreat. I had intended to go, but I decided not to. There are two main reasons why. Our youth Christmas shopping trip is Saturday, and I can't miss band practice Sunday.

Here, let me explain myself.

The shopping trip might seem like a stupid, and possibly selfish reason to skip the retreat. I see it as making myself available. Jeremy can't run all the stuff we do on his own and as a youth staff I am making myself available. Also, (especially during this busy season) it's hard to see people and spend time together. The reality is I'm going to be leaving in January and this is an awesome opportunity to be with the people I love for a whole day.

As for band practice it's as simple as this: I would be letting everyone down by missing it. We're recording in a few weeks. We've been working on writing new music and dialing in on our sound. We're at a point where we need to refocus and define what direction we will take. I've let them down enough by not being assertive...by not stepping up to the leadership role I am in.



In other news, I think that I may be done with school TOMORROW. I have half of a unit quiz and then a final to take tomorrow and that's all of it. There's nothing more. This is exciting.

I like fishy crackers

I really hate getting colds. I've had one for the last 12 days. Whenever I get a cold it always lasts for a long time. I think this one is almost gone, but it seems like it is taking a while for it to really go away.

In other news. We're supposed to be recording later this month. I believe the dates are the 28th, 29th, and the 1st.

Nate talked to me today after practice. It seems he's feeling unmotivated. I also share the same feeling. It feels like we're not accomplishing much if anything. There are some things as a band that we need to do, and there are some things that I need to do as a leader. Things that have been put off or ignored for too long. I can't speak for the other guys, but I know it's hard when you want to play shows and you can play shows, but no one is offering us anything. We've had people promise to consider us for shows and put on shows without a word to us. We've had a show canceled because the idiots putting it on didn't have their crap together. We've contacted people about adding us to one of the shows they're putting on and have gotten no response, not even a "We aren't interested." This is frustrating for me, as I'm sure it probably is for the others.

Anyway, on a lighter note. We've re-written part of our song The Spare Room. It makes it a lot better. Although, we still have work to do on that. We are also writing a new song. This song was the new song that we were writing a while a go, but we started over and we're taking it in a different (better) direction.

So, please, please, be praying for us as a band, as well as all of us individually. Thanks.