page pic

i thought i'd explain the picture of the two horses that's next to the posts. The horse on the left is mine, his name is Toby and I love him dearly. I believe I took this sometime last winter with my phone. He is turned out in one paddock and was socializing with the pony in the other paddock. Their way of saying 'hi' is by breathing into each others noses...i don't know why. Toby is a 12 year old thoroughbred, he raced for 2 years of his life but only got 3 grand so he is now a hunter horse. Fun fact: his grandfather was Seattle Slew. Maybe I'll explain what being a hunter means later. But there you go, the story behind the pic.

budweiser clydesdale commercial

christmas lights

since I was about 12 or so I've been decorating my house for christmas. It's a job I rather enjoy, unlike most people I don't mind standing on a latter hanging lights in the 25 degree weather. The only problem is that there's only so much you can do with 3 small bushes and 4 small columns. I finally succeeded in figuring out how to hang lights around the windows last year, and I really want to do something cool this year.
I'm thinking of buying pvc pipe from home depot and making a box out of it (like the ones you learned how to draw in 6th grade) and zip tying tube lights to them to make them look like presents. I'm the kind of person who will see something really cool, but have no idea how to emulate it. This year I think I'm going to attempt to hand make a 'tree' of lights where it looks like a christmas tree by having about 15 or so strands of lights anchored into the ground meeting at a point about 6 or 7 feet tall. It'll probably be a failed attempt, but maybe it'll work. I'll put pics up after I decorate which will be around the first week of december.

coca cola polar bears

careers

I'm at a very annoying crossroad and I'll be at it for the next few years. I have to choose a major in the next year or two, though I have ideal majors that I want I know that it's unrealistic to major in all of them. The frustrating thing about my interests is that I'm interested in extraordinarily different things. Career wise I wish to either be a landscape artist, physical therapist, and yes the childish dream of... training dolphins. The sad part about it is that I would ideally love to work for Sea World and work with marine mammals my whole life. All of my youth group leaders always say in sermons that we were meant to do what we were built to do (aka. what you're most interested in), which for me is working with animals. The only problem is that my 'dream job' doesn't exactly pay the bills. I'm the kind of person who would be willing to work two jobs, but that's easy to say now. Don't get me wrong I would really like the other jobs, but I love animals and love to take care of them more. Unfortunately, I think that realistically it will come down to the matter of money, which upsets me the most. I'll probably end up being a physical therapist, but who knows maybe in 10 years I'll be jumping off the nose of a killer whale.

ADD

It's not rare to hear me say 'I'm really ADD right now' even though I'm aware that I don't have ADD. I came to the conclusion several months ago that I am simply a severe procrastinator and if something bores me I find something else to distract me; basically I'm lazy not ADD. A friend and I were talking today about how ridiculously misdiagnosed ADD is, especially in kids. It seems that adults have forgotten that forcing a kid to sit through an hour long church service without any entertainment or making them sit still at a desk for 7 hours is against the very nature of a little kid. Kids are meant to run around and be active, thats why every grade school kid loves recess. People forget that kids simply don't have the mental capacity to sit still, it's not their fault it's the way every human being is hardwired. They can't help it but be restless, but according to doctors today they all have ADD.

I distinctly remember my mom bringing at least 3 coloring books and a bag full of markers and colored pencils to church every week when I was little. I would sit in the back of the church service drawing away having the time of my life, going unnoticed to everyone. My mom realized that I was a kid, not a miniature college kid who's expected to sit quietly during presentations. I would put my money on the fact that if teachers could teach an interactive class, outside or just walking around the class, and kids could have roller chairs the epidemic of 'ADD' would be drastically reduced.

turkey day is looming

thanksgiving has always been like a mini family reunion for my family over the years. The problem is that like many others, I am under the belief that my relatives are crazy. There will be a total of 14 people at my parents house this week....now you see my dilemma. I don't mind my relatives in small doses and one family at a time, but the whole group is a different story. It's safe to say that I'm planning on spending a lot of time at the gym rock wall and 'running errands' where I plan on hanging out with friends.

I still have yet to figure out how we're going to fit 14 people in the house. Being the overachievers that they are, my parents bought 2 blow up matresses and way to many bags of chips and sodas. So I guess we'll see what this turkey day brings. All I have to say is thank god i don't have to share my room with anybody.

cool whip

whose line is it anyway

random facts

The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.

the most common name in the world is Mohammed.

Karoke means "empty orchestra" in Japanese.

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

It would take 11 Empire State Buildings, stacked one on top of the other, to measure the Gulf of Mexico at its deepest point.

Each of the suits on a deck of cards represents the four major pillars of the economy in the middle ages: heart represented the Church, spades represented the military, clubs represented agriculture, and diamonds represented the merchant class.

The names of the two stone lions in front of the New York Public Library are Patience and Fortitude. They were named by then-mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in jelly.

A skunk's smell can be detected by a human a mile away.

Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump.

American car horns beep in the tone of F.

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors

middleschoolers

the other day I was a leader at a middle school youth group lock in. It's called 'The Zone' and was at a local rec center. I noticed how happy and non stressed a lot of middle school kids are, as opposed to the average high school kid. They don't think that running around or dancing to a song may potentially be 'uncool' they simply love to have fun. They spent a couple of hours in the pool and didn't care about getting their hair wet or something that the typical high schooler would worrry about, they just dove in and enjoyed the waterslide. I also noticed how vastly different their sense of humor was from my own piers. The smallest thing made them laugh, another leader's shoes made a squeeking sound and they cracked up. They're a lot of fun to hang out with b/c they're old enough to have an intelligent conversation with but young enough to enjoy a game of kickball.

gotta love mascots

found this somewhere

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dsenot mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

can he jump him?

a video my youth group made a while ago

horse ears

"you know horses ears are connected directly to whatever it is that they're thinking. Because they're not saying to themselves "Ok now I'm going to put my ears forward-now I'm gonna put them back" You can tell exactly what they're thinking about just by lookin' at their ears"
-a horse owner at my barn

av

random observation: have you ever noticed that when an event that involves any technology at all and everything goes smoothly nobody notices the techies (or av crew depending on place). But if a video isn't working or there's feedback than EVERYONE notices them. From personal experience there's nothing more annoying than a 800 people staring at you because someone on stage tripped over a cable and now their mike isn't working.

fin n feather

a few weekends ago I went on my youth groups annual fall retreat. As I expected it was a lot of fun, especially since my favorite people in the world were going also. The camp that we go to is in the middle of the woods, and the perfect place for scary games. The first night everyone had to find one of the kids who was 'missing' and save him from the 'killer,' one of the leaders made a great video about some murderer who was running around. Either way it was fun b/c everyone was given a glowstick and sent off to go and look for the 'missing' kid. I didn't participate b/c I sprained my ankle a month ago and it's still not 100% and I decided that running around on uneven gravel, sticks, and hills at 11:30 at night wasn't a very good idea. So me and a few leaders hung out by the bonfire while we watched dozens of glow sticks moving from across the lake. I have to say there's nothing like knowing that someone with a chain saw is planted strategically in the woods and hearing about 8 screams when he revs it up.

even if you don't like cats you gotta admit that its cute

fail blog

deep conversations

Why is it that we rarely have deep thought and emotion wrenching conversations? Here's my naive opinion on the subject. We are told to have fun, enjoy life, and forget about all problems. While there's nothing wrong with enjoying life, I personally love live very much, this mentality drowns out any possibility of being real and honest with yourself. If we forget about our problems they're just gonna come back up sooner or later and bite us in the ass. Someone who I respect very much said a few weeks ago that "If you don't deal with your crap, than your crap is gonna deal with you." A few of my friends have tried to dispute this statement, but I find it very true. Secondly, we are all so use to having lighthearted conversations about the newest pop star or where we went this last weekend that 'deep' conversations are very uncomfortable and foreign to us. The shame is that anyone who is willing to ask thought provoking questions are hard to find. I found one earlier this summer, and even though the conversation about my past and why I do what I do was the most uncomfortable and emotion wrenching one I've ever had, I haven't regretted it for a second. I wish there were more people in our lives that we could fully trust, that could ask "What is the most painful thing that has happened to you?" and not mean it in an 'I broke my arm once' kind of way.

optical illusions

optical illusion dragon

a printable copy can be found here
you can choose from blue, red, and green-they're really cool

free hugs campaign

hugs

here's random parts of an article that i found, because I heard somewhere that hugs are good for people.

Hugs provide immeasurable support, agrees international trauma expert, author and psychiatrist Paul Valent. “They signify that the person is not alone, and that there is goodness and a future.”
Hugs – pure, human touch – are essential for health and life, and research proves it. In one study by a scientific centre devoted to exploring the effects of touch on health, the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine in the US, infants who received a 15-minute massage twice a week cried less, gained more weight and showed greater sociability than those who didn’t receive the massages.

Another study, at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, in 1999, found that pain and anxiety in the elderly was significantly reduced when they received therapeutic touch, while in 2005, University of North Carolina researchers reported that women had lower blood pressure after hugging their partners.

The motivation to be loved and appreciated is so pervasive that it has been called a fundamental human need, say researchers, with individuals who frequently give and receive affection having higher levels of self-esteem and confidence.

Father Chris Riley, founder of Youth Off The Streets, a charity that supports homeless and drug-addicted young adults, is a believer in the power of the hug, especially for young people. “Hugs and touch are vitally important for young people to grow into human beings who are not threatened by the world,” he says.

Melbourne-based marriage celebrant Jennifer Floyd, who sees a lot of hugs in her work, says: “A hug can say so much – thank you, I love you, I care, it’s okay, it’s great to see you, I’ll miss you, I’m here, we’re one – and all of it wordlessly. But the coolness or reticence of a hug which comes from one who’s not entirely comfortable with giving them (or receiving them) also says a lot.”

Children need hugs desperately, she says. But so do grown-ups and even pets. “We should hug humans and animals!” she says.

Whether a dog or cat actually benefits from a hug is hard to prove, but numerous international studies show that humans get something out of having and hugging a pet, including lower blood pressure and lessened anxiety.

the whole article is here it's a pretty cool article.

i'm so glad that the elections are over

so I did my patriotic duty of voting earlier. For my first election it was surprisingly less complicated than I had imagined, aside from the annoying campaigners who were surrounding the sidewalk using their little 10 year old kids as campaign tools. Either way it was fun using the electronic ballot even though the recipt thing on the left was very distracting. No matter who wins I'm just glad that my tv will go back to being campaign ad free. Who knows maybe I'll get my free starbucks coffee later.

two horses

this is a story that my piano teacher emailed me one time. i don't know if it's real or who wrote it but i've always liked it

Just up the road from my home is a field,

with two horses in it.

From a distance, each looks like every other horse.

But if you stop your car, or are walking by,

you will notice something quite amazing.

Looking into the eyes of one horse will

disclose that he is blind.

His owner has chosen not to have him put down,

but has made a good home for him.

This alone is amazing.

If nearby and listening,

you will hear the sound of a bell.

Looking around for the source of the sound,

you will see that it comes from the

smaller horse in the field.

Attached to her halter is a small bell.

It lets her blind friend know where she is,

so he can follow her.

As you stand and watch these two friends,

you'll see how she is always checking on him,

and that he will listen for her bell and then

slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she

will not lead him astray. When she returns to the

shelter of the barn each evening, she stops

occasionally and looks back, making sure her

friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell.

Good friends are like this .

You don't always see them,

but you know they are always there.

"Be kinder than necessary,

for everyone you meet is

fighting some kind of battle".

i was thinking what i would make as a first post and i think this is quite appropriate