moose

Who knew moose were so adorable.
Moose On Camera In Backyard Playing In Water Sprinkler
Uploaded by IndyRacer2. - Discover more animal videos.

fun story

found this on a web site, enjoy:

On the first day, God created the dog and said:

‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in
or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.’

The dog said: ‘That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten
years and I’ll give you back the other ten?’

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

‘Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give
you a twenty-year life span.’

The monkey said: ‘Monkey tricks for twenty years?
That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like
the Dog did?’

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

‘You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer
under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s
family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.’

The cow said: ‘That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for
sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?’

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said:

‘Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you
twenty years.’

But man said: ‘Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my
twenty,the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and
the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?’

‘Okay,’ said God, ‘You asked for it.’

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy
ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our
family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the
grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and
bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

oh how I wish my parents would adopt this philosophy

piano antics

surprised kitty

stumble upon

I don't know if you've ever been to stumbleupon.com, but if you haven't you should because it is the center for endless entertainment. Here's one page of fun signs that the website found.

college responsibility?

"Get home, I want to get to bed" was a phrase I heard hundreds of times in my high school career. I'd often be at youth group and every week at 9:30 sharp one of my parents would call and proclaim that I needed to make it home because they couldn't go to sleep unless I was home. We had many arguments about why they simply couldn't just go to bed with the reassurance that I was in the heart of west-county, the safest place in the world, and that nothing was going to happen to me. They never took to heart the old phrase of "no news is good news." They were constantly worried that their little 16-18 year old baby was in some sort of trouble because the sun was down.

Well lately I have been adopting a similar principle. Although I can still go to sleep without any problem (I am a college student after all). My room mate goes out to parties on weekends with some of her friends which is perfectly fine by me.

The vast majority of the time they're back by 3 with the munchies, fun stories of the night ,and less than stellar balance. The only problem is when I wake up at 5 and I look at her bed and she's not there. This is the fear that my parents always had. Now granted I actually somewhat have a reason to be worried because they're hammered as opposed to me who was at youth group watching so you think you can dance.

If I was like everyone else in the world I would just go back to sleep without another thought of it. But, no I have inherited my parents' worried attitude. Here's the thing, I know that it's 95% chance that they're just fine and sleeping at the house that the party was at. But they've told me too many stories of waking up in some random place (thank goodness it's always been a friends dorm) and not knowing how they got there. My only worry is that, what if it's one of these 5% days there's not a friend there to lead them back to this dorm or their dorm.

So at least now I somewhat know where my parents are coming from. Granted, I have a legit reason to be worried because sometimes they aren't just buzzed but decide to have a bunch of yager bombs or 15 shots (true story). So lately I made it known that I can take them back in my car and they can call me at any time of the night: because I inherited the worrying gene. And it makes me feel a bit better when I hear them loudly coming down the hallway at 3:30 a.m. knowing that they can't get themselves in any trouble once they're in the dorm.

Well that's my realization of the day.

the prayer

The Magic Tree

The purpose of the Magic Tree is three fold. First and foremost it is a "senseless act of beauty". This idea, that there can be a senseless act of beauty is actually a misnomer for beauty all by itself has the supreme purpose of conveying the human/divine ideas of hope, goodness, peace and even love. Beauty has a way, when we recognize it, of putting us at ease while at the same time exciting us, paradoxical yes, but true. I think this particular paradox is better known as the state of joy. This is a healing state of mind that can have a powerful affect on heart, mind and soul not to mention the body. Acts of beauty, then, are always quite sensible." I like the fact that this guy thinks deeper than just "ooh bright lights on a tree."

Picture courtesy of my friend Matt

some people in this world

postsecret

On His plan for your life

-On His Plan For Your Life-

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone--to have a deep soul relationship with another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively. But God, to a Christian says, "No, not until you are satisfied, fulfilled and content with being loved by Me alone. I love you my child. And until you discover that only in Me is your satisfaction to be found, You will not be united with another until you are united with Me... exclusive of anyone or anything else, exclusive of any other desires or longings. I want you to stop planning, stop wishing, and allow Me to give you the most thrilling plan existing... one you can't imagine. I want you to have the best! Please allow me to bring it to you. You just keep watching Me, expecting the greatest things. Keep experiencing that satisfaction knowing that I Am. Keep listening and learning the things I tell you. YOU JUST WAIT! That's all. Don't be anxious, don't worry. Don't look around at the things other's have gotten or that I have given them. Don't look at the things you think you want. You just keep looking off and away up to Me, or you'll miss what I want to show you. And then, when you're ready, I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than any you would ever dream. You see, until you are ready and until the one I have for you is ready (for I am working even at this very minute to have both of you ready at the same time), until you both are satisfied exclusively with Me and the life I prepared for you, you won't be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with Me... and thus, the perfect love. And dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love. I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with Me and to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty and perfection and the love that I offer you with Myself. Know that I love you utterly. I am God Almighty. Believe it and be satisfied.

christmas before thanksgiving

I don't know about everyone else but for whatever reason I'm looking forward to Christmas more than I usually do. Perhaps it's the fact that I haven't slept in my stl bedroom for more than two nights in a row in the past 3 months and am craving a home (not a dorm) to spend time in, or that I haven't been to any department stores and therefore haven't heard any Christmas music. In the spirit of Christmas before Thanksgiving I found some christmas/winter pictures that I hope yall will enjoy.

MLIA

my favorite post today------"The other day I learned that if you say 'beer can' with an English accent, you're saying 'bacon' with a Jamaican accent. Mind blown. MLIA"

charts!

it's been too long

random fact

So just random fact. This weekend I found out about beer frisbee. Thank goodness nobody did it but I learned that apparently 3.5 beers can fit into a frisbee. Honestly I don't wanna see anybody chug 3.5 beers from a disc but I find it surprising that a disc can fit that many.

quote of the day

"Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own. ... Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself." ~ Harry Ward Beecher

JFGI

type in JFGI to google and click on the first link. made my day.

I wish mizzou had this

sigh

Oh college, filled with....unique and interesting people. As much as I love being in college I can't wait to 1. not live in a dorm and 2. not have to be waken up every night at 3 am by loud drunk people. I have yet to sleep 3 straight hours this week for various reasons. Last night was a rude reminder of many things. For one it reminded me why I don't drink and why I'm not interested in it. It also reminded me of, even though I don't miss living at home I do miss having my own room with no one else around to wake me up. Most of all it reminded me of how much I love the church.
I'm going to try and explain last night as best as I can even though I'm not 100% on a few of the details. There's a girl on my floor who's a friend of my roommate, lets just say that this girl is exactly opposite of myself in morals and behavior. When she gets completely hammered she gets bipolar and will get really mad at people. Apparently last night she slugged a guy in the back for no real reason and was trying to fight with him. Her friend who's here for the weekend is usually able to control her but ever since she's been at college apparently (sorry I'm going to use apparently a lot when explaining this) her drinking habits have changed for the worse or something of that sort where the friend can't control her anymore. These two have been best friends since freshman year of high school and know everything about each other and are attached at the hip. Apparently the girl was exceptionally violent to the friend in a way that's inexcusable. My roommate and the girl's roommate were walking around, sober thank goodness, and found them. I'm not sure what exactly happened but something went on and the girl threw the friend's stuff out of her room. At this point I got woken up at 3:30 by the friend coming into my room crying followed by my roommate who was trying to help her. To make a long story short everyone was up in my room till about 5 trying to get the girl to figure out what she was doing was not right. Though in my opinion this seemed impossible since she was blacking out and probably won't remember anything. Apparently this particular situation was so bad that their friendship is really dicey right now. Well the friend slept in our room last night and none of us really know what the girl's reaction is going to be now that she's sober or for that matter if she's gonna remember any of this.
Reflection time. I wish with all my heart that she remembers last night and realizes what excessive drinking is tearing apart her friendships. First off even though I never really considered drinking and partying, I really don't now. I see what an excess does to relationships and to the person themselves. I'm just glad none of my close friends in stl were ever like this so I didn't/don't have to deal with this personally. At the moment I'm just a bystander and that's the most I ever want my involvement in situations like this to be. It reminds me even more of how I need to establish strong relationships with the girls in my bible study and the people at RUF because I need people that see the world as I do.
I find it ironic that for the first 18 years of my life I had biblical influences around me 24/7 and yet now with hardly any influence my faith is strongest. I guess being in the minority makes you realize certain things. First off when I had it around me all the time it just became routine and mundane and annoying. I was tired of a Christian school that forced us to go to chapel every wednesday. Now that I don't have the family and school around all the time I actually enjoy going to church. For most of my life I saw church services (not youth group)as a negative thing and just another thing I was required to do. But now I love those times when I'm at The Crossing or RUF and listening to sermons. For instance I woke up early this morning to go to The Crossing and it felt so good to get off of campus and away from the influence of the dorm for just an hour. I think that being outside the Christian bubble and seeing what everyone else is like has made me that much more thankful for Christianity and the fact that I know what true happiness is and where to put the center of my world. It's kind of that old addage of you don't know what you have until you don't have it anymore. A parallel that I can make is kind of like dorm food. It just gets so old having the same pre cooked stuff every day that's from a menu. You want a home cooked meal so bad and when you eventually get one it's the best thing in the world. That's how I felt this morning when I went to church. I'm tired of getting woken up every morning by drunk people and dealing with them that when I stepped out of the dorm and spent that 1.5 hours at church this morning it was one of the best feelings I've had in a long time. I felt like I could breathe and chill out for a little while. They sung In Christ Alone and at the point I felt closer to God than I have in a while. Cause I'm always around people and don't have time or personal space to chill out. I know this is extremely cliche but lately God has truely become my refuge from all of this. I now know what that saying means and love it. I've always enjoyed bible studies/small groups in the past but about half the reason I went is to socialize with my friends. Now, even though I go to build up relationships with the other kids in the bible study, I primarily go because for some reason hearing people talk about the Bible makes me feel at home and gives me relief for a bit.
I don't know why I've been tying everything back to religion lately but it's strange. I guess I never relized how big of a deal it was, I never really understood how to make Chrisitanity your identity and not just another label, but now I know and I'm alright with being in the minority.

glowing mtn dew

will somebody please do this. marta and allie you guys need to do this in some skit at krew or something

early bird

this morning I was reminded of why I love being a morning person. Being that it's been cloudy, cold, and rainy the past few weeks the sun has been conspicuously missing. This morning was a particularly good morning. First off because the morning weather at 6 am wasn't 30 degrees but rather 55. So my walk to the rec was infinitely better than usual. Secondly I haven't worked out since the tournament this weekend so felt awesome get back in the gym. Thirdly I was able to go to the gym and walmart (which was so nice because there weren't a million people to dodge around) before 8. Fourthly the sunrise was beautiful. It was starting to come up when I came out of the rec at about 6:30 and was all the way up by the time I got to walmart at 7ish. Early mornings are just a great time of day that not many people get to enjoy willingly a lot. I love being an early bird and would never switch it for being a night owl for the world.

postsecret

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

frisbee

It seems that every progressive tournament I go to the more I love frisbee. It's an awesome sport with awesome people. When we're not playing frisbee we play games. My favorite is pokey ,which despite the fact that I'm left handed and always have to play with my right hand I'm pretty darn good. Look down look up (where everyone looks down and when told so look at someones eyes and if they're looking back both are out), the ninja game which is too complicated to describe but it involves awesome ninja sounds. And one of the funniest, monster trucks, where everybody gets on hands and knees in a circle and have to get to the other side in a straight line-everybody ends up crawling over and under each other which makes for great entertainment. I also discovered t-rex style playing which we obviously don't do for games but it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen(the video doesn't do it justice). I'm also finally getting to know the people on the team. Especially one vet who's a sophomore who's basically been my coach and encourager whether I'm playing good or bad. Probably one of my favorite people at the moment.

off to an ultimate tournament in Wisconsion!

thought of the day

I was talking with one of my friends in my Bible study the other day. Her mom told her something I'll keep to heart. You need a mentor, someone you're mentoring, Christian friends, and non-christian friends mixed in. Well 2.5 out of 4 ain't bad.

postsecret

jim and pam

The office was amazing this week. I have loved that show since about the 2nd season. I honestly thought they were going to make michael overbearing in this episode, and even though he was slightly annoying I think they kept it at as much as a minimum as possible. I have to say that my favorite part of the episode was the scene where they imitate the youtube video of the really cool wedding entrance to 'forever'. Probably my favorite scene in the series so far. If it comes up on youtube for a day or two I'll try and get it up before it gets taken down by the powers that be.

battleship

I was having a nostalgic moment remembering the amazingness that is battleship

ultimate

We had an ultimate frisbee tournament this weekend. It was probably one of the best weekends I've ever had. Granted I'm extremely sore but it was completely worth it. I learned a lot about tournament play/the ultimate community/parties. First off I love the ultimate community, they are probably some of the coolest people I've ever met. There's no hostility between teams and even though everybody there is super competitive we don't let that get in the way of having a good time. I made friends with a lot of the kids on the other teams. After a game both teams would play the pokey game (the one where you try and poke the other person with your finger while holding their hand) and some really cool and confusing ninja game. The people in the ultimate community are very down to earth people know how to compete but also have a lot of fun doing it. Secondly, I went to my first college party. By definition it was only for the teams playing in the tournament it was still a college party. Even though it was quite an experience and I don't mind going on tournament weekends, it's not really my thing. I happily was and will remain to be the designated driver. But, I have to say ultimate players know how to throw a good party. I was fine chilling on the wall with my dr. Pepper while watching beer pong and keg stands with the other designated drivers. Also, the girls on my team are awesome. They're such a chill group of people who are easy to get along with. There is not a single person on the team that I don't like. And out of a group of about 18 girls the odds are that there should be at least one person who is disfunctional. To sum it up, it was awesome and I can't wait to do it 2 more times this month.

We're reading 'go tell it on the mountain' in my history class. If you didn't know, the book is about a black pentecostal family sometime in the early to mid 20th century. Being that it focuses a lot about the family's Christian religion I understand the book very easily and find it just as simple to read as any other book. The terminology that is used in the book is second nature for me to understand. But, I figured out that when I went to the lecture part of the history class that I was pretty much the only one who found the reading easy.
The thing is that I'm so use to growing up with a christian family, school, and friends that I forgot that not everyone understands Christianity like I do. Everybody is on the same page about a lot of topics. In class I was the only one who was able to answer questions the teacher asked. I never realized how nice it was to be around people who think the same way you do and have the same morals as you (I can talk for an hour about how my morals are different than other kids on campus and in my dorm). I'm so use to being forced into 5 years of Bible classes and school and going to a Christian school where the religion is always being pressed into you. All the terminology and behaviors associated with Christianity become second nature. This thought just popped into my head-it's interesting how religion is such an important part of life that we have entire schools devoted to people that belong to that particular religion.
My main point is that it's weird to be in a classroom talking about Christianity and nobody knows anything. I answered a question about the difference between the modern liberalist (a sort of messed up kind of "christianity" according to the article) view of Jesus and what the New Testament shows Jesus as being. I answered it fairly easily and in an educated kind of way because those are the questions I've been having to provide answers to since 2nd grade. Some of the kids seemed surprised at my answer I guess because I answered it indepth in a way that noone else would have been able to. It's deffinetly a different atmosphere.

this is part of 'christianity v liberalism' an article i had to read for history class. The whole entire article is about 8 pages and very interesting but I can't attach a microsoft word document.

"This doctrine is of course rejected by modern liberalism. And it is rejected in a very simple way--by the elimination of the whole higher nature of our Lord. But such radicalism is not a bit more successful than the heresies of the past. The Jesus who is supposed to be left after the elimination of the supernatural element is at best a very shadowy figure; for the elimination of the supernatural logically involves the elimination of much that remains, and the historian constantly approaches the absurd view which effaces Jesus altogether from the pages of history. But even after such dangers have been avoided, even after the historian, by setting arbitrary limits to his process of elimination, has succeeded in reconstructing a purely human Jesus, the Jesus thus constructed is found to be entirely unreal. He has a moral contradiction at the very center of His being--a contradiction due to His Messianic consciousness. He was pure and humble and strong and sane, yet He supposed, without basis in fact, that He was to be the final Judge of all the earth! The liberal Jesus, despite all the efforts of modern psychological reconstruction to galvanize Him into life, remains a manufactured figure of the stage. Very different is the Jesus of the New Testament and of the great Scriptural creeds. That Jesus is indeed mysterious. Who can fathom the mystery of His Person? But the mystery is a mystery in which a man can rest. The Jesus of the New Testament has at least one advantage over the Jesus of modern reconstruction--He is real. He is not a manufactured figure suitable as a point of support for ethical maxims, but a genuine Person whom a man can love. Men have loved Him through all the Christian centuries. And the strange thing is that despite all the efforts to remove Him from the pages of history. There are those who love Him still. "

floor 3

So I pretty much love the kids in my hall and apparently we're the only floor in the hall that actually socializes with each other. This is my awesome new friend Tara who verses me in the ways of the world.

invisible children

oh college

I have already learned quite a bit during my short time here at mizzou. One new talent I can add to my repertoire is taking care of completely wasted people. The story of last night is too long to tell but I'll highlight what seems most important. First off I hear my roomie yelling at somebody on the phone at 2 a.m. and make her come into the room so the whole floor doesn't kill her (well that handful of us that actually don't go to frats on the weekends). But my first little red flag that went off was the fact that she wasn't with the other girl. Within the first minute of being in the room she promtly falls down in an attempt to take her shoes off. When she gets up and tries to put her night clothes on correctly I had to help her because lets just say that I don't think that shorts go on the head (I swear on my life it's a true story). Eventually after many weird moments (I had her try and walk in a straight line...it was entertaining) she flops on the bed and after my attempts to convince her to get under her sheets she passes out. I put a fuzzy blanket I have over her. At this point I started worrying about the friend because I don't have her number and have no idea where she could be. Finally at 4:00 she calls alyssa's phone and since alyssa is still out cold I answered it. She somehow managed to find her way back to the dorm but didn't have her swipe card to get into the building. At this point I sprinted down 4 flights of stairs to find her. Her balance was less then stellar and she quickly grabbed onto my arm for support. They couldn't find the key to her room so she came to our room for a bit. More drunk arguing took place and they had the munchies and started throwing reeces puffs at each other. Eventually we were able to find the key and get both in bed to sleep it off.
Up until now I haven't spend any time around drunk people so here's a few things I've learned. Getting a drunk text is really funny especially when you show it to them in the morning. If they aren't an angry drunk it's pretty easy to tell them what to do and they're willing to do it (ie. telling them to get up so you can get the sheets over them). Remember what they did because they most certainly won't. I only thought people on drugs got the munchies. One serious thing I have learned is give them your number so that you can help them if they're in trouble or get lost. If they ever go out for shots again me and my other non drinking friend Sam are going to go with them or at least be in the general vicinity to make sure they don't get seperated and something bad happens. The most important lesson I've learned is seeing what the effects are and seeing the lack of control and rational decision making.

this is why everybody should love beyonce

thought of the day

I was hanging out with a few of my friends a couple of days ago and we were talking about how we dealt with move in/not knowing people/being in a new place etc. etc. We got on the subject of how none of us really show it when we're upset and that we're basically opposite of the people that "wear their heart on their sleeves" is the best I can describe it. Going off track I think that's why I get along with them so well because even though there's very little I have in common with them, our personalities are all almost identical. Back to the point, my friend Sam said "You can hide anything behind a smile." While this is not necessarily a good thing, it's extraordinarily true. If we don't want to deal with telling people exactly what's going on in our lives, all you have to do is smile through it and nobody will be able to tell that anything's wrong. We've all done it at some point, some people more than others. I'm not going to critique the statement because than I'd feel like a hypocrite because I do it all the time. I just wanted to bring it up and point out that even though it's not the best way to deal with issues we do it anyways.

drop in the ocean

A Drop In The Ocean - Ron Pope

a song my room mate just introduced me to yesterday. I love it and it reminds me of something mia michaels would use for one of her contemporary dances on sytycd

quote of the day

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." ~Thomas Edison

you know you're in college when...

I found this and it's awesome you know you're in college when... with the exception of the alcohol ones I can pretty much relate with most of them

MIZ-ZOU-RAH

rafiki

Here's a scene from the lion king that I think we have forgotten about by the time we get older. During my junior year one of the teachers used this scene as the center of one of the chapels. It was one of the best sermons I'd heard at chapel and you can get the gist of what it would have been about by watching.

lucifer

The great thing about mizzou is that they have pretty much everything that anyone can ever think of. One of these things that they have is a raptor rehab facility. It's my new favorite hobby other than ultimate frisbee of course. I already talked about this but my camera decided to cooperate and here you go. This is lucifer.

the onion

I've always liked this one

birdies

I was at the raptor center the other day when a night hawk was brought in. They're probably one of the prettiest and most impressive looking birds we've got here in America. Being that I've only been around raptors for a few weeks I still think every bird at the sanctuary is cool and interesting. Unfortunately we couldn't keep it because it isn't a raptor and therefore the facility doesn't have the permits for it. But nevertheless they're really cool looking. They're smaller than ravens but bigger than birds people are use to seeing in their back yards. I know that wasn't a horribly good description but I don't know how to compare the size of a bird to other stuff very well. They have such intricate patterns on their backs and under their wings.
I guess I bring this up because it's really cool to be so close to wild birds especially birds of prey. We have the chance to see them in a rehab place but never get a good, close look at them. Volunteering at this place is such a cool opportunity because you're able to hold predators on your arm which for me is an awesome experience. For instance I got to hold an eastern screech-owl named lucifer the other day. Although lucifer is about 1/3 lbs. it's still awesome to be able to hold him. I don't know if you and an owl have ever stared at each other but it's something you're not quick to forget. I would have a picture but my phone decided that it was going to stop working at that particular moment. I've always loved raptors for how cool they are and what they represent. Working with them is something I've wanted to do my whole life and now I get to. It's awesome


this is a nighthawk

mickey meets wolverine

I found out a very sad fact today. As I was waiting for my next class a kid in front of me was reading the newspaper. The article he was reading said that Disney has bought Marvel.......what in the world? I don't know about you but I can't picture wolverine walking around in front of Cinderellas castle or see the Hulk stand next sleeping beauty. It's just one of those things that don't add up. I have come to the conclusion that Disney is slowly taking over the world and we will all be wearing mouse ears by the year 2020.
All joking aside I really don't know how Disney is going to make this work. Disney is a place of whimsical fairy tales filled with flying elephants and four year old girls running around in bright pink princess costumes. Universal Studios is more macho with more intense and high flying rides. Don't get me wrong Disney and Universal are two of my favorite places to go but I like going to them separately, because I expect one thing out of Disney and a completely different thing out of Universal. I'm wondering if Disney is going to lose its happy go lucky family feel. Even if it doesn't it's gonna be weird because I looked for different types of entertainment from each company and we'll see what the mouse does with it. I know that this issue will not affect our daily lives I just thought it would be interesting to write about




there's more of these mashup pics here

speakers circle

I got out of class early today and had 30 minutes to kill until my next class. Given that both classes are in the arts and sciences building I decided to see if there were any crazies in speakers circle. Of course there was one, so despite my natural hesitation to sit down and listen to a bible beater I figured it would be a good learning experience. And it was a learning experience but not necessarily a good one. Unfortunately it wasn't brother jed or some of the other ones who yell that all college students are going to hell. This guy seemed more subdued. He was wearing a lab coat (I don't know why) and sitting in a fold up chair. I sat on a front row, or circle rather, step and listened to the guy. He was crazy in a somewhat subtle way because he wasn't like the others who just stand there and yell. I honestly think he drove me crazier than the others because for one thing all his facts about christianity/the church/the bible were completely wrong. Granted, it's obvious that he is a Christian but it's also obvious that he has never sat by himself and thought of the fundamentals that give Christianity a sound base. Secondly he was a horrible arguer/defender. When kids would argue with him he would always go back to the same two or three points that made no sense. When I started listening he had already been there for a bit so I don't know exactly what his reasoning was in this, but he would always revert to charity and said something along the lines of the fact that non christians can't do charity. I was just as confused as you are now. I guess the thing that bothered me the most was that he was saying things that were completely false. The loud crazies are always yelling that everyone is going to go to hell if they don't believe, and although yelling at college kids is not right the way to state this fact, it is infact true. When this guy was trying to defend christianity he said things that were blatently untrue.
Of all the untrue things he said there was one thing in particular that made me want to walk up to him and smack him in the face. He said that God created stuff like having a headache, getting sick, and just feeling physical pain. I was so close to yelling out that what he said was false but I'm not comfortable enough with my own debating skills to do it. The bible clearly says that everything God creates is good. He didn't create suffering, it's a result of the fall.
I guess what I learned more than anything from listening to this guy miss represent Christianity is to look at my own belief. I want to go back to the fundamentals and make sure I know fully why I believe what I believe it. I want to be able to defend/explain my faith to people. There were so many kids challenging what the guy had to say. In my mind I was answering them and to be honest with you even though I had answers for most of them. I realized that I haven't looked into my own faith deep enough to be able to explain Christianity for what it truely is. Aside from now wanting to understand God better than before I learned patience. Patience when dealing with people like the guy in speakers circle. If I had time I would have loved to talk to him one on one outside of the hostility of speakers circle. Who knows maybe one of these days I'll set aside time to talk to one of the crazies face to face and see why they are the way that they are.

I realize this isn't a very blog like post because there's no analysis of anything but I figured that I'd tell a story anyways. I had my first ultimate frisbee practice today for the team called the MUchachas.....yes I know now stop laughing. It was awesome fun cause we played in the pouring rain and the people on the team are really cool. I realized that as fun as it playing with the guys it's more enjoyable for myself playing with all girls. Cause when I play with the guys I get the frisbee maybe once a game. As opposed to know where I can compete on an athletic level with people I'm playing with. None of us can magically appear out of nowhere to snatch a frisbee from 8 feet in the air *cough* Karlow *cough.* But I'm starting to make my own Columbia family and I have a feeling that it'll be just as hard to leave them as it was to leave my adopted stl family.

my current life

in my opinion there's nothing more fun than playing ultimate at 11:30 at night with 17 other people on stankowski field

a pirates life for me

Something tells me I'm gonna be doing a lot of updates about mizzou as my world/culture views expand beyond my west county life. I'm in love with down town columbia. I guess it's because when I think of downtown I think of huge cities and a million different things happening at once. Downtown columbia is truly a small town's version of a downtown. It's small and chill place (at least during the day, I have no idea what happens at night) which appeals to me. On top of that you don't see designer purses and polo shirts everywhere. It's nice to see what the rest of America is life outside of upper class suburbia. Another observation is that I swear that the cigerette smoking percentage is about 50%. It's not a big deal, I just thought I'd mention it. Plus it's just nice to be able to walk around and do whatever.

just an observation

When I went to the rec center for the first time the other day I noticed something. I asked if they had bosu's, and they said that they don't have instability equipment for liability purposes. Hmm, I honestly wanted to laugh. They've got hundreds of pounds of weights, machines that if you don't know how to use you can hurt joints/muscles permenantly, and countless other numbers of injuries that can happen on a basketball floor and they're worried the liability of a little half ball filled with air with a plastic base. If you mess up on a machine than it's gonna hurt you, if you lose your balance on a bosu, it's a 3 inch drop. I guess I see why they don't have them, but out of everything they're worried about causing liability issues, they choose the one peice of equipment that I do 80% of my workouts with. And they choose the one peice of equipment that can't hurt you no matter what you're doing. Well that's my rant of the day, sorrry there was no deep thought or entertaining video.

mizzou

I'm heading out tomorrow morning for columbia. It's gonna be an awesome 4 years.

carano v cyborg results

Today is a sad day indeed. Christine "cyborg" Santos beat Gina Carano in literally the last 1/10 of a second in the first round due to ref stoppage. I'm not one to make accusations about people but look at the picture and tell me there ain't something fishy about cyborg.

This picture doesn't do the size difference justice but I was having a hard time finding a good one. And I've asked every reputable source (ie. my dad the doctor and personal trainers at the gym who are also MMA fans) and they all agree that cyborg is on roids. Cyborg is known for being a really hard hitting fighter *cough* steroids *cough*. Either way Gina is still a beast in my book and once Cyborg gets caught for using roids they'll have a rematch and Carano will kick her butt.
I mean seriously look at ^ that
and tell me that those results come solely from hard work

fire rainbow

wiki: fire rainbow. Ain't nature just an amazing thing.

I just saw this video on AFV and it's pretty cool. A group of people dressed up as stick people for halloween. I want to see if I can get a group of friends together to do this during halloween this yer

new plans

Ever since I started personal training in July I've been toying with the idea of doing something health and fitness related in school. As I've stated before, I actually enjoy working out. What makes it fun is knowing dozens of different ways to work different muscle groups other than the traditional treadmill and machines. During PT I use a whole array of equipment. Some of which are: my new best friend the bosu, work out ball, medicine ball, the flashback to the 80's the incline step, and plain old free weights. My trainer laura (possibly the coolest and most awesome person I've ever met) knows so much about muscular anatomy and seems to know just about every different excersize that goes with everything. Being naturally scientifically inclined I respect and like learning about all these different things about what muscle groups are used when. As of now I would at least like to minor in health and fitness. The two of us were talking today and laura was mentioning how it makes for a great part time job especially if you have a family (she's got a husband and two kids). So who knows, maybe I'll be studying hawks and eagles during the week and be a personal trainer on the weekends. It's unlikely, but for right now that's my fantasy combining my two favorite things: animals and fitness.

transitions

I was just thinking the other day how new situations can really cause people to adapt and change. Not necessarily changing for either the worse for the better, but changing because they become aware of new things. It seems to be most pronounced when people move up academically (ie. middle school to high school and high school to college). The easiest example of this is not actually academics, but the armed forces. People go in a lot different then they come out; they've learned new things and experienced a lot of different, impacting scenarios.
If we think hard enough I believe that we can all remember that we were much different freshman year of high school and college then we were senior year. High school freshmen learn that homework is no longer taking a map home and coloring it. Kids also must lose that middle school awkwardness and playfulness in order to deal with things that are harder both academically and socially. School gets progressively harder each year making last years homework load seem like a breeze. Same with friends and the social situation also. Kids are trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be; all while dealing with the other hundreds of kids in their class dealing with the same thing. From personal experience I can tell you that my little freshman self was a load different than myself senior year. With the assistance of the people at Krew the changes were mostly for the better.
The college transition, I believe, will be the harder one. Because at least when kids are going from 8th to 9th grade the only major thing that is changing in their lives is their school. As opposed to the college transition where if you're going out of town it's a 100% percent change. New town, new people, new home, and just a new life away from the safety of home and life long friends. It's not like the high school transition where it's going from socially awkward to socially acceptable. It's going from being a kid to being thrown into life on your own with your own rules being set for yourself. The good thing about the college transition is that you already have your social skills established and (at least I'm hoping that) most people on campus have figured out that being drama queens doesn't really get you very far.
The difference for me personally is that when I was a freshman in high school I didn't know about the transition and therefore didn't worry about the outcome. As opposed to now where I know for a fact that I'm gonna change. My christian bubble of a life has not helped me in this respect. It's going to be a big difference between my private christian high school to my 30,000 student, public, state school. I'm fully expecting to come out more culturally aware and be more mature about life and the world. I guess we'll just wait and see what happens.

I will lend you for a while, a German Shepherd pup, God said,
For you to love him while he lives, and mourn him when he's dead.
Maybe for twelve or fourteen years, or maybe two or three,
But will you, 'till I call him back, take care of him for me.

He'll bring his charms to gladden you and should his stay be brief,
You'll always have his memories as solace for your grief.
I cannot promise he will stay, since all from earth return
But there are lessons taught below I want this pup to learn.

I've looked the whole world over in search of teachers true,
And from the folk that crowd's life's land, well I have chosen you.
Now will you give him all your love, Nor think the labor vain,
Nor hate me when I come to take my Shepherd back again.

I fancied that I heard them say "Dear Lord Thy Will be Done,"
For all the joys this pup will bring, the risk of grief we'll run.
We'll shelter him with tenderness, we'll love him while we may
And for the happiness we've known forever grateful stay.

But should you call him back, much sooner than we've planned,
We'll brave the bitter grief that comes, and try to understand.
If, by our love, we've managed, your wishes to achieve,
In memory of him we loved, to help us while we grieve,
When our faithful friend departs this world of strife,
We'll have yet another German Shepherd and love him all his life.

author: unknown

simon's cat

in case you haven't noticed by now I love the dog pics with captions

tonights episode of sytycd was awesome. I saw the bleeding love song on live tv, now I can die happy. And I fully intend on coming back to stl on October 31 to see the tour. One of my top favorite dancers since about the top 12 has been Jeanine, but I think Kayla deserves to win because she's simply amazing. I'm very sad this season is almost over, but I think I'm gonna get my roomie hooked on the show if she isn't already when I get to school in the fall. That's my thought of the day.

carano v cyborg

new barn?

Over the past year the topic of what to do with the horse has been an intensely debated topic. Being that I'm the primary rider of Toby, leaving town posed a problem. For many different reasons my parents want to sell him. Well ever since the economy tanked it's safe to say the market for buying horses is very, very, very slim. Not many people have the luxury of slapping down several thousands of dollars for a horse than paying insurance and board for it every month. While my parents want to sell him I've been arguing for keeping him even if that means finding a place an hour away that's cheaper. Barn management 101: if you own a fancy show barn in the west county St. Louis you can, on top of the price of board, charge exorbitant fees for just about everything else that is involved with horses. Unless we could find a well kept, cheap place our only option was to give him away to a college equestrian program. When you've spent 4 years with a horse, and it's your only horse (yes there are people with multiple expensive horses) you get to know how it works and moves and what its' personality is like. It's basically like having any other pet, you care about it (and with a horse you put a lot of trust into him that he's not going to decide to be stupid and run off bucking and rearing). Either way I've been upset about the day we were going to have to give him up.

But, recently one of our friends learned about a fairly new place out next to Castlewood park. Aptly named Castlewood stables. Me and my mom went to visit the place the other day, and it's a great little place. It's in the middle of the woods, the kind of quiet place that's impossible to get to on an icy day. The place is exactly the kind of barn I've been wanting to ride at for years. It's a really relaxed atmosphere, unlike the stress of my current barn. People ride both western and english, and they actually wear jeans. At my place I'm the only one who wears jeans, everyone else wears breeches (those tight white pants). The best part of all is that it's dirt cheap and they don't charge extra for a bunch of stupid things that my current barn gets away with. I'm excited about the fact that there's miles trails all around, on both the property and castlewood. They also don't have specific hours, which for us is amazing. As a rider I can't tell you how annoying it is to try and schedule your ride sometime between 9-4 when you've got a million other things to do and there's about 45 other people who need to ride at the same time. So, the moral of the story is that we're more than likely to move Toby to this new place and that makes me happy because now we get to keep him for the rest of his life.

best wedding entrance ever

big cedar

Because of weather instead of going to Kentucky I went to Big Cedar Lodge yesterday. It's a little known place where my family went to for vacations when I was a kid. It's down by table rock lake about a 4 hour drive from stl. It's a very chill place with cabins and old fashioned looking buildings along the lake. Since I haven't completed the boating course yet (required for everybody under the age of 25) and my mom knows nothing about boats we rented a canoe and paddled around in a calm area. Then we went on a trail ride. I haven't been on a trail ride since before I started riding regularly which was about 6 years ago. So to see places like that and ride those horses with a horsemans eyes is a completely different experience. I rode an awesome slightly neurotic horse named scooter (just as a side note if I ever get another horse, it's name is gonna be scooter because that's an awesome name). It rained the rest of the day but we went inside to the arcade where I beat my mom twice in air hockey. Since we were just there overnight we got the cheapest option of housing. The inside of the cabin was really nice but the outside made me laugh because it had a multi colored tin roof. I lovingly referred to it as the 'pseudo ghetto cabin' even though it was anything but ghetto by actual standards. It made me laugh because we saw a feral cat and I couldn't help but think of 'cat on a hot tin roof'. It was really fun seeing the place now and having all these childhood memories pop back into my head of when we use to go there. Even though the next few pictures don't show what the place is like I find them humerous.
AN EMU FARM-I know they're far away but I swear there were emu right outside sullivan, missouri
Oh no the speed limit isn't 12 or even 13 it's 12.5

positive

Just a thought of the day. It's not deep or meaningful but I realized how nice it is getting positive feedback. In an instance such as horse back riding, if the instructor gives out a million things to do at once it's really overwhelming and frustrating. I recently got an instructor who is very positive and makes a point of saying what me and my horse are doing right instead of saying what we're always doing wrong. I've had more fun and gotten more out of my two lessons with her than I have in years with my other instructors. I guess it's in part due to the fact that I'm advanced enough to figure out what to do when on my own without constant feedback. But, it's really nice to be hearing "You did that great" or "That course was beautifully done." For me personally, and probably for most people, positive feedback works a whole lot better than going over a list of what wasn't done right. Don't get me wrong, if I'm doing something wrong she tells me and that's what you want in horse back riding, but it's not the constant nagging that I'm use to. She's even positive, accepting, and proud of the decision of what major I want to do in the next few years. That two minutes of her saying how excited she was about what I want to do means the world to me. So just a lesson for myself for the day is give positive feedback about stuff.

gymness

I like working out...does that make me weird. I enjoy being at the gym, it's one of my favorite places. Recently I got a personal trainer for the duration of my stay here in St. Louis. She's a cool person and I knew it was going to be hard, but wow it's intense. All I felt yesterday after my first session was wobbly legs and when I woke up this morning everything hurt. It's been an interesting day, especially considering that it takes me about 6 seconds longer than usual to pick something up from the ground. But, even though it hurts I do enjoy doing it. Having a personal trainer makes me realize how much those people have to know about not just anatomy and muscles but how they all work. They need to know what kind of exercise/equipment does what and above all how to do it correctly. When it comes to weights and equipment if you don't do it right it can mess up whatever muscle you're trying to make stronger. As of now I figure that if I decide not to work with animals as a career a job as an athletic trainer or something in that field would be kind of cool.

horses

I get to go to Kentucky horse park on monday and tuesday. I've heard it's really cool and being a horse person it's been on my list of things to do for a while now. My main goal is to find the statue of secretariat and his groom Eddie Sweat (I've been reading a book about him and apparently he was the best groom/ horseman that's ever lived). And I'm hoping to find some sort of plaque about Seattle Slew in the Hall of Champions because he is my horses' grandfather. I'll be sure to bring back plenty of pictures.

double take

Normally I don't have a big problem with lyrics of songs or what message they're trying to get across. The singer/lyricist can sing about what they want without me really caring that much and if I don't like what the song is saying I'll usually just change the station; end of story. But I was listening to 93.7 on the way to the barn today and one of the songs kind of bothered me. It was a song called 'unanswered prayers' by Garth Brooks. I understand that there's variations in people's belief/understanding of God. And here's where I'm going to turn into the little Christian kid that I am and critique what he said. A line in particular bothered me it was 'Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.' Here's the lyrics if you want to see it in context. I was taught and still adamantly believe that God answers all prayers. It may be a yes or it may be a no, but he always answers. He doesn't do what we think is best for ourselves, but what he knows is best for us. Sometimes it's not fun when the answer is no. We take that answer as a non response because we don't see the results we idealized seeing. I'll be the first to tell you that I've gotten a whole lot of 'no, my way is better for you' answers. It's frustrating when you don't get your way but it means that you don't know what's best for yourself. I also believe, and I know how annoyingly cheesy and cliche this is, that in the end what God picks for us is better than anything we think is best. I guess if I were to change the lyrics it would be that some of God's greatest gifts are prayers answered with a no. Wow, I'm done being cheesy now.

interpersonal communication

I happened upon this web site a little while ago. It describes what interpersonal communication is in depth and goes into different parts of it such as self-disclosure,relational patterns and interpersonal conflict. I was especially interested in self-disclosure because up until about a month ago I wanted nothing to do with it. It's just some fun, basic psychology stuff that I find really interesting.

sytycd

Though this isn't my favorite dance I've seen on the show there's something about this particular dance that I really like

camp

I'm finally done with camp forever. Don't get me wrong some of the kids were the nicest and sweetest things you've ever met but I'm glad to be done. Being on your feet all day with kids and ponies makes you very, very tired.

Here's a story that basically sums up my camp experience. I was standing in the lounge that the barn has. My back was to a chair and one of the campers decides to jump on my back. So she has her arms wrapped around my neck. I decided to give my valued iphone to one of the guys sitting at the table watching this ordeal because I really didn't want my phone to break. He decided to take pictures and the first one is really blurry because I was trying to lodge the kid off of my back and therefore was moving around a lot.

couldn't help but laugh at this one