laughter: the language of the world

I was just remembering the other day of something that reminded me that laughter is an international language. I believe it was in Curaco that this happened. So the hotel we were staying at had a never ending pool and I was swimming around in it with a bunch of other people who came from all different parts of the world. There was a wedding reception/pictures at this hotel, and all the people involved were walking around. I was leaning over the never ending part of the pool and watching the reception pass by as were a few other boys about my age. In the reception were a few other kids also around our age who were watching us swim around while they had to be all dressed up. The kids next to me started splashing at the kids in the suits. I can't really explain it but it wasn't in a mean way, it was in a kind of playful 'hey we're kids' kind of way. For some reason it was funny (a 10 years olds sense of humor is strange). And even though those boys in the pool were from a completely different country and spoke a different language we were all able to laugh at the same thing. I've always thought that was kind of cool

fast and furious 4

more sledding

so here's my dog and me sledding. This was about 5 seconds after she thought it would be fun to cut infront of me causing me to spin down the hill. She looks really cool in it though.

sledding

I have come to the conclusion that you are never too old to go sledding. It's easily the funnest thing to do when it's snowing. I am above the age of what people would think of as being appropriate to go sledding but I don't care. I went this morning to my neighborhood hill which I've been sledding at for the past 14 years of my life. But I have to admit I felt that it would be really awkward if I went by myself so I took my dog along. My dog had just as much if not more fun than I did. She's an incredibly athletic German Shepherd so I didn't feel bad making her run up and down with me. I would take off down the hill and she would run in front of me and then decided that when we got to the bottom of the hill it was appropriate to attack me. She has this thing for really fast moving objects, unfortunately I was the fast moving object. That's just a random thing I though you'd like to know. So it's safe to say that aside from the moms with their little kids I was the oldest one there. But honestly I didn't really care because sledding is awesome no matter how old you are.

Have you ever had one of those moments when someone asks if there's anything stressing you out (or some question of that nature) and you genuinely have nothing to complain about but they insist that you do. I don't know if that made sense but I'll try reexplaining it. It seems to be this same situation on sunday nights. I'm involved in a bible study esque thingy and they expect you to have all these stories about how hard life is. But most of the time I genuinely am having a good week or everything is going fine. So I tell them that everything's fine and to just go onto the next person. But they insist that I'm hiding something and must tell them immedietly. Despite arguing that I'm perfectly fine for about 5 minutes they still insist that I'm not telling them the truth. Even if something is bothering me I'd rather just keep it to myself. I dunno maybe I'm the only one in the world with this problem, which wouldn't surprise me. I was just wondering if anyone else has ever been in that kind of a situation.

the rare day of awesome

so i had a pretty good day today which is rare considering my saturdays are usually filled my labor intensive job. I had the day off and did some really cool things today. Since I climb at the gym fairly regularly I went to REI and got a new padded harness and some new climbing shoes. I can't even tell you how much more comfortable the new harness is as opposed to the very basic ones the gym gives out. And usually when I go climbing I have to share the 4 or 5 auto belays with at least 18 little kids and they're loud and know nothing about common courtasy. Well I finally got a family member to take a class and test out for being able to belay, I took this class a while ago but never had anyone to bely with. The options are so much more amazing, now i've got 16 different options that involve no waiting in lines with 8 year olds who take 5 minutes each to get up the wall. Then this afternoon I went iceskating with my youth group. I use to live at the rink when I was a kid (I'll probably explain more about that another day) so it was nice going back there and remebering all the chilhood memories. I thought I would be worse, but I still retained some of what I use to know. Unfortunately I can't do the awesome hockey stop that sprays ice all over the place anymore but I was still able to blast by the others and give them a really hard time. So it was a pretty good day overall

Spirit stallion of the cimarron opening scene

meet push the talking trash can

I GOT NUTHIN LEFT

so here's the story of my week....MY WHOLE HARD DRIVE GOT WIPED OUT. Yup I had to take the computer into the store and now I have no memory whatsoever. The second worst part of it is that I was planning on saving everything on an external source this week. The worst part is this- sure I had papers I had written and pics but I've got hard copies of the papers (plus I really don't care about any of them) and I've still got memory cards and facebook with all my pics. But there were two documents that literally can't be replaced. Both were self reflection/ trip down memory lane kinda stuff. I wrote them about 6 months ago when my opinions on personal things were slightly different, but enough to see a definitive then and now comparison. I spent probably 5 days typing this really long document about random stuff that I won't get into. The other document was an ongoing one with questions that my youth group leader asks and I origionally typed out my opinion on thoes questions and about every month or two I would go back and see if my views on that have changed and if they had I would add on and date it. Well those two are gone and I'll never be able to answer and evaluate stuff the same way I use to. so here's my lesson to all (probably just one) of you SAVE EVERYTHING ON AN EXTERNAL SOURCE NOW!!!!!

all hail the steelers

so my Steelers are goin to the superbowl. Though there were plenty of mistakes in the game they played well. I was absolutely devastated when I saw Ward get hurt but the rest of the team stepped up. I've watched enough steelers football to know who makes what kind of plays. It was the 4th quarter and the Ravens had the ball and I said something along the lines of "Come on Polamalu it's time for you to intercept the ball" because I know how he plays and how much of an amazing athelete he is. I kid you not two plays later he intercepts it and goes in for a touch down increasing the steelers lead. I've always loved Polamalu because not only is he an amazing football player but because he doesn't smack talk or overcelebrate on the field, and he's a great man with good morals off the field. I like the Steelers Cardinals matchup. While I will obviously be rooting for the steel curtin I'll be happy if Curt Warner wins. All of us here in the STL still love him because he's a great guy and we miss him and we want to see him succeed. so GO STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

why do we cry when we're sad

so lately for some reason I was wondering why people cry when sad, it just seems weird when you really think about it. So I looked it up and this is what I came up with ( I just copied and pasted it so these aren't my words). It makes a lot of sense and now I know why people cry

Crying is a more complicated process than one would at first imagine. First of all, there are really three different types of tears. Basal tears keep our eyes lubricated constantly. Reflex tears are produced when our eyes get irritated, like with onions or when something gets into our eyes. The third kind of tear is produced when the body reacts emotionally to something. Each type of tear contains different amounts of chemical proteins and hormones. Scientists have discovered that the emotional tears contain higher levels of manganese and the hormone prolactin, and this contributes in a reduction of both of these in the body; thus helping to keep depression away. Many people have found that crying actually calms them after being upset, and this is in part due to the chemicals and hormones that are released in the tears.

How then actually do we cry? The psychic tears (or emotional tears) require an emotional response, or trigger to be activated. This response can be caused by an outside source, either pain or loss of love, etc., or from an inside source (self-realization of one's life and others). When emotions affect us, the nervous system stimulates the cranial nerve, in the brain and this sends signals to the neurotransmitters to the tear glands. Thus, we cry .The largest tear gland, the lacrimal gland produces the tears of emotion and reflex. Many believe that the body, in times of emotional stress, depends on this gland to release excess amounts of chemicals and hormones, returning it to a stable state.

wild horses

don't cry for the horse

a sad poem but I kinda like it

That life has set free

A million white horses

Forever to be

Don’t cry for the horses

Now in God's hands

As they dance and they prance

To a heavenly band

They were ours as a gift

But never to keep

As they close their eyes

Forever to sleep

Their spirits unbound

On silver wings they fly

A million white horses

Against the blue sky

Look up into heaven

You'll see them above

The horses we lost

The horses we loved

Manes and tails flowing

They gallop through time

They were never yours

They were never mine

Don't cry for the horses

They will be back someday

When our time has come

They will show us the way

Do you hear that soft nicker

Close to your ear

Don’t cry for the horses

Love the ones that are here

maori symbols

so I just found these really cool necklace things that have really cool meanings:

the single twist represents the joining of two people (in friendship I believe) and although people move away their journey of life will have their paths cross again. I like this one and if I had the money I'd get these for a few of my friends.


the fish hook represents strength, determination and good health and providing safe journey over water because in Maori use fish in a lot of their traditional food dishes and since fish were so abundant the ownership of a fish hook meant prosperity.
so those are just a few if you want to see the rest a site with most of them is here some others are really cool and symbolize really cool things

global warming my butt

I get to spend 2 hours outside tomorrow morning in the 10 degree weather. I can deal with the cold just fine it doesn't bother me that much. But with the wind chill it's gonna be -10. So it's safe to say that I've got my big snowboard gloves, construction worker boots and liner in my jacket. If my fingers don't freeze off I'll tell you how it goes.

Dane Cook: sneeze

for a few hours tonight I got to hang out with some of my youth group leaders. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them outside of the youth group setting, and to see their friendship. They're truly some of the funniest people I know. It's not that they're different outside of the church setting, but I never get to see the full spectrum of their personalities and their friendship inside of it. We played this random dominos game that involved little plastic trains, it took us forever to figure it out but once we did it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of fun that's what she said moments and laughing at their dog being scared of a cutout of beyonce. It was easily the best night and the most fun I've had in a really long time

never let you down

trip down memory lane

Being the tech person for my schools chapel band I went with the band to play a few songs for a grade school down the street. The fun part about it is that it was my old grade school so I was more than familiar with the place. I visited some of my old teachers and was having a hard time looking at the little kids and thinking that I was that small at one point. The music teacher introduced the band and me and my fellow tech friend. The part that weirded me out a bit was that she said I was an alum of the school. I never thought that you could be technically be called an alum of a grade school but apparently you can. Either way it was kinda fun visiting the place that I spent 8 years of my childhood in.

one of my favorite pics, I didn't take it but I like it a lot. It's probably the diver in me. I figure that my recent thoughts about diving come from the fact that it's cold, sleety, dark, and I haven't been out of the city in about a year

Bonaire:Divers Paradise

I figured I'd explain about Bonaire. It's a part of the Netherlands Antilles, I can't remember what country actually owns it (no it's not the netherlands.) I made a video about it for a video production class last semester but my professor never burned it onto a cd so i'll just have to explain it. The island gets a 24/7 breeze/wind which makes it an amazing place for kite and wind surfing. Much like every state in america has a 'saying' of sorts that goes on the license plated Bonaire is known as: Diver's Paradise. That's the reason why nearly nobody knows about it, the only thing to do there is dive. Though it's an island it's far from the classic palm tree laiden sandy Bahamas, it's a big desert and the beaches are all rocks. The locals are from all over the place, mostly europe. The naive language is really weird, it's a mix of almost every other language (I guess they weren't creative enough to think of their own language). The diving is amazing it's known as wall diving. Unlike traditional reefs around the world that lay on a flat ground, Bonaire's reefs are located on drop offs about 50 feet from shore. It's weird because you look one way and there's a reef right next to you and you look the other way and it's nothing but open darkness. Shore diving is the preferred method of diving, it's where you grab your gear and a few tanks, throw them in the back of your truck and drive to designated dive sites. It's also known for it's amazing array of great restaurants all the way from classic caribbean to french. If no plans for my future work out (highly unlikely) I would love to live there some day. Throughout time I'll probably explain more details but for now that's the basics.

How I miss Bonaire

the psychologists aren't always right

I must have looked through a dozen articles trying to see if any of them answered the question of 'psychology of the classroom' as most of them put it. I was curious to see what the hot shots had to say about what seat choice says about a person. No matter what class it is most of us will generally choose a seat in the same general area, weather that be in the front and center or the back corner. It actually really annoyed me because every single one of the articles said that back seat students are the slackers who don't pay attention and who get worse grades. I always choose a back seat, but that doesn't mean I'm a slacker. I average about a 3.4 most of the time, it's not a great GPA but it's not exactly horrible either. Looks like I just disproved all of the know it all psychologists. There's a really simple solution as to why I sit in the back, I really don't like having all the other people in the class staring in my general direction during a 1-1.5 hour class. It's just something I don't like it weirds me out, I literally can't concentrate if I sit in the front. Therefore I sit in the back and am able to concentrate much easier. So maybe I just didn't type in the right phrasing into the Google search, but it seems to me that the psychologists should look at more then just the objective data in this case.

2nd best jet in the world

First sea world has a shamu jet now my team the steelers have their own jet. I know absolutely nothing about it but it's really cool

I haven't seen the sky blue since last year

It was a really pretty cloudless 45 degree day (which is warm for early january) in stl today. It's kind of annoying because as adults it seems like it gets harder to be able to get outside on nice days like this. Because we can't be 10 again and play in the fort in the back yard. But it's ok because my way of getting out is being able to ride my horse. This whole week the outdoor arena has been too frozen to ride in and would be really hard on the horses feet. So we've been forced into the tiny, dark indoor arena which nobody likes. Today was the first day we've been able to go outside and it was so nice. I had the whole ring to myself, which for a rider is the best thing because there's nobody else in the way. Both my horse and I enjoyed being outside in the amazing weather. Usually you're constantly worried about form and other things, but it was a nice day so I figured we could go one ride without being perfect. You're suppose to canter relatively slowish, but my horse wanted to go fast and I wanted to go fast so I let him go faster than usual. It was a nice ride and a fun way to be able to enjoy the weather.

coolest motorcycle of all time

I was watching American Chopper yesterday. I recommend the show for anyone even if you know nothing about motorcycles because the engineering and fabrication is amazing. The bike they built on this particular episode is the coolest one I've ever seen. Paul Jr., the main fabricator, built his 'dream bike' which is a webbed theme, he's also built two other webbed themed bikes in the past.it's got a phantom gas tank the rear fender and the seat are webs

resolutions

What I've noticed is that every single year without fail is that for the first two months of the year way too many people occupy the gym. I shouldn't be surprised because it always happens, but that doesn't mean that it's not annoying. I purposefully go climb the rock wall at the gym at 8 pm because by that time most of the little kids have gone and everyone is on their way out. The other day I went at 8 and wasn't allowed in the area with the walls because there were so many people. It was mainly people I've never seen and probably won't see again after February. They'll all break their "resolutions" eventually and then for the next 10 months of the year everything will go normally.