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