Feeling Catholic

This past weekend, I went on a retreat with Newman Hall here on campus at the U of I. I really haven't done much with Newman in the last couple years, as after I moved out, I would go to Mass and that is about it. My involvement with Illini Life has really been my spiritual community. Throughout my spiritual walk I have felt more Roman Catholic or Non-Denominational. This week, after the retreat, I feel quite Catholic. It is a neat place to be. In all honesty, this retreat was the first time I felt like I'd seen a devotion to Christ and a devotion to Community in the same place in the Catholic church and I've felt part of it. There are times when I've seen one, the other, or both and not been a part of it, but this was a good experience for me.

The theme of the weekend was God's Divine Mercy. The painting above was inspired by Jesus in a vision to one Saint Faustina. It represents God's mercy. The red is the blood of Christ spilt out for our sins and the white is the water that washes us clean. I'm really glad that I went on this retreat. It was truly a blessing and God helped me work through a lot of things. Now, this isn't to say that I'm going to jump into anything specific, but it was a great way for me to balance my life.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

Alan got a job offer this week. He has to decide by Friday. Stressful much? This offer is with an engineering company. I'll let those that care know in a while when a decision is made. I did have this thought presented to me today though...

Our very word "decide" comes from the Latin decidere which means "to cut off."

Something must be cut off in my life this week. Some dream of a future, some possibility. It must be pruned away so other dreams can flourish more readily.

Gradumication

So, I got a letter today from the University informing me of my ability to graduate in December and that if I wanted to walk in the ceremony, I needed to sign up soon. Anyway, that is just one more thing making this whole graduating thing quite the reality. OH, and why does it cost an arm and a leg to rent a gown? I could buy a blue sheet for a lot cheaper...

Other News

Watched the presidential debate. I feel pretty confident that with either man in the White House, that I will still wake up the next day and hope that God is working in my life. I can't speak completely as to who was better in the debate though...I guess I'm more of a political outsider (LOL), because I thought it was close, but polls suggest Obama easily won. How do you win a debate? It shouldn't be based upon eloquence, but issues...right?....right??

In the Summers Home Fellowship (my church small group) we are reading a Psalm a day for the next 14 days. The first Psalm was read today. I'll try to at least comment on them so I have some practice thinking about them and writing about them over the course of these two weeks.

The Equipment

Today, in my first Mass at the St. John's Catholic Newman Center on campus, the sermon from father Greg Ketcham really caught my ear.

The scripture that he had to speak on is some of the most powerful scripture I know.

Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 16:21-27

He then spoke on how important it is to have our focus on the Resurrection. I think that is so easy to forget as I get caught up in performance for the church.

He also quoted C.S. Lewis, which is almost always a good idea, and in this case, especially so. He quoted this in reference to the idea that it can be difficult to see God or experience God.

Unfortunately I did not get the quote exactly, and I didn't look too hard for it, but at its root, Lewis is saying that the sun shows no favorites, it just shines better in a clean mirror than in a dusty one. We are the instruments through which we see God and there is some work to be done for us to best experience and see God.

I love this idea, especially when combined with the idea of spiritual discipline and putting ourselves in the best situations to experience God. Now, some days may be cloudy and the sun will be hard to see regardless, but we must be prepared when the sun does shine, to reflect it as well as we can.

A new era

Alan is going back in time. 9 months after getting my first SLR camera as a gift, I have bought a second. This one, however, is a lot different. The first was a digital, this is a film camera. The first one was a gift and new, this one is a self purchase and is slightly used. But, both use the Canon EF mount, which means that I can interchange lenses between them, which is super exciting. The reason I bought this camera was for a class that I'm taking here at Illinois. Photo 1 is the name, and there is a good section of the course discussing black and white film photography. I'm just excited to give it a whirl.

Not only did I buy this used, but it was my first successful ebay victory (granted, I was the only bidder. People really don't want film cameras.) and it was on the cheap. It will be a good experiment, along with the darkroom work in class to really see how far into photography I can delve.

Check out my new toy/tool for yourself...

Bow Fishing

Bow Fishing

I went bow fishing in one of my last nights in Alabama. This is a sport in which you go out on a boat, typically with a regular boat motor and a fan on top for really shallow water. You float around really shallow water and look for the fish that the game fishermen don’t want to catch, cuz they aren’t tasty and they are a nuisance. Then you shoot them with a bow and arrow. The arrow is attached to a string and a reel which you use to reel in your fish once you have pierced it. The people I know who do it will catch upwards of 30 fish a night, and then give them away to somebody that actually likes the way they taste.

I had never heard of this sport before I came to Alabama, but let me tell you something, it fascinated me to no end. I wanted to go, and when I finally got invited and it worked out, I jumped at the opportunity. So here we were, in a simple fishing boat flying across the Tennessee River to the murky swampland that is stereotypical Alabama. After being given a crash course in the equipment, another intern and I tried our hands at hitting the fish, while our host guided his boat through lily pads and brush. It took a while to finally see the fish, even with the aid of intense spotlights. Once I saw one, I lined it up though, and fired away. Stuck in the mud…

I thought to myself, this is no big deal. It was my first shot. I reeled my arrow back in after struggling with it in the mud. Resetting the arrow in the bow, I scanned for more targets to hone my skills on. This lasted for 2 hours. And I don’t mean the fishing, I mean the process of shoot, miss, stuck in mud, pull out, reset. It was a frustrating experience. Even after accounting for the refraction of the light and placing the fish a bit lower than I saw it, I still whiffed about 15 times. The other intern was no luckier, and we rode back to the south side of the Tennessee River a bit bruised in the ego department.

What made it even more striking is how good people actually are at this sport. Our guide told us he has about a 95% accuracy and when he sees a fish, he almost always is able to shoot at it too. Just amazing to me. Perhaps I will get a chance to try again, but what I know now is that I have a LOT of respect for somebody that does that

The Environment

Having been in Alabama all this summer, I’ve wanted to experience the place, and not just settle for living in a bubble. This experience definitely added to it, as the terrain we were in was absolutely surreal. With our floodlights shining on, you could see the murky water, lily pads that let water pool on them, but not drown them, trees sticking right out of the water, and shallow enough regions that our guide had to jump out and get his feet we to push us out. This was all accented by it being night time the frog sounds, the turtles bobbing their heads, and the herons flying around. It definitely felt like a true southern experience, at least what I imagined it to be.

The Analogy

How could I go fishing without having the stories of scripture regarding fishing go through my head? I guess pretty easily, but for whatever reason, my mind was struck with all sorts of analogy from the night of fishing. The first point I want to make is that I would have struggled as a fisherman in Biblical times. I probably would have been the tax collector who was converted. That job seems easier. I love that agrarian stories and parables come so much more alive when you experience them for yourself. When Jesus talks about Fishers of Men, I see how difficult it is and how patient we must be. I even think it is interesting how there is a difference between the fish we want and the fish we expect to get. As we rode back across the Tennessee River to our dock, there were fish just jumping out of the water right in our boat's wake. They were not the ones we wanted, but they were the most available. I think in the spiritual world, these are the people we must minister to. The people that want to hear the message. I also appreciated the nighttime calm that was around us as we fished. It really helps me to appreciate the retreating to quiet lonely places that Jesus loved so much.

The Green Hat

In American socio-economics, for the last few decades at the very least, there has existed the working and business class, the white collar and the blue collar, and any other way you could split it. Generally, you would get to know those who were along side you and didn't spend a lot of time with the others. If you worked at a GM plant, chances are you didn't associate with the bankers in the community. And vice versa is often true as well. Now, this isn't to say that the division is in stone, but it definitely seems to exist.

Now, I am over-simplifying all of that, but let me finish...

Nucor Steel (the company I am working for this summer), has in many ways, spit in the face of socio-economics. This is in a lot of ways due to the vision of Ken Iverson, and those who joined with him and those who followed in his footsteps. His book, Plain Talk, is a good, quick, and fascinating read. In the steel industry, this split of cultures has existed for a long time. In Bethlehem steel, the issue was so intense that the corporate folks had their own golf course, and operations had their own separate one. They didn't interact with each other, and blue and white collar were divided. Based upon your rank, people in steel wear different colored hats based upon rank, execs get special treatment, etc.

Not so much at Nucor. No special treatment for those who wear polo shirts. They park in the same spot as guys who wear dirty greens (the common wear in a steel mill). These once separate two classes are not just asked to interact, but they enjoy it. It is realized that this is best for business, and it really is the most human thing to do. This culture is fascinating to me, and since everybody gets paid and treated well, there has been no need for workers to organize a union.

Anyway, I'm not here to dode on a company. After all, it definitely is not the most important thing in my life, the business world that is. In any case...

I got a green hat today. It was a big honor. New hires and interns are given a yellow hat for safety reasons, so people can watch out for them and make sure they're in a safe place. But today, when I returned to my desk from the mill, I had a shiny green hat on my desk with my name on it. It was a huge honor to receive it. I tried it on, and felt kind of like I didn't deserve it. I am just an intern. After being assured I had earned it though, I will wear it for my last week proudly. I am now 'one of the guys,' and I love that feeling. The camaraderie of people coming together for a common cause is a beautiful thing. We must carry these ideals into the business world, and I would argue that many of them are Christ-like values even (I know, be careful Alan. I mean the part about treating people fairly and equally and with respect, even love.) to live in life.

I will wear my green hat proudly as a Nucor employee intern.

Much time has passed

Well, it is over halfway through July, and this is my first post of my summer. Some of the things you may have wondered:

"Maybe Alan died of a horrific crocodile bite."
"Maybe Alan got too cool for the internets."
"Maybe nothing has happened in Alan's life and he doesn't need to write about it."
"Maybe Alan is too busy reading LOLcats."


Well, you would be wrong. On most accounts. Work has me busy (and firewalled tightly), and I don't typically have internet around me when I'm not at work. So as a result, my blogging, facebooking, and flickring have taken hits across the board.

As a result, any meaningful update about my summer, disappointed rant about Brett Favre, excited praise for the Cubs, or semi-deep thought that I want to write has been either spoken, kept internal, written in a journal, or died without ever gracing this page. Perhaps that is a good thing.


I've taken photos. I've experienced activities. I've met people. I've worked with steel. I've traveled. I've seen the joy of weddings. I've learned southern slag. I've grown closer to God in unique ways.

I could write page after page about this summer, and to some of you I have. I could tell you about every little thing, but that would be boring. So, it'll be quick instead. A bullet list of some things I've done.

• interned at Nucor Steel Decatur, AL
• hung with 4 other interns and a couple young employees
• seafood festival
• seen 5-6 movies in theaters
• space and rocket center in huntsville
• in two friends' weddings
• read many books
• played rock band
• photographed things
• arena league 2 football game
• swam
• found some excellent new musicians
  
• visited a sweet grotto with miniature buildings
• random roadtrips
• AND MORE!!!

I've got a lot of thoughts and ideas too that have come from this summer. The biggest ones focus on my second trimester of the rest of my life. Where will I be in 6 months? I do not know, but I do know that I want it to be an adventure. I really do want to come alive.

Other important thoughts center around the idea of Love. Love for others through many things. Service, care, listening, assisting, being there, giving, engaging, reassuring, encouraging. These are all ways to love. That is my challenge that I think I've received. At all costs, love; be different; shock the world. And through this, not only will others come alive, but you too will be amazed.

OK, I've written far too much for one post. I leave you with a G.K. Chesterton quote I noticed on a friend's facebook wall and fell in love with.

"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." - G. K. Chesterton

Tis Settled

I will be taking classes next semester. Obviously, and my schedule will look right along the lines as such...

Senior Design
Human Factors
Engineering Psych
Basic Photography

I say this now...I am stoked about the semester to come. It being my last one, I am truly hoping my classes will be fantastic. Should have very little calculation, which I'm stoked about. Lots of reading I'm sure, but I'm down with that, as I love the kind of thought involved with the classes.

Something I'm Glad is Back

fresh cut grass, originally uploaded by kris10cas10.

The smell of fresh cut grass


Smelled it today whilst walking on campus. Oh spring did I miss you so...

Something I miss

3 years ago at this time, I was finishing my freshman year of college and preparing to head to Estes Park, CO for Colorado LT 2005. Oh man, was that a good summer. I've been flipping through pictures online and on my hard drive from that time, and it has been phenomenal. That summer was so instrumental in my life being the way it is right now. There are people in these pictures that are great friends now that I barely talked to while at LT or before LT. There are people that I've drifted away from but have not forgotten. There a bunch of people who are married or plan on getting married, and there are people who have moved to my school. There are people going back to LT, there are people working abroad, and dealing with the struggles of adulthood. I wish I could post more, but I should probably save you that trouble.

I guess this is really to jog the memory of those of you who went with me on that epic summer. I can honestly look back and say it was one of the greatest times of my life so far. This summer I will be somewhere completely different and my expectations are sadly pretty low. However, when I look at what LT05 was for me, in so much as I barely knew anybody and now I have fantastic friends, I have hope.

So, what is your favorite LT 05 memory?

On Hope

Many people are talking about hope these days. We're all very excited by the hope that different organizations, groups, and people are talking about.

It could be Barrack Obama speaking of a hope for a new America. His campaign is hoping to catch the heart of America making himself the voice for hope. He's even written a book on the subject. That has to count for something right?

It could be a company like Google. With their user friendly desire to make their software free, they have caught the eye of the world. They even care about the environment. I even saw an editorial in the school paper that addressed the good nature of Google and how we can really trust them.

It could be any number of 'green' organizations looking to save the world that we have worked so hard to destroy. Many companies have bought into this philosophy (Google, energy companies, California) and are showing genuine concern for the world we live in.

Shoot, even tech can get into the mix. Many an American can assuredly say that they've thought at some point, "Boy, if I just had that iPhone, my life would be easier. I could calendar, email, camera, and internet my life. All while listening to The Shins."

For whatever reason, this topic really struck me today about how much stuff we put our hopes into. I myself can't wait for a future where I have things 'figured out.' I also hope to get a new computer soon (one that doesn't run slower than this will catch on) and let me tell you, I've got probably 3-4 camera lenses/accessories that I want to get. On top of that, I spent plenty of time recently thinking about cars. And don't forget relationships.
What am I getting at with all of this? The fact is, we hope for so much and put our hope into so many things that are just unsure. For those of us who do indeed believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we have something we can ultimately put our hope in that acts as a trump card. Let us not put our hopes in things that are unsure.

I can confidently tell you no matter how much support, money, etc that Barrack Obama gets, he will not solve all of America's problems and heal your hurts. I can promise you that Google is, no matter how friendly they are, a for profit organization that is taking advantage of our willingness to be advertised too. I with some sense of confidence can tell you that man isn't the only reason for global warming, and while we should do our part, let us not hope that we can fix it alone. An iPhone becomes obselete, a car dies, friendships hit rocks, cameras can only capture a picture of the memory, not the memory itself.

So let us move forward from today truly considering what our hope shall be put into. Let us truly weigh the options with faith and not just prudence. It will be hard, but it shall be so worth it...

Late Night of Study

This semester has been a pretty lonely school semester. My classes have been predominantly studied for by myself. Not that this is a big deal, but it makes me sad that I haven't made a huge effort to study with people or get to know my classmates too much. Now I know the semester isn't over, but that isn't I guess what I'm thinking about right now.

It is 1:30 in the morning on Monday and I'm studying my butt off. I've got a hw due tomorrow that I really don't even know how to approach. I guess I have ideas, but I don't know. But where is my mind? Talking to my sister on AIM about theology. What does that mean?

Does it mean that I am just finding that as a way to procrastinate or avoid my school work?
Does it mean that I just prefer to talk about God and how he has moved and is moving?
Does it mean that I should already commit to doing ministry?
Does it mean engineering is a hobby or that theological discussion is a hobby?


I guess these are big questions for me as they are going to help determine my direction in my life. These issues have come up a lot lately and I really would hope to have it settled tomorrow (read: hope = unrealistically hope). Instead, I have a lot of options before me in about 9 months. I will be graduating then, so I guess I'm pregnant with the rest of my life now. It's got a standard gestation period and now is the time that I really need to research what it'll be like to take care of it once it pops out.

Could I be doing some form of engineering discipline in a place where they don't have that but need it to establish infrastructure?
Could I be using my engineering knowledge to teach high schoolers in an inner city area because they need education in technical disciplines as much as rich suburbanites do?
Could I be learning how to council people through their struggles?
Could I be coaching sports and doing sports ministry?
Could I be doing support raising for campus missions work?
Could I be working in an engineering job in Colorado, Northwest, any other place and being involved in a church while ministering to my co-workers?
Could I be working in engineering in Champaign and doing campus missions on the side?

Yea, and that's only a list of options that come to me at this moment. I'm positive there must be others. So instead of dwell on this, I shall go to bed, and hit the grindstone early in the morning, while counting down the days to my second trimester.

And even thinking about that, I guess I kinda do have trimesters set up

End of Spring 08
Summer 08
Fall 08

Each will be different in nature, and each will help me to determine stuff about me and my future...I hope

Good night (or good morning I suppose)

Running out of Time

Well, I register for my last semester of classes here at the U of I this evening. I've got a few picked out and I'm working on my strategy for the second when the gates open. It is a rather sad and yet exciting thing. I'm super excited that I am but 9 credit hours from graduation and that I should be done in December. I'm sad because there is a chance that I'll leave this place called Champaign (not guaranteed), and I would miss that. I'm also sad because I believe I am a person that wants to live life to the fullest. I want to experience a lot and don't want to leave much to anybody else. The same goes for classes, (This of course excludes business classes) as I have so many I've wanted to take. They vary like night and day and hopefully I will get educated in some things that are relevant to me and my life.

The classes look as such potentially

Senior Design
Human Factors
Engineering Psych
WILD CARD

The wild card class could be many a thing. There is an advertising class, world religions, coaching strategies, the Bible as literature, philosophy classes, manufacturing engineering, and the list goes on. I also really want to not have class Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, which I am pretty close to having. That time that I'll have free on those days will be great for iLife work, reaching out in the dorms, work interview trips, and anything else I can think of. Anyway, college ending...etc :)

What can I learn?

Last week was Spring Break for me and the weeks before had been busy, so I have not posted with any level of faithfulness that would approach February. For that I could apologize or you could be happy that my random writings didn't appear in your reader feed.

Anyway, I'll have plenty to write now as I have lots of thoughts from my break that I need to write down, and stories to tell.

I was talking with my buddy Casey last Saturday and we were talking about my getting older within the campus church. I think I've had a cynical attitude at times and I really have not been able to pin down how to get rid of it.

He reminded me of a man in our church who is definitely an older guy and yet he takes notes feverishly for everything. He's married and yet will be fully engaged in a teaching about dating. His attitude of, "What can I learn?" strikes me very powerfully. What can I learn in any situation. Continuing that mantra has truly helped me even in this past week. There were many things that I experienced that I had not experienced for the first time by any stretch of the imagination, and yet by having an open ear and a soft heart, I was able to absorb new thoughts and perspectives.

Those perspectives will be shared with you, I promise...

But remember, no matter how mundane the situation, no matter how much older than another person you are, etc...what can you learn?

Rose Bowl Road Trip: Post 5

Day 6: Today was the day we looked forward to. The big game. We arrived in Pasadena before sunrise. There was already a mass of people parking in the lots around the stadium as we arrived. This was an intense scene where we saw people polarized in their maroon and opposing orange. We walked ourselves over to the grandstands for the Tournament of the Roses Parade. It was nuts seeing people who had slept on the street for as much as a couple days before the parade to make sure they got the best seats. The parade was a slight disappointment, although the floats were out of this world complex. Check out this Germany tribute...
After the parade ended, we returned to the stadium park. There we grabbed some food, changed into wonderfully warm weather clothes, as it was in the 70s. What a glorious piece of weather we had. We got a chance to interact with a lot of different people outside the stadium before stepping into The Rose Bowl itself. What a antastic piece of history that stadium is. It is absolutely incredible inside. You see palm trees from the inside peeking over the edge and it has a neat shape to it. However, it is no Memorial Stadium...:)
Once in the stadium, we got a chance to see the place fill up and had orange poms on our seats from the U of I alumni association. Our seats were near the Illinois end zone, and were actually pretty fantastic. Well, the game went uhhhh, uhhh, well, Rashard Mendenhall had an awesome game, and now he's projected to be a top 15 pick int he NFL draft. That was nice.
OK, the game was a blowout. USC destroyed Illinois, but it was a lot of fun to be there still. Once we left the stadium, we avoided some of the more obnoxious USC fans and hightailed it out of town. We ate at In and Out Burger and ran off to Kingman, AZ, where we stayed at my buddy Chuck's house. His parents were fantastic in letting us stay and I still thank them so much.

Brawl

I know many a fanboy...

Whether it be Apple, coffee, VW, Catholicism, or Gilmore Girls.
I know people that just eat certain things up. Everybody has a favorite brand that they can't get away from if they tried. It is what we are loyal to because it makes us happy and no matter the thick or the thin of it, we want to love them.

I am a Nintendo fanboy myself.
I stood in line for 6 hours to get a Wii at midnight on release, and now, nearly a year and a half after I got my Wii, I have finally gotten to another game I can't wait to own. After getting Wii Sports in the package, and buying The Twilight Princess right away (and enjoying its epicness), I had to wait until SSX Blur, which was fun but not deep. I played Metriod Prime 3, and I liked it, but shooters just get tedious to me, so I don't own it yet. I want Super Mario Galaxy, but the money is keeping me off of it until the summer (I soooo want it too). Guitar Hero 3 is a great idea, but I'm so bad and don't have the time to get better.

However, in a little over a week (or a WiiK if you're an uber-nerd) SSBB hits the shelves on this side of the Pacific Pond. That's right folks, Super Smash Brothers Brawl. I cannot wait. I will probably not be getting it upon release, but I do know that I'm super stoked. In my mind it should have been out a month ago (and a year ago if I want to get nitpicky), but I will trust that perfection was worth waiting for. It has such depth that I can't even get into it all. It looks to be similar to Family Guy in it's cultural references. There will be so many things from games of old to games of new that I will only recognize a fraction. There are about a bazillion modes, and I can finally play my friends or anybody who fancies, online. I guess I had to just let you know how excited about this game I was. I would love to play with you too on my nice tv in my house. It is gonna be incredible.

Grades, prepare to be challenged.

The Magical World of Tea

I must admit that I'm still awfully ignorant on the subject, but I love tea. A good glass of hot tea just fills me with joy. It is like a snack, a conversation piece, and a unique blend of flavors. Over the course of the past few months, I've started to learn about being more refined in my tastes. I pretty much will like anything, but to be able to pick out what it tastes like and the nuances in it have become a newer thing for me. This has included beers, pipe tobacco, and tea. Tea is my newest venture, as I bought a tea infuser recently. It is from Adagio Teas. If you're interested in any of their products, lemme know, cuz I can get you a five dollar gift certificate. I'm really excited by trying new teas and picking out the different flavor elements. It's been a real treat. I got the starter pack with the herbal teas. This includes my favorite of the bunch, Blood Orange. It smells like a potpourri and has a slight citrus taste to it. My buddy Matt and his brother Josh have been my inspiration for this wonderful venture. So what do you guys suggest I try?

Sacrificing for Beauty

I was out shopping today with my roommate Jonathan, and we were talking, as people do while grocery shopping. While walking into Aldi, the topic of beauty came up. And we started to think about the stupid things we as humans do for beautiful things. A few ideas popped into my head about the things that are beautiful that we sacrifice for.

1. The opposite sex. I only speak as a man, but I know guys do really ridiculous things and sacrifice time, money, and any other number of resources just to meet, please, or get to know a girl.

2. Mountains/views. Again, I speak from only my experience, but I know we spend hours of miserable climbing and walking (not all of it is miserable) to be able to summit a peak and attain a beautiful biew. There's even potential for beauty along the hike, but I promise you there are some pretty boring sections as well.

3. Sunrises. We get our sorry butts up and out of bed for the incredible beauty of the sun peeking over the edge of the earth. The colors that appear at this time are so unique and the draw us to them.

4. Friendships. This might seem out there, but I think you could call a friendship a beautiful thing, and for sure we sacrifice a lot of time to cultivate and keep these relationships healthy. Without that time, a relationship can get ugly.

I think there are other things for sure, and clearly we enjoy them. So of course you could say, 'duh' why wouldn't we sacrifice for it. But in themselves, these things don't benefit us directly. So why do we do it? It seems like we consider some sort of benefit of giving up more essential life needs, for these things.

Photo Credit: Rob Bergman

Moving Moments

You have these? These moments that move you to tears, smiles, rushes of emotion, or extreme joy. I think they are such fantastic moments. They come rather instantly and carry you for quite a time.

Perhaps it comes while driving down the highway and into a sunset.

Maybe it hits you while you are in a conversation with old friends.

Or what if it comes while at the greatest sporting event you've been to?

I think these moments become all the more powerful when paired with the iPod generation. When we walk down the street with music in our ears as a soundtrack to our life, I think it adds another moving dimension to the experiences.

Many a time have I been driving and felt another dimension of awesomeness as a song I was listening to struck me in the right way.

Recently I've had the pleasure of really enjoying these experiences. They are really a blessing and I think especially for a person such a myself that appreciates the beauty in music, I see God touching me in these times.

How about you?

My Writers Strike Ends

So, I wasn't blogging...at all...over break cuz I didn't find the time, didn't have a computer of my own, etc.

So now, I find myself writing again for the first time...So, in old school fashion, I present to you my bullet points of the recent times.

• I went to the Rose Bowl on an epic journey across our country (this will be highlighted later)
• The Packers are in the NFC Championship game and I am stoked
• I got an amazing Canon digital SLR camera for Christmas (thanks mom and dad!)
• The Cowboys lost to the Giants! Sorry Tony Romo...
• I started classes again. I am enrolled in 5, but one of them is super lame so far, so it might be gone, as I don't need it.
• Illinois basketball is playing super sloppy
• Christmas was a lot of fun with family and getting to see my new young cousin Peter was a blast. He's a cutie.
• I have been watching a lot of tv shows on DVD. My roster includes Lost (gotta get through season 3 before the 31 of Jan), The Office (just about caught all the way up), and Heroes (thanks Emily for that one! I'm finishing up the most recent episodes that exist)

I think that's a good start...