Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas time post

I feel like I should make a special xmas post. Just because xmas is awesome and also because my cat is giving me weird looks and carrying on a silent, creepy vigil by the couch. I think Santa got to her. May be if I put up a menorah she'd back off. Anyway, I love Christmas. One of my favorite holidays. I am proud to say that I'm one of the few who are impervious to the incessant ramblings of Christmas songs being played over and again through store-wide speakers. That makes me feel all warm inside. It allows me to point at the scrooges and grinches and laugh at them for allowing themselves to get down in the dumps during the time of year where you're supposed to be happy and joyful. Those people are as irritating as the people who go to Disneyland and whine about it the whole time. Come on! It's the happiest freaking place on earth for crying out loud! Ya, it's totally fake and does not represent the outside world, but I'm not going to pay big bucks to visit a fantastical slum where a person in a big ol' mickey costume gets gunned down by a bunch of irate chipmunks on the corner of Mainstreet.

I have always loved Christmas because my grandma goes all out with her decorations every year. I have loved it since I was a kid. I totally enjoy putting up all of the lights and garlands and then sitting back and lighting it up at the end of the day. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I've decided that when I have a house of my own, I'm going to be "That Guy" every year. I'll probably take liberties with it of course. For instance: I would have a totally animatronic set of SAMs (Surface to air missles) swiveling in the middle of my lawn. They'd be complete with reindeer skull decals on their nose cones. It would be awesome. A bank of search lights, training their massive beams on the sky might be a nice touch too. Oh, to dream.

I've done my fair share of arts and crafts this season too. Christmas time is usually the time where my family gets together and works on little Christmas crafts to decorate the house with. The last couple of years have been filled with those lighted wooden Christmas trees and snow men. Those were fun. This year is full of Nutcrackers. I decided to go a little further with it though. A regular nutcracker is too boring after all. Why not make a zombie nutcracker? Not only that, but what fun is it to keep the finished product for myself right? Here's what I came up with:


These are the bite marks.


Again


Since it's already a Christmas time abomination, why not put it in a box that totally does not fit the season. I was definitely playing on the whole Nightmare Before Christmas thing with it. The bats on the lid look retarded because it was a last minute addition and I was working with a fatty paint pen. Detail work was too hard. That's why they look like long blobs.


That's what I presented at the Burn's white elephant gift exchange. I'm kind of sad that a student I really didn't know well got it because he didn't have any knowledge of my reputation. He kind of hid it away and split right after, so that kind of bummed me out too, but hey, I enjoyed making it. I've got some other nutcrackers lying around too so I can mess around with those for the rest of the season. In any case; I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and a splendid New Year. Salud.

Monday, November 30, 2009

My first hunting trip.


As some of you may know, I left on a hunting trip 2 thursdays ago. I took off on a plane to the great state of Minnesota where I stayed with my great uncle and talked about the good times we had in Canada. The next day, my dad and I drove around 4 hours down to Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin to meet up with my grandpa, cousin, and cousin's fiance at the hunting ground. We hiked around for awhile and got acquainted with our stands while they gave us the rundown.

The next day, we woke up at 4 a.m., had breakfast and then headed out to the hunting grounds. We walked up to our stand in complete darkness, got situated and waited. That is probably the worst part about it. Sitting up in a mini bench attached to a tree, 10 feet up in the air, staring at trees for hours is boring. The view is amazing and all, but seriously, there is only so much you can take.

Around 10 a.m., it finally became worth it. We suddenly heard a shot ring out from the other side of the hunting grounds. My dad correctly identified it as the crack of my Grandpa's .35 lever action. I turned to see my dad staring down the shooting lane off to my right. Right after that, you could hear the deer running through the forest. I turned to see my dad aiming down the shooting lane. As I shifted to face the lane, the deer finally appeared. A group of around 7 or so deer suddenly stopped in middle of our lane.

The first 3 in the group stood still, staring directly at us. The rest were totally oblivious to the cross-hairs hovering over their hearts. Without hesitation I pulled the trigger. My dad fired at his deer almost exactly at the same time. The deer scattered at that moment. I tracked my deer as it was in flight and fired an "eff you" shot after it. Apparently it wasn't necessary.

Probably the greatest part of the whole hunt was seeing my deer topple over 20 or so feet from where I shot it. We found the blood trail and followed it for kicks to where my deer lay. We found it in a break of trees with a nice clean wound right behind his front leg. Right in the heart. We found the blood trail for my dad's deer and found that one a good ways off. His was a lot bigger than mine.

We ended up going hunting another 2 days but didn't see any other deer. So we got lucky just seeing that group. All in all, out of the 5 guys on the trip, we only filled 3 tags. 2 of which were from the city slickers! So it was an awesome trip and I'm pretty much psyched that I brought something down my first time.

We don't really have many pictures of the deer, but we do have some video of me getting elbow deep in one of them! I figured nobody would want to see that.

Monday, November 9, 2009

West Bank Story

Today in one of my religion classes, my professor showed us this little 20 or so minute long video called West Bank story. We are studying Jew and Muslim relations in class right now, so he thought it was kind of fitting, even though it was funny. I thought some of you guys might enjoy it as much as I did.



If you don't already know, relations between Muslim Palestinians and Jews have been strained for ages. Both sides have been committing all sorts of atrocities. each side, of course, feels justified and it almost feels like there is no end to the violence in sight. I'm hopeful that a resolution will be reached in the future, however. I know there are people on both sides who are working for peace.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Confirmation that I'm a trouble maker.

I have a tendency to get into trouble. Usually, I get into more trouble when I'm partnered with one of my familiar cohorts however, I do get into some big trouble on my own from time to time. I think today counts as one of those days.

After Church today, I had decided to meet up with my buddy Paddy and his sickly sister over at H. Salts for some good fish and chips and chicken strips. On the way there, I happen to be verbally harassed by a student leaning out of the window of his sister's car. Not being one to let a show of disrespect slide, I brought out my handy dandy air powered, foam nerf ball firing cannon of destruction. I chose to use the most harmless looking one for good reason. So as they passed, I lobbed a small green foam ball across the street at them. I hit them of course. It was awful gratifying. So I carried on with my business being satisfied and fully prepared for an equally satisfying meal.

I got to H. Salts without incident. No trouble there. I ordered my meal and sat down to eat and chit chat with Paddy and his sister. Good times were had. Now, while I'm in the process of eating my 3rd chicken strip, 2 cops casually stroll through the door. They lean against the trash cans and ask who's truck that is out front. I ask if they were talking about the white truck. They were not. That's when I caught a glimpse of the two squad cars surrounding my vehicle.

I told them it was my car and asked what the problem was. One continues to casually recline against the trash receptacle as her partner approaches to turn on the intimidation. I'm kind of surprised I kept my cool. He inquires as to my business with the car I shot at. Of course I'm a little surprised, but I tell them straight up that I knew them and it was a nerf gun. As soon as the word nerf gun left my lips, the other officer rolled her eyes and radioed dispatch. Apparently someone had called me in and possibly tailed me. I apologized of course, and they made sure I would never do it again. As they walked out, the third officer who was hanging outside the doors looked a little disappointed. I guess they expected me to put up a fight. No doubt they could tell I was Italian.

Of course more good times were had, as well as joking about how smoothly and speedily the Downey Police department pulled 2 squad cars to respond to a foam related drive-by. I didn't know Downey cops took that seriously. I guess I'll have to be careful when I nerf in Downey.

In case you all were wondering, this is what I choose to use when I do a drive-by:

Monday, August 17, 2009

100th Post!!

Woo! 100th blogpost! Let's start this thing off with a bang! So for the last couple of months I have been working on a little comic just for fun especially for this occasion. It has been the most fun time I've had drawing in a long time. Doing this has inspired me to do more, so expect more of these little things to come, except not normally this long. This took a ridiculous amount of time, considering I'm a busy guy again.

Anyway, this thing is in no way, shape, or form, supposed to be serious. I'm not making some political statement, I just thought it might be a little humorous. It's also pretty random. I hope you enjoy it. You're probably going to have to click on them to get a better look. I don't have the proper software at this time to fix them up. So for now, this is as good as it gets.


I'm sure I'm going to need to explain some things about that comic, but moving on!

I've been taking a trip down memory lane and reading all of my old blogposts. It's actually a ton of fun. I thought I'd highlight a few things while I was at it.


It all started with this: http://cannonball011.blogspot.com/2007/01/this-just-in.html


One of my favorite adventures: http://cannonball011.blogspot.com/2007/05/great-nerf-adventure.html

My favorite project. I never really got pictures of the finished product. I ought to get those from Kevin.: http://cannonball011.blogspot.com/2007/01/my-current-project.html

Weirdest project: http://cannonball011.blogspot.com/2007/01/wii-sight-mark-i.html

Assassin's game winner! : http://assassingame07.blogspot.com/2007/12/winner.html

The greatest thing I've destroyed: http://cannonball011.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-put-it-down.html

Deepest blog post: http://cannonball011.blogspot.com/2009/05/vanity-of-vanities.html



Favorite comment:
"Amy said...

also, benjamin franklin was a douche. great inventor, perhaps, but douche all the way."


What's on my shelf now? The original thread: http://cannonball011.blogspot.com/2008/05/whats-on-my-shelf.html

In alphabetical order by last name of author. (not on my shelf, but for listing purposes. Some of my books are big.) This is a list of books that I have read/plan on reading/finishing. X is for finished, fractions for how much I've read already. Books are in the same series if not spaced.

Dante Alighieri

[ ] Dante's divine comedy: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise

Jane Austen

[1/2] Pride and Prejudice

[ ] Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (partly written by Seth Grahame-Smith)

Rob Bell

[x]
Velvet Elvis

[x] Sex God

[x] Jesus wants to save Christians

J.L. Bourne


[x] Day By Day Armageddon

Marcus J. Borg

[ ] Jesus: Uncovering the life, teachings, and relevance of a religious revolutionary.


Terry Brooks

[x] Armageddon's Children
[x] The Elves of Cintra
[x] The Gypsy Morph
[]
First King of Shannara
[x] Sword of Shannara
[x] Elfstones of Shannara
[x] Wishsong of Shannara
[x] Scions of Shannara
[x] Druid of Shannara
[x] Elf Queen of Shannara
[X] Talismans of Shannara
[x] Ilse Witch
[x] Antrax
[x] Morgawr
[x] Jarka Ruus
[x] Tanequil
[x] Straken

Max Brooks

[x] The Zombie Survival Guide
[x] World War Z

Dan Brown

[x]
Angels and Demons
[1/3] Davinci code. (sooo boring.)

Tobias S. Buckell

[x] Halo: The Cole Protocol

Raymond Chandler

[x] The Big Sleep
[x] The Long Goodbye
[ ] The High Window

Nathan Charlton

[x] Terra Nova: The Search


Tom Clancy

[x]
Red Storm Rising

[x] Teeth of the Tiger

[3/4] Red Rabbit (I don't know why I stopped.)

Michael Crichton

[x]
Prey
[x] Jurassic Park
[x] The Lost World
[] Andromeda Strain

Ted Dekker

[x]
Black
[x] Red
[x] White
[x] Showdown
[x] Saint
[x] Sinner

[ ] Chosen

[ ] Obsessed

[x] Thr3e

William C. Dietz

[x] Halo: The Flood


David Dunwoody


[ ] Empire


Daveed Gardenstein-Ross

[x]
My Year inside Radical Islam


Jean Craighead George

[x]
My side of the mountain

Bear Heart

[x]
The Wind is my mother: The Life and teachings of a native american shaman

Homer

[x]
The Iliad and The Odyssey

Brian Jacques

[x]
Redwall
[x] Mattimeo
[x] Marlfox
[x] Martin the Warrior
[x] Mossflower
[x] The Legend of Luke
[x] Lord Brocktree
[ ] Salamandastron
[ ] High Rhulain
[ ] Pearls of Lutra

Timothy Keller

[]
The Reason for God: Belief in an age of skepticism

Stephen King

[x]
Cell


Harold S. Kushner

[1/2]
To Life!: A celebration of Jewish being and thinking (good. I think I was working on a good fiction book so I dropped it)

C.S. Lewis

[]
The Magician's Nephew (now I recall reading the whole collection when I was younger, but I'm reading them all over again, so I'm not counting the earlier reads)
[x] The Lion, the With, and the Wardrobe
[] The Horse and his boy
[x] Prince Caspian
[] The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
[] The Silver Chair
[x] The Last Battle

[x] Mere Christianity
[x] Screwtape letters
[] The Problem of Pain
[] The Great Divorce
[] Miracles
[] A Grief Observed

Jonathan Maberry

[x] Zombie CSU: The Forensics of The Living Dead

[x] Patient Zero

Ross Macdonald


[ ] The Chill

Eric Nylund

[x]
The Fall of Reach
[x] First Strike
[x] Ghosts of Onyx

Frank Peretti

[x]
The Visitation

[x] The Oath

[x] This Present Darkness
[x] Piercing the Darkness

Mary Shelley

[x]
Frankenstein

Lee Strobel

[]
The Case for a Creator

Bram Stoker

[x]
Dracula

Joseph Staten

[x] Halo: Contact Harvest


Koushun Takami

[x] Battle Royale

Sun Tzu

[ ] The Art of War

David Wellington

[x] Monster Island
[x] Monster Nation
[ ] Monster Planet

So I guess my collection of books has grown a little bit. This isn't including all of the historical reference books I've got on the bible and the Roman empire and so forth. This also isn't counting the books I've borrowed from other people.

Phew! Well I think that's everything now. These 100th posts have been a real adventure. I love my blog dearly. It's been with me through the good and the bad. Here's to 100 more posts, and I hope you guys all stick around to read them!



Saturday, August 1, 2009

Good stuff

So last night was our super awesome L4D Lan party. Pretty much one of the greatest zombie stomping sessions ever! We didn't exactly come out on top every game, or round for that matter, but we still have fun and kicked some butt! Here's a funny little related video that only a few of you will understand.


Good times. Anyway, I've been slacking on the blogging for a while now but this post marks the official 99th blog post. Official because I have a draft or two laying around that I haven't bothered to post because I have no idea what to do with them. So since my next one is going to be the 100th, I thought I'd make it a special one. It'll probably be epically long. So for now, I'll use the rest of this post to put up random stuff as to postpone blog death.
Ok, Kevin found this on the internet and sent it to me. Doggone man. My idea got jacked. Oh well. You guys saw it on my blog first, and some of you even saw the drawings in person first!

Jillian inspired me to put up a music video on here. I will spare you all the girliness and put up some Coldplay and a video that is pretty creative and awesome.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

This is what happens...

....When you leave me alone with a pressure washer for too long.I carve my name into stuff. This is the porch out in front of my house. That's not just paint that's peeled off. It's actually into the concrete. Ain't I a stinker?

This week's been pretty good. These last 2 days have been jam packed with adventure so I'm pretty happy about that. I got my packet for the CIY D groups last week so that's pretty cool. If you have never been to CIY then I better fill you in. CIY (Christ In Youth) is a christian camp set at a university every year for highschoolers. We have services and worship and little electives. It's pretty cool. D groups are just our little devotional small groups the students break into after our little service in the mornings. Since I'm going to be leading one it's my job to acquaint myself with the material. I haven't really gotten to far into it just yet but I'm getting there. Just skimming so far. It looks like a ton of fun, and this year marks the first year that I go as a leader rather than a student. Good times all around. Hopefully I'll be able to engage the students for an hour and fifteen minutes. We'll see.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Three doodles

I had two more doodles I needed to take out of my bible before I lost them. I know I have a ton more stashed somewhere but I have yet to find them.


I was digging through some other sketches and I thought this lawn gnome deserved to see the light of day. I had an idea to put it on a t shirt or something but that never panned out, much like most of my other ideas. Oh well. Enjoy the doodles.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Vanity of Vanities

Quite recently I've been clued in on a very awesome book of the bible that I seem to have neglected some how. Considering it's one of many books within the Old Testament it comes as no big surprise. This book, however, has done me a ton of good and has put a lot of stuff in perspective for me. It is by no means the easiest book of the bible to swallow, but I could easily rank this one among my top 5. Easily.

As some of you may already know, I just completed my 20th year of life on this awesome planet God put me on. I've learned a great many things these 2 decades of O2 inhalations and I thought a blog post summation of some of these important lessons would be just plain nifty. Reading through the book of Ecclesiastes again (the book mentioned above), I found that it pretty much addressed most of them pretty well. So why not kill 2 birds with one blog post and talk about the bible and life? This is such a strange concept; I know. Bear with me on this one folks. Also bear in mind that I am not an expert scholar or interpreter of scripture. This is just what I've pulled from it. I'm not going to go through all of the verses that I love in this book, but just a few. I'll save those other good ones for another day.

So much of my life has been spent on searching for understanding. "Why do we live? Who is God? Did he really make us?" are all questions I've asked myself in the past plus many more. It's not been the easiest of journeys. These are things that every human being struggles with in some form or another. It's tough stuff that isn't exactly easy to answer. Sometimes we are lucky enough to catch a break by being able to wrap our heads around one of these questions sufficiently enough to be "content". It's easy to assume that things will be just plain peachy once we have all the answers. To be wise and have understanding is going to make things a breeze. I've become very fond of verse 4:7 in Proverbs that says: "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Thought it cost all you have, get understanding." So much so that part of the verse is proudly displayed on my blog. In the past I've naively assumed becoming wise would solve all my problems. I would understand the workings of things right? What could be go wrong? "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief." Ecclesiastes 1:18. That one is an eye opener. Who would think things would get harder the more we know? In these past 20 years, wisdom has been bestowed on me from various experiences in my life. None of them have been what you would call a cake walk. Had someone asked me if I wanted to forgo the lesson I would learn after surviving such a trial at the time, I would most certainly have accepted their offer to skip the whole thing and go on with the easy life. Asking to be wise has caused all sorts of things to happen to me that I've never considered. It's been a torturous but also fulfilling journey. Knowing what I know now though, I would definitely not skip a thing.

Relationships have become such an important part of my life these past couple years. I used to take for granted my friendship and other sorts of relationships I had with people around me. I was really just in it for me, and if that relationship didn't benefit me then I'd scrap it and move on. Often, if things were tough in my life, I would disconnect from these relationships of mine and just go it alone. I would turn away from my friends and hide in some dark corner somewhere to marinate in all of the muck and bile that was consuming my life. It's a very destructive way of living, and it's been rather tough to get over. I have come to cherish some of the relationships I now have. They have gotten me through so much. Without them, I would not be as strong a person as I am today. Making myself vulnerable to people has to be one of the hardest things I have ever dealt with in my life. Confessing to another human being that I am imperfect and I need some help bad has scared me out of my witness more times than I care to recall. It still does. Being able to hear from someone that things will be OK, to hear that they understand, and to see the kindness in their eyes has just blown the lid off of all of those fears of mine though. It's irreplaceable. Without my friends I would be no where. They've gotten me through so much and have helped me to become the man that I am today. When satan has come stomping down my door, it's been such a relief to have a friend of mine standing there ready to punch him in the face and push him away. It's awesome. "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. a cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 3:9-12

"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand." Ecclesiastes 5:15. Everything that I own, everything that I earn, everything that I win is going to pass away. I can't take it with me. So often do we put value in material possessions. We can't hold onto this stuff forever. It doesn't belong to us anyway! What use do we have of it when we're dead. Storing up my treasures in Heaven instead of in my room has been a much tougher thing to do than I thought. Parting with a few bucks to give to a homeless man or dropping a few coins into the can of the person in front of the grocery store is a battle when you are thinking every cent counts towards that new ipod or game system or what have you. It's come down to saving money to feed our brains nonsense rather than feed an empty stomach on the street or somewhere else in the world. It's been a hard lesson for me to understand, but I think I'm getting it.


I've always been one who is quick to anger. I have a reputation for sometimes being a hot-head at home. So often does my temper get the best of me and hurt the people that I love. It causes me to become impatient and short with people and cause sometimes Irreparable damage to relationships. Relationships that mean a lot to me. I can't begin to describe how man times I have regretted saying something so hurtful that it cuts too deep to stitch closed out of anger. Never a fine moment. It's really quite stupid, especially when you blow up on someone who cares for you and is trying to help you. Being called out for being wrong has always been something that has bothered me. In the past it has caused me to take juvenile little disagreements and make them personal. It's retarded. Sometimes I wouldn't be able to let them go. I would find myself mulling over a stupid disagreement that meant nothing. I would be totally pissed off beyond all reason about it too! It's funny because when I see this in other people, I get totally pissed off and annoyed at them! It's totally ridiculous. Putting my pride to the side and being patient with some people has been a tough thing to do. It's something I always have to remind myself to do. With some people more than others. "The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools." Ecclesiastes 7:8-9.

Earlier this year I was going through quite a rough patch in my life. Things were just not the way I wanted them to be. I was completely miserable. My relationship with God was on the rocks. I had neglected all interaction with my creator. My bible sat neglected on my desk collecting dust for the longest time. I was depressed all the time and just plain angry with myself. I used to dwell on the past and how great I used to be when I would eagerly read my bible during school and highlight away passage after passage. I thought they were the greatest moments of my life and when I was strongest. I thought I would never be that great again. I was wrong. "Do not say, :why were the old days better than these?" for it is not wise to ask such questions." Ecclesiastes 7:10. What I failed to realize was I was not so perfect back then. I was just remembering all of the good things and forgetting the bad. And on top of all of that, I was totally disregarding the fact that I still did not completely understand what I was doing back then. Things have gotten better since then because I've allowed myself to move on and to learn instead of focusing on the "greatness" of the past and not go any where and just mope.

My life has been no where near perfect. I have often found myself crying out and asking God why these terrible things are happening to me, or why they are happening to other people. So often to we cry out in our anguish and wonder why we have to endure such torment. What purpose do they serve? "Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future." Ecclesiastes 7:13-14. Much like the things that may happen to us, this verse is kind of hard to understand. Basically put, who can say what purpose these things serve? Who says they are just for us to suffer? So often have I found that the experience that I have drawn from some earth-shaking conflict of the past has given hope to someone in desperate need of help. My suffering has produced not only strength in myself, but also in others. It's crazy to see that happen sometimes. When your realize that braving that crap storm of the past has toughened you up to pull someone else out of their own crap storm. It's nuts! Knowing that you cried out then to find some understanding, when it is standing in front of you now, plain as day and critically important to boot. This world may be crappy sometimes, but I believe things happen for a reason. And when that crap storm looms on the horizon, consider what strength you may gain from it when you are on the other side of the catastrophe rebuilding yourself much stronger to possibly withstand the bazillion mile per hour, debris-flying-through-the-air craziness to come.

This next one I have learned the hard way. It slapped me in the face one night when I was trying to figure out when and how to speak to a person who is very dear to me. I'm an impatient son of a gun. I like to go in and get things done when I feel like it. It's gotten me into some trouble sometimes because I didn't think it through before hand. Things still don't go the way I plan, but it sure does help to think of it this way and know that there's a right way to do things sometimes. "Whoever obeys his commands will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him." Ecclesiastes 8:5-6. Sometimes you have to slow down, bring your racing thoughts to a halt and let God show you the way. Sometimes he even writes down a time and a place! Heck, X marks the spot!

I'd just like to close with this: "Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you Joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. so then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless." Ecclesiastes 11:9-10. Pretty good verse to put me in my place and put things in perspective. It's been an awesome 20 years of life so far. I'm excited to see what God has in storm for me in the future!




Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly Meaningless! Everything is Meaningless!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Well, shoot...

What's this???
Proof of purchase baby! I thought what Amy did was awesome, so I followed suit. I think everyone in the blogosphere who owns a copy should have a picture of them with the book. I've got 1 and a half books to read before I get to it but it will be read! Kudos to Nathan for writing a book!

I guess this has become a personal update blog. I really don't like these, but most of my blog posts turn into these. Oi vey. Here's a big update: I have to use crutches to get around now! What happened, do you say? I'll tell you! It was Wednesday. I'm one of those staffers/adult leaders or whatever you want to call them, at the burn. Tradition has us set a game up for the students before service gets started. We just so happened to be playing Soccer: my favoritest sport ever! I wasn't wearing shoes at the time, but when has that ever stopped me!? So, it was going good. The other team had gotten the ball to our side of the field, and being the awesome Italian soccer player that I am, stole the ball, turned around, and maneuvered it to my right. Everything was going good until a rogue student comes screeching in on the ground feet first towards my unprotected foot! That's totally illegal by the way. I made sure I reprimanded him and instructed him in the rules of soccer. He adamantly disagreed, stating: "I was going after the ball!" I limped off the field in disgust.

By the time I got to the fence I knew something was wrong. It caused me a great deal of pain just to make it to the kitchen. By that time I couldn't even stand on it. Realizing I had wrecked my foot, I quickly hopped to the bathroom and threw up. That was not fun. I quickly dialed my mommy and had her pick me up and take me to the E.R. I pretty much hopped around on one foot, laughing like a hysterical idiot as I went. Long story short, I find out I fractured my foot. Not pretty at all. So now I have to crutch around until my foot stops hurting enough for me to walk on it. They gave me 4-6 weeks till it's fully healed. My foot is good enough to walk on right now even without worrying about causing any problems, it just still hurts a lot. So the moral of this story is you damn well better play soccer right or I might just cleat your face off!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Good Friday art

This year, our church decided to do something a little different with our Good Friday service. It was a pretty nifty idea actually. They got together a bunch of the artists that float around the church on a regular basis and commissioned them to make 6 different art pieces ranging from Christ in the garden up to his entombment. It turned out really cool in the end. Tom and I were 2 of many who stepped up to get things done this year. Here's what we came up with:We were in charge of doing Christ's trial before the Sanhedrin. It took us a good amount of time to figure out what to put, but this is what we ended up going with. The over all theme of the whole service was supposed to be gloomy. I think we did a good enough job of capturing it. Our piece was second up on the guided tour. They ended up lighting the flame with a red light and spot lighting Jesus, which cast everything around him in shadows which was kind of what we were going for. It turned out quite good. This should provide a good size reference for what we were working with. I believe the canvas was 8x4 ft so it really wasn't anything tiny. Over all, it was a ton of fun. I don't think I've ever painted anything that big before. Good times.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Avoid the grave!

Alright, I don't want to be a dead friend so this is me crawling out of the blogger grave! I was actually making a deeper blog post last night, but I was too worn out from the high school all nighter (doggone kids) to think straight. Right now I'm just lazy.

I go back to school next week! No fun, but there's no getting around it. I had my week of fun and good times, now it's back to prison! Oh well. I'm really looking forward to summer. There are so many projects I have stacked up it's not funny! I've had to put off my really time consuming ones till the summer because of school. My schedule isn't that bad, but I still don't really have time to work on all of it. Curse these crazy hobbies of mine!

Speaking of which, I've been meaning to do a totally nerf related post just because people have been giving me flack about it. I'd like to give you all some insight into how the big boys play with kid's toys. If you would like to be a test subject in regards to darts coming out of a modified gun and into contact with human flesh, please let me know. It's for science.....and so I can inflict pain on you. Like you guys would be able to stop me anyway...

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Doodles

So I was recently reminded by a close friend of mine about doodling and how much I do it in class and stuff. I usually have a collection of doodles stuffed in my bible that I carry around so I figured I would start a blog doodle series. This series is called the Church Doodles series. All of these were done somewhere within DFCC. Enjoy. I thought some of these were actually kind of funny.
This is the oldest version of the Church tank still in existence. The first version was submitted into the offering plate during that little series where the pastor was putting up doodles that were submitted on the screen. It must've been too sacrilegious/controversial or something. It was shown cresting a small hill with a tree and a happy little sun in the back. It was awesome. Version two was also submitted for good measure. So I'd say this one is version 3Another Church tank. I believe this was during the church sermon series "the unstoppable force" So this was around the same time as the Norma Coss Juggernaut picture frame jokeThat is a crude drawing of a Megazord just in case you guys were wondering. I couldn't resist
This one is kind of funny. Make sure you read some of the stuff I've written. And then on the flip side of the notes there is....Make sure you read the notes!I really liked this one...So Tom and I decided to start some kind of ridiculous battle series. We did some collaborations. If you are the Wallaces then you have one on your fridge. Notable warriors in this picture are as follows from left to right: GW Bush, Monkey with a flamethrower smoking a cigar, Super Lincoln, Super Mario, Zombie Steve Irwin, Captain Planet
This one is kinda bad. It was done during xmas time too. What Jews have to do with aliens is beyond me. I have no idea what I was thinking. Mark Shoch does that to you sometimes...This one is kind of weird too. They started giving us some lines for our church notes instead of bullet points. On top of that they added that dude with the light bulb. It was begging to be destroyed. Notable fighters include: Super Lincoln, The Brave Little Toaster, Charizard, (not pictured) Super Mario. (who do you think tossed the Bomb-omb?), Monkey with a flamethrower smoking a cigar, robotic knight, The Avenging Unicorn.This one rocks a little harder. It's infamous Herbert the Lawngnome who adorns the remains of an old church trip to frantones flyer.This is the last one that I've got. I drew this on the outline sheet from our last staff meeting during the meeting. Except for the rocket, they're all some sort of beast. Mostly mythical. Mythical beasts rule.

Next doodle series will be about my school doodles! good times.


Sunday, March 1, 2009

But you untied me. Didn't you untie me, Lord?

It's been awhile since I've thrown down anything too deep on here. I'm pretty much overdue or something like that. May be that's something I shouldn't want to have to type up on my blog? I don't know, but I'm going through with it anyway.

I've been having a real difficult time just operating this past couple of weeks. I've been irritated, sad, lonely, confused, etc. Altogether it hasn't been too fun to be me. I've just been going through the process of re-evaluating myself and that's never fun. I've basically been cleaning house. Had to lift up some couches and stare some mutated, snaggle-toothed dusty bunnies in the face which is terrifying! Tangling with monsters ain't easy! It's pretty stressful, and it's something I don't like and enjoy shying away from, but regardless of how much I detest it, it's got to be done if I care about it at all at least.

Soul-searching's been a long and difficult process for me. I don't know about you guys, but realizing my own short comings just never makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Finding you land far from the person you want yourself to be is pretty crushing. It's like: "ok, so where did I turn off and how the heck did I get here!?" And sometimes, you feel so far away that it seems like you'll never get back. So it feels like I'm stuck in Egypt. So far away from where I should be just getting beaten down by my personal failure and short comings that it feels like it's impossible to get up. There's nothing I can do but cry out in agony because I'm facing a machine that's bigger than me.

Praise be to God, the God of the broken and wretched, who's ears hear the cry of the oppressed. The old school Sunday school story has never meant so much more to me than it does now. God heard the cry of his people being oppressed and beaten down in Egypt, and just like that God hears my cries when I'm getting beaten down too. He rose up against Egypt and rescued his people just as he rescues me now. It's awesome.

God hears my cries of pain and anguish. Sometimes it doesn't seem like he's listening, but he is. He's moving, we just don't see it. It's always hard to wait out for that shining light to guide you back when you're waist deep in darkness. Personally, I tend to forget what kind of a track record he's got when it comes to him rescuing his people.

It's been so easy for me to just get wrapped up in thinking about my own short comings and failures. Just getting tied up by hopelessness. Honestly, sometimes it seems like I'm completely wrapped, and on top of that, tied "neatly" together with some kind of Gordian knot. It feels like it's impossible for me to get out of this; it's never going to happen. Pack it in Cory, you're done. Finito, capice? But God never fails to pull me out. Sometimes it's subtle, very very subtle. Like a thief in the night, or just like a whisper on the wind. You'd miss it if you weren't looking for it. And sometimes he comes in like a pillar of fire. There's no way you can miss that. It's obvious, it's awesome! He comes along and chops the knot and frees me. "But you untied me. Didn't you untie me Lord?" the lyrics have never felt so true before.

Ya I sowed the wind, but I wasn't prepared to reap the whirlwind. I never expected to be beat down this bad. But God has always been there to give me relief. And when I'm standing there surveying the aftermath, he's been there to reset my foundations and help me rebuild. It's a painful process of course, but it happens. When it happens, Christ's got the hammer and nails.

While I've been thinking, I've realized I honestly don't give myself enough credit. Now follow me on this one, I'm not being full of myself here. I've always just been so focused on how much I mess up and not on how much I've grown and changed for the better. Now I've got an example from a certain situation I found myself in today. I'm sure if you asked other people involved about it, they may give you a different perspective on the situation, probably/especially a certain individual who was the other party in the little discussion I found myself in after class this morning. I assure you that I'm being completely sincere when I speak about this. Honest.

Now I've found my way into some very ugly discussions that went south real fast. A couple of my friends can testify to that actually. Point is, I've been in enough to know now the difference between having a discussion and an argument. You're either doing one or the other. Today, even if the other person was a little stubborn and young, I felt I was discussing. I was not angry. Confused, maybe a little flustered, but not angry. I most certainly was not even thinking about trying to "win" the discussion as if it was so important to win. I was honestly interested in discussing the subject and explaining why it didn't make much sense to me and why it didn't. I don't think it would be wrong for me to be proud of the way I conducted myself today. I've done far worse in the past, and Lord knows there was the possibility of complete disaster today, but I think I handled it pretty well. The moral of this story is this is one place God has taught me to better and it has happened. I've seen the growth that he's encouraged and I'm pretty happy for that.

The thought of loving myself is so bizarre and new. It's tough, which you think would be a weird thing to say right? I mean who doesn't think they're worth anything at all and doesn't appreciate their own personal strengths. Honestly, I know alot of people, myself included, who do. So I don't know about you all, but I think I'm going to take a walk on the wild side and appreciate myself a little more. After all, I was tied up and he freed me. I've got to be worth something to him if he would do such a thing. Are we "too good" to love ourselves even if God does enough to send his Son down to die for us? We were made in his image. That's got to mean something right?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Pokestuds!

Alright so everyone knows, or became painfully aware of valentine's day last week. I remember back in the day when we'd pass out little valentines around the elementary school. It was good times, and also bad times I guess depending on who you ask. I just remember I was a big fan of the Scooby Do valentines. They were the best. Recently, I went in search of some at my local Wallyworld with no success. I did however find a really awesome alternative.
They are surprisingly deep. Take a gander. I'm sure some little Pokemon masters had some girls swooning over these things. I think Dialga (bottom right) is my favorite, but Palkia (to Dialga's left) is a very close second.

It's nowhere near as old school as Scooby Do, but I think it's just as legit.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Oh the pain

Last week at the burn we were running through these 3 stations of the cross for service. They were Pain, Sacrifice, and Rejection. As a leader of course, I had the opportunity to run through those stations with a group of students. What really hit me was the pain station. I didn't really notice at first when I was speaking about it, but really talking about what Christ endured for us made me appreciate it so much more.

Recently, I've been struggling with the idea of rejoicing in our suffering. It's one of those things I just read and let bounce around in my head till it made a reappearance and slapped me in the face. What's it mean to rejoice in our suffering and why should we? Let's take a look at some verses. First my buddy Paul the Apostle: "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:3-5. I'm sure everyone's heard the saying "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Although I haven't been through any suffering worthy of recognition, from what I have been through I can definitely say it is worth it on the other side. I think it's good to know that I'm not going to get left hangin' when I'm "in a trough." Like a good shepherd, Christ's going to pull me out of that crack in the earth.

Anyway, this is just one of those things I like to keep in mind and turn over. I don't think I'm ever going to come up with a perfect answer for this one, but I think it'd be fun to come back to this in a year or so to see what I've got then.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Add him up.

So our friend Tommy B just got himself a blog. http:/tomba357.blogspot.com
You should add him to your blog friend lists. Do it.

Anyway, things are pretty chill right now. I don't start school till the 26th so hurray for me! So I'm watching the Count of Monte Cristo right now and Count Mondego is about to get his come uppins. The show down with everyone in the ruins is such a great scene! I love when the good guy prevails over the bad guy, especially when sword fighting is involved. That's a movie I highly recommend. go check it out now!

My hardware's been crapping out on me lately so it's put a real damper on my production of stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to get back up and going with my projects and give you guys that kick butt blog post I had planned. Stay tuned!

Monday, January 5, 2009

I put it down

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a little shoot out in the desert with some buddies. It was a ton of fun just like the last time. 'nough said. Now the last time, I had brought along my ipod to blast into oblivion. It escaped the chopping block. Not this time though boys and girls. The Result:
Some back story is in order. I have had some bad luck with Ipods in the past. The first 3 ipods (yes, 3) all crapped out on me in some way,shape, or form. This one was numero uno. This one separated itself from the rest though. After like 2 years (or something like that) I was able to fix it!. The Ipod that was dead came back to life. From that moment on, it became the "Zombipod." It wasn't totally reliable because I had to continually resurrect it. I felt like Frankenstein every time. I think I even yelled "IT'S ALIVE!" at one point. So it ran for awhile like this until it had it's last run in the CSUF parking structure right out by the TSU. Of course I was pissed that it had to crap out at the beginning of the school day, but I couldn't honestly expect it to run forever.

I held on to my Ipod 'til I could find a fitting end for it. I thought an end like this was perfect. It's the Zombipod after all, and everyone knows that a good zombie is a "dead" zombie. It was also an opportunity to send my Ipod out in blaze of glory. That's deserved respect my friends, tantamount to a viking funeral I guess. I'm not going to tell you I didn't enjoy shooting the thing though. It took two hits that really did damage. The first shot flew in from underneath and totally split it in half. I had set it up at an angle at first so after it split in half I totally couldn't shoot the parts. After we were allowed out on the field again, I set it up better. The second shot flew right through the wheel, battery, hard drive, and finally smashed through the case and out. I wasted the rest of my magazine on the bits on the ground which left the front with cracks and burnt grooves. After that, Tom and I blasted the rest with our shotguns. We weren't using a heavy enough caliber to do any real damage since it was too tough for that so we basically scattered it across the field.That's the finishing blow next a .223 round: the culprit. It was pretty awesome and was just one part of an awesome day.
Just for those of you who were scarred by that awfully terrible low budget British zombie flick, it's gone now. Tom personally disintegrated it for you all. It will only haunt you in your dreams and memories. Enjoy.