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.

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.

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!

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.

Back to the basics...

So I've been really inspired to do stuff since thanksgiving break. I told you guys I had a couple of projects in the works, so here's one that got finished. Here's to show you I'm not all talk. Behold the Trojan reindeer Mk. II:That's the finished product. Here's some back story. A couple years back I thought it'd be funny to put something like this together out of cardboard and wrapped in gift wrap to give as a white elephant gift at the DFCC Xmas party. I slapped some army men and a 5 dollar in n out buck in the bad boy and called it a night. For this one, I was really inspired. Kevin happened to tell me about the little rick roll gift he gave at school and I basically fell in love with the idea. I wanted to take the idea a step further though. This is where Popsicle sticks and craft glue came in. Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to go back to the basics and pretend I was in elementary school again. I relish those moments you know.

I immediately went down to Michael's to procure said craft products and get to work. I honestly could have done a way better job, but I got busy with school and had to rush a bit. I would have liked to paint it as well but I guess I had to work with what I had at the time. I'm not complaining to much, it still turned out pretty cool in my opinion.This is where it gets good. I had to dig around for a supply of army men. Luckily, I had some stashed away. I put those to the side until I could glue my set of mini speakers inside the body first. After that, I arranged the little soldiers around the speakers. I'm sure you know what's coming next. Apparently the Xmas party I was attending had like a $10 limit or something for the gift. I figured that gave me room to splurge a bit. I had gone down to the Big 5 in Cerritos earlier in the week for Xmas shopping (In case you're wondering, I snagged the last Mossberg combo) and spotted a little usb mp3 player on sale for $18. I don't mind spending a bit extra to
give a memorable gift. The season's all about giving baby!




















Took that sucker home, hooked it up to the computer and loaded that oh so memorable song. After that, I sealed it and took it to the party. It didn't cause an uproar, but I think it's the thought that counts after all. Besides, how many of you can say you got to play with Popsicle sticks and craft glue lately?

Things I need to do this week:
- clean my room
- clean off desk
- re-organize movie/book shelf
- clean out my closet
- take the dog to the park/try to keep him under control for a little while at least
- buy ammo
- finish The Lost World and move on to another book
- figure out how to cook some of my grandma's famous dishes

I'm sure this list will grow by the end of the week and spill over into next.



I'm super lame, and I got tagged, and I have nothing better to do so here ya go kev.

TV shows watching/will be watching in January (thought that might count)
1) 24
2) The Office
3) Heroes
4) Chuck
5) House
6) Burn Notice
7) CSI
8) NCIS


8 Favorite Restaurants:
Honestly, I don't have many.


8 Things that Happened to Me Today:
1) Got psyched when Dave Maciel told me he got Left4Dead for the PC
2) Spent my Barnes and Noble gift card and then some on some books
3) Finished a graphic novel
4) Worked on another project
5) Fed the dog and was reminded how much I love him even though he could eat me
6) Watched Bubba Ho-Tep
7) Drew
8) New blog post


8 Things I Look Forward To:
1) Taking a shower
2) Trying to figure out how to make Granny's special cake tomorrow
3) Bad movie night
4) Going shooting tomorrow
5) Going shooting on the 4th
6) New Years Eve Party
7) Doing some major reading
8) Getting some projects out of the way


8 Things I Wish For:
1) To have a stronger and better relationship with my Father in Heaven
2) To be a little more responsible
3) To be inspired/motivated to draw and paint and write on a regular basis
4) To be more confident in everything I do
5) To read my bible a lot more often
6) Confirmation that I will get married to an amazing girl (one upped ya kev. deal with it.)
7) To be happy wherever God puts me in life/has me doing.
8) That I could read the minds of women.

The weather outside if frightful.....but I love it

We've been having some pretty crazy weather lately. The rain has been a good indicator of the winter season. I've been forced to go out wearing a scarf now; it's so doggone cold. I love the rain though. I really wouldn't trade it for any other kind of weather. I hate driving when it's coming down because it almost killed me a couple times, but I don't let that ruin the experience for me much. The 4x4 has really saved my butt this week though considering my route to school is hilly and pretty steep in places.

Anywho, 1 final left 'til freedom! It's a history final this friday so I should be completely fine winging it. What could possibly go wrong right? I've already started to catch up on my little projects. The wooden chest has been put to the side since it ranks as least important among my little projects. I'll get to it of course. I should have some pictures up of the projects I have chosen to document. Others, well, if it doesn't concern you then you'll just have to be left in the dark. Drive safe on the roads everyone, and make sure you buckle up!

Preview (EDIT)

Since I'm on Thanksgiving break, I've got a lot of free time to do stuff. So when I'm not working on what school work I've got or relaxing, I'm working on some projects I've been planning. Here's one: Here's what's going to be going inside of it:

EDIT: So my dad's power sander crapped out on me. I went out and bought a new one, which was actually quite affordable. In any case, that put me back quite a bit, but I still have a bit of free time before the pre-winterbreak buckle down. Expect updates eventually.