Scooter's Blog

Colonial Heroes and Villains

2010-09-30T15:18:00.001-04:00

Sorry, about not posting in forever. Facebook has become the new form of communication, and school has become life. But as I am doing my history, I have come to find heroes and people that I really loathe. Let's start with the people I like.

Francis Drake: The guy is Elisabeth's cousin, and a privateer. He pretty much got paid to be a pirate and he whomped the Spanish Armada. And if that wasn't enough after successfully circumnavigating the globe, he made a 4600% profit for England. To say he was cool, doesn't begin to describe him. He was majorly epic!
Captain John Smith: Not the guy who married Pocahontas, but another Captain with a huge beard. He did what had to be done in Jamestown, by rationing food. The section of time where times were hard was called "the starving time". He cracked down on these unruly bums from England, and pretty much saved the colony. Everyone pretty much hated him for it, but in the end he was a hero.
Ben Franklin: Mostly for his writing of Poor Richard's Almanac. He wrote sayings like: "Well done is better than well said." and "Lost time is never found again." and "Haste makes waste." and "Glass, China, and Reputation are easily crack'd , and never well mended." and "Three can keep a secret if one of them is dead." Pretty good stuff.
The Laughing Club: Need I say more…

Now onto the people I really loathe:

Cortes: That guy can't follow orders. Anakin Skywalker can't follow orders either, but he's still likeable. Cortes however, is also greedy. After Montezuma being the good king that he is gives them gifts that would have been worth a lot back home, Cortes gets the idea to go get more loot, disobeying the governor's orders to just explore. Cortes destroys the Aztecs and gets super rich. Fat lot of good it did him when he died. I could keep complaining, but he's dead, and so complaining isn't going to help.
Anne Hutchinson: I'm so glad for Puritans. This lady's group started out by talking about the pastor's sermons on Monday Morning. But eventually she started saying that she had messages from God that superseded what was said in the Bible, and that you didn't need to be obedient to have a right relationship with God(a belief called Antinomianism). The Puritans kicked her out of the Mass. Bay Colony(this is why I really like Puritans) and she started her own colony which turned into Rhode Island. Needless to say I really despise her.
Peter Stuyvesant: The Governor of New Netherland(AKA New York) dared to say that he didn't give two rips about "the opinions of a few ignorant settlers"(that is a quote). He had a peg leg and a pot belly and was as mean as the day is long. And when the English come to take New Netherland over, he's surprised when no one fires a single shot. Yeah, they hated him as much as I do.
Tatooba: This West Indian Voodoo witch was the start of the Salem Witch Trials. In case you didn't know she was responsible for the seizures of three young girls and the death of dozens of innocent people. It's a good thing that she got killed too otherwise I would go nuts.

Camp Lamoka Summer Highlights

2010-08-14T15:12:00.002-04:00

Wow! These last three weeks have gone by really really fast! When I first started working at Camp it seemed like the days were super long and the weeks were like an eternity. But now the days are here and gone before I even know it. So here are some of the highlights of my Camp Lamoka 2010 experience...

So pretty much in January I was all sort of "I guess I want to work at camp." But as Camp got closer and closer I got more and more excited. And when I got to Camp the first day, I fell back into the turtle routine.(For those of you who don't know me/my personality around new people/ what "turtle routine" means let me explain. I'm a Lower Right(if I'm correct that means I'm task oriented and a follower), which means I'm introverted around people I don't know. August 08 I started to come out of my shell(in turtle terms), but when I moved to Ithaca I kinda went back in. When I got to Camp I was tempted to do the same thing. But then I thought to myself that if didn't come out of my shell, I wasn't going to make friends. So very slowly this summer I've come out of my shell and I've made a lot of good friends.
This summer I've helped out Greg Howard, who does Greg's Games. We've played so many amazing games this summer its hard to cover them all. Some of my favorites are Zombie Island, Ring Of Death, and Pool Noodle Field Hockey.
What started out as a snapping turtle Family week 1 has exploded into an entire nature center up in the chapel. We have had the turtle(which is still there), 3 praying mantids(plural of mantis), 3-4 small fish, at least a dozen Monarch caterpillars which have turned into butterflies, a swallow tail butterfly, 2 Luna Moths, 2 grasshoppers, and a few toads. It has been amazing.
These last two weeks Greg and I have done a star ship type activity in/outside the chapel. We made helmets and made up names and totally had a blast. We used this program called Stargazer, which pretty much lets you go anywhere you want in the universe. It was totally epic!
This summer I have filled an estimated 6000 balloons! I would consider myself semipro at this point.
Thursday night several of the staffers, including Johnathon Wood, put Chip's golf cart in the gaga ball pit. It was a ton of fun!
Last night Seth Blanchard,Mike Delio, some of the family camper teens, and I were out til 1 AM wrestling and arm wrestling. It was one of the most fun times I've had this summer.
So far I've talked about a lot of stupid/ retarded stuff. Let me tell you something that really matters. This summer God has shown me his control. Whether it is controlling what king is in the throne or controlling which campers get saved, God's got it in the bag(a reoccurring phrase that I've used all summer). God has also taught me patience through other staffers. And through my reading in 2 Kings about Elisha, God has shown me that I don't need to be the best staffer, I only need to be following God and leaving the rest up to him. Its not about me! Its about God doing what he needs to do though me! That's what I've learned this summer! And I will never forget it. I might remember stupid stuff we did at Camp in 2010, but I will also remember that at Camp Lamoka God rocked my thinking and changed my mind and heart.

So that's what I've learned. It has been an amazing summer, and there's still one week left. I hope to keep growing even in the final stretch. Until then, Scott out.

Sr. High, Jr. High 1 and 2

2010-07-25T16:11:00.002-04:00

Hey everybody! So these last 3 weeks have been a wild ride. Here are the highlights...

Sr. High I could immediately tell that it was going to be interesting. My camper's names(or nicknames) were as follows: Peanuts, Trail Mix(or Tray for short), Bubbles, KJ, Marshmallow. They were all super rowdy and all came from pretty rough families. (Pretty much the opposite of me.) But there were two things that I will remember from that week for the rest of my life.
Jordan's Chip:Jordan Wood was staying in our cabin that week. And Tuesday night he and KJ were talking, when Jordan pulled out a chip(a Dorito to be exact). He set it on the picnic table and smashed it. And slowly Jordan took away a piece of the broken chip naming it,("This is your Dad", "These are your friends", etc.), until finally there was only one piece of chip left. "This is God", said Jordan, "Even when it seems like you've got nothing and God has left you, He's right there." After that KJ and Jordan prayed beneath the cross on Chapel Hill. A Dorito changed KJ's life. He was so excited about it, that he did Wednesday night devos and shared the same example with the rest of the cabin. I shared about how God quote on quote "wrecked my life" by moving me away from my friends, my town, my church and sending to a town that was messed up. I shared how I had pretty much been a brat about it and how God changed my heart and gave those material things back to me. It felt really great.
Marshmallow: Marshmallow and I got along great that week. The only thing we didn't agree on was the Bible. Marshmallow though that God didn't exist and thought that God, if he did exist couldn't save him from his past of drugs and Satanism. I talked with him for several hours and his main question was this: Why would God create people if he knew they were going to screw up? We basically used this illustration for most of our conversation: God is the Father who bought a batch of puppies. These puppies, he knew beforehand, were going to wreck his house and bite and be a pain in the neck. But he loved the puppies so much that when the big, bad, bus driver Satan, tried to get rid of the puppies, God's son Jesus sacrificed himself to save the puppies. It was a conversation that I will never forget.
The Weekend: That weekend I spent at the McGinnis' house and hung out with Jordan and got to see people(Tyler Wolcott, Rogows, Mr. Johnson, Jenny Case,Conners) that I haven't seen/hung out with in a while.
Jr. High week 1: That week I had a group of five guys(no burgers or fries): Chris(who does stand up comedy), Brad(who tried to convince everyone that his name was Joe), Tom (from Depue, NY), Nick(Camper of the week from Sr. High), and Austin(who was pretty normal). I think that God gave me well-behaved campers that week so I could listen to the messages. The speaker was Uncle Buddy Robinson from AIG he talked about the five questions. Here they are... #1:What do you mean by what you're saying?(What do you mean?); #2:How do you know that what you're saying is true?(How do you know?); #3: What difference does what you're saying make in your life?(So what?); #4: What would you accept as evidence?
Stats: Uncle Buddy gave a statistic that really hit home with me and a lot of the kids. School time:900 hours; TV time(not including video games, movies, etc.) Church time:100-200 hours
Jr. High 2: I got to be in a cabin with five other guys with names as follows: Daniel, Andrew, Alex, Alan and Nathan. Pretty much everyone was annoyed with Alan and Alan didn't care. This last week I learned a lot of patience.
Water balloons: In the past 3 weeks I've filled over 1200 water balloons. So I decided that I should make a Biblical metaphor involving water balloons. Pretty much this is what I got: Water balloons are like people. They reject God, pop under worldly pressure, or live for him and retain the water. Pretty cool!
Random Stuff: Michael and Tony(2 campers from Sr. High week) came three weeks in a row. I got to hang out with Katy Depue pretty much all of Jr. High 1. My team won Jr. High 2 and got to stay up til like midnight.
Team names and cheers: Sr. High: My team was Team Dihydrogen Monoxide. Cheer was as follows: Dihydrogen monoxide: we're really only water/ We hope that when we take you down it won't be such a slaugter/ When things heat up we'll just go with the flow/ And by the end of the week we'll be #1, you know. (YO! For show!(Tray does worm.) Cheers and applause.) Jr. High 1: My team that week was The Flaming Unicorns of Fury: (Spidey reads Job 39:9-12) Tim Woudenberg:(Spoken/shouted) Its a bird! No! It's a plane! No! Its the flaming unicorns of fury!(Cheering) Robbie Lindmark:(Spoken)Alright everybody! Please mount your unicorns! We got a new song for the generations! And it goes like this...(Singing begins)Trot to the left! Trot to the right! Trot to the left! Trot to the right! Everybody clippyclop! Clippycloppy!(4x) Cross horns!(2x) One clop this time(2x) Two clops this time(2x) Everybody clippyclop! Clippycloppy(4x) (Cheering. Everyone falls down.) Jr. High 2: (Veggietales theme)If you like to swim with the bubbles/ If you don't like crocodiles/ If you like to run into trouble/ Up and down the English Channel... Have we got a team for you... 1,2,3,4! Jellyfish! Jellyfish! etc.

And that was what was going on with me for the last 3 weeks! Hopefully it won't take as long for me to blog next time. For now TTFN!

Family Camp 1

2010-07-03T18:41:00.002-04:00

So I've been meaning to post again, and it turned out that again was now. So CIT was pretty cool, but this was the actual first week of Camp at Lamoka Baptist Camp which is where I've going to be doing tasks(We don't jobs, just tasks.) all summer long till August 21. So this is what happened my first week at camp.

So here's who I've been hanging out with: Zachary Clouse(from Phillie who is on maintainance), John((can't remember his last name) who lives over near Kingston(Catskills/NYC area and is on maintainance), Zachary Waters(who lives in Bradford, just up the road and is on maintainance(Do you sense a pattern?)), Shae Maloy(who is in charge of Maintainance/Paintball), Greg Howard(who is basically who I'm going to be helping out all summer(I'll explain about that later), Mary Blanchard(Seth Blanchard's younger sister and a nut), Blake(I'll explain about him later too), Eathan( I'll explain),and all the rest of the staff.
The first morning I woke up at 7 and scurried to be ready to head out by 8. But I screwed up and was an hour late to the staff meeting because it started at 8 and I got there at 9. The rest of the morning was spent filling water balloons and stuff like that for an afterenoon game. I requested to be a dish fish, but the letter I received said that I was on maintainance. But when CIT rolled around I was told I was Greg's assistant(AKA the program director's assistant), but since Greg didn't have anything for me to do CIT week, I helped out the maintainance crew for the week. (That's how I know all the maintainance people.) But this week, Family Camp 1, I helped out Greg. So when the game rolled around, we got in a few tosses of the waterballoons before it started into rain. Very depressing. But on the bright side, I was able to babysit kids all evening during chapel time and get some "kid time" that way.
Day two I got to listen to Pastor Brent Carl speak for the first time. It was awesome! (I know only God is awesome, but isn't stuff God does awesome too?) Brent Carl was talking about when he went to Kenya and about how he got hooked up with International Youth Ministry. He talked about a group there called "Be the Change". It really inspired me to be the change where I am; to be a doer and not a hearer only. The stuff I did in that day was pretty normal(setting up games, playing them, helping out wherever, etc.).
Day three was pretty normal as well, but Wednesday was the day that I started refereeing paintball. It was very cool! Wednesday's message was also cool, because Pastor Carl told about this youth group in Malaysia called "Frontliners". Their slogan was "Famous in heaven, feared in hell." It was way cool! Wednesday evening was also spent babysitting and playing a Staff vs. Campers Volleyball game, in which we all had way cool numbers on our backs. Tons of fun! (This was also the night we found out how nuts Mary really was.)
Thursday is when my strength started to stop flowing as easily. That day was also the day I helped fill almost 500 water balloons. (Yes, I did say 500.) That day Erik Lutz showed up as well and we had tons of fun, talking, singing, and catching up. The Gaga Ball Tournament was also Thursday, and so I got to ref that as well. And Marshall the champ from last year won again. It was a pretty amazing day!
Friday I refed the paintball tournament, and helped with paintball target practice. I also got to hang out with this kid named Blake for pretty much the whole day. Blake's great-grandma had internal bleeding, and his great-grandpa had gone to the hospital with his wife, so Blake was pretty much on his own. So he and I even though we had spent some time before together, pretty much spent the whole day with eachother. Blake I slowly realized just wanted someone to love on him. Even though he seemed like a tough guy who liked kicking me in the shins, liked to wrestle people to the ground, and liked jumping on staffer's backs when they weren't looking, Blake just liked being around me. It taught me a lot of patience, and a lot about compassion. After Blake left early, I hung around with Eathan Carl(Brent Carl's son) and ran around with him for the rest of the afternoon. It was honestly a really great day. But in the evening the day just kept on getting better. Pastor Carl's message showed me what a great set of parents I have, and the bonfire was incredible. Not only was it huge, but Pastor Depue(like he had been doing the rest of the week) led the campers and staff in a myriad of choruses and hymns, around it. After that we had a staff debreif that really was great. (I'm kinda running out of adjectives that mean"extremely good".) We all hit the hay at 11:30 and slept in till like 7 the next morning.
So here are two things that happened over the course of this week, that didn't really happen on one day. The first is that I was dubbed the "walking clock" since I was the only guy staffer with a watch. Like half of my conversations with people were them asking what time it was. The second thing which is way more important, is that I'm really struggling with what God wants me to do with my life. Two years ago I thought God wanted me to be a missionary. I saw signs everywhere. Then the signs sort of stopped. I thought it was God just testing me to see if I was willing(which I was). But listening to Pastor Carl talk about all the different places he had been and the people he had helped, made me want to go and do the same thing. I'm really confused right now. and I've no clue where God wants me or what I'm supposed to do. If you could pray for me that would be great.
Saturday I finished my task area, and left camp with my "love gift"(we don't get salaries), and went to a family get together at other end of the lake with my cousins, aunt, and uncles. (I'd also like prayer for my Unlce Thad, my cousin James, my cousin Maddie, and my cousin Eathan. It was about this time of year, last year, that my Aunt Crystal was killed in a car crash. Most of them have turned their backs on God, and its really going to be tough on them this next week.) I hung out with them for a couple hours and went on a few boat rides, before we headed back home. And now I'm here righting this.

So that was my week; hopefully I'll write about next week at Camp Lamoka, but for now I'm headed to bed. Adios and God bless!

California Video

2010-06-02T12:10:00.002-04:00

These are two videos I put together from what I filmed while in California. The one on the left is the trip's highlights, and the one on the right is Jack touching the shark at Ocean World.
Enjoy!

California

2010-06-01T07:12:00.004-04:00

Last Wednesday we got back from California and it has taken me this long to write about it. So here we go...

Day one: Plane trip from Ithaca to Detroit. Saw tons of people movers and a cool fountain. Plane trip from Detroit to San Fransisco. Rented a car from Enterprise(not the USS). Saw tons of cool sights from afar including, Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Candlestick Park, as we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. (The cool part was that, the Amazing Race had taken place there on the season finale, which we had watched the Sunday before leaving. Pretty cool to see what where all the coolness had taken place.) Drove to Santa Rosa, and went to bed 9:30 CA time(which is 12:30 NY time).
Day two: California and Oregon have some of the curviest roads in America! I usually don't get car sick, but I was feeling so queasy I had to take motion sickness meds. After we finally got to Fort Bragg(town, not place) we got onto a train called the Skunk Train. The name is a misnomer, which means it was entirely the wrong name. A) It wasn't a train, it was a car that ran on diesel fuel with its own restrooms. B) It didn't smell a bit, but aparently back in the day(late 1800's) it smelled so bad the locals swore they could smell it before they saw it. But anyhow we rode on the non-smelling car for three hours and learned a lot about history and the redwoods via our conductor(who did a super job). At one point in time the trip could be made in 45 minutes, but that was if you went 40 mph and we were only topping out at 15 mph. Anyway we went all the way to a place called Northspur, ate lunch, and turned around and came back. The night was spent at Fort Bragg in a hotel, with our close companion, Mythbusters.
Day three: Driving north to Crescent City, we saw the Avenue of the Giants. We also saw like 3 bigfoot statues that day alone(5 total for the whole trip), so I kept my eyes peeled. Nothing. After we got to our house that we would be staying in for the next week, we ate at pizza hut and went to bed at 8:30 CA time(although it doesn't much matter, because at this point we had pretty much adjusted).
Day four: We went to the lighthouse that we could see from our house and toured that for about two hours. It was pretty coool, but after that we didn't really do much else, except hanging around the house.
Day five: More winding roads, and a trip to Oregon Caves. We saw stactites, stalagmites, columns, soda straws, drapery, cave kisses( and believe me I got kissed more by that cave than by my mother), and other stuff. After we got out of the 44 degree cave, we took a hike through the mountains, which was like 20 degrees warmer that the cave.
Day six: We went to church at Smith River Baptist, and went place called Indian Sands with mountain lions, fun dunes, and a killer hike.
Day seven: Trip to Ocean World, which was located in Crescent City. Saw and petted a shark, and watched seals and a sea lion do cool tricks. Also got a cool ball cap, and played Monopoly.
Day eight: More Monopoly(which ended up being about the only game we played at the house other than two games of Scrabble) and a hike in Jedadiah Smith Redwoods National and State Parks.(P.S. Jedediah Smith was an awesome guy on the Oregon Trail that lead settlers west! Definitely worth reading about some time!) Saw tons of ginormous trees and itty bitty bananna slugs. Then after that, on the way home we stopped at a beach and played the "Driftwood Retrival Sprint Game" and got totally wet and sandy. We then went home, showered and ate dinner at Pizza Hut, and went to bed.
Day nine: More Monopoly, cool pelicans and movie shoot at the beach. (The movie ended up being kinda lame, because on the desert island there are a few houses and phone poles in the background.)
Day ten: Left the house and travelled to Sacramento, the state capital of CA.
Day eleven: Went to Old Sacramento and saw trains at the train museum. We also got free candy samples and took a carriage ride on the cobblestone streets. After that we took off to go minigolfing and had dinner at Golden Corral(which has been discribed by my brother as quote "a museum of food... and you get to eat it!" end quote.
Day twelve:Most of the day is spent driving to Yosemite, and when we get there it rains. Major downer. But we did get to see Bridal veil falls(which got us soaked since May is peak flow), El Capitan, and Swinging Bridge(which doesn't swing).
Day thirteen:Devo with Dad and then more Yosemite. We took this killer hike to Inspiration point, which didn't inspire me a bit when we got there, but took us two hours of sweat and pain. But God did a really neat thing. Instead of letting us get caught in a freak snow storm and damaging the rental van, God put the idea of this hike into Mom and Dad's heads, so we would be safe. Pretty neat how God can use something that seems like a waste of time to protect us. Unfortunately though, there was one tunnel to the other half of Yosemite, and it was blocked off, because of the snow storm. So we saw like only half of what we wanted to see there.
Day fourteen: This was the day we hung out in San Fransisco. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and saw this really cool guy jamming out on his synthesizer. We also went on a bay cruise and saw the Golden Gate Bridge up close, Alcatraz up close, and Coit Tower from a short distance. After that we went to Chinatown and had dinner and saw cool swords and stuff like that.
Day fifteen: My Dad was telling me that this was the longest trip he had ever taken, and that it was longer that his honeymoon. Of course when you have a honeymoon car accident and neighbors that want to come over and play Skipbo you have a tendancy to want to get home. Anyhow, this day was the day that I had the second worst expirience of my life(the first worst expirience was my tubing trip down the Muskegon River, which is a story in and of itself). This bad experience was walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. "Let's walk to the middle arch," he said. Normally I would be all for this, but today it was foggy, rainy, windy, and miserable. Picture this: Me with my favorite hat on, trying not to lose it in the wind, soaked to the undergarments, walking at a slow steady pace so I don't slip on the slick metal manholes, trying not to blubber. At first this might look rather humorous, but if you put yourself in my soggy shoes, I think you'd be just as, if not more, miserable. To make a long story short, we didn't make it to the middle arch and we were all wet. After that we went to the mall and just chilled for the rest of the day. But when evening rolled around, we went to the airport and got checked in. After sitting in the airport till eleven pm CA time, we got onto the plane.
Day sixteen: This is where our story goes on to day sixteen, because after the five hour plane trip it was the next day. After we landed in Chicago at like five in the morning IL time, we boarded another plane that was going to Philadelphia. After we landed there at like nine thirty am, we got on another plane going to Ithaca. And after we got off that plane, we got home and that is where our trip ends.

So now you now what I did with myself. Hopefully I'll have videos to show off soon. For now I'll just say "Adios!"

Why I'm Not Here

2010-04-24T18:20:00.002-04:00

So I'm probably not going to be posting for a while, I've got a ton of stuff to do between a 3-5 page report and a play. But hopefully when I go on vacation to California, I'll get time to write and stuff. But until further notice I will not be blogging for a while. Scott out.
*SCHHHHHHHHHHHH(sound of static)*

Face of Jesus

2010-03-31T14:55:00.004-04:00

So there has been a whole lot of talk about the face of Jesus. According to scientists they have discovered using the Shroud of Turin, which supposedly was wrapped around Jesus' face when he was in the tomb. This makes me ask some questions...
1. Why should I care what Jesus looks like?
2. Does the face of Jesus change my beliefs in him?
3. What do I do with this info?
One lady said exactly what I was thinking as I watched the TV interview on Yahoo! Just minutes ago. She said(and I quote) "It doesn't matter what Jesus looks like. It's what he did that counts." BOOM! Exactly! That lady, Christian or not, hit the preverial nail on the head. So to answer the questions above. It doesn't matter what he looks like. Number 2: No way! His face could be ugly and deformed,but he still would be my Savior. In answer to number three, just keep in mind that this is a big topic right now, and your friends might ask what you think about it. Who knows? God might use you and this topic to lead someone to Himself.

Mission #2

2010-03-09T14:46:00.002-05:00

Hey! So if you didn't know I got a video camera last fall, and I've been using it to make movies. This is one such movie that was filmed over the weekend here on location in Ithaca NY in our basement. The title of this movie is called "Mission #2: The Infiltration". But you say, "Scott, where's mission #1?" If you want an elaborate lie, I sold it to the governor of Indiana who watched it with the King of Liechtenstein and his 3rd cousin, Marie Gorbanzo. If you want the truth, I lost it. So without further ado, Mission #2: The Infiltration...

Hey all! This video is still loading so I thought that I would take the time to tell you what is going on with me. Let me see in the last two weeks I have run into a window(don't ask) and shut my head in a closet(PLEASE don't ask). Also I've been doing school(no surprise there). Um, that is about it. And hey! The video is done loading! OK, going now! Hopefully I'll post again soon!

Snow Camp (And my life since then)

2010-02-24T14:38:00.002-05:00

Hey so Snow Camp, for those of you who don't know what it is, is a place where you go and spend two days in the frigid landscape of Sinclairville, NY(Southwestern NY) and do nothing,but sled, eat, have fun, and hopefully (if they do thier job right) grow spiritually. Most of you have Facebook so you've probably seen pics and such,but others of you who don't (like me) probably haven't. So to the Facebook outcast/procrastinators, I'm sorry I don't have cool pics to show you. Sorry.

Hey! On to my week at Snow camp. First, I drove 2 and 1/2 hours to Wyoming, my old stomping grounds. Then, I take a long one hour drive with crazy girls, semi-crazy leaders, and others who are more intreverted (like myself), in a large 15 passenger van. Which by the way was driven by a racecar driver. Very crazy ride!
And now we move onto the part about Bethany Baptist Camp and all the people I arrived with. Ladies first: Lisa, Mattie, Brooke, Stephanie, Heather(my sister), Katie, Bethany,Mrs. Wolcott, and my mother. And for the guys we have: Me(the most important and good-looking, naturally), Sean, Jordan, John, Blake, Gabe, Tyler, Austin, Sam, Mr. Johnson(the aforementioned racecar person),Mr. Wolcott, and Mr. Baker. If you lost count(and I did), that's a lot of people.
So first, we got set up in a nice warm cabin. Then, we went out in the frigid, icy, cold, snow. And went into the warm, people-filled dining hall. After a good dinner, we had chapel, which included games like "Let's make a deal", "The need for Speed" and other pointless fun.
After an hour of fun, we got down to the serious stuff. The speaker's name was Tim George. His first message was on Elijah and his "downer" after Mt. Carmel. Pretty much the point was this: Don't think that God can't do something, and don't focus on yourself.
Then, after chapel, there was several hours of sledding on this ginormous hill. I did that for while, and when I got bored with that, I got into warm clothes and played Apples to Apples with Lisa, Bethany, Mr. Baker and Sean. And after that I went to bed.
Lessons learned before breakfast: (1) Mr. Baker snores like a chainsaw! (2) Follow and don't turn aside(Check out 2 Samuel 2:18-23)!
As for breakfast, I learned a lesson there too. DON'T EAT A PANCAKE WITH MAPLE SYRUP, WHIPPED CREAM, CHOCLATE CHIPS, AND POWDERED SUGAR. You will be extremely ill!
There a little joys in life. Take for example petting a happy dog or opening a new comic book. These acomplish nothing, except a doggish smile and a renewed sense of hilarity. Racing snow buggies is a little joy, that acomplishs nothing except injury or snow on the face. Our snow buggy this year, made completely out of cardboard and ducktape according to Bethany regulations, was the only snow buggy there. Even without the competition, we had a good time, racing our indestructible sled in the shape of the most joyous object on earth: a coffin.
After snowbuggying we had chapel again, and Mr. George talked out moving to make a difference. He took this lesson from the spot where Johnathan and his armorbearer take on the Philistines alone. Cool story! And then all of our group went upstairs, and "debriefed"(This is a confusing event that would take too long to explain on one single post.)
Snakes are ugly, thin, reptilian reptiles that bring little to no joy to anyone. But this snake is not ugly(though certain unnamed parties that rode upon it were). This snake is not reptilian(in fact it is made of a conveyor belt). But it is however thin; Thin and extremely fast. This snake is 21 feet long and can hold at least 30 people at a time. Injuries are usually extreme, but we have fun anyway. The snake is undoubtedly the best part of the snow-mayhem.
After the snake we packed up and rode home. This time on the way home I rode with Mr. Baker in his large DairyTek truck. We covered just about everything from Twiterpation to hell being quote "...a bit warmer". Interesting stuff!
When, we reached Wyoming I hung around for a few minutes, and then BOOM! we headed for Ithaca.

Hey! So as to what has happened since then, I have been involved with props dept. at LEAH, I have been sick, and I have watched a Miss Marple(That lady is so snoopy!). And that is what is up with me. If you read my blog email me or post a comment. I'm not sure if I'm posting for nothing or not.

ESF Spring Conference 2010

2010-01-27T07:16:00.002-05:00

So the Empire State(Empire State meaning NY(NY meaning New York)) Fellowship(Affectionately known as ESF) has these things called conferences that are tons of fun to go to and that are great places to grow. So what made me want to go is the guys that were speaking. The first of which was Uncle Jim( who is actually my great grandpa on my Dad's side), and the second of which was Pastor Butler(from Yorkshire, who most of you know). Here's what went on...

The name of the Conference was "James by men named James", so James Moore had the first session. The basic jist of his sermon was that everyone in the Bible had trials and that trails are things we can be happy about, because they strengthen our faith.
The next session was by Past James Reed, who was a substitute for Pastor Mott(whose first name was also James). The skinny of Pastor Reed's sermon on James 5:13 was that during good and bad times we need to pray to God for help and praise him. In the words of a Shiloh Eagles player, "Guys, Coach is right. We praised God when we won; now we're gonna praise him when we lose."
Guess who we met up with? Here's a hint: Their name starts with a W and rymes with Honer. That's right, the Whoners! So we had a good visit with them before dinner, and then during dinner we met up with Pastor Fraser, whose name was James who was speaking at the last session. Nothings better than food, a table, some chairs, and people to talk with.
We found out that two churches are going to be with out pastors. Not cool stuff! The churches really need prayer. Switching pastors is no fun!
After a great dinner, we came back for another session. The session was on James 3: 1-13 and it was on partiality and favoritism. And let me say that Pastor Murphy hit the preverbial nail smack dab on the head! Great session!
The next morning after sleeping in the Howard Johnson motel(which wasn't too bad for the $45 bucks we paid for it), we went to hear Pastor Butler speak. His sermon was on how to identify an alive faith. He quoted John Calvin, who had a pretty interesting statement. Calvin said "It is faith alone that justifies, but the faith that justifies can never be alone." Unfortunately, I didn't hear the tail end of the sermon,because I sprung a bloody nose near the end. Hate those things!
Pastor Balson(first name is...you guessed it...James) talked about the proclivity and the inconsistency of the tongue from James 3:1-12. Good message!
Uncle Jim(pastor of Henrietta Baptist Church) preached a good militaristic message about how to submit to God and resist the devil. He also talked about how churches need to have a more offensive and less of a defensive strategy. Good stuff! Hoorah!
During the final session Pastor Fraser talked about wealth and how it corrupt people and how to have the right balance. Good way to wrap up!

And that's where I was these past few days!

2 Kings 7:1-11

2010-01-20T13:29:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading this story in the Bible and I found it to be (in a word) AWESOME! God pulls through again! Here's the summary of the passage:

Donkeys cost a pretty penny.
Ladies are eating their sons.
The king wants to kill Elisha.
Elisha says that there will be food tomorrow and that it'll be dirt cheap.
One officer doesn't think so.
Elisha says that that guy will see the food, but won't eat any of it.
God makes the Arameans, who are attacking the Samarians, see and hear things.
The Arameans flip out and think that the Egyptian and Hittites are coming, and they run.
Lepers decide to surrender to the Arameans.
The lepers discover that the camp is empty and then they have a feast.
Then they decide to tell everyone in the city about it.
All around celebration and eating.
Happy ending.

So here's what I found interesting.

These guys are lepers. Dirt poor, starving(like everyone else), and sick with a disease that eats away at your skin(kinda gross). No one is going to come near these guys. They figure that they are going to die( a reasonable assumption,because of their disease) and so their best bet is give up and surrender themseves to the Arameans. For a minute, replace the word 'leper' with the word 'Christian'. These lepers have no where else to go. Sometimes when people go to God they are at thier lowest point. The lepers surrendered, just like Christians have to do over and over again. (Trust me I know from personal experience.)Now they go to the camp no one is there. They eat up and drink. Now this could be compared to God blessing us after we surrender and follow him. But the lepers don't keep this to themselves they go in the middle of the night and spread the word. Just like we do or need to do with our faith. Cool how it lines up!

The Medieval Reality

2010-01-11T18:59:00.003-05:00

So I just finished up a chapter in World History about the medieval period. And I quickly realised that the reality is that the 'Dark Ages' (Appropriately named) were not as they are protrayed in movies and books(unless you watch and read documentaries and History books). Geeks like science and Nerds like Math. I however like history so I guess that makes me a buff or a dweeb, I'm not sure which. But anyhow, before I started this chapter I really admired the knight's, kings, and heroic peasants.
But now, I'm not so sure. The knights errant (errant meaning they had no where to go) usually resorted to banditry and being highwaymen because during peace time there was no form of work. The kings were power-hungry maniacs that didn't have too much power,because all the nobles sort of were in control. And the peasants were dirty, farming, poor, and all around not very pleasant.
So of all the people I ran into in history these are the ones I admire.

Harold: This guy was from England, Duke of Wessex actually. He was crowned King of England and then this jerk, named William who didn't even live in England,but was king of France. And so because, Eddy the Confessor died, and Willie was allegedly promised the throne, Willie decided he should be king. And so after a few battles, and letting Harold beat up the other dudes who wanted the throne, Willie comes in at the last second and fights Harold's tired out smaller army.
Henry the V(which by the way means he was number 5, which looks nothing like a V. The English language is goofy that way.): Henry V beat up the French with an army half the size of the French army at Agincourt. Unfortunately, he killed a bishop named Thomas a Becket. But I still think he was pretty cool.
Richard the Lion-Hearted:No he didn't have an animal organ transplant. This guy went on the Crusades and kicked rear and took name. He was the hero of the people,but he only ruled in England for 6 months. A little while later, he brother John took over.
John the First(and only): Yes, this is the same guy that was trying to kill Robin Hood. This is the dude that everybody hated. However, history says that John was a great guy. He was a good administrator and even though he wasn't as good a fighter as his brother. He was an awesome, misunderstood leader.
Fransis of Assisi: This guy gave us the three wisemen and live nativities. He gets an A for effort, even though he gave our society the totally wrong idea about the manger.
The knights: They aren't armor clad heroes, sure,but they had a lot of other responsibilities no one ever thinks about. These guys had a hard life filled with guts and blood, chivalry, and sometimes boring lives,but I still think that all in all they are still good guys.
Urban the II: Without him there would be no Crusades and the freeing of Jerusalem for a period of time.

These are the various people I really loathe:

The Popes(namely Innocent the 3rd): These guys sometimes could be a pain in the neck("Don't do this!", "You can't tax us!" "We are in charge", "Bow to me or I'll excommunicate you!"). But sometimes they were right on("No,man, you can't divorce your wife." or "Hey man! That's my land, and I was here first!"). But all in all they were really hypocritical.
The Crusdaers: These guys were really cool to begin with,but during the 4th Crusade or the "Diverted Crusade" they were responsible for the destruction of Zama and Constantinople. They really failed in the end because of their greed. Bummer, I really like the Crusaders for a while.
Phillip II: He was a loser French king who couldn't fight worth beans, and wanted to get England for himself. Not only that he divorced wife number 1, for wife number 2. Pope Innocent the 3rd for once makes the right call, and says, "That is not right, dude!". When P2(Phillip the 2nd) doesn't repent, PI3(Pope Innocent the 3rd) excommunicates P2 and puts France under interdiction. P2 "repents" divorces wife 2 and remarries wife 1. So in the end the bad guy wins,because either way he divorced some lady. Oy, some people, drive me up the wall!

So that is what I've been learning about lately!

Bible Reading: 1 Kings 14:21-31

2010-01-04T14:44:00.003-05:00

So I decided to try to read 1 Samuel- 2 Chronicles, and make an application from what I read. It is actually not as easy as it sounds. But anyhow, I was reading 1 Kings 14:21- 31 and I noticed a few things. For your convenience I have put the verses below...

21 Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was 41 years old when he became king, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. 22 Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. 23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 24 There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. 25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the palace. He took everything, including all the golden shields Solomon had made. 27 So king Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard of duty at the entrance to the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king went to the LORD's temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom. 29 As for the other events of Rehoboam's reign are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 30 There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 31 And Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the Citry of David. His mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king.
Whew! After typing all that I feel sorry for the monks who copied the whole Bible. Anyhow, one of the things I noticed was a repeat of the phrase "mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite" in both verses 21 and 31. I'm not sure what signifigance that phrase has,but if it is in there twice it must be imporant. Another thing I noticed was that in verse 27, Rehoboam replaced the gold(high quality stuff) shields with bronze (cheap stuff) shields. Also in verse 28, it says that the guards only used them when the king went to the temple. This makes me think that because of both the cheap stuff he used for the shields, and only using them on temple occasions, that Rehoboam's heart wasn't in serving God. If he had really treasured the shields, he would have made them of a better metal, and used the shields more. This is kinda what we do with our Bibles. Sure, we take them out on Sunday, and maybe even open them,but after that, they end up on our dressers or on the coffee table or on top of the toilet in the bathroom until next Sunday. Instead of bronze disused Bibles, we should strive to have golden Bibles, that don't stay in one place long enough to get dust!
That's what I took away from that passage. If you saw any other applications, I'd love to hear about them.

What happened...

2010-01-02T10:43:00.003-05:00

So what happened to me?

Christmas(which was good)
Stay at the McGinnis house(Sorry, if I didn't get to talk to you while I was there in the area!)
Christmas vaccation

And in the near future I'll be having cousins at my house, and running sound board at church on Sunday. That's it for now! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We Three Kings of Orient Are...

2009-12-16T12:17:00.003-05:00

Hey all! With the Christmas season fast approaching, I thought that I would share some interesting facts I found out today about the Magi.

Ever wonder why we have the wise men in the manger scene? Well, it turns out that in 1223 a monk named Francis who was from Assisi, decided to do a live nativity. (Francis of Assisi was actually the first guy to do this and so he could be considered the founder of the live nativity.) Francis used people from the local village to be Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, etc. and built a wooden manger and stable. Francis wanted to tell the whole story so he included the wisemen along with the manger scene, even though he knew it wasn't biblically accurate.
How many kings were there? A Persian account says that there were 5. During Medieval times people thought it was 12.
Magi? What does it mean? Magi is plural for Magus, which has connections with astronomy and Zoroastrianism, a pagan religion tied with the stars and other astronomical things.

That's all I've got for now. If you know any other cool facts about Magi, let me know. I'd love to hear about them!

Florida Trip 09 (Finally!)

2009-12-13T17:41:00.002-05:00

OK, so I got back from Florida last Saturday, and I told myself that I would write about it soon. And soon ended up being now so here goes... Ahem.
We left my house at 5 o'clock AM ET. And traveled all day to Graham, NC to stay with the Wells family. I got the scoop on Mrs. and Heather Wells' trip to Honduras. Then, we left the next morning for Florida and got to my grandparents' home about dinner time. While we were there we enjoyed the hot tub and bikes and of course Thanksgiving the next day.
So on the Monday after Thanksgiving we went to Epcot in Orlando Florida. In my opinion, Epcot rivals Darien Lake. There was this really cool ride called Mission: Space.
Before you go on the ride you go into this room where you get briefed and it really feels like you're going to Mars. Then while this awesomely heroic music plays, you go to your positions and are given assignments and are told like three times that if you are prone to motion sickness caused by small enclosed dark spaces, spinning, or simulators you can go. And then when you pull the bar thing over your head, and the doors close, you launch. The G forces are incredible, and if I may say so they ROCK! Eventually, after tons of close calls you land on Mars and are super famous! That was probably the best part of the day, but there were other cool things like the countries of the world, the Test Drive Ride, Soarin', and the Christmas show.
But anyhow we left Florida Wednesday and arrived at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Stafford, VA near DC, at around 8 PM. Then, the next day we went to DC and saw all the monuments and the capital, which left us tired after walking a grand total of 6 miles. Then, the second day in DC we went to the Air and Space Museum and the American History Museum. We saw Lincoln's Hat and Spaceship One and the Ruby slippers (which I found out were fake,because someone stole the real ones) and Kermit the Frog and the Spirit of St, Louis and other cool stuff. And then, we got home the next day after slipping and sliding around through the mush on the roads, at 8 o'clock. I had a ton of fun!

A few days ago I put together a slide show of pics from my trip if you want to look at those. (They should be in the post just below this one.)

Pics of Epcot and DC

2009-12-08T12:19:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone! I haven't gotten around to writing about my trip yet,but here are some pictures to whet your appetite! Enjoy!

Nonliteral Interpretations of Creation

2009-12-05T19:52:00.002-05:00

So there are a few theories out there that are way off. Allow me to share them with you...

Gap Theory- The gap theory says that there was a time gap in between Genesis 1:1 and the second verse. According to the GT, there was creation #1. Then after Satan's fall millions of years later, God started on creation numero two. This is just trying to fit the Old Earth Theory and there is no scriptural evidence.
Theistic Evolution- Simply put this theory states that God used evolution to create the world. The Bible however says that God created by a direct act.
Long-Day Theory-This theory suggests that each day was a long period, not a literal day. However at the end of verses 5, 8, 12, 19, 23, and 31, there appears the phrase, "...and there was evening and there was morning...". This signifies that the days were 24 hour periods.
Progressive Creationism- This theory says that the earth is millions of years old and that at different points God created new animals. It also holds to a local flood as apposed to a world flood. Clearly this doesn't line up with the Bible.

COMING SOON: FLORIDA TRIP W/PICTURES!

Evolution: The Big Bang

2009-11-19T09:00:00.003-05:00

So in my Biology, we're learning about evolutionary theories. I think that I may end up doing several posts on evolution. The first of the evolutionary theories is the Big Bang theory.

Allow me to compile a list of reasons that the big bang is baloney:

The second law of thermodynamics states that "In a system, a process that occurs will tend to increase the total entropy of the universe." A big explosion isn't going to produce better stuff. The stuff will get worse.
What are the chances that you can blow up a minivan and get a Mercedes Benz? If you know how to do this please email me! Saying that an explosion creates matter is hogwash.
Theoretically when the sun "blew up" it created the planets. But the planets have little hydrogen and helium, plus they don't all rotate in one direction, plus they all have different axises (or is it axi?), plus they have moon that orbit opposite to the way the planets orbit.

Big Bang is Big Baloney! Case closed! If you know of any other proofs that the previous statement is true, let me know! I'd love to learn more!

World Religions and Christianity

2009-11-06T08:23:00.002-05:00

So lately in my World History class, we've been learning about all the different religions of the world. And I've noticed some things that make me say, "Hey! Why don't Christians do that?" Now, I'm not saying that I agree with all the practices of these religions(Because most of them totally don't line up with the Bible)but, bear with me and I think you'll see what I mean.

Vladamir I was trying to decide which religion would be the official religion of Russia. He sent envoys to Muslim mosques,Catholic churches, and Eastern Orthodox churches. Vladamir rejected Roman Catholicism because the services were dull. But he "converted to Eastern Orthodoxy" because the services were vibrant and the way the people acted while they were there. Why don't we do that? Shouldn't our churches just scream to people that we're worshipping God with our whole heart and that there isn't another place we'd rather be?
Most Muslims memorize the entire Koran. Why don't we do that? The Koran isn't Allah's word or even Mohammed's word. The Koran was written by people after Mohammed's death on what they remember Muhammad saying. The Bible on the other hand was written by God. Isn't that worth memorizing more than a book written by some people writing a book on memory?
Hinduism is very open to other religions. You can add any "god" to Hinduism, because they are all theoretically a part of the "world soul". This is my question: Why DO we do that? Christianity is so lukewarm! Sometimes Christians can get so mixed up with other unbiblical stuff that it's hard to tell they're Christians. We need to be careful not to fall into that trap as well.
Confusius said a lot of things. One of them I found interesting. He said, "It does not greatly concern me... that men do not know me; my great concern is my not knowing them." Why isn't that our desire? The more people you know, the more people you can minister to. Thousands and thousands of people don't know God, and you might be the only one to ever tell them.

Now maybe you see where I'm going. Christians can learn from others and pick up their good habits. I'm not sure if anyone will read this, but it's here for someone.

Halloween 09

2009-11-03T08:38:00.002-05:00

Hey everybody! Here at Tab(just in case you don't know) we have something we do every year called "Light up the Night". What we do is we set up a large tent out in front of the church. Then, we set up hot dogs, donuts, and cider to hand out to Trickertreaters(if that is how you spell it). And best of all they are FR double E, Free! We ended up giving all of it away at about 8 PM ET, and trick or treating ended at 9. So it was good that we were able to give it all away,but disappointing that we weren't able to give away more. We ended up giving away 600 hotdogs, and like 500 bags of candy, not to mention the cider, donuts, NTs, etc. So all in all, it was a very big success.
However, a bad part was that the next morning we found that both of the church's 15 passenger vans, that make runs to pick people up to go to church, were vandalized! All four wheels on both the vans were slashed.(That's 8 wheels for those of you who are mathematically challenged.) Plus (well, minus I guess) several headlights and tailights were smashed out.
So even with all that bad stuff, I would still say that Halloween was a success! I can't wait for next year!

My Fears

2009-10-24T09:59:00.002-04:00

The saying goes: Tis the season to be scarified. This is usually true,because Halloween is about scary stuff. It's about scaring the socks off everyone. It's about people's fear. And so since I'm not planning on getting scared I thought I would just tell everyone the stuff I'm afraid of:

Heights of 50 feet or more (Little heights I can deal with, like getting on the roof, trampoline jumping, etc.)
Strangers that I have to interact with(Random people I don't have to interact with that I meet on the street are OK,but if I'm going to have to work with them/play with them/minister with them, etc. then I get kinda nervous)
Girls(Yes, I do mean in general. That's one I'm trying to work on,because I know I need to just be myself and not worry about what they think. I guess I'm also sort of afraid they'll laugh at me. With me or at my jokes is OK, but not at me. Something I need to work on.)
Snakes( In glass cases is way cool. Out in the wild, in my bed or in my hand kind of scares me though. But if I had to handle them, I think I would want a long sticky thing with a hook on the end.)

Other than those things, I'm not really afraid of anything else. If you think of anything else let me know.

The two H's

2009-10-16T15:22:00.003-04:00

H number one stands for Hannas. The Hannas got here on Wednesday night and stayed until Monday morning. While they were here they helped us with apple sauce and we made over 100 jars! Unfortunately while they were here most of them got sick.

And Monday evening I got sick. And Tuesday afternoon I found out what I had and what they had: H1N1 (Otherwise known as swine flu). Fortunately, now I'm doing much better. I've only got a cough now, and I'm over the fever. So that's where I've been.

September

2009-10-06T07:22:00.003-04:00

Ironic isn't it, that the title is September and I haven't written anything all last month. And that this is now October.
Sorry I haven't been posting. Here's what I've been doing since August 24:
VBS days 2-5
Learning a lot about purity
Getting stronger in my faith
Starting school
Struggling with Geometry,Writing and Grammar, Biology, World History, and Spanish 1
Watching the Clone Wars Season 3 Premier(which was awesome by the way!)
Getting fish tank set up
Getting two new goldfish and almost $40 worth of equipment
Writing this post

And now that brings us to the present: now!

And now to the future. This Wednesday thru Monday, some friends of mine from Ohio, will be staying at my house. And while the adults are making applesauce I'll be having the time of my life goofing off.... I mean helping them! :)
I'm not dead... yet.

Polar Xtremes Day #0 and #1

2009-08-24T13:55:00.002-04:00

So Sunday night the ministry team from Watkins Glen came over to the parsonage. Let me see if I can remember all the names.

Joel
Jonathan
Elizabeth
Evilyn
Christine
Joe
Peter
Pastor Jeremy and his wife, Melody

So we had pizza and Mt. Dew and hung out and debreifed until 10PM. That was day #0. Day #1 we got up and had breakfast at 7:30. By 8:15 we were on our way to church. My job in VBS is I am the Tech boy. Powerpoint,CD player, videos, and picture taking. So I don't really belong to a group,but then again, I kind of belong to all the groups! So I took pictures and did PP and stuff and then at noon everybody had lunch. And my Dad debreifed and there were a lot of uncomfortable pauses and eventually they had to go home. But they will be back tomorrow to do puppets and the other stuff they do. I can't wait!

Lamoka Family Camp III

2009-08-22T17:03:00.002-04:00

Here's the run down of my week at Camp Lamoka...

So my family and I were in cabin #8 and 9. There were only 8 families,but that was cool,because there wasn't as much wait for anything.
Monday night Chip Wood did a diagram on what faith is. He said it was, Hope in Hardship, Emptied of Everything, Walk Willing, Action Attitude, and Yeild to Yeild. If you take the first letters and put them backwards it spells YAWEH. Pretty cool!
Tuesday evening there was a ginormous thunderstorm. I was on the porch of the dining hall and I watched as the other shore disappeared. In 30 seconds the rain hit the camp. I was standing in the middle of the porch three feet away from the edge of the roof and I was still soaked. The wind was so strong it was hard to open the door to get into the dining hall. It reminded me of how powerful God is!
Wednesday my dad was the speaker for the day! He did two of the Mete Pete sermons, one of which I hadn't heard. So that was cool.
I'm a pretty good canoer(that's French for a person who goes canoeing). But I've never been to the end of Lamoka Lake. So my dad and I took out the camp canoe and went to the donut hole. (The donut hole used to be a sluice pipe that connected Waneta and Lamoka Lake. The pipe however has been replaced by a connector under a bridge.) So to get to the connector you have to paddle two miles. Needless to say when we got there I was pooped. And for a change of pace I said, "Dad? Could I steer?" Little did I know. So thirty five minutes later after making several 360 turns and runing into the banks once or twice we made it back. So I paddled 4 miles (roughly) in about an hour. Pretty fun.
Thursday I made a prediction that it would rain by 3 PM. And it did almost right to the minute. I guess I'm physic.
Friday Mr. Wood showed this awesome video from the Creation Museum about the universe and the stars. It was so humbling. I've never felt so insignificant. God is so big, super strong, and way mighty. There totally isn't anything he can't do!

And that is what I did at Camp Lamoka!

Off to Camp!

2009-08-17T07:42:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody! I'm off to Camp Lamoka! (Which by the way, is just about the coolest place on earth!) I'll be sure to give you all a full report when I get back! See ya!

Red-Eyed Tree Frog Rescue

2009-08-10T08:47:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone! Your Go Diego Go critic is back! I was watching yet another Go Diego Go episode and I noticed some things:

So there is this camera named "Click"(I think that is a pretty pathetic name.). She can zoom in on something that is like a mile away. This obviously isn't a camera that you can pick up at Walmart. I seriously doubt that Diego is like Jules Verne and is ahead of his time.

Click uses sound recognition. So one of the targets they zoom in on is whales. They don't make sounds like red-eyed tree frogs(the creatures in question). But the thing that gets to me is that the whales are floating with 3/4 of their body above water. Totally unscientific!

Alicia(Diego's sister and partner in rescuing) has a funky keyboard where there aren't letters,but odd symbols. Maybe it's a Korean keyboard or something.

Diego has an awesome zip line system that takes him to just about anywhere in the jungle. I think this is awesome,yet a little absurd.

There is this "mud pit" that looks a lot like a stagnant muddy river. The pit also is seemingly endless and has no vanishing point.

Diego communicates with animals using sounds. Ex. Diego wants to communicate with a pig. He says "Oink!"

There are these palm trees that Diego must pass. They are doing the cha-cha-cha and dropping coconuts in the process. This is mildly disturbing(the fact that trees wiggle their "hips" and shake their "bottoms").

The coconuts that the trees drop are ginormous. They are about the size of one of those yoga/exercise balls. And considering the size of the trees to their coconuts they are way too unporportional.

To enter a Mayan pyramid Diego climbs like a ninja up the side instead of using the stairs that are probably right around the corner.

Inside this pyramid there are owls and trees. First off the trees wouldn't be able to grow without sunlight. Secondly, there are tons of other places for owls to roost.

Diego has this cool pal named "Rescuepack". Rescuepack's theme song is cooler than Diego's. (Doesn't seem fair does it?) And during the theme song he is shaking his rear around. Is this the kind of thing we want to be teaching young impressionable kids? To shake their rears while singing?

Diego is rafting down the river and he stops mid current. This might be achievable if Diego had his paddle in the water. But he doesn't. This completely defies the laws of physics!

After the tree frogs are rescued they are so happy that they kiss Diego! Unless you know something I don't I'm pretty sure that frogs can't pucker up.

The tree frogs are in the trees and are so happy that they jump apoximately 4-5 feet in the air. I'm quite sure they can't jump that high.

There are many other problems with Go Diego Go, but for time's sake I have excluded them. I hope you now see the error of the show as I have seen the error. Thank you.

TLC 09

2009-07-26T20:33:00.003-04:00

So all last week I was at TLC. Here's what happened...

Jaquie Von Sanden, Laura Bartholemew, Shelby Hill, Cassandra Pelton, Jordan Mcginnis, and Scott Paris(that's me) all went to TLC and roomed with some of the Yorkshire crew.
The college dorms were pretty nice, the food had a little to be desired, and the hang time with the other people was very cool.
The awesomest part was Worship/message time. I have never had so much fun worshiping God and learning about him!
We had 5 speakers for the 14 main sessions: Mel Walker, Dwight Peterson, Don Jackson, Mike Show, and Glenn Amos. The messages were awesome and I'm so glad that God let me learn so much about him.
God really convicted me about a lot of stuff. Mainly how I spend my time and how I talk to my siblings.
And we even had workshops after lunch! The two two day workshops that I went to were "Preparing NOW for Vocational Ministry" and "Using Sports to Reach People". They were both awesome! I really liked the Vocational ministry one, because I think(and have thought for a while) that God is calling me into ministry in some way.
So then like Friday night I got really sick and I have been feeling miserable. I had to stay home from church this morning whick I am really bummed about. If you could pray for my fast recovery that would be great!

And that was my very awesome week at TLC!

Where I Was

2009-07-18T12:26:00.002-04:00

So if anyone is out there, I'm not dead. Yet. I was at VBS in Wyoming. I totally had like a ton of fun! So now you're thinking, "Yeah! Scott is back to blogging! Now I can have some serious fun!" Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'll be gone at TLC this week. So I should probably be back to blogging in a week or so. Thanks! By the way, if anyone is out there leave me a comment to let me know that.

Calvin and Hobbes

2009-07-09T06:40:00.009-04:00

So I love Calvin and Hobbes. And I thought you might too. And since nothing super exciting has happened lately I thought now would be a good time. So here are the famous Calvin and Hobbes:

Happy 4th!

2009-07-04T20:09:00.002-04:00

So today I went tubing and got whacked with wooden swords and swam in very cold water. All this happened at my grandparents' cottage which is on the channel that connects Mud lake and Whaneta Lake and Lamoka Lake. Today three really cool things happened:

My grandpa took me on a wild ten minute tube ride. And I stayed on and had a ton of fun.
My little cousin fell off the dock with his life jacket on. I was able to quickly grad him and pull him out of the water. Hopefully I won't have to do something like that again.
My sister(don't get me wrong she's family and all, still she is kinda a knucklhead at times. Kinda like me. It must run in the family) lost her glasses off the dock. Thankfully we were able to find them after 20 minutes or so. And even better they weren't sratched too badly.

So those are three of the highlights of the day at the cottage. Happy 4th everyone!

Howe Caverns

2009-07-01T07:49:00.008-04:00

So Howe Caverns is about 35 miles from Albany. It is really cool! It has an underground river, an underground lake, and is really cool! So these two pictures below are of the river Styx(no that isn't an error). In Greek mythology the river Styx flows through hell. Creepy!

This here is a stalagmite and a stalactite. When two of they combine it is called a column.This rock above the walkway is called Godzila's head. This cave is getting creepier(I think that is a word) all the time! I've outlined the shape so you can see it a little better.

This rock here is called "The Three Witches". Very much creepiness! Again I've outlined the shapes

This here is called the turtle. Why? Because it is shaped like a turtle!

This stalagmite is called the "Leaning Tower of Pisa".

This strange formation in the picture below is called the organ. If you hum, the sound resonates and makes a really cool sound.

This here is a calcite heart. There are two myths that the tour guide told us:

If you stand on the heart you will have good luck.(Immeadeatly all the kids on the tour jump on the heart, until our tour guide tells them the next myth...)
If you stand on the heart you will get married in a year.(All the kids jump off the heart in a split second. Very funny!)

So those are some of the many cool sites at Howe Caverns!

Fish Tank

2009-06-29T06:44:00.003-04:00

So few days ago I got this really scummy looking fish tank that wasn't worth a dirt clod. But I bought it anyway and turned it into a sparkling clean fish tank with lots of parts missing. I'm not sure what I even have as far as filter,heater,etc. So I also don't know what kinds of fish go well together and won't kill each other. So if any of you fish people out there know what to do I would love some tips.

Victor Borge

2009-06-26T14:07:00.003-04:00

Victor Borge(bore-guh) was a piano comedian. My grandparents love him, and I enjoy watching him when I get the chance. So I thought(as I was laughing heartily at Victor Borge), "I'll bet I'm not the only one who would think this is funny". So here are a few of Victor Borge's great performances. Those of you who aren't music people may not get the some of the jokes, but even so I'm sure you will thoroghly enjoy Victor Borge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ4ZNbiO15M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcV19rylSZc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWqFaGwNCMU ww.youtube.com/watch?v=BcV19rylSZc

Why I haven't been Posting: A recap of Tuesday-Thursday

2009-06-26T07:07:00.002-04:00

So I haven't been posting. Here's why:

Tuesday- Laura Bartholemew was here visiting, so we spent the day at Taughanock Falls. I took a lot of scenic photography(in other words pics of the water/rocks/logs)
Wednesday- Picking strawberries(me) and making jam(not me). I probably could have posted,but I was too lazy. Watched National Treasure on TV.(Pretty cool movie)
Thursday- Going to dentist. No cavities :) but lots of plaque and tartar :( Mowed some of the lawn at Wyoming,then it started to thunder and lightning, so I had to call it quits.

So that is where I have been. Sorry!

Optical Illusions

2009-06-19T11:07:00.008-04:00

So I was looking around on the internet(because I was bored) at optical illusions. I found a few that I had never seen before. I thought I would share them with you. (Please excuse the pointlessness of these things. Probably most of my posts will be like this,because I'm not really doing much of anything.)Here you see three circles and an outline of a triangle and...is that a white triangle there on top?

This picture I think is pretty self-explanatory. Pretty cool!

Here it looks like the man is getting whatever the seal has on his nose. But he's not. The seal and the area around him are part of a chalk street drawing.

At first glance this looks like the profile of a man. But if you cock your head to the right it reveals the word "Liar".

Look hard at the grid. Do the white dots appear to turn black at times?

Which to you see the head of a Native American or an Eskimo with his back turned to you?

This is pretty cool! The two pictures above are the same picture just turned right side up or right side down.

This is a lithograph by Escher. Which end is up?

Which do you see? A donkey or a seal?
This is the classic "which of the center cirles is bigger"?

The answer is they are the same size.

This is my favorite puzzle. When you change the pieces around there is a square missing. Wierd!

Hope you enjoy all this wierdness as much as I did!

Lego Fun!

2009-06-18T09:40:00.007-04:00

So yesterday Jack and I were playing Legos and I thought that I would share our creations with all you bloggers.

So this is the Royal Navy's stockade. Pretty primitive, but out in the middle of the Caribbean or wherever there isn't much to work with.

This is the pirate's island where they have thier treasure, thier catapult, and thier boat. Kinda small,but it works.

These are the terrors of the seven seas: the pirates. There are eight of them and only three soldiers. Fortunately, the soldiers have the help of three peasants.

I'm Back!

2009-06-16T18:18:00.003-04:00

Hey! Just when you thought I dropped off the face of the earth, here I am again. So here's a recap of what I was doing these past few days...

Went to Columbus, Ohio and visited some friends. So the first day(Friday) we got to our friends' house at about dinner time. I played Ultimate frisbee(a fun game if you know what you are doing) in their backyard. Somehow I always seem to get hurt. This trip was no exception. So I was running after the frisbee to catch it and make a touchdown and their was this spikey bush thing between me and the frisbee. Need I say anymore? I got this long horizontal 6" scratch(I measured it) across my chest. Wierdly enough, it didn't cut through my shirt. So that hurt like nuts for a few days.
Then on Saturday afternoon, Jackson, one of my friends who is 12, another of my friends who was 10, and Jack went down to the park for some serious watergunning. So the layout of this water area is this: a pioneer wagon and an outpost on one end of the area, a tunnel that leads from near the wagon to Fort Washington, Fort Washington in the middle with angles galore, and hoses on the opposite end. So when we get to the water area, there is no one at the outpost or wagon, and all the kids who were originally fighting each other decide to gang up on us. So like a dozen kids 9-11 years old all start charging our position, one of them shouting names at us, profanity, and a certain unamed finger. This was obviously to get us mad and get us to come into the fort so they could nail us. So obviously they were playing a mental war. Two can play this game, I thought, so I start just walking slowly toward thier position gun held high. The kids see that by spraying me they aren't slowing me down, so they run screaming and yelling away at top speed. So within a half an hour of fighting, about 6 or 7 kids have surrendered and joined our team, so after that we just sort of nailed the annoying kid ( the one who was swearing and running) and his compatriots. So that was fun.
So my family went to church in Columbus with our friends. Then, we traveled to Pittsburgh to see my great aunt who has written at least one book and is starting on another and is a philosophy teacher at Geneva College.
In Pittsburgh, everybody is happy because the Penguins won the Stanley Cup. Everyone is so happy that, they were having a parade Monday. And so we were driving around in that chaos all yesterday. So first we went to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. That was fun. The only downside was that it was small and you could see everything there was to see in about an hour. After that, we went to lunch to meet with my first cousin. That was fun, the kids got to play on the playground, and I got to eat.(One of my favorite pastimes!) Then, we went to the Carnegie Science Center. It is right next to the Steelers' Stadium, so I got to see the outside of that. We went on the motion simulator, in a submarine called the USS Requin(that missed WWII by two days), and some other really cool stuff.
The really sad part of my trip was that at the science center there was a exhibit on Darwin. Christians and non-Christians alike agree that Religion and Philosophy cannot interfere with science. Yet they had topics such as, "Can you believe in God and Evolution?". It makes me sad to think of all the people who are beliving in the THEORY(it is still a theory. People seem to forget that.) of Evolution. So that was a downer.
And after all that stuff, I went to bed. Then, I got up took a shower. Chased after my aunt's dog because he got loose. Walked the dog after I got him. Borrowed a book. And then was trapped in a van with 5 other people for 6 hours. And I'm here to tell about it! So that is where I was.

Blog Silence

2009-06-12T06:25:00.002-04:00

So there is going to be no blogging on my blog for a few days. I'm going off into the far reaches of Ohio and Pennsylvania! Hopefully I'll have pictures to show you all when I get back home. Just thought I should let you know so that you're not going, "Where's Scott!?" and panicking, because you think I've gone off the face of the earth. I'll be back Tuesday or so. In the words of General Eisenhower, "I shall return."

School's Out!

2009-06-10T10:08:00.002-04:00

So school was officially out for my family yesterday! Yipee! Now I can have some serious fun! So I was thinking about all I'm going to be doing this summer like...

Ohio/Pittsburg trip(to see friends and my great aunt) June 12-16 First, we're going to see our friends who live in Columbus, Ohio. The kids are the similar ages as the Paris kids, so we usually have fun. Then, we visit my great aunt(who by the way teaches philosophy at Geneva College and has written at least one philosophy book) who lives in Pittsburg. That usually is fun aswell.
Laura's Grad Party July 11 So that should be fun to see Laura and all the rest of the Wyoming people.
Sunday July 12 So after the grad party I get to go to church at Wyoming and go to Sunday School and fun stuff like that
VBS(at Wyoming) July 13-17 So that should be incredibly fun,becuase not only do I get to hang out with a bunch of sweaty smelly kids and be increibly tired at the end of the day, but I get to minister to them and serve God! That is awesomness! Plus I get to hang out at my friend Jordan's house. Superness!
TLC(Teen Leadership Conference) July 20-24 So I'm hoping I'll learn a lot there and get to know the Yorkshire crew a little better. So that should be fun as well, just like the rest of the summer.
Family Camp 3 August 17-22 So I will get to hang out with my family for an entire week at (in my opnion) one of the most cool places on earth: Camp Lamoka! If you've never been there, you are terribly deprived!
VBS(at TAB) August 24-28 So I'm not sure whether this will be fun,but I'm going to try to make it be. We're doing the Arctic Express(or something like that) VBS from RBP. Hopefully it will go well.

And so that is what is happening in my incredibly packed summer! If I'm not posting for long periods of time it's probably because I'm not around.

Corning Museum of Glass

2009-06-08T16:52:00.009-04:00

So today my Mom,Heather,Lauren, Jack, I went to the Corning Museum of Glass(AKA CMOG). These are some pictures taken by me, during the day. Please forgive the ridiculous captions that I am sure to put with the pictures. So when we went inside, the first thing they had that we could do was to make a design of a glass thing. Kids could make a design and then the glass making guys would choose one picture and you could take your creation home. So we did that.

My sister Heather likes shows and sitting in places for long periods of time. I don't. So Heather wanted to go to like seven shows in one day. Thankfully we only went to three. The first one was a glass breaking demo. That was probably the coolest one. So the guy doing the demo (Adam) had three types of glass: Plate glass, Laminated glass, and tempered glass. He also had this machine that showed stress. Plate glass and laminated glass have no stress because they are cooled gradually, and tempered glass has organized stress, because it is cooled super-fast. Pretty cool! And Jackson got to help smash the glass so that was cool.

So remeber those drawings we made in the beginning. Well the glass making guys decided to make Jackson's! So Wednesday, when we go to pick it up, Jackson will have a green turtle in his room! Very cool to watch!

So after that, we went and looked at all the glass art. Who would have thought that you could make so much from glass?

This was my favorite piece. So cool yet so wierd. Kinda like me! It is called, "It's Raining Knives".

Cool chess set!

So that is pretty much what happened today! Hope you like the pics!

Music Man

2009-06-06T15:53:00.003-04:00

So last night was my trumpet concert. It went pretty well I guess. I played some pretty cool songs: The Matador, America The Beautiful On Parade, A Little Bit Of Jazz, Doxology, Ect. Then, after getting back at 10 o'clock the previous night, I had a piano recital at 9:30 AM ET. It went pretty good I guess. I played Brian's Song(which is the theme from a movie called Brian's Song(imagine that). If you've never seen the movie,watch it! If you're a guy and you like football,watch it! If you're a girl and you like to cry, watch it! If you're a guy or girl and you like to cry and or like football, watch it!) I also played Rejoice Ye Pure In Heart. In the order I was last, and usually the best person is last. That was pretty encouraging! I was told by one of the mothers who has never seen the movie that while I was playing the song she teared up. And my uncle(who has seen the movie and doesn't show much emotion most of the time) said he teared up as well. So I have been really encouraged these past two days! I will hopefully continue to progress and do well.

COMING SOON! PICTURES FROM THE PARIS FAMILY'S VISIT TO THE CORNING GLASS MUSEUM!

Thursday Trumpet

2009-06-04T14:25:00.002-04:00

For those of you who don't know I play trumpet! When I lived in Wyoming,(if you've never been there you need to contact me and I can tell you all about it, and what to do there, and who to meet there) I went up to Geneseeo every thursday to take trumpet lessons from a guy named Mr. Tripiciano. Mr. Trip is a hunter/speaker/music teacher, who taught me to play trumpet and allowed me to play in a school band. I started taking lessons from him in March of 2008. He helped me do really well and play with confidence(which had a part in my "coming out of my shell"). Well, when I left he gave me all the band music and I agreed to play in the spring concert. Today at 7:20 my Mom and I left the house to go to Geneseeo so I could play with the band before the concert. So I went and played with the band and saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while, and touched up on the things that I wasn't all that great at. And after that my mom and I picked up the kitchen island at the Furniture Barn. And after that it was time for lunch. I wolfed down three 99 cent Arby's sandwiches, and half of a bottle of water. And after that I slept most of the way to Ithaca. And so tomorrow evening at 7 PM Eastern Time, I will be playing in the spring concert at Geneseeo Christian School. If you get the time I could use some prayer!

What happened Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Today

2009-05-31T15:37:00.003-04:00

Sorry I haven't written in a few days. Here's a recap of what happened.
So on Thursday Ithaca has this festival called "The Ithaca Festival" (imagine that) and the parade is right near the church. So Tab gave out hot dogs and lemonade and all for the novel price of $0(AKA free). And even though we didn't give away as many as we wanted to we gave out a good amount. The Gideons(the guys who give out new testament/proverbs and psalms bibles) gave away several New Testaments as well! God is so good! That was Thursday.
On Friday, this girl named Jacquelyn(she follows this blog and is great at giving out advice) was graduating. I made a pit stop at the Bakers' house and Mr. Baker and I talked a lot about my blog and some other stuff. So at this graduation, I learned how to be a thirsty camel(don't ask) and we sang some really great hymns that I hadn't sung in a while. It was great! I got to see her and a bunch of my other pals! That was Friday.
Then, Saturday came. Saturday evening there was a dinner at the church for the missionaries that were going to be speaking on Sunday. The missionary's name was Dan Wood. He came with a part of his family: Danny(who was 15), Analis(who was 6) and Tovia(who was 5). He is ministering to Jewish people in southern Brazil. I got to listen to Mr. Wood and learn a lot. That was Saturday.
Sunday was today(or tomorrow or some other day, depending on when you read this). I listened to Mr. Wood during Sunday school and learned a lot about what he does and about his life and his family's life in south Brazil. Then, he sang this really cool song in morning service in Hebrew! It was so cool! He gave some of his family's history and preached on Acts 8:26-40. He went 10 minutes overtime, but he said some things that I really needed to hear. After he spoke, he and his family came to my house for lunch. I got to know Danny better, and we found out that we have a lot in common. It was so neat! God has really blessed me over the past few days! I am super thankful for all he has given to me!

Jail: Right or Wrong?

2009-05-26T17:11:00.003-04:00

Fact #1: The Bible says that evil should be punished. In the Bible wrong choices are always followed by consequences.
Fact#2: The Bible says that hanging with evildoers is not good. The Bible warns people to avoid evildoers.
Fact#3: Putting people in jail for life gives them no chance to redeem themselves.
Fact#4: Putting people in jail is a form of punishment.
Fact#5: While in jail, people will run into tons of bad influences and evildoers.
Fact#6: Putting people in jail protects the person in jail and other people.

So based on all these facts, is jail a good or bad idea? Should we go back to the old "cut of people's hands if they steal"? Here's what I think...
Prison is a good idea. Wrong needs to be punished. People who have commited crimes are a potential threat to themselves and those around them. The people that a criminal is imprisoned with may not be the greatest, but that really can't be helped. Being with people like that is almost a punishment itself. So is jail good or bad? In my opinion it is for the most part good. What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment!

Pain in the Third Dimension

2009-05-24T16:21:00.002-04:00

So yesterday was one of the most painful days in my life. Here's how it happened.
I was riding my scooter down the residential road called Westwood Knoll(or knolls I'm not sure which) when I hit something(or the front wheel went into a rut). I went flying 10 feet in the air(well maybe more like 2 feet) and the scooter launched me 5 yards (well maybe more like 5 feet). I put out my hands and took most of the injury on my right side. I was seriously hurt,but somehow I ran(as fast as a man in pain can) all the way up the hill in the front lawn and ran into my grandparent's house. They doctored me up, and with the help of bandaids I was okay...for a while.
I had seriously scraped up my right hand and right elbow. I also had minor scratches on my left hand, right side of my right knee, and my right ankle. But as I said before I was only okay for the moment. When I had fallen, I had landed and put all of my weight on my right hand. My right wrist acted like a shock absorber. Long story short I have a sprained wrist that caused me crazy bad pain all afternoon on Saturday. The pain was so bad I couldn't even the lightest of objescts with my right hand thus I was using my left hand for everything. You have no idea how hard it is to play computer games, brush your teeth,and eat with your left hand when you are a righty. I dare you to take the Feelin Lefty Challenge. Do everything with your left hand for one whole day(or if you are a lefty do everything with your right hand). Hopefully I will be able to play the piano write and such by Monday.

All the Art in my life

2009-05-22T12:15:00.002-04:00

So this morning, a man from our church(who is a painter) came and gave my family a painting that he painted. It looks really awesome! This is the painting here below the melodious words I have typed.
The other thing with art that is in my life is this game that is pictured here below all these words that I am typing. The game is called "Masterpiece". In it you buy painting and sell them and try to make a fast buck by selling them for more than they are worth. This is Parker Brother's fourth game, and was made in 1970. It is out of print however which is probably why you don't see it in stores. Even though it isn't made anymore if you see it at a garage sale or inherit it from your grandma Ethel or you have the chance to play it, play it! It is way fun. So I have had a lot of artzy stuff in my life lately. And I guess that's about it.

Hey, Everyone!

2009-05-20T07:06:00.002-04:00

Hey,everyone! (Wait I just said that,if you read the title. But if you didn't; Hi everyone! There now. I said it twice or threee times, but if you didn't... ah forget it...) So I am now somewhat famous. Katy Case has allowed me to write on her blog. If you want to check out what I wrote(maybe you already have) here's the link:
http://110surrendered.blogspot.com/2009/05/whats-it-all-about-another-special.html
By the way I would also highly recomend checking out the rest of her blog,because even though it doesn't have anything to do with me it is still awesome.
PS PLEASE VOTE!
(Thanks to the one person that has voted so far.)

Fooling around

2009-05-19T18:13:00.005-04:00

So I was fooling around with PowerPoint today and made these cool(in my opinion) pictures/posters. Tell me what you think.

PS Please Vote!

My Testimony(and my life after that)

2009-05-17T14:18:00.002-04:00

So today I had to share my testimony with the deacons at TAB. And I thought, "I'll bet not too many of my pals probably know my testimony." And so in my ingenuity I have decided to share my testimony and what God did after that, because probably the coolest part of my life comes after my salvation. So here goes...ahem...
So I was raised in a Christian home. (My dad's a pastor and my mom is a pastor's wife(imagine that).) My mom was always was telling me about God, but as a three or four year-old I didn't give it a lot of thought. God really started working on my life one summer at VBS. Every day at the end of Bible time, the teacher(who happened to be the senior pastor's wife)gave the plan of salvation and asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus into his/her heart. I thought a lot about that in my five year-old peanut butter brain. I thought about it even a week later. Then, one night after prayer meeting, my mom told me and my sister to clean our room(we shared a room at the time). So while I was picking up the toys scattered around the room, I was still thinking. I said to my mom(and I quote), "Mom, could you tell me more about that...Jesus thing?" My mom and I went into her bedroom, and she explained it to me again. And so that night(August 8,1999) I accepted Christ. That in itself is AWESOME! But to quote a wise man, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
So after I got saved I went to a new believer class where I got taught 1 on 2(there was another boy in the class with me). We learned all about fruits of the Spirit and communion and baptism and cool stuff like that. When I first heard about baptism I was a little hesitant, because I couldn't swim. Years later after I came to Wyoming...NY(I just love doing that to people) I decided that I needed to be baptized. I must have been 9 or so when I got baptized. I don't remeber the date of my baptism or how old I was, but I do know that I was obeying Jesus in what I did.
So after that my spiritual life just sort of bumped along the road and not much really happened with me spiritually speaking. When I was 10 I reaffirmed my salvation.
The really cool part of my life happened after that. I started going to Lamoka Baptist Camp.(If you've never been there you are really missing out.) There I really grew closer to God. But that isn't the awsomest part. No, the awesomest part was when I went on a missions trip to Lamoka. There I really,really grew closer to God. I got to share the gospel. And if that wasn't enough I made some really godly friends. So that is my life in Christ.
(If you would like to share your testimony, email it to me and I will put it on my blog.
Thanks to all you few that voted on my poll. The answer is Taylor Mason. He is a really good Christian ventriloquist. By the way the other comedians are really good too, and you should really check them out.)

What I think

2009-05-14T06:34:00.003-04:00

So yesterday I was going to get around to the computer to write this, but I got side tracked. But I'm here now. So yesterday the big thing was(at Yahoo!, anyway) that a kid went to his girlfriend's prom and got suspended. That is the short version. Here is the fuller version. The Christian school he attends has a no dancing,hand-holding(unless your a kindergartner),or kissing set of rules. The guy (we'll call him Joe, because the guy seems so nondescript),Joe, was going to his girlfriend's prom that was at a public school. Obviously the prom involves dancing. So when the principal got wind of this he told Joe, "Joe if you do go you will be suspended." So Joe(the immature nucklehead that I think he is) went to the prom anyway. The school suspended him, and he has it in his head that he made the right decision. And for the icing on the cake he is suing the school.

Let me just tell you my ideas on this situation. Some of them are my personal beliefs, some are straight from the Bible.

My personal belief on dancing is that some is OK(like waltzing and square dancing), while others is wrong(like jumparound the room,bang your head against the wall). So I'm not sure what kind of dancing there was at this place,but depending on what kind of dancing they were doing,it could be either right or wrong. I'm inclined to think it was the second kind of dancing. Thus, wrong decision.
The principal tells him he will be suspended if he goes to this prom. Basically he is saying not to go. Joe goes anyway. That is outright disobedience to authority! You can hide around the excuse, "He didn't say not to do it.",because really he didn't say he could either.
In 1 Corinthians 6:7 it says,"The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" In other words: suing is stupid. Stupid may be a mean word, but it descibes some people pretty well. Me included at some times.

So those are my veiws on the situation. If you have other thoughts let me know and leave a comment. PS Please vote!

Cool Quotes

2009-05-12T20:11:00.003-04:00

So I came across this quote in literature class today.
"It is our business as readers of literature, to know what we like. It is our business as Christians, as well as readers, to know what we ought to like. T.S. Eliot
That made me think. Shouldn't this apply to everything we watch on TV or listen to. We should know what we ought to like and do that instead of reading/listening/watching the stuff we like that doesn't match up with Scripture.
My science teacher was talking about how he thought that listening to rock music was wrong. He said that rock music can damage your hearing. So if your body is the temple of the Lord, then you're ruining the temple of the Lord. Hmmm? Casting Crowns,for instance, doesn't always have blaring songs that make your ears bleed. But they're classified as a rock band. Does that mean that we shouldn't listen to that? Again, hmmm?
I was reading my Bible, and came across a very cool quote.
"Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." John21:25 ESV
I thought about that for a while. Wow! Our God is an awesome God!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T13:33:00.004-04:00

I found this poem by Bill Watterson(the really cool guy who writes Calvin and Hobbes comics) in the "Lazy Sunday Book". I thought it was fitting considering it is Mother's Day.

__________________

I was going to but a card

With hearts of pink and read,

But then I thought I would rather

Spend the money on me instead.

__________________________

It's awfully hard to buy things

When one's allowance is so small,

So I guess you're pretty lucky

I got you anything at all.

____________________________

"Happy Mother's Day to you."

There I said it Now I'm done

So how 'bout getting out of bed

And making breakfast for your son?

_______________________________

Happy Mother's Day!

A Funny Thing Happened While I Was Mowing...

2009-05-09T15:33:00.002-04:00

So a funny thing happened while I was mowing today. I was going long minding my own business when, "CHUNK!" The mower stopped. No biggie. I pulled the mower backward to see what I hit. I couldn't see anything. So I started the mower up again...that is I tried to start it again. The cord wouldn't pull. Come to find out the Mower blade was bent! My grandad and I tried to bend it back, but to no avail(Not sure what that means, but they say it a lot in books when someone is trying to do something, but can't). So I will probably be paying for a brand new mower blade quite soon. If you want to help me and make a donation to my cause, please call the toll free number on the bottom of your screen. But wait call in the next 5 minutes and you'll get a Danny show mug, compliments of "The Danny Show".
I learned something out of all of this: Don't ever bend the mower blade! It is bad doojoo!

Pizza and Walking With God

2009-05-08T21:19:00.003-04:00

So tonight I was eating pizza. I love pizza!(But seriously who doesn't. If you don't I pity you.) I had two pieces of pizza and two glasses of Mountain Dew. After which, I felt extremely sick. So I was thinking. Piazza tastes good. Yet it makes me sick, and isn't healthy. Vitamins are disguting.(Well, except vitamin C. That tastes good. But I had to take these chewable vitamins when I was little, that(no joke)tasted like flavored grit. Blech!) But disguting as some vitamins are they are healthy, and I have less chance of getting sick. Are we in our Christian life bogged down with pizza and mountain dew? The stuff in our life that really isn't good for a christian to be looking at/listening to/doing, but we do it because it feels good or satisfies us(for the time being). But when we go to read our Bible or go to church(the stuff that is awesome for our walk with Christ) we whine and say, "Do we have to?" or "Oh, OK." or "*heavy exhale* OK, come on let's go."? We have to stop eating the pizza of life, and eat the vitamins of the Christian walk! And eventually the vitamins will stop tasting like flavored grit and be like vitamin C. So that was just something I was thinking about today. So it is super late, and I better get to bed. Hopefully I won't ever post this late at night again.

Trampoline Fun(Take 2)

2009-05-05T07:21:00.004-04:00

So yesterday, I had more time than I thought. So I took a few pics along with the help of an unnamed photographer. I have a tendency to jump extremely high. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how high. Probablymy feet are about 4 feet above the trampoline. That makes my head about 9-10 feet off the trampoline's surface and even higher off the ground!

This is yet another photo of me jumping. Unfortunately, the unprofessional photographer cut off my head.

And this is me doing a flip. It isn't as easy as it looks and it doesn't look easy. Translation is: it is difficult.

And this is me!

This just shows how high I am. Compare the size of the flipflop in picture 1 to the size in picture 2 when I am at my highest point. WOW! If I do say so myself.

Trampoline Fun

2009-05-04T14:37:00.008-04:00

So I am a dingdong(there I admit it). And as a dingdong I tend to do dorky stuff, like what just happened a few minutes ago. I was looking at my blog, and I noticed I hadn't blogged in a while.

"What can I write about?"

"Why not take a bunch of dorky pictures of you on the trampoline?" Heather said in joking

And then I had an epiphany! I could take pictures of me on the trampoline! I was a genius. But I didn't have a lot of time to do that. So I'm posting pics I've taken in years past(it is sort of a hobby of mine).

So this is me in all my trampoline jumping/launching glory. Notice the way I have my mouth open at an exact 45 degree angle. That's talent.

So this is one of my favorite hobbies: Golf ball throwing. We dingdongs enjoy these things psycotic as they are. Unfortunately...

...this hobby is also quite dangerous. Searing pain can ensue when, the proper safety precausions aren't taken. A helmet and mouthguard are useful tools in this odd dingdongish hobby.

This is one of my favorite things to do. Flips cannonball style are way fun. If you have not experienced this you are quite deprived.

Sometimes things don't turn out right. Well, left. At least I think it is my left. You don't always get the perfect picture. But sometimes you get a funny caption:)

What Happened Today

2009-05-02T17:22:00.002-04:00

So what happened today. First, I woke up(no surprise there). Then, I had breakfast and listened to FLN(Family Life Network) until about 9:00 AM Eastern time. Then, I helped Mike Smith pull up all the electric lights(they all had wiring which were a pain to pull up) and put in solar lights. (I'm talking about the garden lights in the front beds by the way.) After that was done Mr. Miller and Mr. Apthorp showed up and we did a little trench digging. When it rains all the water comes down the hill and pushes against my grandparents home. So we dug this trench(about 4 inches deep and 6 inches wide) that went to a natural drain in our lawn. Then, we put heavy cement blocks over it and created a walkway. Next, Mr. Apthorp brought out his chainsaw. That's when the fun started. We cut down limbs and vines that might fall on the house. We had a huge pile by the end. Before it looked like a mess. And now it still looks like a mess, but you can tell someone has been there. After everyone left Mom and Dad headed off for Ron Miller's installment at Dryden. And while they were gone we had all the neighbborhood kids come over and jump on the trampoline in the back. Fun! So other than that nothing else really happened.

Cryptid of the month

2009-05-01T14:19:00.003-04:00

The AGOGWE:

Biped, about 1.5 m tall( a little under 5 feet), reddish hair, rounded forehead

First sighted: Captain William Hitchens in about 1900 spotted the animal on a lion hunt in East Africa.

Other names: Orang Pedenk,Sehite(Ivory Coast)

YES: Surviving primate said to be extinct "millions of years ago"(we know it definitely wasn't that long!), gibbon walking on two legs, multiple sightings

NO: Gibbons rarely walk on two legs and what is more they can't do it for very long, no photos

Hmmm? Real or fake?

If I Had 10,000 Dollars...

2009-05-01T13:52:00.002-04:00

If you were in charge of Youth Group, and some one gave you $10,000 to help out with your youth ministry, what would you do with it? Mr. Baker and I were talking about it on Sunday afternoon. What are you supposed to do with ten thousand dollars? One of Mr. Baker's ideas was to pay kids $5to come to youth group or to listen to some one preach.(He was kidding of course:) But think about it. If you had all that moola and you gave people money to come listen to some one speak, for an hour to and hour and a half, would they listen? Would they really take to heart was said? Would they come even if there wasn't moola involved?(Don't you just love the word "moola". Makes me want to jump on the tramoline.)
Mr. Baker said that quote "Someone said they would put up a big banner. Interesting but why not grab a paint brush and a large piece of flat surface and do that now. I'm certain it would not cost anywhere near $10000."
Some of my ideas were to use the money for ministry trips. Not like going to Zimbabwe and using all the money to pay for one person to go, but like going to Arkansas to help a church with VBS and useing the money to pay for gas to get there. Or to use the money to go to a Baptist camp(like Lamoka(which by the way is just about the coolest place ever!)) and pay for the gas to get there. Or using the money to help pay for supplies on a ministry trip(like hoola hoops, bubbles, water guns. Cool and totally fun stuff like that.)
Another idea is using the money to do something similar to what we did in NYC. Give out hotdogs(after all who doesn't like food!) and do music.
So what would you do if you had all that moola? Leave a comment to tell me your ideas.

What It Is Like To Be a Dingaling

2009-04-29T13:06:00.004-04:00

So last night was my first bell chior practice. I think it's going to be a lot of fun! So what is it like to be a dingaling? Well you have to wear these white gloves that make you look like Mickey mouse. (I had the Lamoka ministry team 08 T-shirt on so I looked a lot like a mime. Kinda funny.) And on the music there are the letters LV and R. LV means let vibrate and R means to stop. Very cool! All the bells have a bell symbol and then the letter of the note. So I played G,A and B flat(on the lower base clef). I don't have trouble playing, I just have trouble finding where I am. I'll play the right note, just one measure too early. Hopefully I'll do better next time. But it is a lot of fun, despite the frustrations!
COMING SOON: WHAT IF? (Still waiting for Mr. Baker to email me) and DREAMS(if you have had any wierd dreams please email them to me. I would like to get lots of dreams for this post, but so far I haven't gotten any:(

My House(without the boxes!)

2009-04-24T07:57:00.040-04:00

So these are some pics I took yesterday. I call this collection: My house, without all the boxes! Am I a genius or what? (Don't answer that.)

ESF Conference

2009-04-22T07:19:00.002-04:00

So there are three of these conferences every year one in Winter,Spring, and Fall. This year's Spring conference was held in Yorkshire! So this is what happened and what I learned:

Dr. Daniel Anderson(who by the way is the prez of Appalachian Bible College) talked about Jeremiah and his call to holy living in the first session. I thought when I heard that we could be holy, "We can't be holy because only God is holy." But then he said that one of his professors had said, "Holiness isn't quality, it is quantity." So in other words we can be holy, but God is so holy that we can't ever match it.
In between dinner and the second session, the Yorkshire/Marilla choirs sang. Wow! It was way cool to listen to them!
In the second session, Dr. Anderson talked about how Christians have become calloused to sin and to the word of God. We are more vulnerable than we think. In other words, watch out for sin more closely!
Got to talk with Erik and Christy for a good chunk of time. Also talked briefly with Ally and Becca. Good to see them all again!
Spent the night at the McGinnis house. Got to talk with Jordan and Jacquelyn(sorry if I spelled that wrong Jac) a little before they headed off to school.
In the third session, Dr. Anderson talked about how we should be a reflection of God. Everyone should see the Lord through us. If we are holy then that shouldn't be as difficult.
So after the third session there was an hour to kill, so Erik and Christie and I went around eating timbits, staring at fish, telling dreams, and secretly playing violin.(Actually Christy was staring at the fish and Erik was playing the violin secretly and I was just standing there taking it all in.) Fun stuff!
So after all that falldy rall, Erik was on this pannel thing on purity. In other words, Erik and three other people sat in chairs and answered questions. He did a pretty good job! Way to go Erik!
In the final session, Dr. Anderson said that We should have an addiction to the Word of God and to the Lord. And then if we have that we will seperate from wrong, suffer for right and have actions of confidence. Cool!

And so that is what happened at this year's ESF Spring Conference!

Pray for...

2009-04-19T14:32:00.003-04:00

Hey, all you bloggers/blog-checkers/prayer warriors. I have a few quick prayer requests. The first is that Heather and Lauren will get better. My mom is well again, but the girls caught whatever my mom had.
Today I went into shock again. I was riding in the van, coming home from church. Then, my dad told me. If I had been standing I would have fallen backward and hit my head. Some one gave the church $10,000(yes, ten thousand dollars!) for the purpose of starting a youth ministry! Pray that we get youth and can use the money wisely.
Pray that I can get back into the groove. I've been going to bed at weird times and eating at weird times. I am exhausted! Pray that I can get my stength back and keep on going. Thanks!

Lacrosse

2009-04-18T21:28:00.002-04:00

So today I went to my first lacrosse game. Now I can see why Jordan and others are so into this game. Two undefeated teams were playing each other: Princeton Tigers and the Cornell Bears(or Big Red). The game was cool, but some of the spectators were kinda weird. Take the first half for example. In the first half we sat beside a man who had a voice so loud it shook the bleachers(literally). Then in the last quarter we sat beside two teen boys who were commenting on how stupid lacrosse was.(Why someone would spend money to get into a game that they don't like I'll never know.) So anyway, Cornell beat Princeton 10-7. It was cool! Other than that it was a normal day!

Pics of Tab

2009-04-17T13:41:00.006-04:00

So here's some pics of where I go to church now. The church is called Tabernacel Baptist. Tab for short.

This top picture is a picture of part of the sanctuary. The photo I took of the whole thing didn't come out too good.

The second picture is a picture of Heather in the very dark lobby/ entryway/the place where most everyone comes in.

The third picture is of the college kids' classroom. Usually it is full, but since I took this on a Wed. night, it is empty.

The two sylish 15 passenger vans are used every morning to go to the Cornell campus and pick up the college students who want to go to church to church. Usually the vans are full. But again it is Wed. night so they are empty.

Seeing as we have so many older people and disabled people that come to church, Tab has this really cool elevator with doors on both sides.

This is a picture of the outside of Tab.

And this is the sign with the stylish logo that sits out front.
Ok, that was wierd. I forgot to put this picture in, and somehow it ended up at the top. So number 8 really is the pic at the top and number one is number one on this long downward list of pics. So anyway, this is the youth room. It is empty because it is Wed. night. Although, it wouldn't matter what day/night it was because, there really aren't any youth.(Well, there's me. But that's not saying much. Oh yeah, and Heather.) So if you want something to pray about pray for teens. So that is my church. Hope you liked the pics!

Two Too Cool Videos

2009-04-15T12:12:00.005-04:00

My dad found this video while he was setting up his office at church. The video was taken by Mike Mitzel in the summer of 2004 at Camp Lamoka. The video says that it goes for about 4 minutes,but it really only goes for 1 minute and 44 seconds. Enjoy!

This is a video that Sean Conner put together. It was filmed by Sean,Jordan, and me, a little over a month ago. It stars Me(of course, no film would be complete without me), Jordan, and Sean. Thanks goes to Mr. Conner, who took the pictures and was a background extra. Good job Sean!

Check it out!

2009-04-14T07:13:00.003-04:00

So I was making my internet rounds yesterday(you know, check out all the blogs, check email, read my Calvin and Hobbes comic strip online(I love Calvin and Hobbes. Woohoo! Sorry.), and checking out Erik's website.) when I came across something on Erik's website.(Do you know Erik? If you don't he's kinda hard to describe, but he follows this blog,has a lot of hair,and has his own website(which by the way has this really cool set up and super cool background). So anyway I was checking out his website. And on the updates it said that he put somethig new on. So I thought cool. And then when I go and look I see that there is like a ton of stuff. So what better place to begin than the begining. So I read it and it turns out to be this really awesome language that he came up with. It is Incredible with a capital I and that rhymes with pie and that tastes really great! So check it out! The adress is http://www.erik.comoj.com/kaejdim-grammar.php CHECK IT OUT! I'm thinking I will try and learn it so I can get used to learning new languages. Again CHECK IT OUT!

Calvary by Scott Paris

2009-04-11T06:33:00.002-04:00

Three men on the crosses
Of Calvary died.
Two are dead,
Yet one is alive.

Thinking

2009-04-09T16:55:00.002-04:00

Thinking. I don't know of a better way to sum up the way I feel right now. I watched this show about 1968 and it's events. The program started out explained about the elections in that year and the Vietnam War(Some people call it a conflict,but I don't think that is the right word.) . The show then showed the events of the Chicago riots. They showed the protesetors raising the VietCong flag in the park. That immeadeatly made me angry. How could they desert their country like that! Raising a Communist flag, an enemy flag, the flag of the country that America was fighting against. I felt as though... How I felt was that I wanted to make them pay for their rebellion. But then I saw the the police come and yank a man forcefully off a statue in the park where the protestors were gathered. Then in the next few minutes I watched the police picking up men and women and tossing them into police vans. Jeeps with barbed wire pushing people backwards, tear gas being thrown into the crowds, blood on peoples faces. I will never forget it.

Then, I went on the internet and for some reason thought I would look at information on the Chicago riots. I found a video on it. I watched in BW movie the riots all over again. In the middle of the movie. A voice over of one of Richard Nixon's speeches came on. And when he got to the end he said, "...This is America" On the video as the film still rolled those words repeated over and over. "This is America. This is America. This is America. This is America...." I turned off the sound. I couldn't take it any more. Those words over and over again and the footage. When it finished I just sat in scilence. I wasn't for raising an enemy flag and defying my own country. But the way the police took people into custody wasn't maybe right either. I'm not sure what to think. It only happened about 40 years ago,but it happened when my grandparents and other older people were young men/women and or teens.

So I'm thinking. About what to think about this situation that happened awhile ago. I'm not sure what to think. I guess I'll have to think some more.

A 2nd Look at the Story of the Good Samaritan

2009-04-08T18:18:00.003-04:00

Was looking at the story of the good Samaritan on Sunday, while my garndfather preached. Decided to do a PowerPoint presentation like the ones I have done in the past for SS opening. Noticed a few things.

The Bible says "a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho..." Jerusalem is on a hill so he would literally have to go down the hill to get to Jericho. Just something I found interesting.
The Bible says that the robbers stripped the man. Probably to make sure that they got every bit of moola the guy had on him.
A priest would be like a pastor. The first person who should have helped the man.
A Levite would have been like a deacon or elder or whatever. The second person who should have helped him.
The Samaritans were probably the last people who would have helped the Jews. Jews and Samaritans didn't get along too well.(That's the understatement of the year.) In fact Jews would go all the way around Samaria and vice versa.
The Samaritan sacrificed personal comfort to help the man by giving him his donkey to ride while he walked.
The Samaritan took care of the man even after he left. The Samaritan was willing to pay for all the man's expenses.

Try looking at stories that you think that you know everything about. You might be surprised and find something new or something that you never noticed before.

Pray for...

2009-04-07T16:54:00.003-04:00

My mom has been under the weather. She didn't feel too good Sunday night. And it has gotten worse from there. Advil and other stuff doesn't seem to help. We think it's the flu. So if you could pray for two things in particular that would be great.

Pray she gets better as my cousins are coming on this Saturday.
Pray my family and I don't get it. I don't like getting sick like most of you don't.

Reach the World

2009-04-07T16:45:00.002-04:00

Made this video a while ago. Would love to know what you think. PLEASE COMMENT!

Palm Sunday at TABernacle Baptist

2009-04-05T16:47:00.003-04:00

Today was a pretty cool day. A lot of things(most of them cool) happened today.

First off we had a Palm Sunday breakfast at church at 8:30. And bing the baptists that we are everyone brought good food and ate a ton.
Oh yeah, today was my Dad's first sunday attending! That was cool.
Bell chior played special music. It was awesome to listen to the bells sound and watch the people who played.
We sang this hymn in church, and the words of the third verse really made me think. The words to the third verse of Love of God say:

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skie of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quil and every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched across the sky.

Wow! God is so incredible! The words we use to describe him don't even scratch the surface of what he is really like. That is the God we serve!

5. After church the bell chior ringleader(that was a feeble joke) asked my mom and I to be in the bell chior. And so starting April 28 I will be a dingaling(not that I'm not already)! I'll probably be ringing one of the bigger heavier bells(using my huge and athletic muscles(another joke:)).

All in all a pretty good day. And tonight I'll go to church again! And after that I'll go watch a Dickens movie(that guy writes some really confusing stuff)till late at night. Fun,Learning, and growing; that's my Sunday in a nutshell!

Toilet Trouble

2009-04-02T16:28:00.003-04:00

So I was in my room minding my own bussiness when I hear a noise. It sounds like dripping. I go to the wall and feel the rug. Wet. I look up at the sealing on the ceiling. There is a long stream of water running from the where the ceiling meets the wall. I run upstairs and there is this thin, long crack on the toilet tank's side. The floor is covered in water. So I quickly grab towels and inform my parents. They bailed out the tank so all is cool. Not sure how we're going to find a blue toilet again. But at least the problem is solved for now.

Cryptid of the month

2009-04-01T06:58:00.006-04:00

What is a 'cryptid'? Simply put a cryptid is an animal that may or may not exist. The study of cryptids is called cyrptozoology. Every month I will post a new cryptid. I would really like to get feed back as to what you think.
AHOOL:
Monkey with wings, or bat. Covered in gray fur wing span of about 10 feet.
First reported in 1925 in Indonesia by Earnest Bartels, an ornithologist.
Evidence:
Near dusk Earnest Bartels heard a loud AHOOL,AHOOL in the Javan rainforrest. He went outside and saw an animal covered in fur with a huge wingspan.
YES: Earnest Bartels saw it
NO: North Javan Owls with a wingspan of 4 feet whick give a HOOH sound,it was at dusk(couldn't see well),panicked account(exaggeration).
Final Conclusion: Probably just an owl.

(Thanks for the picture,Andrew!)

Problems with Go Diego Go

2009-03-31T20:06:00.002-04:00

Watched Go Diego Go with Jack today and Heather and I noticed some problems with the episode. I have posted them for your enjoyment.

In the episode the penguin egg is lost. The egg would freeze when the parent isn't keeping it warm.
Seagul trys to steal egg. What would a seagul do with a penguin egg?
Deigo teaches the penguin how to waddle. Waddling in an inate behavior!
Diego feeds the the baby penguin a squid leg about 3 inches long. The food needs to be chewed up. Then the parent penguin regurgitates it into the baby's mouth, Let me see you do that Diego!
Diego and the baby penguin hop on rocks that are one foot apart. Why don't they just walk(or waddle) in between the rocks?
The hanglider catches a updraft wind that just happens to come when he unfolds the hanglider. Plus he doesn't jump from a high place.
In the end the Penguins all say honk. Sounds more like a goose!
The penguins speak Spanish:)!

Problems with the show in general:

Kids are alone in wild,drive jeeps,sing every 5 minutes on unimportant things,Rescue pack has a cooler theme than Diego.

Other than this stuff I had a normal day!

Delevans

2009-03-29T14:52:00.000-04:00

Went to church this morning at Tabernacle Baptist. There were some missionaries there: the Delevans. They are missionaries in North Jay, Maine. It was awesome to hear how God is working in their lives. I got me thinking how cool it would be to go and serve with them. It was totally a God moment. I might see if it is even a remote possibility. That would be awesome to serve God there. But in the meantime I'll serve him here in this crazy town. (P.S. Here is a picture of their family. I'm going to pray for them. I encourage you to do the same.)

Packed Day

2009-03-25T19:18:00.000-04:00

Hey, had a pretty packed day. Took a Geography test on Central Asia and the Caucus region. I think I did OK. Then we went to the library. Dude, the library has so many books the building is the same size as a house. And I got a library card. Never had one so it's cool for me. Metal detectors,(don't wnat any counterfeit books)security(so people don't steal the books I guess), Self checkout(it was pretty snazzy too). I don't think we're in Kansas any more Toto!

And then to top it all off I went and got a beta. Had one before, but I accidentally drugged it up so much it died. And I never got around to getting another one. And so today I finally got a red beta. Haven't named him yet,but I'm open for suggestions.

Cell Phones

2009-03-24T13:00:00.000-04:00

Last night my parents went shopping. Little did I know... I was watching TV(cartoons to be exact) when a little blue box showed up in the left hand corner of the screen. NY Call it said. I picked up and it was mom.

"We're at the Verizon store." she said.

"What are you doing there?" I asked.

"We bought cell phones." she replied.

The rest of her words faded away. I was in shock!(I've never been in shock before,but this was it.) When they got home my sister darling girl that she is began to help them set them up. I sat and watched. Technology isn't my thing(unless it is a computer). I am happy with the shortwave receptors God put on either side of my head. Sure they don't work occasionally,but they do their job. I don't need a cell phone. But mom and Dad do.

Youth Seminars in Marilla

2009-03-23T15:16:00.000-04:00

Highlights of the two days

On the way to Youth Seminars the boys in the car reccorded the "Danny Show"(If you don't know what it is it is rather hard to explain it)
Mark Shaw had his first session with us. At first we thought that he wouldn't be as upbeat as the previous speakers. Boy were we wrong! I've never seen so much energy packed a pastor.
Pranks at the Mitzel's got a little out of control. It all started when Jordan put toothpaste on everyone's face. "'Vengance is mine,' says the Lord. Did we listen? Nope,we put whipped cream in Jordan's shoes! Jordan then put whipped cream on Sean's glasses. Then, I stole Jordan's hat. Eventually, everyone was satisfied with themselves and we stopped.
Saturday morning our church was called up for a contest. They wanted 5 people who could chug. And so Jordan,Sean,Jacquelyn,Micheal,and Danny went up. At first it was neck and neck. Then,Jordan turned on the pumps. We finished first and won a cooler. Cool!
Workshops were awesome!! I can't exactly explain all of what I learned in this post,but I learned a lot. The thing that stuck out the most was what Pastor Green said in Workshop#4(Passion for People). "You are the only Bible some people will ever read." It is awesome to see God teach and train you and your friends.
The people at Marilla were throwing prizes out. One went so high it smashed a light blub and then hit Jenny on the head! Ouch!

And that's what happened at youth seminars!

Photos of the New Homestead

2009-03-18T09:04:00.000-04:00

These are the deer. Doesn't matter that there are tons of people around. These deer are the rulers of the town trapsing wherever they want. (And guess what the woods is filled with smart pills :)!)

This is Heather's pink room. About the only clean room in the entire house.

This is Jackson's blue and tan room. Same as Lauren's room...filled with toys!

This is Lauren's room. Two beds, Barbies galore, and a whole lot of other toys to keep her occupied for hours.

This is my room. A little messy, but it works

The Big Bad Burglar

2009-03-16T12:49:00.000-04:00

This is a story about me. This is a true story. I woke up at 4:30 AM on Sunday mroning (3/15/09) I tried to go back to sleep. Then, I heard a noise. Tap...Tap...Tap...Tap. Then, I heard something outside walking on the driveway. Then, I heard a the tapping inside again. I listened to the the tapping for fifteen minutes before I got scared enough to make my move. Quietly I got out of bed went over to my shelf and pulled the best weapon off it I could think of: a trophy with a wooden end. Quietly, I opened the door a crack. I saw none in the entryway. I walked quietly to the stair and ran as fast as I could up them, around the turn and BANG! I ran into my parents' door. It was dark so I kind of missed it. I ran in to the bedroom and told them what happened. Turned out that the big bad burglar was the furnace under my room in the basement.