Well, Kathleen and I drove up to Levis Commons in Perrysburg today because her shiny new Verizon phone broke and she had to get a new one. After they finished hooking her up we strolled through books-a-million and I looked at overpriced audiobooks from various authors. It's okay really, the internet is a great equalizer. Levis Commons isn't a bad place, it's kind of cool actually but for one thing, it is a good deal too feminine. There needs to be, wherever you go, at least one store that doesn't sell candles, women's clothes, accessories, or "girly stuff". That marketplace still has some improvements to make.

I'm in the back seat of our van right now typing this blog from my laptop.  I've been surfing the internet as we drive down the highway, it is making the trip somewhat bearable.  Dad just commented that a shower will feel pretty good.  I tend to think he is spot on.  Our van is packed full of people and stuff and I will certainly be ready to get out of it when we get to Carey.  The thought of then driving from Carey to BG is a bit on the depressing side but we'll cross that when we get there. 
     In reality I should be going over the final draft of my English paper to try to iron out the last few kinks that I have but I don't really see that happening.  I wish I could push off the thought of school another day, at least one more day.  Tomorrow morning my alarm is going to ring in my ears and life will resume normally.  Papers and projects will be due and I will probably wish I was back in the mountains exploring.
    
Shaffer

So fall break has officially started today. I hope all you happy people have an awesome fall break. We're driving down to Cincinnati right now on our way to Alyssa's apartment. Somehow we got conned into picking her up on our way to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. :) It's impressively foggy outside, I didn't remember it being foggy when we left this morning but hey, it was 6:30am and I can't expect to be coherent at that ungodly hour. Naturally since we're on 75, we've been passing all sorts of construction and it's been slowing us down quite a bit. The things we put up with, I tell you. With and good road trip mom and dad are doing their customary squabbling and "he started it" stuff like they are still in middle school. I really am curious as to what everyone else is doing over fall break so make sure to get me a message (whether through text, email, comment, or whatever) let me know what you're going to be up to. I know this weekend is going to go super fast so don't put it off! I know one of the things I am looking forward to most is being able to take pictures. There is only a few times every year when I get to go to a place and actually take some cool pictures. I imagine if everything goes as planned I will be loading up my flickr account with pictures for the next few weeks with stuff from all over the mountains. If you like that kind of content make sure to give it a look. Kathleen and I had a meeting yesterday the was mostly about our future involvement in Cru but also about a bunch of other stuff. It was interesting going in, I wasn't sure what to expect and I definitely wasn't expecting that. I just made it sound bad, that wasn't my intent, it was just different. I will be the first one to tell you that I like different, it's good to have change and growth, it's just hard. Everything is always changing, you know this so I'm not telling you anything new, but who cares, we're not in finishing school. Shaffer

I'm currently in my English class, I definitely wish I was in Eng 112 instead of this one.  It would have been so nice to just take one class and get credit for two.  I know I'd be just fine taking the harder course, this is just a waste.  Anyway, I'm writing a paper on underage drinking which I think will actually be very good when I am done with it.  If there's any interest leave me comments and I will see about posting it when I am finished.  I don't remember when it is due, sometime after fall break I believe. 
    Speaking of fall break, I'm terribly excited to get off of this bloody campus and into the mountains.  It's going to be sweet!  I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures to throw up on my photostream when I get back so make sure to check that out.  If I can grab any service from time to time I will try to send out some tweets so keep an eye on my twitter account while I'm gone. 

During a little break in my day I went outside and took some macro shots of some things outside of my dorm complex. 
Check out My Photostream to see what I've been doing.
Also, I geotagged most of my photos on there.  (you can look on the map and see where I took them all.  Tell me what you think.)

Shaffer

I have a couple of minutes before my next class starts and I really just felt like saying"hi". I wish I was blogging more. I know I'm the only one who can change that but that's almost the worse part. Katie and I tried out another new church on Sunday. I think I liked it more than the last one we went to. We're going to revisit all the ones we liked for a second time. Lifegroups are tonight so after today (a long one for sure) I will be really ready for that. Time for class to start.

I haven't done much in the way of blogging lately, I've been at school as you know. A recent set of events have transpired that I feel definitely are blog worthy. On my way to the tech annex I saw something in the parking lot. Upon turning my bike around I realized it was indeed a set of keys. I pressed one of the buttons and a half a moment later, the trunk of a BMW 325I popped open. After regaining my wits and pondering for a minute I called my roommate to see if he had any knowledge of a lost and found on campus. He did not. Fortuitously a traffic and parking officer was driving by while I was on the phone. I handed him the keys, and showed him which car they belonged to. With a glimmer in his eye, he shook my hand and called the situation in on his FM.

Today is Monday, August the 18th. It is a warm, partly cloudy day in North-Western Ohio, and I am outdoors enjoying what I can of it. This may seem of no particular importance to you, but I would argue that it has everything to do with the task at hand. I am trying to photograph a hummingbird today. I've seen them buzzing about the gardens, but I have yet to take a worthwhile picture of one. This may seem to be a ridiculous failure, save the fact that I have not really tried to photograph the magnificent little bird, in fact, my sightings of said bird have been, up to this point, entirely be happenstance... Success! (at least partially so) If you have not deduced, I am typing this blog while outside attempting to come across a hummingbird. By 'attempting' I do mean, waiting here in silence for the little creature to get hungry and stop in for a quick afternoon snack. I do have some shots that I took, we will have to wait to see how they come out. While I am here, and the birds are not, I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea to mention that I love having my new smartphone. It is irrefutably useful. I like almost everything about it, although my different complaints come and go. The only major qualm I have with the device currently, is that sometime in the last 24-48 hours, I somehow managed to replace my battery bar with a volume icon. As you can imagine, not knowing how much longer you have until your battery dies can lead to an unhealthy fear of imminent battery death. I must soon get this issue resolved, failure to do so is not an option. To the topic of dorms I think. To give my dorm a bit of extra finesse and class to be added to the environment which our plethora of electronics and games bring to the room, I will hang some 8x10 photographs and maybe even a painting or printing on the walls. Of course knowing of my desire to enjoy this drastically overpriced abode in a completely harmless way, I am sure BG will deduce a scheme to make it difficult, expensive, or impossible. This is the way of things, this is academia. I have realized just now why this blog has gone to pot in recent months. In order to create a blog such as this, with variable sums of entertainment which as a rule exceed zero (in some rare but serious cases some participants have reported side effects including a negative entertainment equivalency) one must spend an amount of time that is greater than a 5 minutes. In practice, the time spent on a blog is directly related to the overall enjoyment received from it's readers. Please note, no relation between writing time and pointlessness has been found. Pictures of the hummingbird to follow.

I officially hate DDR pads.  I have wasted so much time and screwed up so many songs because my pads are not working (not to mention mulah).  I tore one apart today, no solution to be had, I ended up just throwing it across the room and I will probably burn it shortly.  Speaking of that, if you're feeling up to the challenge and you want a free pad, come pick it up and you can have it.  It may work out okay for you, especially if you're not a serious dancer.  (they are ps2 pads)
I'm still working on getting a new battery from Sprint, I made progress today with them.  I might end up going to BG tomorrow to pick up my new battery, which they said I would get for free.  Will shall see if they live up to their promises.  Anyway, time to go.  Toodles,
Shaffer

Just a few moments ago I was reading some news headlines on google news and drudge report, Kathleen is on my laptop so I am on my phone. Normally I make it a point not to stray too far away from technology and scientific news, but since she is on my laptop I thought I'd give it a go. I would venture to say that it took me less than five minutes to remember exactly why I don't read the regular news. Nearly every story consisted of political scandals, sex, pollution, or Britney Spears. Needless to say, yet going to be said anyway, I don't care to read about any of the previously mentioned things. Most times if you were to ask me the 'if you would do something different' question, I would reply with a resounding 'no' but I think that may not be the case for this summer. I think there are definitely things I would change about how this summer has gone. I would have made more time for my friends and family and worked less, I would have spent more time writing and playing DDR, I would have gone camping more, thrown more LAN parties, and generally had more fun. Oh well, the summer is nearly over. I am thinking in terms of lasts instead of simply another, and it is odd to me. Kathleen is done so time to go, bye people.