Before you read this i have a new place to blog - it's http://jeremymguy.blogspot.com/

This has been one of the most difficult blogs I have ever written. I have started writing it many times, erase it and start over. Maybe it is because my mind hasn't finished comprehending what happened last week. Maybe it's because what happened last week isn't over. If you have read most people's blogs you know what we did in Mexico City so I won't rehash day by day what took place.

This trip was as much for me as it was for the people of Mexico City. There was a reason I was on this trip...I didn't even really want to go on it to tell you the truth. Mike called and said I really think you should come with us and I was like yeah ok I guess. I wasn't too excited about going and the trip came up on us pretty quick. Immediately after we left I knew it was the right thing to do and I was glad I went.

I had been going through alot of stuff in my life, like questioning my faith, whether or not I grew up doing the right things or if I was doing the right things now. Six months ago I set out on a quest to determine whether or not I wanted this new life, something it seemed the rest of the world did or should I stick with where I was at trying to follow God. I lost focus of what was important and turned to the world to find joy and happiness. Of course it wasn't there and I was pretty much even more miserable, even though I don't think I showed too much of it.

I turned to pretty much anything but God really. I suppose I was mad at Him, because I felt like He took away this relationship that I thought was really good and the reason it ended was because I didn't do certain "worldly" things. I had to see what this other life was like. I let one person decide everything about my life.

So I continue to search for anything new to make me happy and it doesn't happen. Finally, though, I start to come back around and things start to look up. Then this trip happens and totally changes my outlook on life. Suddenly I am the lucky one who isn't tied down and can drop everything and go on mission trips or even move somewhere else. The very thing that I thought would have brought me happiness, would have prevented me from this trip.

That is not to say that you can live your life for these trips and get happiness from them. God has to be there and He was with us on this trip. I am also not saying that I want to be single forever either, but at least while I am, I will use my time wisely and not worry about being in a relationship.

I will agree that many of the lessons I needed to learn could not have happened unless God broke me down to the core, showed me that other things won't make me happy except Him, and then brought me back to Him with the same love as He had before. It is amazing the love He has and the patience as well for His people.

The trip has changed me in other ways as well. It didn't just get me over some crap that I had in my life, it has given me a love and desire to help the Mexican people, not just there, but here too. Hopefully our group or even our church will find ways to minister to them. The people down there are so passionate when they worship, they are interested in people relationships, not time or schedules. They aren't perfect and they deal with demons that we can't imagine here, but we deal with things that they have mastered.

I do not want this fire to go out. I have a resolve to learn the Spanish language. I have a desire to go back to Mexico. I have a desire to really dive back into the church I go to here. I have been really lazy in my church lately...a church that had enough faith in me to support my trip to Mexico. I have to quit making excuses and decide today whether or not I am going to serve God. Yeah, I know I am going to mess up and I want to know it.

By the way, the trip wasn't all about me...I think our group did a wonderful job laying the foundation for God's Spirit to take hold of that country. It wasn't that we were that great, we just allowed God to use us. I hope you will keep that country in your prayers.

Many of you know of the blog I wrote in April. I took it off Myspace because I was tired of sending the wrong message. Yes some things about me have changed, but they are things that won't interfere with my relationship with God. I still have the text of that blog saved incase I relapse, then I can get that back out and remember that I don't want to go back there.

The trip wasn't all serious as there were many classic lines delivered. Below are some of the best lines/stories of the trip.

"That wave is muy malo" - Kipp to a group of Mexican Students

"Is this talk going to be a Q&A?" - Mike to Beth about food being the best part of her trip - then giving her account of the trip at a particular persons church.

"Oh yeah lets go buy more coffee at this place because it has a trendy logo on it so we will look cool" - Kipp talking about people who buy Starbucks coffee

"She is in High School" - Me talking about the girl I sat beside on the plane ride home - I swear she looked older from a distance. A side note - she was drinking coffee from a cup with a trendy logo on it

Most Mexicans thought Kipp was Will Ferrell, his "ha ha ha" laugh was funny and he tried to spread "Oh here we go" down there too --- the best we could come up with was "Aqui vamos". He got a few "El es boh's" too

Thanks for reading

~fin

To avoid forgetting all the great times that happened on our Mission trip for 2008 i've decided to write them down. They will be in list form and if you weren't there then you might not get all them. I'll try to write them down in chronological order as i remember them.

Before we even left Thomasville, Aaron got screwed at the BBQ shack on his piece of tenderloin.

Hearing tyler sing "africa" by Toto and him proclaiming it one of his favorite songs,
then hearing him and Kipp singing "Low"....(tyler)"She hit the floor"(kipp repeats)"She hit the floor"...awesome

We also heard Ned calling the cable company and that set the stage for the rest of the trip

Sometimes I-85 can magically become I-75 without warning.

We said before we left that we wanted to get Aaron laughing -- the ack ka ka ka kind- at least once on the trip. Tyler peed in a gatoraide bottle on the way down in the van...aaron laughed, mission accomplished.

When kipp says there are 3 hot girls in the hot tub at the hotel, don't immediately run down there like we did...they could be 12 years old, and they were.

Also dont wear you boxers instead of a swimsuit, they are form fitting and can offend 2 black girls and a family with small children. "you ladies have a good night"

We started throwing football in the parking lot, then aaron joined in and on his first catch missed and hit a car

I-10 is like a rollercoaster, especially in the back seat of a van at 85 mph with "enter sandman" blasting loud

Those signs that warn against vehicle height clearance in parking decks mean nothing when you have a professional driver at the wheel.

I was still the only p on Bourbon street, not next time though.

The church service was really good on Sunday.

Bay St. Louis almost looked worse than it did a year ago, the streets did at least.

Our group working as a team is awesome

Using that nail gun will make you deaf

I wouldn't put much weight on those supports running at the top of the trusses

Speaking of those supports, we all worked on them, but I took over aarons job and casted him down with the soddomites when I made him finish them.

Speaking once more about those supports, they weren't offline more than 3/8"

Who needs ladders?

Clyde is the man

He builds decks like it is a clock

That's the best deck Lagniappie has ever built...dang right.

The board is 1/16th short, what do I do aaron?

We are all out of shape.

How's the clearance look on this board..."looks like the gap of rohan"

We (the guys) became closer than ever and told our best stories...years worth of walls came crashing down.

Nocturnal E. story = ack ka ka ka 2

Filling in the gaps i.e. where the Nocturnal E. story really happened (the next night) = ack ka ka ka 3

All stories were classic and an awesome bonding experience (maybe my favorite part of the trip)

It's probably not the right thing to do to ask a kid if he wants you to beat his a when he makes a smart a comment to you, but if you do, it is mighty white of you to apologize later.

And really dont do that until you find out whether or not his parents own a whitewater rafting outfit.

Make sure you knock before you enter the cabin at the end near the tool crib.

There is a radio station in Bay St. Louis that is the all Rock Band station

It's a good thing none of the farts stunk

If you thought Auschwitz was bad...

Aaron reenacted Pyrtle lifting the wall perfectly

Remember when the Coke truck cut us off?

Amy got us probably the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in... for free

Tyler sending up all those cut pieces of wood with special messages...have you ever see bob vila scrubbin an 80 year old mans a?....it's hot.

Stephanie Mason from Grooooouuup workcamp would be proud of everyone wearing their workcamp shirts

Yep she will call you at the drop of a hat to see if you would be interested in serving this summer, even if you have already told her you were going somewhere else.

The trip was awesome and we got so much work done, about 10000x more than our previous workcamps and hopefully we can do it again next year. The only thing I would have changed was to have Bob there. It is impressive to see bob and aaron work together. Look at the plans... For those of you who did go on the trip let me know if i missed a key part.

My friend Kipp tagged me to write this book blog so here it goes:

One book that's changed your life:
-Not Even a Hint - Joshua Harris


One book that you've read more than once:
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy X 3


One book you'd want on a desert island:
Harry Potter if you can have the whole series

Two books that made you laugh:
- Water for Elephants (8 pager with crudely drawn Olive Oyl...), memoirs of a geisha(the Dr. Crab scene with the various cloths...)


One book that made you cry:
-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith


One book that you wish had been written:
-A decent book depicting and describing the various waterfalls of the world

One book that you wish had never been written:
-The Catcher in the Rye - Salinger

Two books you are currently reading:
-The Bible and Bringing Down the House

One book you're meaning to read:
-The Kite Runner

I pretty much gave up on writing these things after labor day last year, I just got burned out with them. Well I just got back from another week of workcamp and I have discovered a new purpose for them. I think I will write down as much as i can remember so it isn't forgotten. That is pretty much where i get my material for jokes at anyways, just rehash till you run it into the ground.

Instead of dictating what happened day by day i'm just going to put it into bullet format and hit the highlights. If you weren't there you probably won't get much of it.

Funny Moments and Things I Learned

- Kipp knocking over the giant stack of bins at the airport security checkpoint.

- Kipp introducing us to the director and saying "yeah we're easy to get along with cause basically we just don't care"

- Learning what the difference between a swamp and a full on Bayou is and how Baby Powder is the key.

- Most people have a case of the Mondays

- Don't be disrespectful, but if you are try to cover it with a fake cough

- You just gotta keep on livin man -- L-i-v-i-n

- When someone tells you to leave that goes for "cs's" and "r's"

- Daaaaaangggg girl ....and don't forget to whistle everytime she walks by

- When you try to shut someone up in a box van the appropriate comment for the shuttee is "Ahhh, i'm an illegal immigrant"

- Kipp do you think "she'll" be waiting for you at the airport?

- Pretty much all the girls in New Orleans are good looking

- The mall in New Orleans closes at 6 on a Sat night....wtf

- The word Beth and "B" sound quite the same

- There is more than one way to pronounce "Lagniappe"

- Usually when putting in screws you put the drill in forward

- Always check your blindspots

- Staff meetings can be fun, it's all in what you make of it, and on the same note so can serving other people food..."may i help you with your meat?"

- Mike is easily defeated in chess

- That cast really stinks

-Yep, that sounds like a New York accent to me

- Everyone likes to get care cards, especially ones with Sling Blade quotes on them

- Before you b about your air conditioning not working, make sure you have it turned on to cool

- Now if I buy a copy of the picture cd, does that include a copy of Emily's picture album?

- Sometimes a few moments can seem like an hour, especially if you are in front of 300 people in an awkward situation.

- I do wish you'd lay off for the night

- Kara Mendenhall has to be the luckiest girl on the planet

-What the heck were we thinking sleeping on the floor at the airport??


It was an awesome trip. There were alot of things that made this workcamp so very different from any other one i have ever been on. The interns that we got to work with were great. The youth we worked with were on a whole some of the best i have been around as far as not complaining. The facilities weren't huge and everything was so tight, but i never heard one complaint from them. As usual, if I heard a complaint, it was from an adult. The residents were unbelievable and their stories were incredible. Everyone was so willing to share their experience of such a great disaster. A disaster, which I couldn't comprehend even after I saw it nearly 2 years later.

Everytime I go on a workcamp I have an awesome time, and everytime they keep getting better.

I love to go and see new places but i'm always glad to get back to NC, even if you think it's Greensboring

After letting the events of the past week settle down in my mind I decided to write a few of the highlights.  I went to another week of workcamp and this year i was on staff.  I had alot of aprehension about it.  I just knew i would have sites full of "older" males who know everything and they expect me to be able to give them advice?  I knew it would be just like work at the DOT. 

Thankfully aaron came along to help me and we got to share the same sites.  Plus there were none of "those people" i just mentioned save one or so but he was cool about it.  By the way it was Aaron Mike Beth Rhonda and I that went up to Delaware.

First off it took forever to get to Delaware.  We decided to take the long way and go through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  I thought it was cool but not nearly as cool as i anticipated.  I did get a magnet however to commemorate the event.

 Maybe when you start getting a little older and get a house and a refridgerator of your own, you will understand the fascination of magnets.  Or perhaps you won't.  We also got a group picture cause aaron wanted one.

After the tunnel it seemed like forever to get there since we, well I decided to take the scenic route.  I like to see everything, doesn't matter where I go.  Anyways we finally arrive after a painstaking 12 hours for an alleged 7.5 trip. 

We didnt exactly get off to a great start with our roomates since you know we are those "rowdy North Carolinians".  Who would have thought reading could be so obtrusive? 

The week gets going and most of those programs are still pretty weak.  It isn't much i haven't seen before but overhearing the crowd, it seemed as if alot of people loved them.  It is sad to see the Care Cards video go, luckily the program manager put it on my ipod to be saved for at least me. 

My sites this year were awesome.  Some site coach couldn't make it this year at the last second so i got 2 more sites added.  That was great because i had 3 favorites that i just couldn't wait to get to and 2 of the 3 were from the added ones.  The, well i'll call them "kids" although they really weren't, were awesome.  A few really stood out as either knowledgable with construction methods or just fun to be around.  I wish we had more time to spend with them at each site.

There are so many stories I think i'll just hit the highlights and give you some quick points about the trip.

1.  I taught aaron an important lesson about shopping.  When given the choice, always chose target over walmart.  It is a higher class and there are always better looking women in there.  We hit target no less than 4 times while we were there.

2.  Where Pigs Fly has the best ribs ever.  we even bought containers (from target) to bring the sauce home with us only to find out they sell it at McDonalds.

3.  If you ever get excited about a plan to get revenge on one of your crews, and you think it is fail proof, never trust an insider, casue they will turn on you.

4.  If you are going to try to get your site coaches wet, be more non-chalant about it.  Try something other than "Hey come look at our porch" while holding a bucket of water.  Get us out there first then come out from under a tarpolin and get us.

5.  What are those dotted areas on the staff schedule?  Free time and oh by the way you don't get any lest i make you look like a jack-a in front of the whole staff.

6.  I am bound to be made fun of, but does it really have to be during staff affirmations?

7.  On a side note being bald is NOT an affirmation.

8.  You think 7 North Carolinians don't stick out amongst 350 northerners?

9.  I shouldn't have been a site coach casue my eyes are too close together.....wtf...i know.

Well that was fun but what did i get out of all this?

Hmmm well i can be way too quick to judge.  One of the staff ticked us off and we pretty much blew him away behind his back, when in reality he was a really great guy.  Yeah he was grizzled but he turned out to have some of the funniest sayings of the week - at my expense no less.

Most of the time my pride gets in the way.  This is a tough one for me.  I dont have alot of self confidence in the way i look etc, so it doesn't come from that.  It is more like you should give me respect type.  and when i get made fun of etc i start to get ticked off - hence pride comes in.  I think this week more than anything i learned to let that go.  Dangit i am bald, close eyes, long neck and well where is Dennis when you need him for the other comment...anyways, that stuff didn't bother me this week like it normally would and i had such a better time.  I forget this alot but "by the Grace of God I am who I am " and no I dont think i could have been a parking lot attendant.

I complain too much.  no we didn't have alot of free time, well none really, but we were there to serve and i complained about almost everyone else having free time while aaron and I worked our a's off.  Later in the week i started to realize that and quit complaining. 

It is fun to give your time to help others.  I gave up a week of vacation, but God gave me so much back in return.  I mean i had the best time of my life.  I suppose service doesn't always have to be thought of as something you hate to make it service.  But you can serve God in doing things you love to do.

Anyways to close about workcamp, it was the most fun i have ever had at any workcamp and actually better than any vacation i have been on even with all the other crap thown in.  Yeah i wish i was still up there.

One thing that happend today that kinda sucked i thought i should throw in.  I had to go into work at 12:30 - midnight + 30 that is.  Well it is a yield coming from I-85 to US64.  well there is no traffic at that time so i come down the ramp at about 35 mph look and see a car but it is far away.  I hit the gas and go.  I get to about 55mph and the car has caught up to me and it stays right on me.  this is a 5 lane highway so he can go around.  well it is a state trooper and he pulls me.  i was still doing 55.  he says that i came out of that yield to fast.  which maybe i did, but he didn't catch up to me until i was doing 55 so it wasn't as if i pulled out at 35 and he was right on me.  it was cool, he just told me to drive careful.  This was the first time in 10 years being pulled over.  the first time really sucked - still no ticket though, this time not so bad.

Aaron said he would rather take a coaster to the nads than get pulled over.  I didn't even think it was that bad.  i mean i saw the lights but didn't really care, i was too dang tired to care.  Workcamp wore me out and i still haven't recovered.  Sign me up for next year.

It's funny how sometimes I look ahead to the weekend and think, "dang there is nothing going on".  Those are the weekends that usually turn out the best.  This one turned out to be one of those weekends.

Have you ever gone to Walmart, or your favorite local retailer and seen the heaping mound of $4 DVD's?  Well we ended up at walmart at 10:30 on friday night and tried to get to the bottom of one of those bins.  Come on walmart, put an empty bin beside the full one so someone can finally get the bottom.  We almost made it but too many copies of undercover brother kept falling on top of us.  If Martin had been there in person you can bet we would have gotten a "D.........". 

Anyways, I did make it pretty far to the bottom and found a copy of Blue Crush.  I threw it to Brinley and said hey, you need this one.  well apparently she thought the same thing since she got it.  Yeah she got it over Muppets take Manhattan.  How can you go against a DVD when the description on the back starts out like "Kermit, fresh out of college, tries to make it on Broadway...  Man it is a classic....

We reluctantly decided to watch Blue Crush at about 11:30 that night.  I mean what do you expect.  Yeah the girls, especially the main one is hot, but that is about it.  She tries to win a surf contest but doesn't cause she hit her head on a rock when she was a kid.  She does do well in the contest and gets a sponsor.  It is basically a day in the life of a young surfer girl who has to support her sister cause her parents are missing.  I dont think there is much more to it.  Movie Review:  Not Recommended

I did however see Cars on Sat. night.  Now this movie was really well done.  Some say it is the future of animation.  I didn't see the animation being much better than what has been out before.  I mean it was really good, just nothing that blew me away.  Now i will say that lighting effects have come leaps and bounds better than anything i have seen.  The "neon" scene really impressed me.  You will know what i am talking about when you see it. 

The team really went out of their way to transform a human world into a world totally of cars and machinery.  As the movie keeps going you are like what else can they do and they keep on surprising you.  This merger was one of the coolest parts of the movie.  It was full of comedy too.  Many might think great it has Larry the Cable guy in it, but really he doesn't go over the top and actually he fits this part perfectly.  He was probably my favorite carachter.  I like how it talked about I-40, i guess it made the movie feel close to home, yet if you think about it this movie does nothing but slam the DOT....lol.  Most of the these pixar movies are mostly comedy, but this one had a pretty good amount of emotion to it.  I am not sure what it is, but give me this type movie over almost any other.  also i just got the soundtrack a few minutes ago.  I usually dont get the ones with "singing" songs, but this one is a mix and so far so good.  Movie Review:  Highly Recommended for all ages.

Well it turned out to be a pretty good weekend after all.  I went with my family to see cars since it was my dad's birthday.  For the first time in probably 15 years it was mom and dad in the front seat, me jonathan and brandon in the back.  I actually don't remember ever going to the theater just the 5 of us.  Church was great today, in my opinion.  You always hear that verse, but do you know what it means?  well i had it pretty convoluted.  oh well until next time.

I went up to Tenessee and Western NC this past weekend to do some hiking.  I figured i would write it down since i felt like i was writing this blog the whole time in my mind.  Anyways, I had been wanting to visit the best waterfalls of TN and some of the more remote ones in NC.  This is the best time of the year for waterfall photography.  Yeah I know fall has awesome colors, but spring has vibrant greens and it is warm so you can get in the water and dont freeze from the spray.

I wont begin to recount every step of the way, but just give a few memorable moments of the trip. 

We went to this one called Ruby Falls.  It was listed in my TN map as a "Unique Natural Feature".  I usually like to check these out reguardless if it is a waterfall or not.  So we were in Chattanooga and i had overestimated how much time it would take to see two major waterfalls so we had extra time.  We pull up on top of lookout mountain and there are people everywhere.  So i thought this has to be something cool. 

Turns out it is a 145 ft waterfall inside a cave.  So we get in line and get tickets and head in.  I was standing in line to inside with our group and some more people came up and I thought to myself "it's about to get loud", and it did...

They tell you it takes over an hour to go through, but in reality you stand in line inside the cave for about 50 mins of the tour.  There is only one way in and out so you constantly have to stand aside to let other groups.  We finally get to the waterfall and they put all these colored lights on it and play this freaky music.  It is kinda cool but i wish they would just turn on the lights and let me set up my tripod and take a picture.  Instead i had to hand hold for about 4-5 secs to get a shot so they are a little shaky. 

Afterwards we talked about it (my dad and I) and he says he thinks the waterfall is fake and that is why they dont keep the lights on very long.  I thought it was real.  I guess we need fox to investigate it like they did the moon landing.  The whole time i was in the cave i keep thinking,
basically I paid $35 for a bite size 3 musketeers".

There was one redeeming factor in the whole event.  The tour guide looked exactly like Karly which was cool and her name was LINDA.  So the whole time i was standing there I wished 2 things.  I wished either that I was taller or kipp was there.  I'll explain.  If I was a little bit taller I would have had to bend over since the cave is only about 6'5" tall.  Then my back would have hurt and you may have guessed it, I could have said "I'm hurtin Linda".  Or if Kipp was there I know reguardless of his height, he would have come up with some Sling Blade Linda phrase to say.  I suppose i should have just bashed my head into a stalagtite...

There was so much more to the trip.  I had so much fun and the waterfalls were awesome.  Of course they were the best part and the weather cooperated almost perfectly at each one. 

Here are the stats:

Left - Friday 6:00 am
Returned - Sunday 9:00 pm
Waterfalls Visited - Midnight Hole, Mouse Creek, Ozone, Burgess, Fall   Creek, Ruby, Mingo, Tom Branch, Juney Whank, Crabtree
Miles Traveled - 1129
Miles Traveled on Blue Ridge Parkway - From its end to Blowing Rock 162
Miles Hiked - 20
Pretty much all I ate - Peanut butter sandwiches

Some thoughts on those stats:  I wished we went 100 total miles less...

At Tom Branch I thought of you Kristie and at Juney Whank I thought of
aaron.

Maybe soon I'll post the pictures.

Oh about my birthday last weekend.  Wow it was great, the best in a long time.  From Thursday through Sunday so much cool stuff happened..  It was good to see alot of old friends too.  The only thing bad was aaron crushed my dreams about making the next movie....

 

I almost forgot what a blog was.  yeah i have been meaning to sit back down and write one since i have sooo much to talk about.  anyways, who will even read this?  seems as if everyone is leaving.  this will be not much more than a few random comments about what has been going on since my last blog which was about 1.5 months ago. 

last week  aaron chew kipp and i had the most intriguing conversation outside sir pizza.  aaron had a profound comment on marriage and i brought it to a new level.  we were all left wondering how thick the glass was seperating our conversation from the tender ears on the other side...probably not thick enough.  we also figured out what a pivot man was, not by experience mind you.

hmm well this is on my brain since i just saw it.  hmm the last survivor episode.  yeha i was a fan, i saw the first one and that was about it for this season except for the last one i just watched.  as always (except last season when danni won) the most deserving person didn't win.  oh well who cares, i  suppose i am off survivor, i guess i am down to seinfeld only.

i dont have much work left at the finch.  i did have a great time this last week up there though.  it was a dance competition.  i think it would be great to record our commentary of the show (since we talk back and forth on the headsets) and put it on as a bonus disk.  that would at least add some humor and something to make it a little more bearable for the dads.  dang i can't get "Jellicle Cats" out of my head.  yeah look that one up.

my birthday is coming up this week and i always have big hopes for this week that never come true.  so now i try to keep it low key.  another birthday....28...am i really that old, shouldn't i have done something with my life.  "we're not men Jerry...no we're not".  will i ever 'grow' up?  doesn't look that way.  aaron only has a few years left and i know i can't be too far behind with the heart attack and or ran over by a train.  i gotta get something accomplished.

oh yeah i went in for my second laser treatment,  dang it hurt.  i wore sun block 60!  still i got a little darker.  i suppose i will have to go for SPF 70 - ozone.  i wonder if i put on 60, then 30 if that makes 90?  hmmm...my quest for the ultimate sunblock continues. 

 

I havent been on here in a while for a few reasons.  First of all, I decided to do some major landscaping at my house.  I rented a bobcat and regraded about 50% of my yard.  Which also included cutting down a few trees.  The bobcat was fun to drive and i got the hang of it really quick.  I did what you are supposed to do before you dig and that is have the utilities located.  I even test dug 1.5 feet, after it had been painted.  oh well, about 10 feet from the test section i hit my cable line.  It was all of 2 inches deep.

Yeah I tried to fix it myself and even though this hot girl at radio shack doubted my abilities, it did work...for a while.  it went back out, so i had the day off today and the cable guy came out today and fixed it.  He used cable that was double the size of ordinary cable.  I have never seen anything like it.  He also commented on my collection of traffic signals and road signs.  He said I must either work for the state or am a dang good thief.

The second reason is this past weekend was the biggest event we have at the Finch Auditorium, in my opinion.  It is also my favorite.  State Dance Championships.  Why is it my favorite?  Well the group that comes in is awesome to work with.  A bunch of guys my age with a similar sense of humor.  And they bring in some awesome equipment.  They have two broadcast quality cameras one is on a tripod and the other is on a crane.  They are high tech. Also there are plenty of good looking dance teachers....

So while we were there, one of the guys came up to me and said hey can you run a camera? and i was like uhhh, he said good here you go.  he had something else he had to do and i ended up running the camera for about 1/3rd or the show.  it was awesome.  "the fade ins, the zoom outs"...even brody would be proud...  The only problem with running a camera is sometimes you forget what you are filming is being shown live to the audience.  one particular number there was this killer blonde up there.  well i was on the stationary camera so i get more of a tight close up shot.  well this is a large group number so there are about 10-15 people out there.  and there is a phenomenon in video production called the blonde effect.  yeah it is just like in real life, except the whole world gets shown what you are looking at.  so i am filming this one girl, i'm not trying to make excuses but she was up front center stage alot and the best dancer -- yeah you are buying this... anyways camera one guy goes, "dude i think we got enough of her, try to find someone else.....busted....  They did offer me a job though.

What else has been going on?  not too much i guess.  like kipp said pine woods BBQ was this weekend and i love going to that.  it is some of my favorite BBQ ever, plus i get to see alot of people that i haven't seen in a while.  I have also completed another DVD.  it is comprised of lots of little clips from over the years and has some never before seen footage.  I need to be a historian.  i love this stuff too much.

Seems like everyone is doing movie reviews lately so i will do one that i recently saw and haven't seen a review up about it.  I was at Brinleys house the other day and we watched Pride and Prejudice.  Ever since reading Blue like jazz i have been wanting to find out what this Book was about.  so i settled on watching the movie.  plus kiera knightley is in it so it can't be that bad.  she is one of my favorite actresses.  yeah i know she is hot, but she is good too.  I finally, after watching this movie figured out something we have in common (ask me sometime aaron - you will appreciate it).  anyways even without kiera in the movie i would find it enjoyable.  It did have some strange parts and I can't understand how they used to live back then.  yeah you knew who would get married, but i did like how it happened.  plus anytime you watch a movie with uncle randy it is 1000 times better.  He is the only person i know of that never saw any Lord of the Rings Movie, yet sat down and watched Return of the King extended with us---all 4hrs, 21mins.  He didn't have a clue what was going on.  awesome.  I dont rank movies well, but i would recommend this one, though, thinking of my guys friends, i dont think you guys would care for it.

I want to see V for Vendetta.  I have read reviews that were positive and the premise sounds good.  Plus it has Elrond and a shaved head Natalie Portman.  Sweet we have a bond now.  looks like i'll probably miss it in theaters but i'll be renting it. 

well that's been my life for the past 2-3 weeks.  I know you wish you could be me.

I have been doing some reading in the Bible lately and I came to a great realization.  Yeah most of you probably already know this but here goes.

I have been reading in Deuteronomy and it is full of laws.  What to do, what not to do, and I mean it gets specific!! (if you think I am lying check out Det. 25:11).  Anyways I was trying to read these chapters without thinking about the New Testament.  I was like how in the world could you ever follow all of this.  And of course you realize that you can't. 

And that is what the "law" was given for.  To make us see that we have to have something else that which we can be saved by, which leads us to Jesus.  I suppose if we were given Jesus from the beginning (i.e. right after the fall) we would not fully understand why we even need Him. 

Yeah I know that is basic and you guys probably knew that and went on.  But I used to wonder about how much the Old Testament would help me.  It helps so much, in showing how far below Gods standards you are and how much more you need Jesus. 

This taught me that no matter how long you have read the Bible or gone to church or whatever, there is still infintely so much more to learn about our wonderous God.

Some other things that have been going on lately have dealt with loss.  A guy at work died on Sunday - i actually just got back from the funeral home.  I was talking to him on last Thursday, come into to work on Monday to find out he died from an anurism.  I was rather shocked.  even though i didn't know this guy well, since he was never on any projects I was, it is still sad and the office wont be the same without him.  One of the contractors' brothers died of the same thing this week too.  Yet another coworkers wife has cancer again... 

Finally one of my cousins joined the marines and left for Paris island right after church on Sunday.  I went to see him off and even though i hadn't seen him in a while, it was good to reminisce and encourage him before he went off to a great uncertainty.

So i guess this is my blog for the month as it seems that is my frequency lately.  Anyways i'll leave you with a great quote cause it is all about showmanship. 

"So that old lady at the end was just a liar?  And quite a tramp I might add."