Month: January 2006

  • Inherit The Wind


    Friday and Saturday night at 8 P.M. in the Hilliard Davidson Performing Arts Center.  Or as I like to call it, the auditorium.  Let’s say you make $7.50 an hour.  Well, it takes $5 to see the show, so that means that by going to the show you are making a profit! We are practically paying you so that you can be entertained! Or, if you don’t have a job, then you probably should have been in the play and you owe it to us to come see it.


    All in all, the play ended up to be a nice show. 


    There are things that are not right in the eyes of a man.  And then there are things that are not right on the face of a man.  Like makeup.  Yep, that’s right, they put makeup on me, but not without a fight mind you. Makeup doesn’t belong on the face of a man as much as penguins don’t belong in jail.  Tell me, would you ever send a penguin to jail? That’s what I thought. So don’t put makeup on guys.


    Also, a quote from Hartman while in the dressing room: “If bad smells were visible this room would be opaque.” 


    Farewell, fare friends, until time arranges us a tryst?


    Oh, how I do love a good play!

  • “An inconvienence is only an adventure misconsidered.” – G.K. Chesterton

    Whew! That was a close one.  Two unsuspecting civilians have just bypassed my position and I was nearly certain that they had detected my presence.  This mission was crucial: I needed the plan book.  It had everything: enemy codes, figures, diagrams.  It was do or get in trouble.  Or for dramatic effect, it was do or die.

    Hurriedly I strode down the hallway without a pause for breath. But wait! What’s this? Cameras! Everywhere! With great celerity I snatched my spare silly putty off my spy belt and hit three cameras dead on with a glob of green ooze on each.  Ah ha! As always, 21st century techincal equipment is never a match for the practical and effective uses of the slimy adhesive silly putty!  And silly putty is a lot less expensive too.

    Moving around a corner I spot the elevator.  Should I take it? No, too many risks.  Guards might be waiting on the top floor, it could get stuck, and official identification was possibly needed to operate the elevator.  I would have to take the stairs.  Fortunately, I had performed enough espionage to know the risk that accompanied taking the stairs: without the right code, an alarm would go off if I didn’t make it up the stairs before the doors closed at the bottom of the stairs.  I opened the door as wide as I could and instantaneously jolted up the stairs like a man through a gate out of hell.  I made it.

    Surreptitiously, yet with caution to time, I glided down the hallway.  Evading a few laser security system was a breeze, but I was wary in my watch for guards, who could be roaming any of the hallways at any given moment.  Down another flight of stairs led me to the corridor I sought. 

    Oh no! A guard, dressed in blue, was strolling around and operating a piece of large machinery, which appeared to be a vacuum, but I knew was really an Erad-14 (short for eradicate).  Flash! A shot of adrenaline hit my bloodstream.  The safety deposit was in view and knew I had to go for it.  He was 20 ft away but was facing towards the other end of the hallway, still pretending to vacuum. 

    Quickly, yet quietly, I moved to the safe.  Entering the code as quickly as possible made me botch the first attempt.  Time was moving faster, my heart was beating like a snare drum, but the second attempt was successful! I grabbed the code book and walked away.  Surely, I thought to myself, the guard had turned around to see an empty hallway the moment after I had turned the corner.  That’s just how these scenarios work, right? 

    How foolish! While thinking to myself I had set off the laughably simple laser security system!  It was a race to the perimeter.  Evading corners and sprinting double-time down the hallways, I feared having a scuffle with guards.    

    But, alas! I arrived unbruised at the predetermined meeting location.  Within moments my mom, er, I mean my getaway car came and took me away. 

    My calculus book was secured within my grips, and the methods for breaking enemy quizzes was within the right hands once again.

    *Sigh*  If only it were a happy ending, but in the end it was bittersweet.  The good news was I had retrieved my calculus book.  The bad news was the exact same thing.

    Ever see those signs on the doors in the school that read: “Doors will be locked at 4:30 P.M.” Well, if you look closer you will see the fine print that says “…and any intruders after that time will be shot.”

    What can I say? I’m a risk taker.  Although don’t be surprised if you are with me in class tomorrow and janitors barge in the room and drag me away.

    ….based on a true story.

  • Welcome! Please take off your shoes and put them on the mat. I just washed the floor in here.


    If my imagination can transport myself thousands of light years into the obscure realms of space to gaze at the beauty of a spiraling galaxy, then what do the constraints of reality even matter?





    The Campfire


    Amid all this political chatter about Intelligent Design, evolution, and abortion, why not revisit the debate of the ages?  Girls vs. Boys?


    Well, a midnight campfire experience has established my conception that there is no edge for either side.  Let’s review the evidence:


    While the girls observe, the boys overzealously constuct the campfire.  For firewood the boys travel 300 meters away empty-handed and come back with armfuls of logs.  Only later would the inane pack of males discover that there were copious stacks of logs for the firepit only about 10 meters away.  Girls 1, Boys 0


    Ever seen a dog repeatedly shock itself by trying to escape an electric fence?  Or have you seen a fish that incessantly rams into the glass of its tank trying to swim away?  Surely such pitiful animals could be this nonsensical, but humans are masters of the earth, so we can figure out smarter things to do.  But not if your a guy.  Apparently looking at the fire is not enough for a male.  We must try and manipulate the fire into every possible situation of gaining burns, scars, pains, sparks, and wounds.  What sort of lovely items shall we try to swing through or burn in the fire: hands, hoodies, and 6-inch-sticks? Brilliant! Girls 2, Boys 0


    Alas, could the boys be their own downfall?  Actually, now that we have established a heavy level of evidence revealing the unintelligence of the boys, we must rule that any other creature (the girls) that would choose to attend a campfire with such a brigande of idiots must also be idiots as well.  Girls 2, Boys 1


    ‘Twas a chilly night, and quite suitable for a fire.  The boys, of course, had no trouble experiencing the magnificent heat of the fire, but how were the girls faring?  Seated just outside the radius of the campfire’s heat offering are the girls, complaining about the freeze in the night air.  Remarked a boy: “Why not move closer to the campfire?”  In response, the girls simply shook their heads.  It was sort of confusing, and it took a moment for the mind to accept such a frustrating reality.  Here were people (girls) who were cold, and they are within the vicinity of a warm campfire, and not only do they refuse to utilize the fire’s purpose by moving a smidge closer, but they argue about the weather? Irrationality is so very irritating.  Girls 2, Boys 2. 


    The girls forgot to bring marshmellows.  Boys 3, Girls 2.


    Then again, the guys forgot too.  Boys 3, Girls 3.


    And thus, the campfire battle of stupidity and feeblemindedness was over.  Who won? The fire.  Fire usually wins.  I am almost lead to believe that fire leads to the decline in IQ for the human race. 


    I suppose firemen are the enlightened individuals who have the ability to retain their mental capacity in the face of fire.


    So long.  Have a fair evening but yet a better life.

  • There are those who have two masters, and their fealty is torn between the two.


    There are those who run around busily and never hear the master call.


    There are those who refuse the master’s bidding.


    And then there are those who zone out while the master is assigning his servant a task.


    Let’s tune in, shall we?


     

  • Well, in case you fellow nocturnal creatures of AIM hadn’t noticed, my computer is having problems.  In fact, my computer has so many problems it is more flawed than Communism, the BCS, High School Dating, and Michael Jackson.  Combined.


    This is post is my momentary gasp for air while drowning in the jumbled enigma of my AP Euro textbook.  So far through the day I have been traveling through the book at a steady rate of 50 years/hour. 


    But hey! There is still hope.  For a media arts project we have to make a film of a metaphor and I am excited about what the blob of gray mush in my head might concoct. 


    You know, from my own experiences, I think life is very easy to figure out.  I mean, the fundamental concepts are quite abstract.  One of my favorite Switchfoot songs (well, they’re all my favorite) is “Living is Simple.” 


    But the key thing is this: simple is not a synonym of easy.  Love is a very simple thing.  Very easily defined and explained in terms of what we do.  But is it easy?  Well, let’s just say my AP Euro GPA is significantly better than my Love GPA.  Another example: Humility.  What a simple thing.  Yet, I do believe it is one of the very hardest tasks that man can undertake.  Emptying oneself of  selfish ambition to make room for God’s will is not something done by the casual hope of a man.  In fact, it’s so hard, I don’t even know what these gigantic tasks entail.  So violent are the forces that compel me away from these virtues that I can only use the virtue of Hope to see them take full force in my life one day.


    There’s a thought for your taking.  It’s really an incomplete thought, so give me 2 eProps and then think that one over some more. 


    Edit:  Ok, so perhaps I need to expound on this a league further?  I never made the statement “Life is simple.”  I alluded to a song I enjoyed, but that connection was loose and almost unrelated to the actual motif of my post. If I had a thesis for this post it would be “Although life is challenging, the paradigm of the premises that lay the foundation for decision-making in life is prevalently recognized.” That is, we all know of virtue.  Virtue is simple, no?  Thus, it is not that life does not bend and play tricks on us, but that the tools and mechanics we use to conquer dilemmas aren’t very tough to choose.  God gives us the tools, but execution is no child’s play, thus we need God’s help again (when putting to practice God’s very own tools he assigns us).  The cycle repeats and that is what a God-dependent life comes to be: a mere reliance on that which we cannot see to accomplish that which we can see. That is how God becomes a visible force in the world, although retaining an invisible nature.


    “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”  – Jim Elliot (whose movie is coming out!) 


    This night is finite so why not have a fine night?


    Back to the beautful realm of European history.  Yay!

  • Found this Battle Convo from 10 or so months ago.  A must read for Battle noobs, to learn how too make a real pwn call. 


    LAsym21 (8:25:59 PM): ahh, i love convos like this
    LAsym21 (8:26:17 PM): shall we begin?
    LAsym21 (8:26:34 PM): *phil throws punch, kris’s face is pounded*
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:28:38 PM): lol kris’s face is already pounded to the pounding limit, so know damage is done, Kris runs and kicks Phils risk box, scattering little orcs everywhere
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:29:02 PM): then runs and punches phil in the face
    LAsym21 (8:29:59 PM): *phil uses jedi mind trick to clean up orcs, fires silly string into kris’s eyes*
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:31:22 PM): *kris wipes silly string out of eyes turns into spiderman and uses the silly string (with a a few altercations) as his web, catching phil into a tight net of spider gooze
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:35:01 PM): c’mon phil, whatcha got?
    LAsym21 (8:38:05 PM): *phil sets self on fire in order to rid himself of the web, then realizes he is on fire and jumps in a nearby bathtub, but the bathtub is filled with kerosene in anticipation of the battle happening by kris’s little sister, the house explodes, but due to Mendola’s Law of Centrified Explosions phil is unharmed and kris flies through the air and lands in a neighbors house, consequently kavehs, and lands on the couch next to kaveh, immediately kaveh snaps the picture of the deformed kris and goes to develop it, but kris files a civil lawsuit in protest, and both are sentenced to death because the judge was in a bad mood because his wife had gone on strike for making dinner because the judge broke his promise and ate the last banana, kris and kaveh are set to be killed by electrocution, but instead, they challenge the executioners to a game of halo2, in which the guard beat them handily in and kris and kaveh are forced to wear skirts the rest of their mortal lives, meanwhile, phil laughs as he takes the rest of his kerosene bath and goes onto be famous for the best xanga writer in the world*
    LAsym21 (8:39:08 PM): what now?! what now?!
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:43:39 PM): lol then Kris, whering his skirt, flashed phil, blinding him, in which he is still laying in his kerosene bath, kris quickly makes a trail out of the house with his kerosene he had in his survival pocket knife and lights the trail on fire with Mendola law protected matches, sending Phil up in flames landing in an insane asylum, wher since he flew into it, the nurses assumes he was pysco, locking him up in a padded room with nothing to look at except articles talking about how awsome of a runner Kris Stevens is
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:43:58 PM): proof*
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:44:20 PM): that was your flaw, going back to your bath
    LAsym21 (8:45:11 PM): eh, i knew that would be the end of me
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:45:41 PM): lol, or we can hop in my time machine (which is on my survival pocket knife) go back in time, and call it a truce
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:45:53 PM): skirts make my hips look big
    LAsym21 (8:46:19 PM): and insane asylums makes my but stick out
    LAsym21 (8:46:22 PM): truce
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:46:26 PM): lol truce
    RunninWithJesus7 (8:46:32 PM): until we meet again


     


    Some people live their lives.  Other people use AIM.

  • Accidentally fell asleep early last night and in return received 11 hours of sleep.  I’ve got to do that again sometime.  All I have to do is lie down and say “It’ll only be for a minute…”


    Now, on to the important business: Stratego.  Stratego is a board game of wit, courage, stategy, and skill.  It looks a little something like this:



    Initial set up of Stratego. This board was made by Milton Bradley with plastic pieces.


     


    So, it’s a blustery and wind-chilled day in Hilliard, Ohio.  Against all odds two young (and dashingly beautiful) young lads ride bikes to a local Starbucks to meet over a game of Stratego. 


    Later that evening, each while nursing their battle wounds, they discuss a groundbreaking thought.  Why not, for good time’s sake, make each piece in the game a friend from Student Venture? Brilliant!


    So, here is what we composed.  There are 11 pieces.  2′s (they are scouts, so they can move long ranges in one move)  3′s (which can dimantle bombs) 4′s, 5′s, 6′s, 7′s, 8′s , 9′s, and finally the most powerful piece the 10 (the field marshall).  Also, there is a spy who can kill anyone, but anyone can kill the spy.  The basic concept of the game is that you attack pieces while looking for the opponent’s flag, and the piece with the higher number wins.  Oh yeah, and there are bombs. 


    Two teams: Team Blue (Phil’s Team)
    2 – Nathan Tavenor (He can go far distances)
    3 – Scooner (He is a dog, so he can dismantle bombs)
    4 – Andrew Rogers
    5 – Jimmy Kovell
    6 – Nick Berner
    7 – Nick Schoener
    8 – Matt Kemp
    9 – Isaac Mann
    10 – Philip Mendola
    Spy – Kyung Dung Kim

    Team Red (Nate’s Team)
    2 – Danny (has the energy to go far)
    3 – Alex D.
    4 – Kevin Beisel
    5 – Matt Sanders 
    6 – Kevin D.
    7 – Joe H.
    8 – EJ Mann
    9 – Michael S.
    10 – Nate Lundquist
    Spy – Jonathan Ringle


    The girls at venture, Leslie, Kait, Rachel, Stephanie, Lauren, and Cora, are the bombs, for obvious reasons.   


    One ironic thing to note it that John Ringle, as a member of the U.S. Navy, probably could kill anyone, so it is very fitting that he is a spy. 


    Also, if you are unhappy with your rank just remember I am a 10 and I could kill you.


    See you at Venture, troops. 


    Remember: The infinite Imagination is a diamond planet’s worth more valuable than a disciminatory Intellect.


     

  • Lots of business to settle here.  Take a seat and we’ll get started.  There are bagels and coffee on the counter, feel free to help yourself.

    First of all, I have some old news (to me) that was simply too much to put in my last post.  Now, my dad is a very hard-working man and watches TV only about as often as a lunar eclipse.  If he watches TV the only show he will watch is Fear Factor.  He loves the show with an intense interest. 

    So, over winter break my dad takes some international students down to Florida for a trip.  While on the trip he discovers that there is a Fear Factor Live occurring at Universal Studios.  After doing hours of waiting and preliminary work my dad makes the final six people, beating people who he described as “Younger, muscular guys with tattoos.”  My dad is 49 and he estimates he probably had about 20 years on all those guys. 

    Level 1) Hang onto a bar 100 feet in the air as long as you can.                                     

    Level 2) My dad swings on a rope and has to catch balls in a bucket thrown at him by his partner, who acquires the balls by reaching into a tank of eels.

    Level 3) Again swinging on a rope, my dad has 4 octopuses atatched to himself.  He must, while swinging at great heights, throw the octopuses to his partner.

    Level 4) Climb up a ladder that is lateral against a wall while water is pouring straight down on him.  He must find the key at the top, go back down, and start the car.  The car then elevates 100 ft. in the air and slants to one side.  He has to climb to the front of the car and get flags off of the bumber.

    Anyways, all in all, my dad got 2nd place and it was one of the happiest moments of his life.  Funny thing is, my dad is the pastor of a church, and the associate pastor at our church got 1st place.  Nowadays my dad walks around the house with his championed Fear Factor hat on.


    Now, back to the breakfast/lunch debate (see 3 posts ago).  An alternative viewpoint has been presented and I believe it to be worthy of consideration.  This is a comment by Osmein_Alatar:

    “I think you could be eating both breakfast and lunch. Like you said, breakfast is defined as the first meal of the day, but all the definition for lunch says is that it is a meal eaten at midday. Since lunch doesn’t necessarily have to be the second meal, it is possible for lunch to be one’s breakfast. The real question is: Where does breakfast fall if someone stays up all night, eating occasionally?”

    In terms of meal apologetics there seems to be compatibility between the definitions of lunch and breakfast that I had not noticed before.  Under close review the definitions certainly are not mutually exclusive.  But of the question about when is breakfast after staying up all night?  This question is answered in terms of a slight ambiguity that involves another undesired judgement call.  Breakfast is a “meal” and I do hold that there has to be some sort of minimum portion of food that counts towards a meal’s existence.  If, at 5 o clock, a person eats a granola bar and then does not eat for the rest of the evening I would not call that mastication a “meal”, but rather a “snack.”  Thus, after snacking throughout the night one may “skip” breakfast if they do not have what for them is considered a typical portion of breakfast.  Indeed the meal amount must be correlated to usual meals.  Thus, the following is possible: 

    Timmy:  What did you eat for breakfast, Sarah?

    Sarah:  I didn’t have breakfast, I just snacked on an apple.

    This is a radical idea that I know many meal philosophers will not accept, but it is necessary.  Although, I would accept that one may call Sarah’s apple a “Breakfast Snack”,  for there are increasing stages of meal qualification.  For each meal it follows this pattern, from smallest to largest:  “Breakfast snack.”, “Breakfast”, “Breakfast Feast.” 

    How can you tell which one are you having?  Well, thankfully I am borrowing this thought from an ancient Greek philosopher, mealicles, who outlined the equations for us. 

    Breakfast snack occurs when  A – 3 < (1/3)x - y  where x is the amount of food usually eaten in grams, A is the amount of food eaten in grams, and y is the amount of time measured to the nearest time one eats food again, whether it was before or after the snack.  Thus, if a person is considering whether they had breakfast at 7 A.M., and the next time they eat is 9 A.M., then y = 2.  Or if one last ate at 4 A.M., then y = 3.

    Breakfast feast occurs when A + 5m > (pi)x. where pi = 3.14 (as you probably know), A = the amount of food eaten in grams, x = how much food is usually eaten in grams, and m = either saying “Mmmmm.” (Said as an indication of delicious food) or any other remark made about how sapid the food tastes.  The remarks must be sincere and not generic.   Pi is used in this equation because feasts often include pie. 

    Simply “Breakfast” occurs when it is neither a feast nor a snack. Simple as that, folks!

    I’ll have to search for the brunch equation.  It’s around here somewhere. 

    Also, it seems as a Christian I always pray before a meal/feast, but never before a snack.  It’s an odd trend, that I tend not to thank God for food that comes in small portions, so maybe I will start doing that? Hopefully.

    Have a terrific night and week in school! God Bless.   




  • Which one does not belong? A, B, or C?


    Here’s the background on this: I’ve told Rachel (top picture, left) that she looks like Hillary Duff.  She denies the notion because Hillary Duff is mean.  Although I was comparing solely on the basis of appearance and not character, it still seems to matter.  The irony of the situation was completed when Rachel informed me that she  thought she looked like Ben Stiller. 


    Well, needless to say, that confused me, so I made a xanga post trying to assure myself that I’m not insane and that the world agrees with me.  Vote C. 

  • Such a wondrous and peculiar time of year, where simply the date January 1 can give hope to the lives of Americans.  In the form of annual resolutions people construct plans, goals, missions, and all their greatest desires for the new year. 

    Yet we quite haven’t figured it out have we?

    The world today is very much the same as it was thousands of years ago: there is poverty, wars, and the tribulations of every man’s life. Shouldn’t one think that if a solution to overcome misfortune were found that it would have been told and the world would be perfect?

    Yet this is one of the mysteries of God.  For He treasures that which may be found in the quiet and secret convictions of a person’s soul.  The apostle Paul writes, “No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began… but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”

    That just so fascinates me that the entire human race can search for the key to success and contentedness and still miss it even though it exists.  How can something that exists and be applied in people’s lives and work remain a secret?  That, my friends, is the gift of faith.  And faith cannot be mass distributed like the other attempts at achieving the ideal world: strategies, motivational books, theories, and the like.  Faith is achieved on individual account, and that is why the world remains as it is: faith is a secret industry; where a man’s own faith in God can create his joy from trial to trial and day to day in life.  This is the faith I own, and wish for it to guide me through 2006, as it has 2005. 

    Break was relaxing, and I am glad for the time-off.  Although, it helps me realize the benefits of school: on my own, I am rather lazy.  Even if all I learn in school is pointless, the entity of school will prepare me for the meaningful (Such as the waking-up-early-to-work life). 

    And that brings us to this post’s confusing matter:  A person who cooks is called a “cook”, the present tense of the verb that he does.  A person who bakes is called a “baker.”  Confusing? But that’s not all.  A baker is the one who “bakes” the “cookies.” Should it not be a cooker who cooks a cookie?  Rather, he is not called a cooker, and a baker bakes a cookie.  It doesn’t follow my line of thinking, and I’m sure whoever devised the system got a lot of hate mail after it came out.   

    I would like to put a word in for all 2005 Waffle Friday participants, you rock. And also to all Bunco6 competetors, nice work.  

    Word is that there are people who participate in “bunco leagues” which is almost unfathomable.  It is a game where you roll dice to see who wins, and that is the entirety of the game.  There is no board, pieces, or any sort of creative addition to the game: it is just rolling dice.  I have liked playing the game the two times I have done so, but I would not be able to participate in a league that flies on the wings of luck so often.      

     Alrighty then, I have just given a terribly wordy and discursive post.  I certainly hope you didn’t waste your time reading it all.  But then again I do.  See, I’m rambling again! What an awful habit.  Perhaps I will try to ramble less in 2006.  How excellent that would be! I certainly admire the non-rambling sort of human. Crap! Sorry! I’m stopping!

    Have a wonderful adventure of thrills and faith in 2006! Farewell!

    “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”  

    Phillipians 4:12-13