I was all set to purchase a camera, and their order form didn't work! Doh.

So one day weeks ago, G__ checked her mail right before she got into my car, and when she left she realized that she had left her Victoria's Secret there somewhere. She mentions it to me off-handedly, says I can throw it away. I proceed to forget about it, naturally.

And that's how the Victoria's Secret catalog ended up under the my car seat! Believe me!!! :-)

*****

I'm looking forward to my trip to going home, and to the Caribbean! =-)

*****

All the people at the airport waiting for their loved ones then greeting them. Should that make me happy or sad to see?

Amusing quote I found on a slip of paper near my desk -- don't know who the original author was:
"Every time I think a girl likes me there's always a more logical explanation."
A quick google yields only this URL:
http://kevynwight.diaryland.com/021018_46.html

But I don't think I saw it there. It remains a mystery. If you know, contact me.

I just really want to know why Chris Rice has a nice looking website here:
The Official Website of Chris Rice FQ

and such a terrible one here:
chrisrice.com.

It looks almost like he is personally designing the second one, and maybe Rocketown did the first one. I mean, if he's doing his own, that's cool. but lose the backgrounds please. Put them in an image gallery.

Carnivore
Yeah, so I never realized that that was a real program that the FBI really talked about and umm put on their web site. Neat.

Last night was interesting -- another late night phone call -- this time 4 a.m. But this time instead of six guys stranded in DC, leading to seven guys lost in DC in the wee hours of the morning, it was one scared, lone girl, leading to my roommate's bed getting invaded commandeered while he was away. Life's funny sometimes; keeps you on your toes.

Off to see Gothika. Don't know much about it nor do I have high hopes for it. But it's something to do, on this day after Thanksgiving, when the world is with their families.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. To start off, some Thanksgiving humor for you, courtesy my roommate D___, courtesy some cruise commercial:

Tryptophan (trip-toe-fan): the amino acid in turkey which makes you tired.
Known antitodes: Trip-to-Jamaica, Trip-to-Caribbean, etc.

So it was my first Thanksgiving away from my family. I felt kind of bad after I learned that none of my siblings went home. Mom and Dad had pizza and apple pie. Can't really blame them; Mom worked last night and she works tonight as well. And even if somehow they could cook in the midst of all that work and sleep... for what purpose? For the two of them to eat together, have a bazillion left-overs, and for Mom to rush off to work.

I spent Thanksgiving with my roommate D___'s family. Thanks D___. Good times. And what's Thanksgiving if you can't troubleshoot your hosts' computer problems? =-)

I'm about three weeks away from anothe big life change. Going back to school shouldn't be bad. Maybe I can adapt my 40-hour-a-week patterns to some strange pattern of going to class and then actually doing homework promptly. It's doubtful though. =-)

I really want a digital camera, and a laptop would be nice too. I'm thinking about getting either a Canon Powershot S30 or S45.

Peace.

After spending a few hours at my computer, J____ sent me a link to A____'s live journal, and everything went downhill from there. Reading his journal, reading his list of friends, reading their live journals - I found a network of people that I knew but didn't know about their web presence. Or at least hadn't read their stuff in ages.

So now, hours later, it's nearly 3 a.m. and I've been reading away, looking at people's web sites, and also went on a hotornot tangent from a girl's web site. That sucked up even more time, as I looked at pics of girls that go to my school, live in my state, etc. I guess a big part of the interest is that rare gem in which you find a pic of someone you actually know. I did find one tonight (wasn't all that exciting, a girl I went to high school w/ that was a few years older than me). Oh well.

I think now I'm going to have to figure out who all is in this little livejournal network. I figured out who several of the users were but not all of them.
****
Work tomorrow, ugh. I mean it should be cool, but now it's 3 a.m. it could be a tiring day tomorrow. I worked out ... maybe Thursday night, for the first time in.. maybe a couple of months. But the first time I really worked out hard since... well, in a couple of years, probably. =-] It's ... four days now, and I'm still ridiculously sore. I can't curl my hand up to my face without it hurting. I can't rest on my side on my elbow. We worked on shoulders and some other upperbody stuff. My triceps are the worst. If I curl my arm to less than like.. 85 degrees or so... pain.
****
Not going home for Thanksgiving. Not really bothered by that, I didn't want to buy a plane ticket, take leave from work, all just to spend a few days at home. I'll be home soon enough anyway, less than a month.
****
Went to DC & Baltimore last night with M____ . We went to the Jefferson Memorial. I'd never been there. It was pretty sweet. Especially at night. You can look across the Potomac all the way to the White House, through a clearing in some trees across the river. I wonder if trees were cut down so you could do that... just intentionally not planted there.

Went to Baltimore and got some canoli's then walked around the harbor. It was a wonderful day, and a great night for walking around. Have hardly been able to spend any time with M____ this semester, so it was nice to get an evening with her. J_____ is out of town so she was glad to have some company, it seems.

I think I've been to all of what I consider the major monuments now. I want to see some more of them at night... we didn't go up to Lincoln because there wasn't parking close-by (that we knew of).
****
A month to go, and then I move again. It's weird, I don't think about home or friends at school much. Don't hear from them much, don't talk to them much. *shrugs* It happens. I'm sure it will be nice to be back, regardless. There will be so much less to do there, compared to here. I always thought people were pretty silly when they said there was nothing to do at school... which... I never did anything, basically... but I was used to that. After being up here, I've seen how much stuff there is to do in big metro areas. Maybe there is more to do @ school, I just never looked for it.
*****
Watched Chocolat tonight. Pretty good flick. We discussed it at the Life several weeks ago. Who am I? The Mayor? Priest? Chocolate-Maker? Drunkard, river-rat, thin grizzled man, lame kangaroo, cafe owner, rowdy diabetic old woman?
*****
We finished up the Purpose-Driven life study. I challenged the guys to spend some time examing what they are taking away from the study... in what ways God spoke to them, and about what topics. Then, what action can we take based on that.
Worship
Fellowship
Disciple
Service
Mission

Guess I'll sleep now. I'm glad J___ sent me that link, but man, that took two hours of my life. =-)

So about a week ago I spent some time late at night drafting a lengthy post, only to realize the next day that I hadn't posted it and had lost it. So that wasn't fun. And so it's been quite some time since my last post.

Things have really been busy for me lately. It's really kind of strange because I'm away from my friends at school, and homework, quizes, tests, etc. I've just been running around a lot, doing a variety of things. But I've been having a good time.

I'm in the last stretch of this semester now. I'm making arrangements for my next semester at work. Plus I registered for classes, plus I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing next summer. So after I get all three of those taken care of, I'll have a route for the next year or so of my life.

My classes actually look pretty interesting, which is great. I guess as you get further in your program of study, the coursework becomes more specialized and... hopefully more appealing.

Home seems so far removed from me right now. I hardly talk to people at school, much less people from home, aside from my immediate family.

I'm off playing tourist tomorrow. =-)

Just got in from the Halloween party that we've been planning for a few weeks. Seemed like a success. About 25 people, DDR, lots of food, alcohol, soft drinks, a pool tournament and some interesting costumes. A few girls with horns, a dark angel (complete with black wings and halo, plus horns), a blues brother, a 70's dude, a contractor, a pimp, a medieval guy, Doug Zimmer, a church league softball player (okay that's me), a greaser (actually a guy who came w/o a costume but wore jeans and a white t-shirt), and several excellent college student costumes.

The medievalist had a table set up reading Tarot cards, with a general announcement that anyone who sat in the seat across from him was going to Hell.

One person mentioned this to me to get my response. I told them that I believed that God made that decision based on things other than chairs.

So what about Tarot cards, tea leaves, Chinese fortune cookies, astrology/horoscopes, 1-900 fortune hotlines, palm readings? I find fortune cookies pretty amusing. Our eternity is based on our relationship with God -- the outcome of Him judging us -- either by our life, or, if we have placed our trust in Him, by trading Christ's punishment for ours. But would God speak to us through this variety of ways? I'm no Biblical scholar, but I do know that in the Old Testament we see that "casting lots" was a way of determining God's will. So this is slightly similar.

But things changed. After Christ's resurrection and ascension, we see that on the day of Pentecost (whatever that was) the Holy Spirit came, and the believers were "filled with the Holy Spirit". (Acts 2:4) So there's a big change... the God that spoke through a burning bush to Moses, that spoke to priests in special rooms within tabernacles built to His specifications... was now making His temple in the hearts of men and women. So it seems, and I think I read this before, that after the day of Pentecost that God's people no longer used casting of lots to determine God's will... they, we, have His Word, and His Spirit.

"but sometimes finding You... is just like trying to... smell the color nine... but nine's not a color... and even if it were you can't smell a color... that's my point exactly." -Chris Rice

So to return to the earlier question, what about all these other ways of finding answers? Definitely some of them are big hoaxes... generic prophesies that could fit a situation in most people's lives. What scares me though is that perhaps they aren't all hoaxes... that some really do have ... power to see the future. But not power from God. I'll cling to the fact that God has a plan for me, and that He has everything working together for good for me. (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28).

I've killed a lot of time now. So I think I should sleep soon. Uncle Sam nods his head approvingly.