I Got My Blue Shirt!

Well, I turned in my schedule for being an usher at the church this morning and got my official blue usher shirt. They said I could start next weekend, so that should be quite an exciting new adventure. According to the team manual I got, an usher is supposed to be the hands, face, and heart of the church service. It is our responsibility to make people feel welcome and comfortable in our church family. Seems to me like yet another excellent opportunity to "make everything glorious" by extending God's love and compassion to all the newcomers at our church. I am very excited to embark on this new ministry endeavor!

The Mysterious Black Magic of Mathematics

Okay, so I must admit that after tonight's Calculus 3 homework, I am officially flabbergasted. Usually, I am at least able to grasp the concept and understand the worked out problems, but tonight's problems were just utterly ridiculous. I looked through some of the solutions, and numbers and variables would just suddenly disappear and others would appear with no apparent reason or explanation. I would get the first two or three lines of equations worked out correctly, but then the next fifteen made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I was seriously contemplating just writing "insert black mathmagic here" and then poof, putting down the answer. Oh, I remember back in high school watching "Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land" every year in Mr. Butler's class. Perhaps old Donald could provide some explanation to the mysterious black magic of mathematics? Or if I could only find Mr. Molleker, the Master of Gibberish himself. I tell you, I think that he could probably prove anything. He actually showed us a mathematical proof for why 1+1=1. Rather insane, but then again, I think you have to be a tad bit on the loony side to be a mathematician. I guess I'm not quite crazy enough for that. Well, only one more semester of math after this, and I'll be done forever with that subject, so I guess I can look forward to that at least.

The Three Musketeers Reunited

So, it just got confirmed to me the other day that the three musketeers (Me, Andrew VonFeldt, and Ezra Hallman) are back together once again. Since most of you don't know the story, I shall explain. Back in our high school days, Andrew, Ezra, and I were the best of friends, and we pretty much did everything together. We had all sorts of extraordinary adventures as I'm sure you can probably imagine. Anyways, in band our freshman year, we had elections at the end of the year for Most Improved Band Member, and for the first time in history there was a three way tie between the three of us, so we got introduced as the three musketeers, or the three stooges if you prefer. So, we all ended up going to K-State, but we were all in different majors. Ezra was in General Engineering and Andrew was in Physics, while I am in Architectural Engineering. Ezra had been planning to switch to Architectural for quite a while, so that much was expected, but Andrew was thinking towards Electrical Engineering, but I just heard that they were both now switching into Architectural Engineering. Oh what fun this shall be! It should be quite the adventure with the three of us back together again.

More Childhood Memories

Today in Engineering Physics, we began discussing some of Newton's Laws of motion and such, and it reminded me of one of my trademark childhood memories that I totally forgot to mention in my earlier post. Anyways, as a child, I obviously knew very little about physics, and therefore found myself attempting to defy many physical properties. I especially enjoyed trying to defy gravity, which brings me to the story. Anyways, one day I was outside riding my tricycle when I got a brilliant idea, or at least it seemed like one at the moment. I somehow gathered that if I could ride my tricycle fast enough off of the edge of something, I would be able to hover in the air, and therefore, I would be that much closer to actually flying. But, rather than being a normal person and trying to go off of some stairs or something like that, I decided to go from outside in our driveway through the basement window so over about a six foot drop. Also, opening the window apparently slipped my mind in the excitement of the whole endeavor, so in the end, I rode my tricycle at breakneck speed up the driveway only to go crashing through the closed basement window. Luckily, I didn't actually go through the window myself, so there were no injuries, only a broken window. Yeah, definitely not the smartest thing I ever did, but still a rather hilarious memory looking back. I also always wanted to try parachuting off the roof with a bed sheet, but fortunately for me, my parents kept the ladder well out of my reach. Maybe things haven't changed that much after all...hee hee!

More Kitchen Fun

So, you got to see a bit of a demonstration of my amazing cooking skills in action in the Chi Alpha video. Well, tonight, I got the wonderful pleasure of washing a couple of the remnant dishes left over from dinner. Alex had made us all some delicious spaghetti and garlic bread, so I was quite happy, and I decided to to have some fun while still accomplishing the task at hand. So, after washing the few dishes that were left, I poured some extra dish soap into the sink and filled it nice and full. I then proceeded to give myself a bubble beard and a nice bubble hat. I then walked out into the living room for everyone to see, and they all got a good chuckle out of that. This whole adventure gave me another wonderful idea which I am very excited to try out. Paul has been complaining recently about the kitchen floor needing to be mopped, so I thought it would be loads of fun to attach some sponges or something of the sort to my feet and mop the floor that way. Of course this would be very interesting and entertaining to watch due to my lack of balance, so I think Paul is going to record the whole thing once I find some time to actually attempt it. Now I just need to find some nice size 13 sponges to fit my gigantic Hobbit feet. Oh what fun that should be.

From Beaver Boy to Superman

A friend of mine from high school recently mentioned something about how quickly the years have passed by, and how much things have changed since the jolly old days of our childhood. Anyways, it just got me thinking a bit about my earlier years and some of my crazy adventures back then, and well, since Paul and Sophie both agree that I had some rather beaver like qualities back then, I figured I'd refer to myself as Beaver Boy to add to the laughs. So, here are some of the random memories I was able to recall. Maybe you will enjoy hearing some of them. Well, when I was probably two or three, I kept having a strange nightmare about a train coming through my bedroom window, a train driven by none other than the Boogieman. Anyways, for months afterwards, I was always terrified of trains coming through my window, until I got myself a train engineer's cap and a whistle to protect myself with. I also remember my favorite book being "Johnny Tractor." I actually managed to convince my parents that I could read because I had heard it read so many times that I'd memorized it; however, they figured it out when they found I was holding the book upside-down. I remeber my cousin Jeremy who is a year older than me, and how we used to be mortal enemies. I actually shoved a shovel full of mud in his mouth one time, if you can believe that. We are really very good friends now though. Then there was Steimy, our gigantic dog that I would share my cookies with. My Dad says he would hand me a cookie and I would always walk over to my toddler gate and break half off to throw to the dog. Then there was Fluffy, my short lived pet rabbit. We were very good friends. It was a sad day when I woke up to find out that Fluffy had overheated while outside. Luckily I had Andrew there to keep me company. Neither of us can really remember how or when we met each other. It seems to me he just poofed out of nowhere, and has been here ever since. God definitely knew what he was doing there! Ahh, we had some grand adventures back then, and we still do today. I remember the days of playing Ninja Turtles in his basement, and our adventures elephant hunting. We were pretty mischievious back then too, not that that is too difficult to imagine. Think of two Will Thomas's putting their minds together...Yikes, I don't know that the world could handle that!

Anyways, I have plenty more memories, some wonderful, some terribly sad, but obviously it would take a lifetime to list them all. And yes, a great deal has changed since those joyous days of youth, some seemingly for the better, some seemingly for the worst, but looking back, one thing has remained constant, and that one thing is the only thing that truly matters, the love and faithfulness of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for us on the cross. I still just marvel at how awesome our God is, and how perfect his plan is, and how no matter where I was in life, he was always there, guiding me exactly where I needed to be, as long as I was willing to follow. Wow! What a devoted and loving God we serve, to continually seek after each and every one of us, and to sacrifice everything for us, even in our extreme stubborness. Anyways, I am so very thankful to Him for everything, and I could never be even close to where I am today without Him. So be encouraged my friends and know that we serve a God whose unconditional love surpasses anything we could ever even begin to comprehend, and that if we but put our full trust in Him, he will provide, and guide us to something more amazing than we could possibly imagine for ourselves. Hey, have a splendtacular weekend! May you find great joy in all that you do, and may no misery come your way, but if it does, remeber who is in control, and know that God will lead you through!

Chi Alpha Video 1 - Gameday Alternatives

So, we finally finished making our first video for Chi Alpha. We decided to do it based on the idea of finding things to do on gameday if you don't have tickets to the game. So, basically it is Paul and me doing a bunch of crazy, ridiculous things to keep ourselves entertained. Hopefully it will entertain everyone else as well. So I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it brings some cheer to your day!