Hello,

I arrived at Case Western Reserve University Wednesday night; however, I still haven't unpacked everything yet. =) Don't worry, I'm not that unorganized, it's just that I still have not received all the boxes I asked my friends to hold for me over the summer.

I read this is my sister's xanga and I think it's pretty good:

"Something to meditate upon:

The art of contentment is the recognition that the most satisfying and the most dependably refreshing experiences of life lie not in great things but in little.

                                     -Edgar Andrew Collard

...a hug in the hallway, conversations with friends, random phone calls, humor, singing in the shower, singing in general, gazing at the clouds, feeling a breeze, finding great clothing at a ridiculously low price, sitting in the shade, swimming at the beach, speaking in your native tongue, going to sleep early, finishing your homework early, laughing, smiling, PILLOW FIGHTS, signature cakes, jogging around the block, reading something profound, waking up refreshed, sleeping...

so simple, so lovely."

Now mind you, when I read this, I was listening to Switchfoot and Switchfoot seems to have this effect on me (increasing sentimentality, pensiveness, etc.). That might have had something to do it with it, but I looked out the window right after reading the entry and had an incredible desire to jog and to just sit outside. Unfortunately, it's quite rained out right now in Cleveland. Perhaps, I'll wait until later today.

Day at Work:

Alright, so it was a pretty alright day at work and the clock was ticking down to 5PM when I get out. At about 4:15 my aunt asks me to go restock the coke machine out in the front of the store. So of course, I go. I open up the machine and balance one of those new "fridge packs" of Coke (the long rectangles instead of the more squat brick-shaped ones) in my other hand. These new "fridge packs" have a special yellow colored section that you tear off to create a nice, neat opening for easy dispensing. Well, it was giving me some trouble and I pulled the paper section a little too hard and the whole pack of Coke burst open and this one can just flies high high in the air and crashes down. I couldn't even try to catch it since I was trying to make sure the others didn't fall too, but this turd of a can falls directly onto a jagged piece of metal in the interior of the machine and explodes all over me. All the while, my aunt is just standing there staring at me being soaked in Coke. Agh. I was pretty steamed at the whole situation but then I just started laughing because the whole situation was pretty ridiculous.

My pants were soaked with that golden, brown liquid through and through. I haven't experienced such a pant soaking since my pre-potty trained days. Since I didn't bring a change of clothes, I just had to stand outside trying to dry. Eventually, I just said forget it and walked back in and started working again.

The best part though was that everything was finally pretty much dried after 45 minutes and at 5PM I left to drive home. For those of you who don't know, my car has been without working air conditioning since last summer. I know, I know, it's insane given that I live in Houston, but being up at college nobody drove my car so it never got fixed after last summer. Alright, on my way home, it was getting stinking hot in the car and the Coke started to stick to my legs all over again and it was...uncomfortable. Yes. By the time I got home, I could barely get out of the car because my legs wouldn't slide in my pants, the were just stuck. Yep, that was my day. Pretty fun eh?

Goodness, alright, laundry time.

Another Note:

This happened earlier in the year, but I just refound the picture. My friends were walking along a street one day, found a fire hydrant, and took it home to the dorm. Haha. I believe there was a lot of construction and it was laying about. You won't be able to find a better dressed fire hydrant anywhere else.

Metro!

Today I went to Metro at First Baptist Church. It consists of praise and worship and a message from a speaker targeted to 20-30 year olds. Well, this was my first time and it was an awesome experience. The Smith Band was there and they really rocked the place so much so that I bought their CD and got it autographed! Yeah baby! We sat in the upper rows away from the majority of the people to get a better view and acoustics and while my line of sight wasn't blocked by a taller person, I couldn't exactly see the singers and speaker clearly. Nevertheless, the sound was excellent.

The speaker was J.R. Vasser who spoke concerning Amos 5:21-24 and how God hates the praise, the sacrifice, and the offerings, that are given in worship when the life of the person does not reflect the same sort of practices. Duplicity, that's what often results in people. Vasser spoke on how people can act one way in private, away from the music, the slides with lyrics, and speakers and another way when those things are there. He asked if we realized the things we were pledging to God when we sang songs. For instance, if a song said, "I will rise early in the morning to worship You..." are we really going to wake up early in the morning to do so? Oftentimes, the answer is "No."

When the events of our worship contradicts the practice in our lives, God takes no delight in it.

We have to ask ourselves, "Am I living in righteousness?" If we do not live in righteousness, then all our actions that seemingly "worship" God do not matter.

In essence, Vasser stated that God wants us, and if He does not have us, then He does not want our songs and praise.

Therefore, we must turn our worship events into our life practices. "We cannot possibly hope to come to God perfectly, but we are required to come authentically" (Vasser). God knows we are not perfect and our worship should be pleas to God for Him to help us achieve the ideals outlined in our songs. We must strive towards God. 

Friend's House

After Metro, we went to my friend's house to hang out. I didn't even know the guy, but once I got there I recognized all these people from VBC and Stanley (the person whose house it was) was a really cool guy. We watched part of Bad Boys II, ate pizza, played guitar, and then had a group game of Tribond (the new version). Now that was pretty fun. Additionally, our team won, but we did have Keith on the team who is a Tribond madman so it may have been a little skewed. Overall, a lot of fun. Now I have to go to sleep for work tommorrow.
Good night.

Alright yall time to check out a sweet ride. Man, my mouth hasn't dropped so low since I drove by that Mercedes E55 back in the day when the 55 meant something to people.

I present to you...

Check out the rims on that golf cart. Hahahaha. Niiice.

That guy knows he wants one. He probably can't stand his ride. The sloped hood, the ornament, the grill, the fringe?! Haha. 

Pics from: www.gizmodo.com

God is awesome. Awesome Awesome Awesome.

I will update some more later on this. Big Psychology paper in the meantime, and finals to study for.