Ryan and Luke's Great Adventure: Pt. 3

After Ryan and I had picked up the necessary road needs (gas, vitamin water, yoohoo, etc.), we continued onward to my roommate’s house at midnight. My roommate, Aubrey, had offered us a place to stay since we couldn’t get a room in Chicago. And so we programmed our Garmin and let it lead us into the twilight.



We had already driven a couple miles west of Chicago to find a room, so it started our journey by taking us on interstate 80 towards Iowa. If you’ve never seen this road, imagine a straight line. A straight line that leads to nothingness. We tried playing louder music. We talked to stay awake. But there came a point when suddenly, the car started drifting slightly to the right. The tires vibrated on the rumble strips of the highway, and finally, after swerving back into the vacant highway, Ryan pulled over. Without saying any words, he put it in park and got out, as I too went around the back of the car, and for the first time, we decided to switch spots as I took the wheel.

About the time Ryan dozed off and I was 3 songs into Goo Goo Doll’s “Dizzy Up the Girl,” the road started getting sketchy. It looked like the roads on a tire commercial where someone almost hits Bambi or something of that nature. At one point, Garmin took me through a foggy town that was totally dead except for a big boat with a creepy light under an even creepier bridge. I drove through Silent Hill.




Finally, after a grueling drive, we arrived. We pulled into Aubrey’s cul-de-sac where I gave Aubrey a big hug. We basically snuck into the house and up to his room. Ryan and I ended up sharing Aubrey’s bed and he took the couch in the living room.

Luke: We made it man.
Ryan: Yup. I’m so tired.
Luke: Night
Ryan: Night
Luke: . . .
Ryan: . . .
Luke: Dude we rode go-carts today!

***

When I woke up, I could hear voices walking around upstairs. I didn’t want to freak anyone out so I just stayed put. Eventually after waiting around though, I decided to go find Aubrey. As I opened the bedroom door, I saw his little brother peeing in the bathroom with his pants at his ankles and a little sister dropping a pile of laundry in shock. Way to give em the heads up, roomie. I finally ended up introducing myself and telling them who I even was. They were all very nice.

As we walked up to the entrance of a Denny’s later, Aubrey looked at us and asked if we wanted to get some big sandwiches we couldn’t get anywhere else. In the spirit of the road trip, we turned around and followed him to the Spotted Cow. Everyone should eat at The Spotted Cow. It’s terrible for your body and great for your soul. I got the pastrami burger: a cheeseburger with pastrami on top of it. Ryan got an Italian beef sandwich that had so much meat some people couldn’t have bench pressed it. It was phenomenal. We talked for a while, and finally we were off again and headed east.





Our next pit stop was hours later in Indianapolis. A friend of mine, Tori, lived there, and it gave us an excuse to stretch our legs and get some ice cream. I hadn’t seen her since school had ended in May, and it was good to catch up about summers and such over Cold Stone.



I decided to take the wheel for the rest of the trip and we set out for home sweet home Ohio. I knew a friend of mine, Matt, lived close to Dayton, so I figured we could stop by for dinner and see what he had to offer. Unfortunately, he lived in Miamisburg, which was halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati, unbeknownst to me. I told him beforehand over the phone that we would have to be quick if we wanted to dodge the terrible weather on our way home.

As we arrived at his house, his mom and his cat, Agent Jack Bauer, greeted us. His mom is a very animated lady and made sure we had a seat and told us all about the trip and our summers. It was like a sitcom really. Then we went to a local place to eat that was just as kooky. It was the most stereotypical sports grill ever, complete with trivia over the PA system. I loved it.



After convincing his parents that we were fine to drive home at 10 o’clock, we were on the road. It was lightning, and I was pretty worried, but we set the Garmin, and let it guide us. We came out on interstate 71, 50 miles from Columbus. This meant we had at least a 3 hour drive ahead of us. It was just sprinkling, with lots of lightening in every direction. It was very cool and even surreal. Then, after a moving lightening, there was a moving wind. Before we knew it, the heavens were dropping buckets all over the highway sideways. I could only see about 10 feet in front of the car so we found a gas station.



It was a half hour later after we had played and completed games in the atlas that the rain died down enough. At 11 o’clock, we were back on the road, nearly home. 150 miles doesn’t seem that intimidating after driving all day across Illinois and Indiana. We talked for the entire 3 hours of the drive. We don’t get to see each other enough anymore. After 7 years of leaning on each other, it is difficult to have a friendship like that when we live so far apart. Going to Chicago was more than a couple of college kids getting an adventure. I wouldn’t have gone with just anyone. It’s a blessing that we are still investing in each other as friends even after the distance and all these years.

Who knows what the two of us will get into next summer.

Ryan and Luke's Great Adventure: Pt. 2

So after deciding that our Garmin didn't know what it was talking about, I pulled out the atlas and looked through which streets were which. We managed to cross the river and park underneath Grant Park / Millennium Park. And so without any plans, we submerged from the parking dungeon to beautiful, buzzing Chicago.



For those of you who know Chicago fairly well, you're aware that Millennium Park is definitely one of the things to check out. It's in the middle of down town for the most part; a short walk to the Lake Michigan coast and about two miles south of the John Hancock Building. So we decided to do all of the great touristy things in Millennium Park. We saw the amphitheater, the fountains, and of course the Millennium Bean. It really is pretty impressive. Odd. But kinda cool.



After looking at the Lake Michigan coast for a solid 10 seconds, we decided to go find the John Hancock Building. Now a lot of people go to cities to see particular things. When you're in Chicago, nearly everything is worth seeing. The river. The magnificent mile. Recognizable streets from movie sets. Those two buildings from the cover of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.



We finally got to the John Hancock Building. The observation deck was mind boggling. Your ears pop in the elevator. And then, you can see for miles.



We had a girl take our picture. The picture didn't really turn out very well so it's not really worth showing. The true point of this story is the chick who took it. She suggested that we should take it facing south so we got more of the skyline. And we agreed. Casually, Ryan and I started chatting her up a little bit. Nothing. Stoic even. This blonde hipster wannabe was not having any us. She kinda gave us the look that said "I wish you two would throw yourselves out the window." And she took a crappy photo.

After returning to street level, we decided it was dinner time. I texted my good friend from school who is native to Chicago to ask what the best deep dish pizza was. He told us Gino's East was where it was at. So we tracked it down and got a table. Ryan and I were stuck between two terrible tables. It was the same deal at both of them; two fairly well off tourist families who thought they were entitled to something great simply by existing. If that was the cause, the effect was constant whining about everything. However, Ryan and I were just in it for the adventure, so we were down for anything.

Thus, we got the sampler platter. Our first mistake. 4 mozzarella sticks. 4 spinach sticks. Calamari. What were we thinking? Somehow we thought "Oh the pizza's going to take a bit to make? Well we might as well kill, no wait, obliterate our appetites by the time this already oversized pizza comes out to serve two."



Then the pizza arrived. It was a monster. It was a gigantic, greasy, cheesy, gooey, deep dish monster. I wish I could tell you that we went to town on it. I really wish I could say, "I enjoyed this pizza like it was my last meal on death row." But that's just not the case. I maybe ate one piece before deciding that if another bite went down my throat, I was going to hurl everywhere. And as I sat half in a daze, I saw her. Blondie. That stupid chick who couldn't even smile at us. I motioned to Ryan.

Luke: Check it out.
Ryan: Oh. Her again.
Luke: She's stalking us.
Ryan: Well yeah. Why wouldn't she?

After our treacherous hike through the gorgeous twilight skyline...

... we arrived at the car and put in a hotel address...

... and after driving for a half hour ...

... we realized that the hotel did not exist. But we drove around a bit and found a Motel 6. Terrifying as it was, we were content to pay only $50 bucks for a room, even if the mugging and stabbing was free. After doing paper work at the desk, the man asked to see Ryan's ID. "Oh, you got a while man. You can't even get a room yet!"

So now we are sitting in the parking lot wondering what to do. So we stroll down to the Holiday Inn. "Do we have to be 21 to get a room here?" Yes we do. Crap. So we drove laps around the hotel at higher speeds than I was comfortable with. This is when I remembered that my roommate, Aubrey, lives in Illinois. I figured it was worth a shot, and so did my road companion.

Luke: Aubrey, hey what's up?
Aubrey: Hey Luke!
Luke: So we're in Chicago.
Aubrey: Really? Wow that's awesome.
Luke: Yeah, here's the thing man, we don't have anywhere to stay.
Aubrey: Oh man. Have you tried all the hotels?
Luke: I think it's a state law or something. How far away is Peoria?
Aubrey: Oh geez, that's 3 hours. If you guys are willing to drive you can stay here.
Luke: Could we? Will you still be up?
Aubrey: Yeah, I'll still be up.
Luke: Ok, well if you text me your address, we'll put it in the GPS and get there.
Aubrey: Ok buddy. See ya.
Luke: See ya in three hours.

After we finished peeing on the side of the Holiday Inn, we logged in Aubrey's address. At eleven o'clock at night we set out with our anticipated time of arrival reading 2:34.

To be continued...

Ryan and Luke's Great Adventure: Pt. 1

Sometime back in July, it was 2 AM in Andrea's basemen as Ryan and I tried to stay awake. We were on the final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy when we began to talk about how we should do something great before we went back to school. The obvious pick was a road trip. But where to?

Luke: "How about Nashville?"
Ryan: "No! That's a tourist town. We're not going to a tourist town."
Luke: "Wha?"
Andrea: "He's right."
Luke: "Well we have to have a good road. Like, we need to have a long drive if it's going to be a road trip."
Ryan: "Well ok, but where?"
Luke: ...
Andrea: ...
Ryan: "Do you have a passport?"

We deliberated for quite some time. Weeks even. For a while, the destinations was the Ben & Jerry's Factory in Vermont. Then we were all set to go to Toronto. Finally, we decided on Chicago, taking Highway 30 straight there. And after loads of planning (packing clothes in a backpack and charging our phones), we set out on our great adventure.

I started the day off right with a McDonald's coffee and breakfast sandwich, while Ryan went with a coffee from Speedway. It was very rainy in the morning as we drove through the more Amish area of Ohio.



After the coffee and breakfast disaster on an English muffin, nature called and Ryan and I were desperate to find a toilet. We finally turned into a small speck in the middle of a corn field called Bucyrus. We searched through Bucyrus for a restaurant. Then we found Bucyrus High School. Conveniently, it was a teacher in service day. We marched past the office assistants, found the restroom, and took care of everything. As we did a donut and peeled out of the parking lot, we ditched our trash in the neighbor's garbage can.

At some point we got to Indiana. Indiana was home to the worst drivers we saw. If you are from Indiana, I pity you. But alas, I regress. We stopped for gas and decided to look for a Qdoba because you only live once. Garmin set up a route that took us right through Ft. Wayne. Fair enough. A half hour we finally arrived, gorged ourselves, and were off. We decided to not get the cashier's number, even though it was quite obvious there was natural chemistry. What a shame. But that's life on the road. I imagine it's how Poison used to feel.

When we were nearly to Illinois, Indiana finally provided some noteworthy pit stops.

Ryan: "Did you see that!?"
Luke: "That's a dragon!"
Ryan: "Did they have go carts!?!?!"
Luke: "I'm looking!"
(Pause)
Luke: "Yup, turn this thing around!"

I don't know what celestial being inspired the creation of this wonder world, but it was phenomenal. Putt putt. Batting cages. And of course, go carts.



The jury is still out on who won the contest. One thing is certain, we beat the tar out of each other in those little things.

As we continued on, we found another gold mine. As we took a last second 90 degrees turn at 45 miles per hour, we arrived at the Salvation Army. There, we found novelty shirts drenched in irony. Cheerleading camp. Bragging about grandchildren. Previous employment. Little league jersey. You never know what you'll find.



Finally, after driving through the ghetto, we arrived in Chi Town. It took us about 8 hours, but we had done it.



To be continued...

Elbow Vs Eye

Many people have asked what happened to me after seeing pictures or running into me. I presently have 4 stitches, a hemorrhage in my eye, and a lot of bruising around my left eye. I feel like it is easier to write a blog about it than tell the story over and over again. This is bound to happen regardless, but it gives me an excuse to write a blog entry.

This past week I was working as volunteer faculty at Round Lake Christian Camp. Every day, the camp has activities that the hired, core staff of the camp helps put on. Sometimes it's archery, a rock wall, kayaking, etc. On this day, my family group was tubing behind a jet ski. To say the least, we were all very excited. It was Thursday in the week too, so we had heard plenty of good things from everyone else who already had the chance to ride.

Well one of my blog followers, Ryan Hershberger, and I decided we would ride the double tube together. We personally knew the staff member driving the jet ski. And so we told him, "listen. . . don't be shy about the throttle. Give us your worse." So he is flying. We are holding on for dear life. Tears are tumbling out of my eyes as the eyelids flap back in the wind. We are leaning into every corner. Then there was that dumb turn. One left turn that ended all the fun. We flipped the tube. Which, by no means, was the bad part. The bad part was Ryan's elbow coming over from the left side of the tube to my side. And thus, smashing me in the left eye socket.

And so I pop up from the murky lake water after thrashing in the wake a bit. Ryan, holding on to the stopped tube by one arm says "Dude, you're bleeding." I touch my face, look at my very red hand, giggle and say "Yeah dude. I am." And I swim over to tube, and our friend pulls the two of us in. All of the campers on the shore go from looking at me like "That was so crazy! LoL!" to "You need to see the nurse, OhEmGee."

So I go up to the nurse and knock at the door. "This had better be good" "Oh, it is." She opens the door and looks it over. "What'd you do," as she grabs the Tylenol. I start explaining and lift my eyebrows. At this point, blood begins to poor out down my cheek. "OK. YOU NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!" This immediately became the nurse's Super Bowl.

She hands me her phone and it is ringing for my dad's cell as she frantically searches through paper work. Before I know it, I'm in a truck driving to Wooster, 20 minutes from the camp. We get to the emergency room with gauss over my eye. I'm all assessed, tell the story again, and get a room.

The doctor shows up and says we're gonna be doing stitches. Well at least it will look sweet. He comes back with a tray full of all sorts of goodies. "You might want to take off that shirt if you don't want blood on it." I lean back on the chair and he tells me "We're going to numb it now. This is going to be the worse part." He puts the syringe up there to the eyebrow. "You're going to feel a pinch" Ouch. Check. "And this will sting." OH MY GOODNESS! MOTHER OF GHANDI! And then, nothing. He starts tying knots. 4 of em to be exact.

And with my left eye swollen and bloody and stitched, I returned to camp in time for dinner and in time to help lead worship.

My Skateboard Odyssey Pt. 1

Everyone wishes they could skateboard. Don't even lie. I wanted to be Eric Koston and I played as him everytime I sat down with an N64 controller playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater. I played Skate, the videogame, at school and I was immediately hooked. I loved it. It felt like such an accomplishment when I landed the simplest trick. And so I decided that I needed to broaden my horizons and go for the real thing.

So I came home and decided I needed a skateboard. The shoes were an easy purchase because they were already trendy. If this didn't work out, I came out with a nice pair of shoes anyhow. But the board was a different story. If I broke my wrist after riding this thing one time and decided that was good enough, I was going to be very frustrated that I spent good money on an accessory to an injury.

However, my friend Ryan hit this fad up in middle school and had since abandoned it. He told me he had a name brand skateboard, a Chocolate to be exact. I kindly asked if I could have it, at which point he let me. Most likely he was looking forward to what tribulations I might face because of this decision.

The board has "chocolate" written in blue on a white board. The griptape has "HU$TLE" written on it. The wood is showing through the paint.

Now I don't know if you've ever ridden a skateboard. It's not easy. And to make matters worse, I'm uncoordinated and have the balance of Dirk Nowitzki on stilts. It's terrible. I've almost gotten to where I can just ride around without getting gravel in my palms from catching my fall. I have ridden a top distance of 10 yards so far. But I have hope.

I shouldn't be doing this. This was an adventure and task that should have been taken on when I was 13, not 19. I'm nearly 20. How on God's green earth do I expect to be able to learn how to skate? I guess I just have nothing better to do. It's the summer after my freshman year. I'll do anything that isn't work or involves staying in the house. Even if it involves falling on my butt over and over again.

I am still inspired to be Eric Koston.

Games I Would Play for My Soul

At work, I sit in a chair and watch kids swim for hours on end. So one way I pass time is think about dumb stuff. Usually a rhetorical question does the trick. A coworker asked me a rhetorical question to think about while I sat up in my tower listening to another round of "Marco Polo" yesterday. He asked me, "If you had to play any game for your soul, what would you play?"

I was flabbergasted. Usually I can answer these questions with ease and sharp wit. But this was my soul at stake!

So I started eliminating things. Sports went out the window first. I wasn't very good when I still played basketball my freshman year in high school, there's no telling how far from grace I've fallen in that realm. I'm not conditioned enough to play most sports like soccer or football. And although I swam in high school, this is the devil I'm swimming against, and I am just not confident enough for that race.

Then my friend, who was also asked this question, started to talk about possible board games. Shoots and Ladders. Candy Land. Risk. No way is that happening. So much at stake cannot afford to rely on a roll of the dice or whether he picked up a "Get out of Jail Free" card. So there goes that.



And then it hit me...



... GOLDENEYE

I could beat the devil in Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64, no doubt in my mind. My friends actually stopped playing Goldeneye with me because they never won. Perfect. Any weapon set up on any map, I am almost positive I could beat Lucifer himself with my soul in tact. The only way he could possibly sneak that one out is if he was cheap and decided to play as Oddjob.

The Thrown Away

I started working for the city today. And my morning was garbage. Quite literally.

I went through the city park and went to every trash can. Then, I packed the trash, threw it in a truck, and went to the next can. Most cans smelled horrific and had me gasping for air. This process of sweeping through the park took 2 hours. Then it was off to the city dump. As I threw bags from the back of a truck bed to a dump truck, I was a bit astonished. The dump truck may be one of the grossest and most ingenious inventions of the 20th century. As bags were crushed, they often popped, blasting tainted air and sometimes a bit of liquid. It was a putrid process.

***

Rewind to 7:30 when I walked to work. As I strolled through the park, I saw an elderly woman walking through the park as well. She didn't see me so I kinda watched her for a while. At one point, she began to look in a trash can, and then, to my amazement, she began to pick through it. I don't know what she was looking for, but I have to assume it was breakfast.

Then, I went through everyone of these garbage cans, coughing at the stench that rose out of them. And here is a woman, who is looking for something among what is thrown away.

***



I think life is a lot like that. Outside of a tale about the gripping and sobering sides of homelessness and poverty, there is a life application to be seen here in my opinion. A lot of people throw stuff away in life. And I'm not talking about garbage. Friendships. Talent. Marriages. Potential. Then there are those who are getting by. They are not blessed in a way that others are. They didn't get brought up with a good home-life. Bad luck hit them in the worst way. These kind of people are often searching in the scraps discarded in life.

Don't be mistaken: none of this has any closure or sure answers.

Maybe this should be a reminder that I ought to not take things for granted. Maybe it is an illustration of how other people's mistakes make a way for others to succeed. I'm not really sure. But I think life is what it is because of that which is thrown away.

The 3 Saddest Songs I Know

I like sad songs. I do. They're catchy, sentimental, and give you an excuse to feel kinda mopey. I would like to list the three saddest, most heart retching songs I know. So here we go.


"Little Motel" by Modest Mouse



The song sound like a big apology or a breakdown after a fight. The music video, although the band doesn't even appear, is one of the most powerful ones I've seen, and it adds to the sorrows. And that guitar riff. . . so melancholy.


"Brick" by Ben Folds



I heard this song in eighth grade. I had no idea what it was about. Then, I paid attention to the lyrics a bit more. The song is about an abortion that Folds and a high school girlfriend had. I don't know what else I can say to illustrate the sadness.


"Hard to Be" by David Bazan

davidbazan.combyDavid Bazan

David Bazan once wrote under the name Pedro the Lion. In Pedro, his songs were about struggling through faith and how life related to his faith. David Bazan's latest album is not about struggling through faith, it's about walking away from it. And as a Christian, it's hard for me because he sings about the secret fears that sometimes lie within my own faith.

I Can't Be James Dean and Jesus

The epitome of cool. James Dean. The rockstar who never played a song. An icon of what it means to be finding your way into manhood through stumbling into it. Rough around the edges and somehow so appealing.

He is all a guy could hope to be in modern culture. Care free. Bold. Rebel without a cause. And it didn't hurt that the ladies loved this guy. Why wouldn't I hold this guy up and think "I should aim for that,"? Other than the fact that he died in a car accident (irony for the clip I threw in) I would like to be James Dean.

But I am a Christian.

"He isn't going to preach at me is he?!"

Can I still be righteous and the rebel without a cause?

I think what gets things all messed up is my sissy impression of Jesus.



It's not that Jesus really is working against me though. Jesus was a rebel with a cause. I can't be the rebel without a cause, the purpose has been found. Can I still drag race? Or smoke during a TV interview? Can I wear cowboy hats and get away with it? The better question has to do with stumbling into manhood. I don't have to wander anymore. I don't have to die young.

Jesus was not a sissy. We screwed up when we decided he was. Compassion is not weakness. Grace takes more courage than anything I know.

I still screw this up everyday and will continue to. It's easier to aimlessly be cool. Ask the hipsters in Clifton. But I need to decide each day what I want. Do I want to be bold about myself, or something that matters?

5 Concerts I Would Love to Attend

I am getting a chance to see two of my favorite bands tonight, Manchester Orchestra and Thrice, at Bogarts in Cincinnati. It's going to be good and I'm very excited. But it got me thinking about all the concerts I've been to. Since I was a kid, my dad, who was a youth minister at the time, would bring me along to summer Christian concert festivals. So when I was little, I was seeing bands live. Then I began to think about all the good shows I've seen. Radiohead is certainly up there. With a 23 song set, I was in alternative rock euphoria. This past summer I had a chance to see Wilco, and it wasn't a bad show, but the venue was not my favorite for a rock concert.

From time to time though I like to look at the glass half empty. There are bands I have yet to see that I would love to drop dollars for a ticket someday. I tried to come up with a presentable list of five. I hope you enjoy.


Ben Folds
The profane piano man of my generation. His live shows are unpredictable and hilarious. He is great with the crowd and has a large and fun catalogue of songs. He has done everything from play with an orchestra to putting his crowd on chat room Russian roulette during a show online. And who else can cover Dr. Dre in a piano ballad?




Say Anything
My latest guilty pleasure. A lot of their material seems very studio reliant, but they manage to recreate themselves in order to pull it off. In addition, Max Bemis seems to write the most memorable lyrics I've ever heard. It would be an hour long punk rock sing-along. I would have liked to see them when they come through Cincinnati this spring, but they open for Angels and Airwaves, who have bloated the price beyond what it would be worth to see the opening band.




The Flaming Lips
I've gotta be honest, I do not know a lot of Flaming Lips songs. Sure, everyone likes "Do You Realize??" and they've been known to cover classic rock songs by Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd, but this is so much more than music. Their live shows are out of this world and more of a crazy rave set to trippy music. And the selling point, they're the only guys that do it like this.




Gorillaz
Gorillaz is the brain child of Damon Albarn, ex-frontman of Blur. The band is known for the presentation of four cartoon characters with an in-depth story line and background. And through this fantasy, Albarn has created trip-hop, alternative rock pop songs that are both catchy and bazaar. This past weekend, Gorillaz actually headlined Sunday night of the Coachella music festival. They are cartoons, yes. So the band played beneath a gigantic screen with the animated band above them. Complete with special appearances and sailors outfits, I have become determined to see this act while I still can.




Brand New
I missed my chance back in the fall for reasons I won't get into right now. How foolish of me. Brand New puts on an intense show with low lighting that makes the crowd feel like they've walked into a loud tent of a circus. The band has nothing short of a cult following, which adds to the atmosphere in a way that Brand New doesn't even have to work at it. I will see this band before I die.

IRELAND

As some people know, I leave tomorrow for two weeks for Northern Ireland. I'm going with a group from CCU to work with children, teens, and adults through local church plants in the area.

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

I will be sure to bring back photos and post them. God bless. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Say Anything / Arcade Games

I recently had a friend reprimand me for not keeping current on here as of late. So I have two entries, none of which could stand on their own, combined into one entry.



Say Anything

I didn't like this band. Not the movie. The band.

They are odd. But I finally got a bunch of it (all of it) off of my roommate. And... well... I'm taking my words back. They're good. So here's where I've been corrected:

The first thing that turned me off to this band was their lyrics. Their lyrics are bazaar. Max Bemis, their lead singer, is psychotic, quite literally. On the early albums, a nice mix of excessive pot use and undiagnosed bipolar disorder made his lyrics quite awkward. But the more I hear, the more I indulge in his collage of verbal awkwardness from track to track. It takes a lot of guts to sing about an ex-girlfriend by name, a drug breakdown in a tour bus, and the holocaust all in pop punk format in a single album. Yet this guy pulls it off. And he recently found Jesus I guess, so his latest album brings that edge to the religious talk of how poorly Jesus is treated in both pop culture and Christian sub culture.

Second. They use the studio as an instrument and do a lot of things on the album that could not be mimicked live, such as string sections, sampling, and guest vocalists out the wahzoo. Here's the thing though, they make it work. I know, that's a lame answer, but they really do. In this way, a live show is interesting, because they have 6 members, so there are enough of them to assign tasks to recreating that sound. Ya gotta love that. Once you get passed the bias of live instruments on every track, their albums are quite enjoyable.



Arcade Games

I was talking to some friends at breakfast. And we began talking about arcade games. You know, the ones in the movie theaters and big tents at the fair. That's when it hit me: I have a dream to own an arcade game.

Now if I became rich (not gonna happen), I would fist throw money left and right at charities to begin with. This is most likely so I don't seem like a hypocrite for calling out every celebrity who buys a yacht and wants a key to the city when they give a check to an orphanage and take some photos for People magazine. So once I had charity-ed my butt off, I would splurge on arcade games.

Some would go with the classics. Pac Man. Space Invaders. War Lords.

But I didn't grow up with those. I can think of three that would be great:

1) Time Crisis. This game was great. You get that little foot pedal to pop up from cover and you don't even have to walk around. You just point and fire. But you never had time to play through the whole thing when you were in an arcade, and that's why I would buy it.

2) Tekken 3. I never learned the combos. I would just press the punch over and over and over again. This managed to both make me lose and look like a total jerk. With some time alone with this masterpiece, I could master the arts.

3) Arctic Thunder. Snow mobiles. Missiles. I'm in.

"Time To Leave" by John Reuben

Taught young, the world’s wisdom
I told life’s a game, the earth will be your stadium
Be alert, pay attention
(One day) Even your friends will become the competition
Trust no one but do remember this, never burn any potential bridges
Know who’s who, and what they can do for you
And don’t feel bad cause’ in the end they’re gonna do it to you too
Remember life’s not fair
In order to maintain, your gonna have to let you sensitivity be trained
A machine more than a human being
What you say doesn’t always have to be what you mean
Tell them what they want to hear if it’s to your benefit
And words beyond closed doors are insignificant
Push yourself, never be satisfied
Even if you don’t get it, at least you died knowing you tried

Born, live, strive, succeed
Gain it all, bye, now it’s time to leave…
Now, all we see is now

Taught young, the world’s wisdom
Begin to pay attention and make my own observations
All of the kids working hard for admiration
Trying their best not to meet their social expiration
Kind of hard in a world this finicky
Easily praised and yet destroyed just as quickly
I guess me and this world must not be compatible, cause I don’t want its approval to feel valuable

So who’s next to climb the wall of success, just to see how good the top truly gets
Chasing lies disguised as going somewhere only to arrive and realize it’s really no where’
That’s even if you get there in the first place
What an incredible let down we’re bound to face when we substitute purpose for cheap counterfeit
Too busy trying to succeed in life that we forget to live it

You can live in the infinite or give in to the immediate
Gain it all but someday you’ll have to leave it
This world is temporary and it’s heart is selfish
Think to yourself, is this what wealth is
But now, all we see is now and now is not a bad thing but now does bring tomorrow then
Now becomes then
Moments escape, new ones replace them
Don’t want to face the end still searching
Asking what in this world did I ever find worth in
What could be worse than life of wasted years
Nothing lasting, nothing true, nothing dear
I fear losing beauty in pursuit of bigger things
I fear a broken home courtesy of the American dream
Maybe that’s just me with my emotions on my sleeve, but one way or another we all wear what we believe

Simple Faith

_____________:
yeah....do you think it would be easier to love Jesus if you werent here? like here, its kinda everywhere...but at a different school...you would have to search for truth. 11:27 PM

Lukas Borton:
it makes sense 11:28
but no 11:28




I am not sure if I believe in divine providence. I'm not sure i buy such an idea. If i was certain of such a thing though, I would cite the college I chose as a place I was "meant to be."

I sometimes wonder what would have happened had I gone to a state school. A lot of things happened in the first month of school that, had I been at state school, I'm sure I would have attempted to remedy with substances. But I wasn't there. I was at a Christian University and was forced to seek community before a bottle.

So let's say I believe in divine placement. Where else is there? Is there somewhere I'm destined to arrive in a year? 10 years? When I'm 50? It's all overwhelming.

Let's Beef Up the Winter Olympics

Did you see the NFC championship game? It was great! Back and forth leads, full on contact, overtime! It was such an entertaining matchup! Doesn’t it get you all excited for the Winter Olympics?!

Yeah, me neither.

The Winter Olympics are an excuse for people who play obscure sports to compete on TV. We know that the Greeks didn’t figure skate. And they didn’t have rifles to cross country ski from target to target. It really doesn’t make much sense, and it doesn’t have quite the entertainment value of the real Olympics. Let’s face it, Apolo Anton Ohno isn’t going to get a picture taken of him hitting a bong and then proceed to have all of his posters taken down in the YMCA’s where kid’s who are idolizing him practice.

So how do we fix the Winter Olympics? Make it like football: full contact. Every sport. Speed skating could be like roller derby with blades. You can attempt to block long jump skiers before they hit the ramp. Don’t curl with stones on ice, let’s make it a bomb! Let’s put two bobsleds on the same track and let them fight each other as they descend like a scene out of Mad Max.

Would I tune in then? Yes. I would watch it if it had such a gladiator aspect. And honestly, I think this is what it takes to make people tune in this winter: life and death scenarios. Otherwise, it just looks like the UN got a snow day and sent some really athletic people to go sledding. Luge, bobsled, skeleton, ski, snowboard, etc… we get the idea, you’re going down a snow-covered hill really fast. I’d rather watch the chubby fifth grader go down the hill and right into a hay bail or tree on his snow day than watch a world class athlete go down as quick as possible for a medal.

What a novel idea!: Part I

"The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean."

-Robert Lewis Stevenson (that guy who wrote Treasure Island, I guess.)


So I got a bright idea about two months ago. As I examined my first semester of school, I started realizing it was a great story. I caught this hint because I found myself telling people the story over and over. Now, not the entire story, of course. I'd tell bits here and there. But I realized two months ago that each event tied to another event, and they all tied into a larger story.

That's when I got it: write a story about your first semester of school.

Well, I'll assure you, this idea was not strongly executed right off the bat. However, in the month of November, I somehow managed to scrap up about three chapters. They were total crap. I put it down because I got busy. Also, I was still attached to the story, if that makes sense at all. The tale had not resolved itself properly yet.

I sat at home over Christmas break, and out of sheer boredom, decided to give this another shot. So far, I added a prologue and revised my first chapter. And it's much more entertaining now.

So here's the trick; I have to figure out what I'm going to put in and what I'm going to edit out. Names for sure fall in this category. If you know me, and when you read the little portion about me writing a story the thought of "oh crap," popped in your head, I've changed your name. In addition, I've gotta figure out how honest I'm actually going to be. The full potential of the story can get messy because 1) misery is very entertaining and 2) I don't tend to share every thought in my head, even if it is profound.

So we'll see how this turns out. I'm not sure that I'm about to become the next Fitzgerald or Kerouac. But I'm curious.

Why do people climb tight wires across buildings? I have no idea. But it sure is amazing. Maybe they do it just to prove they can. That's how I feel. I want to write my story because I think it's worth telling and to prove I can do it.