Dangerous Business

I don’t know what it is about blog that I start them, do very well with updating them for a couple months, and then nothing. It’s like I completely forget that I have them at all. I imagine part of it is laziness. Not feeling like writing down everything that’s going on in my life right now.

Of course part of it is that I am still unemployed. Not having any good stories to share about my experiences at work is not conducive to a good blog post. That shouldn’t stop me though, because I have plenty of other things that I could be writing about. So, I guess I’ll just write about those things this time. Maybe. If I can remember them all.

Well, for starters I just got back from Pigeon Forge, TN. with all of my family and friends. It was particularly awesome, since we were camping. Most of us anyway (looks at Kyle and Clint). Jim Leslie and myself slept out under the stars all weekend. It was a really nice weekend for it. My only complaint is that the second night, we put up a canopy and dew collected on it and started doing chinese water torture on me in the middle of the night.

We went to Dollywood on Saturday and had a pretty good time. The “kids” and adults pretty much spent the entire time in oposite ends of the park, as near as I can figure. At the end of the day we met back up with them, and the girls, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie, and my father went roller-coastering. Kyle, Clint, and I went off to the other end of the park to the musical instrument store, and then went and got funnel cakes. Yum.

On the way out of Dollywood, Clint and I bought Rachel a baby sippy-cup, to everyone’s delight. It was pretty hillarious.
After that, 6 of us piled into Kyle’s Jeep Wrangler and drove around Pigeon Forge for about and hour, trying to find our way back to the campsite. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad, had we not been trying to avoid the classical car show (and had I not piped up and said I thought I remembered the way). We passed a couple cops, all without seatbelts, and lap sitting going on in the front seat. Awesome times.

I know that we did a ton of stuff that made us absolutely bust with laughter, but of course I can’t remember any of it now.
I do remember one of the funny things we did was… Kyle, Clint, and myself hid under the Jeep (laying on the ground), and waited for the girls to come walking by to scare them. When they finally did, Kyle and I were pointed the wrong way, and Clint didn’t act. So, we just were “chillin’” under the Jeep for a couple more minutes untill they shined a flashlight under the Jeep because they thought my shoe was a duck.

Anyway… Something else pretty neat going on right now, is that I am working on a script for a short film/movie to show at church or Elevate. I have the youth pastor’s backing, and he gave me some ideas for it. I still need to talk to our Sr. pastor about it though. It’s going to be a pretty big project, but hopefully with the Church’s help, I’ll be able to do a lot of things that I normally wouldn’t be able to. I am already starting up character designs and trying to figure out feasible special effects shots. Might even have to do a couple of prosthetics for scars. Goodness…

However, I am getting ahead of myself. I still need to finish the script. At least the youth pastor said he would help me with it, once his schedule clears up a bit. Which would be a couple months most likely. Why do things have to always be so complicated?

Letsee… What else… Ah yes, I started the application process for Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I still need to go over to Dalton state here in town and see what all they want for the application process. I went onto their website, and I swear they purposefully don’t want you to figure out how to do anything on it. It’s crazy.

Okay… that’s it for now I think. Tah tah!

It’s been so long since I have made any posts. I should feel ashamed of myself, however I am not. So, all two of you are probably not wondering what’s going on in my life right now. So, of course I am going to tell you. That is, I’ll tell you if I can figure it out myself. It’s a little bit confusing at the moment.

So, at the moment I am still out of a job. However, I am starting to do a couple things with my life, because I am getting seriously sick of sitting around. Like, seriously serious.
So, I have been doing a couple things with the church (designing and building a website, designing shirts, and other stuff). I have also recently started a script for a movie that I want to do in junction with the church for the youth group. I am not sure how I am going to get it all accomplished, but maybe it’ll come to something.

Really, that is about all that’s going on. Man, my life is not all that productive right now. About as productive as a pile of poo… steaming, and that’s about it. Not moving, at least to the naked eye. Wow. What a great annalogy. (Raises eyebrow.)

So anyway… to give me a little bit more filler, I am going to do this survey from Nikki’s blog. You don’t have to read it, it’s likely not going to be all that interesting anyway. Not to mention I do so many of them, that you probably know all the information already. How sad.

—-

If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?
I would be a writer and director, I do believe. I would love to write books and screenplays, then make them into movies. Man, so awesome.

What is your zodiac sign?
Saggitarious, or however you speel it.

Do you want to learn another language?
Gaelic of any and all sorts would be pretty sweet. Then no one could keep up with my conversations (in the States). It’s hard enough for them already.

5 things you can’t live without:
God, sustanance, sleep, friends, books.

Do you have any siblings?
I wish I did. Maybe life wouldn’t be so lonely.

If you could plan your ultimate vacation, where would you go?
Where WOULDN’T I go?

What mountain would you want to climb someday?
In a perfect world, I would say that I would love to climb Everest. However, I don’t know as if I will ever get around to it. Wouldn’t that be so amazing though? Standing at the top of the world. Any direction you look, you just see the uninterupted vastness of God’s glory and creation.

Say something to the person who tagged you:
Sup! I imagine I’ll talk to you tomorrow, however if I don’t, I’ll see you Thursday.

What do you think has been the greatest invention in your lifetime?
The internet, of course. Thanks Al Gore, you’re the best.

What kind of magazines do you read?
Covert Side

What’s your occupation?
Occupation? You mean, like a job? That’s a good one.

What’s really creepy?
According to a lot of people, I am. However, they change their mind once they get to know me. I’m a charmer… har har.

Who is your celebrity crush?
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhm… To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I know there was someone, but I don’t remember who it was. I told Nikki not all that long ago… maybe she’ll leave a comment with who it was, if she remembers.

What’s your current fandom/obsession/addiction?
Well, my last one was Time Travelers Wife. However, at the moment I haven’t been able to put down my bible. It’s got so many great and inspiring stories in it. Which, a lot of people wouldn’t really view that as a good answer. So, other than that… I really am not into a whole lot right now.

What are you listening to right now?
Well, I was listening to Lara Ruggles myspace page a few minutes ago. I’ve been listening to a lot of Jars of Clay lately, though.

What are you most excited for?
I dunno. I guess I am looking forward to this weekend pretty good.

What websites do you always visit when you go online?
Facebook, DIII, and sometimes Twitter. I go a ton of other places too, but not every time.

What was the last thing you bought?
Stuff for dinner today, by not with my money. Mom sent me to the store for it. So, the last thing that I personally bought was a bowl of chili the other night at Wendy’s. Last thing that wasn’t food was, gasoline. Before that, some new pants at Wal*Mart.

What’s the closest you’ve come to becoming a pop star/winning an Oscar?
I have starred in several movies from Thirsty Dog Productions.

—

Well, seizure!

Man, I hate it when I screw up royally but don’t even realize it till someone says something about it… then it hits me, and I realize just how much of an idiot I really am. Of course, by then it’s too late. The damage is already done, and everyone knows your an idiot by then.

On a more cheery note, Rachel is back. Yay!

I wonder why the Church cries for revival, but doesn’t do anything about it. They aren’t willing to get out of their comfort zone. It’s time to get uncomfortable. I am guilty of the same thing, but why have we gotten so complacent? Why …have we allowed sin to crawl into the very heart of what we hold dear? Christians sitting in their pew on Sunday morning, to look the part, then right back to wickedness by 3:00?

We need to shake the foundations, rattle some cages. Yes, people in the church might get offended, they might ask us to leave the church… but are we so afraid of that, that we won’t say what needs to be said?

Look at the apostles, they were beaten, stoned, even killed for saying things that others avoided. We should be taking inspiration from them. Don’t be afraid to commit yourself to God. This isn’t a time for pansies!

If you are threatened with your life, to stop serving the God who made ALL things, is he not big enough to take care of you?

Get off your pew, and jump around, Christians! Make some noise! You serve a mighty God! Why do you sit quietly? Are you afraid of being looked at as a crazy person?
Imagine what God is looking at you as, for not getting excited about him!!

Let us rise up! The time is approaching for a renewing of strength. I will not be silent! He is a mighty God, and he is worthy of all my worship, and of yours.

Stories, exactly 100 words long. We had a pile of about 30 words in front of us, and we just took a word or two that stuck out at us, and used that as the inspiration for a drabble. There were some pretty interesting things that came out of it. Apparently they did the same thing last week, I wish I had remembered to go.

Anyway, here are my drabbles.

River Angel

She sat on her rock in the middle of the river. Always waiting for her knight to come. It was promised at her birth. That was thirty-two years ago, and still she waited.

But wait, what was this noise? A clank of metal, the crushing of leaves. Had the day finally come?

Indeed it had, the knight stood before her. He removed his helmet and looked at her, his eyes shining in the afternoon sun. He slowly walked forward, and cupped her face in his hands.

Tears fell down her cheek.
This was the start. Finally, it had come.

Sleep Cook

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I awoke with a start. I had a knife in my hand. Surprised, I dropped the knife and stubbed my toe. Bouncing up and down on one foot and yelping. I just barely missed stepping on the knife.

“WELL?” My wife asked impatiently. I looked around, having no clue what the hell was going on.

Apparently I had been sleep walking, had made my way down to the kitchen, and then started cooking. This was awkward.

I looked adoringly into my wife’s eyes, and said as calmly as I could, “It looks like I’m making breakfast.”

Well, it’s official.
I have finally joined “My Twit-Face”. It is a trully sad day…

Myspace
Twitter
Facebook

I haven’t been posting anything. I haven’t been letting the void of the interwebs know what’s going on in my life. However could I have let this happen? My loyal followers wish to know what I am up to! I can feel it!

Worry not my young apprentices… I am not dead. Yet.

That is all, class dismissed.

Yesterday was the opening of Transformers 2, all across America. Everyone was flooding to see it, including me and my two best friends.

We were thinking that we were just going to go down, and be a couple minutes early to the theater, and get our tickets there. My friend Lauren told us that we should buy our tickets online before hand, because it was most likely going to be sold out. This seemed logical, so we did just that.

Because of this, we were a couple minutes late, but no big deal. I drove a little faster than I probably should have, but it wasn’t anything too worrysome. We stopped in Chatsworth on the way to get pizza, because we hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Of course when we pulled up, there was a line of cars at the drive through. Luckily it didn’t take too long for the guy to come to us and ask what we wanted. We ordered our pizza, and he said it would be about 5 minutes.

5 or 10 minutes later we pull out of the parking lot on the way to Dalton. We’re running a little behind, but still not too bad. We figured we would have time because they always show 45 minutes of previews before the movies anyway.

We arrive at the movie theater and walk in, there is a mile long line up to the counter to order tickets. We smile, because we got ours an hour before… Then we read that you have to get your actual ticket at the counter. The Fandango page is just a place holder, really.

5 minutes later, we get up and get our tickets. We go into the theater, and they are just starting the previews. Not too bad, we wound up timing it just about right.

Only problem was… the show was over sold. That’s right, the movie theater sold more tickets than they had seats for. Well, no biggie… we’ll just sit on the stairs like the other people are doing. More people came in after us, and did the same thing. We settle in for our two and a half hours.

Clint turns to me 30 seconds later and says, “This is probably a fire hazard.”
I smile, knowing all too well that he is correct, and hoping no one will say anything about it. The previews end and it doesn’t look like they’re going to make us move. I was quite happy.

20 seconds later, an employee rounds the corner of the stairs and looks up. Aha.
He makes his way up the stairs stopping at the people in front of us and telling them something. They slowly make their way down the steps. I know what’s coming, but I don’t want to believe it.
He makes it up to us, “Find a seat, or get out. You can’t sit here.”

They make an offer at the bottom of the stairs saying that if we can’t find seats, they’ll let us get a refund for our tickets. We opt to do that after much talking and decision making. We’re not the quickest decision makers in the world.
So, we head out front and get an “IOU” type thing from the theater, so we can go back any time within a month and watch any movie playing.

Alright, well… that sucked. I know what happens in the first 20 seconds of the film, but nothing else. We mope around in the car for a few minutes, eating pizza, then head into the mall. We walk around for about 45 minutes or so, then head on home. We make a split decision (shocker!), to go to Wal*Mart.
Detour ensues, we walk around there for a while… hang out in electronics… then we leave.

We stop at a convenient store to get something to drink, only to soon realize that they apparently only like beer in the south, and nothing else. Everything there was just… not too enticing… so we split.

Convenient store number two. We pull in and five people are standing outside the door smoking their life away. The lady that works there, kind of gives us a cold stare… wondering why we’re there to interrupt her break. Again, the inside is filled with beer. At least they had a slightly bigger selection of other products.
I pay with a 20, and the lady looks at me coldly again. I just smiiiiile…

Finally we’re on the road again. We are almost home… five minutes out, and there is a truck parked in the other lane. He flashes his lights at me, and I just think that he thinks I had my high beams on, so I don’t pay any attention. Right before I pass by him, I see this woman walking on the white line and I swear, I almost hit her. I swerved (what felt like) pretty sharply away from her and then put my breaks on. It scared me half to death.

Tonight was just… bleh. So was this post. It doesn’t seem to flow very well. Anyway… yeah…
Maybe Friday, I’ll get to see Transformers… Ha…

Why is it that I get so much spam here on my journal? I get pretty much one spam message a day. They tend to not attack the older posts, but the latest two or three posts, they just bombard.
The latest spam I got, was for an escort service in the Ukraine or something. Classy.

So, I am going to keep this post updated on how much spam I get for this post, alone. I would post all the spam in the comments, but I am afraid that would draw attention to the site and flood it with even more. So, I’ll just write what the spam was about in an edit of this post.

Ah, the joys.

Numero uno:
Pretty good post. I just came by your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your posts. … — Mary

I go in, get the case… walk up to the front counter. There is another woman standing there in line as well. We wait around for about 5 minutes. No one. The phone starts ringing… No one. Nothing.
People coming in, the door chime going off… Nothing.

Finally, I go to the back and hear voices. It sounded like they might have been having an argument or something, I have no idea.
So, I call back.
“Heellooooo?” and finally a young lady comes out.
“Oh, sorry. I was in the back cleaning the tanning beds.”
Ah-ha. Okay.

So, we get up to the front… I let the other lady go first. She gets done and it’s my turn. The girl looks around for the game, and then gets on her cell phone and calls her boss or something to see if THEY know where the game is. Nothing. Can’t find it.

She looks around for a little while longer. Then she asks me if I want the Wii version. I told her no… So then she asked me if I would like to leave my number and she’ll call me when she finds it.

I opted out, told her not to worry about it, and left.