I posted this today, and I would like some feedback. Thanks.

http://thedeltafactor.blogspot.com/2011/06/this-poem-really-spoke-to-me-today.html

New Blog

Well, I'm starting my own new blog: http://apursuitofbeauty.wordpress.com/

It's to follow whatever God has me do in New York (and anywhere else he might send me). I haven't posted anything yet, but maybe by the time this post is read I will have.

Rachael and Dan, I'm looking forward to updates from your mission as well!

God Bless!

Singing Bulb

A New Post!

I just have to since it has been 8 months since the last post. Fall is especially beautiful this year, don't you think? And so I'm going to post this picture that I recently discovered and I think is very interesting. It's called "A Light to the Gentiles" and I'm sure you recognize it as the Presentation in the Temple. Well that is all I have. Enjoy!

Bariloche

Ours is the boat on the right.

The view from Bariloche.


The bus ride back to San Rafael from Bariloche.

From Campamento S.A.C.

Town Square in Bariloche.

Bosque Arrayanes

View from Cerro Campanario

There is not much going on here on the site, so I thought I would upload some pictures and make it more interesting. Also because Bariloche is so beautiful, you just have to see the pictures. I´d put them all here, but that would take up too much space. I hope you enjoy them (by the way, for anyone who is thinking about a honeymoon spot, I think this one would be pretty great....don´t really know why I decided that, but just because it is so cool). Maddi and I went there on a "vacation" for four days and everywhere we went was had such a great view! We went to the Bosque Arrayanes (the orange trees), took a boat accross the lake Nahuel Huapi (that in the center has ice for a bottom and if you fall in there you could freeze to death really fast), took a ski lift like ride to Cerro Campanario (the top of a mountain), and relaxed on Isla Victoria (me sitting on a half tree in the water, which is Lake Nahuel Huapi - pronounced nawell oowapee).

The Reason for this Blog

I will tell you a story, that is if you read this.

There once was a girl name Roach (I mean, it isn't necessarily a girl, and Roach is a pseudonym to protect this person's identity.). She/He came up with a plan.

Her/His plan was to go on Blogger, it was a hit at the time, to make a new blog.

She/He would add all of her friends to her team, so we could post random crap.

But more importantly, everyone could still talk to each other through the Internet when they all went off to their own colleges. After three years of being in a existence, the group has split off into their different places. The group's total was eleven, and of those 11, 10 different colleges/mission places is home to them.

The blog however, experienced a long downtime.
Because of the long downtime, some people are questioning why there is a blog.
So I ask you this (if there is a you on this blog anymore), what is the reason for this blog.
It is no longer a place to talk to your fellow friends. There is a new thing for that..and we all know what that is.

Yes, Facebook, is the place to be now. That stupid law school, whatever, student dropped out because his professor didn't think a network website wouldn't work, and sure enough, it did.

I should be doing homework, and studying right now, but I am not. I should be on facebook instead of writing down this post. So, I will see you guys on facebook, and not on here.

How is Everyone?

Gotta have the first post for September.

Updates from Argentina

To see photos, access links, and read my updates from Argentina, go to http://www.arkyouth.net/ and click on "Marnee in Argentina" (at the top of the page). Right next to it you will see "Ben in Rome" so you can also keep up on his adventures in Italy.

Fairies

I don't remember if I have blogged about this before or not. Since most people probably only skim read my posts anyways, I suppose it doesn't really matter.
I was re-reading The Everlasting Man today and also arguing sort of with someone on facebook. Which, interestingly enough, Chesterton proved to have an answer to one of the person's objections. I haven't brought it up yet on facebook.
The person objects to the idea of God on a few different levels one of which is that the idea of God was forumulated out of mankind's ignorance of the natural causes of Thunder and science in general. That man needed an explanation and God seemed to be reasonable at the time. That the idea of a all-powerful God takes away some of our stress and worry. We don't have to fear death because of heaven.
The basic idea behind this is in part true. Man hungers for something. I don't think that it is as simple as just wanting an explanation. Have you ever read a fairy tale and wished it were true? Even though you know that it would be ridiculous. We want there to be magic and fairies and ghosts. They might not explain anything really, but that doesn't mean that we don't want them to be true. We aren't satisfied with a purely natural world. We have a need in us for it to be supernatural. That need doesn't mean that we made up God. If anything it means God exists. We hunger for food and we thirst for human relationships, in fact there aren't many things that we have a "need" for that don't exist. I don't think that there has ever been any recorded race of people that didn't believe in the supernatural at one point or another. Peoples who had no contact with each other at all had this idea, this need.
Chesterton describes pre-christian paganism as the hunger and Christianity as the food. They are similar in the way that a picture is similar to a real face.
On a side note it is interesting to see that inventing God never really gave us the things that atheists claim we invented him for. We all still fear death, and most of the time get stressed out about stuff too. I don't believe in God because I am stressed by exams and need a job. Those things still stress me because I know that God isn't going to study for me and fill out my applications. I trust that over all things are going to turn out well, but I highly doubt that they will be easy and stress free. That isn't what God promised, in fact he said that things are going to be hard and we will have to bear crosses. Life will absolutely suck sometimes. There is a struggle inside sometimes to just fight through stuff and not take the easy way out. Often times I end up doing the harder more stressful thing because of God. It is a lot less stressful to cheat on an exam or on your taxes ( if you know that you aren't going to get caught). If anything not believing in God seems to easier sometimes.

Pirates are coming!!!

So the tickets are ordered. Cost is $6 each, we are going to the NCG in Owosso at 8:00pm. Meet here at 6:45 and we will probably take our van and a car. There are 21 people going thus far.

Bonfire

I looked for "bonfire" online and for some reason this was in there. Can this be considered a bonfire? I don't think so, but it looks cool, so here it is.

Okay, so Thursday, 7:00ish at Tom's house. Kyle and John & Christine can probably come by the way. Oh yeah, everyone bring food (a girl's version of a dish-to-pass, not a guy's ;D.

Tom, I found you!

Do you like to paint happy little trees?

A Full Year of Summer

So, yeah.... I am going to Argentina this summer!! I signed a contract so that means I am definitely on my way (unless I die, or get hit by a car and paralyzed, or frozen in some freak scientific experiment for preservation). I will be going on August 9th or 10th I believe and comign home Juneish.
I will be working with the children in the orphanage (picture) and schools mostly, and there are only a couple sisters spread out over the city who know English, so I will be getting an intense Spanish education (yes!).

San Rafael, Argentina.

Mr. Tumnus or Cory Matthews?

You Decide 2007

longings

my roommate was broken up with tonight and it stinks. i feel so bad for her. the feeling of being broken up with completely came back to me and i can remember it too well. i don't even know what to say to comfort her. i've just been trying to be around...and not going out so that she isn't here alone. tonight i went out for a walk (yes, it's safe enough to do that).

the night was mysteriously peaceful. i don't even know what it was. something about the cool air that made me feel like i could sing faintly into the quietness. the stars were out and there was no wind. everything was just quiet...except for my voice singing to God. and i was in a hoodie with no coat freezing and everything was wonderful.

Good to see you Tom, but your face....!

Here I am...

Sorry for not keeping in good contact. :( I thought I'd make a post to let you all know that I am still alive and well (for the most part), and almost caught up on my homework.
Two weekends ago was winter carnival which meant that we had Thursday and Friday to party and work on snow statues. The theme was "ancient worlds come to play in snowy drift of today". There were a couple of trojan horses, babylon, poseiden...etc. I worked on Solomans Temple with St. Als as an all-nighter. Winter Carnival was insane craziness beyond your imagination. There were people all over campus working on snow statues all night long in -25 degree wind chills. The audio engineering students made a wicked huge sound system made from snow and people were rocking out/dancing all night long.



St. Als ended up getting first place (or maybe second, I'm not sure) in student organizations on our snow statue. I also played on a snow volleyball team when there was a -35 degree wind chill. It was pretty intense!!




In other news, I like it up here. I have been incredibly blessed with an awesome Catholic group of friends and good roommates. I'll actually be getting a house with someone from St. Als and her friend, along with my current roommate, so I'm pretty excited about that. (I signed the lease Wednesday!)
Weather up here has been pretty nice lately...we've had enough sun to keep all 3 of my plants alive, so it must count for something.
In my spare time (which is really nonexistant, but I sometimes neglect my homework...) I've been snowshoeing, snowboarding, climbing (see photo @ left) and working 2 jobs. I work in a env. eng. lab doing lake superior water research on nutrients and carbon activity and at the outdoor adventure program leading snowshoe trips, hikes etc. and renting out equipment.
Oh, I also have a pretty incredible friend (boy), Dan, who I get to spend a lot of time with...he's pretty amazing. :D
This summer, I'm not sure what I'm doing, but I probably won't be home much. In June, I'll be in Bolivia doing some research/developing a drinking water system/sanitation system for a rural village. (That leaves the month of May for cramming Espanol!) Whew! I think that's all.
No, it's actually not. Classes are super tough!! My brain is in constant overload!! Haha. I'm not the brightest crayon in the box (or the most intelligent person at an engineering school), I've found, but I do the best I can. Ideally, I'd like to use my future degree in the missionary field, so it's always nice to have a higher goal to look to (and daydream about when I want to throw a tantrum in calc class!!).
I think of ya'll back home and pray for you often. Know that you're welcome to visit anytime! I promise you would have nothing less than a Keewenawesome time, eh. ;)

Goodbye Blog!

Yes, my personal blog is now gone. So for all of your who rarely or never checked it anyway, since I don't keep it updated, you can now be glad you don't have to think about checking something you didn't want to anyway.....

Anyways, enjoy this beauuuuuuuuutiful weather and don't let thoughts of Spring Break distract you from your studies (like I am :).

new cell-phone

We now have a new cell-phone service in our family. The new addition was met with great glee and excitement. We didn't name it though cause it already had a name and besides that is just creepy. It is verizon. So now all you friends of ours with verizon phones can call and talk for free...and you probably should because my shiny new phone is begging to be used. I've told it to be patient, but it is young yet and still has lots to learn. Like how voice recognition should work, "call jen"
"Do you wish to call Rachael ( pronounced raw-cheAl)"
"no"
"Please state the name or number you wish to call"
"call jen"
" your an injun?"
"Shut up you stupid thing, and call jen"
" I'm sorry that command is not recognized"
"gahhh"
"Do you wish to call Josh? ( pronounced Joo sh)"
"No"
I have found it is easier to just find the number in my contacts....
The camera on it is sweet tho, even has a flash...
my number is still the same number, but Joel and Daniel have new numbers....

hmmm....

hmm... I need to find a new church...