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...

The Ark is a bad place

According to the NFL.

I heard on 88.1 this morning that some Baptist Churches had Super Bowl parties, and according to the NFL, the church couldn't collect money for entering the party. Now, I am not saying the Ark is Baptist, but the Ark did collect five dollars from everyone to eat, so does that make it wrong? Well, what about betting on the game? You are in deed collecting money from someone if you win (like I did with my dad), so does that make it wrong according to the NFL. If anything, not only the betters and/or the party doers, the NFL is benefitting because people are watching them. Who cares NFL.

Go Colts!

he's still alive

so heres the news. I haven't been putting anything in his water, by the way. I did some research an I think Shvown has something called "the bloat". In normal people terms, its fish constipation. You may laugh and say "ew." But it's actually not that uncommon and can kill them. I tried helping Shvown out yesterday by warming his jar up some because he has been lethargic and it was discovered that bettas, being tropical, prefer warm water. It doesn't take a scientist to tell you (well it might) that when gasses are warmed up they will expand more than liquids. So, for example the gas stuck in Shvown would expand more than say, the water he is swimming in when the whole system is warmed up (this is also why cold water can hold higher concentrations of air). So, in conclusion Shvown became more boyant (spelling) when his jar was warmed. I figured his "near-deathness" had something to do with the temperature change and allowed it to cool, and apparently that did the trick. Now I just got to fix his "being plugged up". The best system I've heard is don't feed them for a few days to a week. Don't worry animal lovers, that isn't a big deal for a fish, he'll be fine, or at least better than dead.

RIP

by the time you read this, it'll probably all be over, but as I type, Shvown is taking his last fishy gulps of water. He's dieing. It's kinda sad. He hasn't been eating normal for about a month and the conclusion was that held "get hungry and start, or die". well... judging by the large bump on his side and his preponsity to floating to the top and laying on his side, I think this is the end.

As a matter of irony, my fish family expanded two nights ago with the purchase of two gold fish, promptly named Oscar and Wilde. For the record Shvown hated them and while the plan was to share a tank, seeing as he tried to rip them apart through the glass, we decided otherwise for the health and wellbeing of Oscar Wilde.

A few last words about Shvown, a "eugueguly" if you will.
He was a good fish. A small fish. An angry fish, but then again he was a fighting fish. Shvown I will miss you bright red color and unnecesary shows of aggression, and I know it will make you unhappy Shvown, but I'm sure that the goldfish will be happier without you around to scare them.

Shvown, rest in peace, and sleep with the fishes.

I'm still alive : )

Good news world, I am still out there, alive and well. I keep getting e-mails from people asking me if I'm still around, and the answer is yes, I'm not dead yet!

I don't know when the last time most of you got an update was, but after my job with the city ended, I took up residence in the basement of my girlfriend's parent's house and painted it while I waited for Chris to finish with her final exam (this was last December). Then rounds about the new year I took off and headed out to California where I met up with my brother and dad. We chilled and went to Whistler, Canada to ski for rounds about a week. Here's a pic


That was cool except I missed Christine, and my brother doesn't like skiing, and by day 4 it got so warm it was raining instead of snowwing, so not only could you not ski, but walking around sucked because it was 2 inches of slush.

After returning from that trip (and smuggling an apple through customs. "Ha, take that American Security!"), I spent a few more days with Christine and my fam and stuff before having to come back to Kalamazoo for school.

And now I'm here. I'm taking 20 credit hours, so my life is studying. The list consists of: Calc II (honors), Linear Algebra, Foundations of Modern Worldview, Jogging, Physics I, and Engineering 2020- service learning in design. Its not to bad though, I like all this stuff. Chris and I are together perpetualy too, which makes it okay, because she has to work as hard as I do, so we get to not have social lives together.

I got a fish too, his name is Shvown (pronounced sh- like "sh.. be quiet" -von like "von maur") this is him


and I got a whole bunch of plants. I like plants, and so does Chris's mom so she got me the hook up. This is shvown and his cactus


and yes, shvown lives in a mason jar. I also got a plant here on my desk which is growing in one of Christine's coffee mugs (I wasn't thinking when I grabbed that mug). If Ben Phol still reads this, can you guys in St. Paul bring back my cactus from the second floor some time? that'ld be cool.

We go to the campus catholic church which is very hippie. The "halleluia" is definitley not right, seeing as thier version has verses and in the third one all the instruments cut out and everybody starts clapping and swaying. They also have a picture of Jesus in the lobby that looks suspiciously like Bob Marley, I'll have to take a picture of it and post it.

But I'm rambling so here's one last pic from campus

LCC is back.

woo woo.

Only one day a week, hopefully.

I guess that is, I will update later; if LCC becomes the bomb or something.

Comment dit-on...i hate french...en francias?

Yeah pretty much...I am totally confused in this class. Instead of teaching us French like a normal teaching class where you teach stuff, the professor is using the class like a refresher for people who already took French in high school. Which was about half of the class, before the other half of the class ( the non-french speakers) dropped out. Today she was going over some grammar stuff like we already knew it and she was just reminding us. Well hey, how bout all those French speakers join the class ahead of this class....gahhh I am going to have to study for this class a bunch and that makes me angry. Other than that I hope that I get good enough grades in my other classes... I think that I might p/f this class so that it doesn't show on my GPA ( I can do that for two UP classes).