its all about networking...

life isnt who you are its ho you know. or maybe its more like if you are lame and know people it doesnt matter if you are awesome but dont know people you are screwed but if you are cool and know people so many things fall into place. this is what i am realizing as i start on a new adventure, i am going to be a promoter for my friend jeremys band. i am going to try and help him set up shows and talk with record labels and we are going to try and get things rolling for him to be a rock star and me to be a rider of the rock stars coat tails. man i know so many people who are awesome and will be able to help me out in some ways or another. how is it that i know the best people to know. i think that my friends are the best friends that a guy could have and i am so thankful that they are my friends.

i have been readin praise habit by david crowder and i am really liking it. he goes through some psalms and talks about them and relates them to his life. its neat to see other peoples lifes and how scripture relates and this makes me want to go deeper and think more about what it means for my life. psalms 88 was what i read htis morning and it was a little depressing but so good.
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
1[a] [b]
O LORD, the God who saves me,
day and night I cry out before you.
2 May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

3 For my soul is full of trouble
and my life draws near the grave. [c]

4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like a man without strength.

5 I am set apart with the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your care.

6 You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.

7 Your wrath lies heavily upon me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
Selah

8 You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;

9 my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, O LORD, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.

10 Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do those who are dead rise up and praise you?
Selah

11 Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction [d] ?

12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

13 But I cry to you for help, O LORD;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.

14 Why, O LORD, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?

15 From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death;
I have suffered your terrors and am in despair.

16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.

17 All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.

18 You have taken my companions and loved ones from me;
the darkness is my closest friend.


got to talk to my friend jasen about how life is up here and every time i talk about it i feel like there is more to like. there are somehtings that are not the best but i would have to say all in all this place isnt the worst place that i have lived. it feels good to know that the darkness of williston is lifting. now if i could just find friends who are artsy it would be great!

best weekend ever in williston!

the best weekend ever? yeah friday was a little slow but i did watch a couple movies that werent terrible. i liked hitchhikersguide to the galaxy and i thought the longest yard wasnt great. i think adam sandler should do more wierd movies like punch drunk love. so yeah friday was slow but then saturday was productive i finished up my lesson for tonight, and then i hung out, yeah with people. even someone my age ok well 6 months older but close enough. we went to a show and then grabbed a bite of greasy goodness with about half of the kids who were at the show. after teh first 20 minutes at the truck stop it was actually all people from the show the restauraunt. wierd. the first two bands were ok but the third band was from boston thier name is the constants and i think you should check them out. they are on radar records. and they are really good. i would compare it to a mix between end of the ring wars by appleseed cast and elliot false cathederals. it is pretty good. anyway i am actually hangin out with a friend tomorrow so maybe things are going to change and maybe i wont be lonely too much anymore.

reading blue like jazz and its pretty good. i feel like i can relate to don millers story pretty well and i would say its cool to read about somebody else going through things you thought might be something no one else knew about. Grace is a pretty amazing thing.

oh praise him, he is holy

this is enough, i need no more than you, you are a feast, you are a cool spring, you are deliverance, you are a balm for all wounds, your near presence is everything, it is breathe it is life...

sucker and dry with a kiss good night...

today was a good day! church went well this morning and this afternnon i made some cookies for our kickoff of youth group for sunday nights. we had about 20 kids which was a great turnout since i wasnt sure if anyone would show up. we started a series on psalms and i think that it is going to go very good. i have enjoyed the studying i have put into it.

i saw fever pitch and in good company this weekend. fever pitch was ok but i guess im not a huge jimmy falon fan i guess i dont think he is convincing maybe its cause he always laughed during the saturday night live skits. oh well in good company is still amazing and it reminded me of aarond and amanda since they were the people i saw it with. that wednesday night was a good one and i am excited for when nikki and aaron come out there will be good times in springfield.

studying psalms has been good to contemplate where i see God and when ifeel like he is close or he is revealing himself to me. i guess this summer more than ever i have felt like i see God a little more *in focus* through my camera lens. this is when i see creation and beauty at its best this is when i feel like i could never capture the beauty he created but i have to do something and i have to try to capture it so it doesnt escape. and still i wrestle with my future does it involve my faithful friend the camera or will he just be a hobby. i suppose the future will come whether i am ready or not i just pray for the courage to follow my dreams.

where is my hair brush...

i guess this is my confession that i am secretly addicted to this game on the internet. you might think that this isnt unusual because a lot of people play games on the internet. how did i find this game? well the 4 year old andrew that i live with likes to go to the veggie tales website and play games and one day we were playing this one where the penguins try to plug the black hole with a wad of duct tape. so you have to orbit the duct tape bal around planets and the longer it travels the more points you get and it is absolutely amazing. so i dont think you can just hear my description and feel like this is a valid waste of time so here is the link!!! http://www.bigideafun.com/penguins/arcade/doom_funnel/info.htm go there play and try to beat the japanese people who score 2 billion points! my high score is 629,432 the first time i played it was only 200,000 so i am getting better. not good enough to beat the asian kids but better.

life is good...

trash flavored trash

today i finished my first book for the next three month goal i set, i will reach it this time! i bought a little journal at wal*mart and i am going to write down how i feel about the book and what i learned and if i underline anything i am going to write that down also. i didnt underline anything in the first book that i read. anyway things are good and i developed a roll of film from around town and on my trip lauren sibett and i hung out so we took some pictures also. some of them were supposed to be urban outfitter style pictures. i will talk about each one before it is show so you will know what i am talking about. here is the first series

the sun was setting behind this grain co-op building and it was shinning through rather nicely. anyway enjoy the warm *glow* of this picture...


the grain co-op was interesting so i took a series of pictures of it so that you could get a nice feel for the building and maybe you will understand how i feel about this town. i think that the building just feels lonely, its beautiful but lonely...


a different view of the co-op


i really liked this one i think the clouds are nice and the colors of the sunset are so nice.


in the parking lot were some old fork lifts that were all rusted out and old looking so took a couple shots of them also...




the grain elevator was the across the street the funny thing is that it might be the only elevator in town. ok so i made a lame joke sorry...


hedericks is this old building where they have this flea market and you can buy all this old stuff or books by the pound and you can also get icecream for a dollar. mmm bubblegum icecream what a dream come true.


the basement where they keep all the books is apparently *scary*


lauren is a pretty good friend and one of the funniest girls that i know. she likes to act goofy but she is also pretty serious when it matters and for that reason i feel like we are kindered spirits who most people dont take serious but thats ok cause we know were serious sometimes.


this picture makes me think of that on van halen song *jump*


this was our first attempt at urban outfitter type modeling where you try to look like you arent interested in anything but lauren was just too happy to look uninterested...


this one was a little better


then she got happy again you cant smile when youre a model jeez!


and this one is the best she looks uninterested and a little sad perfect time to call urban outfitters and tell them we found some new talent! some sad uninterested talent!


this picture was one of my favorites on the whole roll cause i like the reflection on the water and how you can see through the water at the beggining i think it turned out pretty nice!


and here is just one of the countain i thought looked kinda neat. hope you like these pictures and i hope that you like me more cause i can take nice pictures!

everybody needs a little devestation...

as i talked to my mother about what i wanted for my birthday i told her that the 14 hour drive from williston to kc was a bit boring and lonely. and that i neede some entertainment so i asked for a cd player for my truck. then they (my parents) decided that i should stay an extra day help dad mow the lawn that he mows for a widow in the church and get a cd player installed. i didnt have many cds with me so i picked up the new/old cursive and there are some amazing songs on it and i also got the blood brothers new album crimes which is so great. it did make the 14 hour trip much better. still a little lonely but better.

you say you had another person that you were persuing this summer like you were shocked? you said there was nothing there so i believed you. we didnt start writing until july you were gone. and i write about girls in my blog too much so i decided that i would try not to for the summer.

being in springfield after 3 months of being gone is wierd! i feel like i missed a lot of good things some bad things and deffienately missed teh heat and humidity. i think it will be good to get back there and i think that it will be good to finish school and start on something new. i think that my experience here has lead me to believe that working in a church as a vocation is not for me. i think that i would still like to teach in a church just not as my main source of income.

if you decide to end your stay ill board up the doors and walk away...

back from springfield and it was a great trip. i saw kaleb and jeremy and had very meaningful conversations with each of them. i confessed my love to a girl i had been writting letters to all summer and she said that we could still be friends but we shouldnt write letters anymore. it was a lonely drive back to kc and i think that i had that feeling that i have in north dakota a lot the one where i think i might puke any minute. i wonder if this lonely feeling will get worse as i take that fourteen hour trip home alone.

i bought the new sufjan album and there is some great stuff on it. i love what he says on the john wayne gacy, jr. song... even on my best day i am just like him... its so true sufjan its so true even on our best days we are no good. picked up experiential story telling and blue like jazz to add to my reading list made it through the first three chapters of story telling already. things are good. lonely but good.

this my chocolate attack...

so my goal for the summer was read 10 books and i am sorry to tell you that i am a failure. august past and i have read 9 and 2 half books. unfortunately in this case 2 halves do not make a whole. i did however read more this summer than i have in my life and i loved reading and learning and growing. there are still thoughts that are bouncing through my head and will continue to do so for a long time. i am setting a new goal of 10 books before christmas. im not sure what to do about the 2 hal fbooks that i read. do i count them for last time or this time. so i think my solution is to say i read 9 books this summer and once i finish these books i will count them for the christmas goal. this feels a bit like cheating but i suppose that i will get over that. i am home in kansas city and its fun to be with the people who know you best the people who love you most and the ones who make you laugh the hardest. i am looking forward to springfield tomorrow and i will be back to kc on thursday. i do miss north dakota and i will be happy to get back *home* wherever that is.