Sweatshirt

Talk about impulse buys...

Today, it was colder than I thought, and I was feeling sort of sick. Plus, the physics building is so cold. So, I bought a Tech hoodie at the bookstore. I've been looking to buy one for a year or so, but today's wind and allergy season were the catalysts I needed apparently.

I have little to no motivation to study these days. I need to get that back. Oh well.

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead...

My experiences as a most intelligent donkey...

Ok, so the title is a bad pun, which you should get after reading this post. Also, I've already told this story several times, so I apologize if you've already heard this.

I swear I'm going to get beat up one of these days. Last Friday, I went up to the rec center to work out and/or play basketball or volleyball. Since no one was on the volleyball court, I decided to go get in on some pickup basketball. The team I got on was really small, so I didn't think we were going to last too long. It turns out that we did, though. Everyone on our team was playing really clean, and everyone was shooting really well, too. I'm a pretty streaky player, and this ranked pretty high on my scale of basketball performance, so I was having fun. After we won about 5 games in a row, the courts started crowding up a little bit. More people starting showing up, and our sixth opponents looked rather menacing. They were all a lot taller than we were (the guy guarding me was probably 6'3" or so), so I mentioned to one of our teammates that our reign of terror was probably coming to an end. But we killed them. We were playing by ones and twos to fifteen (three-pointers counted for 2 points), and we were up 12-3 at one point. I think they made a little run back to 12-6, and the guy who was guarding me went into "too serious and angry for rec center pickup basketball" mode. He started yelling at his team not to let us shoot any more twos, since I think 8 of our 12 points were from two-pointers. He also started yelling that if we were shooting a two, to foul us, he didn't care, but just don't let us shoot any more twos. About 4 seconds later, he lost me and I drifted to the top of the key, got the ball, and buried another two-pointer. As I was jogging back down the court, I patted him on the arm and said something like, "Hey, if I'm going to shoot a two, you might want to consider fouling me." He was not pleased. Curse words flew. I tried to apologize and calm him down, but I'm not sure if it worked.

I quit playing after that game, because I didn't think it could possibly get better from there.

This might be fun

I was going to post something here, but I couldn't think of anything interesting to say. So I typed this instead.

Anyway, everyone who reads this should list three books and albums that they really like a lot that they want to share with others (try to pick stuff that people might not know about, like not Piper or The Beatles). That would be fun. Mine are:

Albums:
1) Toad the Wet Sprocket - "Coil"
2) Rufus Wainright - "Want Two"
3) Augustana - "All the Stars and Boulevards"

Books:
1) "The Brothers Karamozov" - Fyodor Dostoevsky
2) "Chaos: Making a New Science" - James Gleick (dorky, but fascinating)
3) "A Severe Mercy" - Sheldon Vanauken (this book made me cry)

Ok, this is a good idea. Everyone should participate.

I am the rain king

Well, it was an eventful weekend. Friday night, I hung out with Rachel, Nathan Ables, and Felipé (a friend of my sister's) over at my house, watching Arrested Development and playing cards, among other things. Saturday night was the focal point of the weekend, as Jill and I held our second annual birthday concert series--Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows. I would have enjoyed Goo Goo Dolls a lot more had their singer not been horrible, not to mention totally classless and obnoxious between songs. It was their last tour stop, so I guess his voice was tired, although Adam Duritz seemed to be doing alright. Speaking of Adam Duritz, somebody has let themselves go. He is rather plump now, and he still has those crazy dreds sticking up everywhere, which, in tandem, prompted Jill to refer to him as a pineapple. My favorite line of the night was during "'Round Here". Adam was singing the line, "'Round here, we all look the same", and Jill leaned over and said, "Speak for yourself, house of Spongebob". I couldn't stop laughing for several minutes. Anyway, since the two bands were dual-headlining, Counting Crows didn't play nearly long enough for our taste, neglecting several songs (such as "Rain King", "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby", and many others), and making some questionable song choices in light of the abbreviated set (such as "Ghost Train" and "Colorblind"), but what can you do. All in all, it was a fun time. I had dinner with Jill in Garland beforehand and actually saw her house and met her family, which was good, and we had a lovely evening.

Birthday musings

Well, another birthday has come and gone. Twenty-two years on the Gregorian calendar have now passed since I came out of my mother's womb, and when you think about it that way, it sort of takes the excitement out of the whole birthday experience. Usually, there is a giant birthday extravaganza for the Labor Day birthdays, but since Kyler isn't here, there was a football game this weekend, and Kim and I had meetings and stuff for church on Sunday, we didn't end up doing the whole 50th St. Caboose mess or anything like that, which is OK with me (not that those parties aren't fun, but sometimes it is nice to relax a little). However, Jill still came in town (we have the same birthday), so it still felt somewhat normal. My parents were in town for the game, church, and birthday lunch, and I ate so much dessert on Sunday that I felt a little sick when I was going to bed. Thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday in one way or another. My favorite thing about birthdays is it reminds you that people care about you. And the presents.

In other news, apparently God didn't want me to live to see my 22nd birthday, because he tried to drown me this weekend. It rained non-stop for over 48 hours this weekend, I think. Fortunately it let up for most of the football game, but the rest of the weekend was constant rain. There were giant lakes in many of the streets thanks to Lubbock's lack of a drainage system (seriously, there aren't gutters here).

My birthday and other stuff

My 22nd birthday is on Sunday. Seeing as I will undoubtedly be too wasted to post this entire weekend (just kidding), I figured I'd mention it today. Jill, who is my birthday buddy, is coming in town, and I'm sure fun things will happen.

In other news, I might be able to get two masters degrees (one in EE and one in physics) by next May (2008, that is). Crazy.

We had almost 500 people at Southcrest last Sunday morning. 190 people came to small groups this week (counting Fishbowl). That is huge.

I have keys to the EE building now. Exciting.

Isn't it weird how my life was so boring in Sweetwater, but I seemed to have way more interesting things to post about then? It isn't just that I'm too busy to post now, I can't think of anything interesting to put up here anymore it seems. I guess anything that happens now that I'm in Lubbock, most of the people who read this thing were probably there, too.

Ok, well that's all for now. Next weekend I'm going to see Counting Crows, so that's at least one decent post in the near future.