how very aaroneous

The Wisdom of Solomon

2011-03-25T10:37:00.002-08:00

Below is a piece written by my first baby sitter from back in Juneau, I though it was so cute I had to share it. Enjoy.

Lonnie Miller
November 4, 2009

The Wisdom of Solomon

That Tuesday morning started out like any other: breakfasts were eaten, lunches were packed, my hubby left for work, and our two oldest kids were car pooled off to another day of elementary school. The youngest of our three kids, nine-month-old Kylie, was still in jammies when Aaron arrived, and now my real work day began: Home day care. Up until that time, I’d considered myself a very capable and creative mother of three, and a fairly clever person all around. I was responsible, dependable and loyal, but by the end of that day, I doubted myself in every way possible.
Whatever possessed me at the time I’ll never know, but three years earlier I’d responded to an ad I found on the bulletin board of our local grocery store seeking child care for a six-week old baby. When I called the number and agreed to meet the new mother for an interview, it was a little intimidating as she took out her list and questioned my child rearing philosophy, daily routines, and what seemed to be every aspect of my life. But it was her precious firstborn she was about to leave in my care, and it was her right to know those details. After meeting her husband and infant son later that day, things seemed to click; and we all breathed a sigh of relief when we signed an agreement for a “trial period.” And that is how I set off into the beginning of my new career as home day care provider: taking care of baby Aaron.
In those first days, Aaron’s mom, Snova, called frequently to check on his status and I tried to set her mind at ease: “Aaron’s down for his nap…yes, he burped…no, he didn’t cry when you left him.” These calls were more to sooth her fears and relieve her guilt for going back to work, since she would have much rather have been at home with her baby. Occasionally, Aaron’s dad, Ron, who worked nights and slept days, had a mid-week day off and would keep him home for part of the day. But soon we settled into a routine, and he fit right in with our family, and “Baby-Aaron”, as my two kids called him, became a part of our daily lives. We celebrated the usual childhood milestones with Aaron; and he and his parents, who lived just two houses behind us, shared all our birthdays and Christmases as well. Our families melded, we became friends, and life was good. We’d built a relationship of trust and respect, so two years later, when I became pregnant again, Snova offered to change her schedule in any way necessary to accommodate my needs, if it meant I’d be able to continue caring for her son, now a very active two year old.
Our third child was born in September of 1986 and I took off just three weeks before I resumed caring for Aaron, who by this time, was in fully entrenched in the “terrible two’s”, and had taken to challenging my authority in many new ways. For the most part, things were smooth sailing, but there were days when it seemed like 5 o’clock didn’t come soon enough. Plus, Aaron had developed a new behavior: hiding from his mom when she came to pick him up. This started out as a game, “Where’s Aaron?”, she would sing. And he’d come giggling out from the closet, or under the bed, or behind the couch. This hide-and-seek play seemed harmless at first, but after a couple of times of really looking hard to find him, I put the kibosh on that game. Aaron was unhappy that I’d made some previously favorite hiding spots off limits, but for the most part, he was usually compliant; and, I’d begun locking the front door.
Then came that fateful Tuesday: I’d put Sesame Street on TV for Aaron while I was getting Kylie down for her morning nap, and when I came back out into the living room a few minutes later, he was nowhere to be found. I called out, I looked in every hiding spot, but as my heart beat faster and faster, the reality set in: he was gone! I grabbed Kylie from her crib and began looking all around the yard, then in the cul de sac, all the time calling out for Aaron to come to me. Thoughts of him wandering into the road, being hit by a car, or being kidnapped, all blurred in my head, which was now pounding louder and louder with my racing pulse. I was almost in a panic as I strapped Kylie into her car seat. Maybe he’d walked up toward the duck pond with day old bread, as we’d done so often together. But after not finding him there, and looking frantically for what seemed like forever, but was in reality only 6 or 7 minutes, I headed over to Ron and Snova’s house to get help finding Aaron.
When I rang the doorbell, I knew I’d be waking Ron up after having worked the night shift. What I didn’t expect, however, was to be greeted by a smiling Aaron saying, “Hello, Lonnie!” Relief flooded my mind, Aaron was safe. But the look on his dad’s face told me I was dead meat. I stood at the door as I explained to Ron how I was getting Kylie down for her nap, and that Aaron was only out-of-sight for about ten minutes. And how I’d begun looking right away, and was just about to call 911. But none of this mattered to this man who had just been awakened by his three year old son, who was supposed to be safe and sound at my home. He told me rather brusquely that he’d be keeping Aaron, and to go home. He said that he or Snova would call me later. He was clearly, and justifiably, very angry.
My heart sank low, very low. I was a failure. I was a failure at day care and perhaps at being a mother as well. What kind of terrible person loses a three year old? Tears streamed down my face as I got back to our house, and by the time I picked up the phone to call Snova at work, I was sobbing. She was obviously shaken, her voice gave way to her feelings as well, and she said she couldn’t talk right then, but that she would get back to me after work when she’d had time to sit down with Ron and discuss their options. By the time my husband came home from work at lunchtime, I was inconsolable. My stomach was in a million knots thinking about the consequences I would face. Aaron could have been seriously hurt or worse. My reputation was ruined: who would leave their child with someone who loses kids? Would they report me? I just hugged and rocked a very confused baby girl, and prayed for help. I needed wisdom.
After school, my kids knew something was up the minute they saw my blotchy face. I pulled it together as best I could and started supper as I told them what happened. They were as sympathetic as little kids can be and affirmed their love to me with their hugs; my husband was equally reassuring and told me it would all be OK. I was unconvinced. And after supper, the dreaded call came. Snova was tentative as she spoke of maybe having a “time out” (for me, I guessed) and at Ron’s suggestion, perhaps considering other options. She was trying her best to keep her emotions in check as Ron was vocalizing his loudly in the background. This went on for about ten minutes; all the while, I apologized profusely. Then all of a sudden the front door flung open.
“Hey mom, it’s Aaron!” our six-year-old Brooke exclaimed.
“Which Aaron?” I asked, since we had several in our neighborhood.
“The Aaron who ran away,” she replied. It got very quiet on the other end of the phone, and then I heard Snova ask Ron where Aaron was.
“He was just here” came the reply. And then I overheard the scuffle as they started shouting for Aaron. When she came back on the phone her voice had softened.
“We’ll be right down” was all she had to say. My husband couldn’t contain himself.
“At least you were out looking for him!” he blurted out.
And that was my get-out-of-jail card: as two concerned parents sat at the table, discussing just what they would do with their day care provider who obviously couldn’t keep track of their precious son, they themselves lost track of Aaron. Yes, he’d wandered back to my house: across two streets, and along the little path worn over the years by friends and neighbors, all in what seemed to be a flash.
A few minutes later, Ron sat in the car as Snova came inside, rather sheepishly as my husband observed, to retrieve her errant son.
“We’re terribly sorry for the trouble he’s caused,” were the first words out of her mouth. Then she quickly added, “We’ll see you in the morning, that is, if you’ll still keep Aaron.” I smiled. Then two friends, mothers each, comrades in the trenches, hugged in a warm embrace of relief. And I knew in my heart that in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end this crazy ordeal. I think the Lord heard my desperate prayer for wisdom that day. Not even Solomon could have orchestrated it better.

Double Feature: Star Wars and Jane Austin Version 2

2010-09-30T09:28:00.003-08:00

Hands down what you see below is the best video cinematic of any game, anything, every.
Enjoy.

For my female readers (and I know you're an numerous and you are hungry for entertainment) may I present a glorious retelling of two of your favorite Austin classics, sure to send your love starved hearts a patter with felling you didn't know you had!

As you may be figuring out these books are a bit different indeed below is the only one I've read and the mix of actual history and Fiction is succulent like coconut milk on meat. If you're hungry for something new give Seth Grahame-Smith a lick.

Double Feature. Clothes+Funny

2010-09-25T22:32:00.003-08:00

The other day I noticed a gal in the elevator had a really cool jacket on (I'm a bit of a connoisseur so I keep my eyes peeled) What caught my attention was the totemic design around the collar. I couldn't help but ask her what the brand was (I've had beautiful jackets just walk away from me before never to be seen or heard from again and I wasn't about to allow that to happen with such a fine example) She said Copper River Fleece, based in little Cordova, AK of all places.

The only thing classier than fine merchandise is: said merchandise, hand made, with a local touch (take my lappy bag for instance, i knew you were thinkin it.) At any rate its worth a look, as usual the ladies stuff is a bit nicer than the guys but it's all pretty good and surprisingly customizable (hoods, borders, patterns). Its almost enough to make a guy wish he had a lady friend to spend his money on...

In other news Stephen Colbert had a little something to say about immigration. Although I don't entirely agree with his point I often find the only thing better than something true... is something funny.

funniest video ever

2010-09-13T22:16:00.003-08:00

The back story.

"Jellyfish" by Jullian Smith

Stay with me here, super funny.

"Waffles" by Jullian Smith featuring internetainers Rhett and Link

Seriously funniest every.

Original content is dead

2010-09-10T01:25:00.004-08:00

Check out some links:

http://talktomejohnnie.com/

some funny reads about surviving the zombie apocalypse (as well as an informative shopping\wish list)

The wait is over. I give you Portal 2 "its been a long time, I think we can put our differences behind us, you monster"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZD17pQSqUU

Some great new Music, courtesy of my one and only music hook up who shall remain anonymous for their protection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBN-5Og-zG4 Timmy Curran

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG1qaxWRXTY Sean Watkins

Yes, you totally dodged this bullet, sorry about that.

I'm probably the only one I know who's physical capacity is of any interest but even if you don't share my neurotic self deprecatingly motivated hobby you can still enjoy the wonder that is Kelly Starrett

http://mobilitywod.blogspot.com/

A few great blog reads on nutrition:

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/lipid-hypothesis/the-vegetarian-myth/

For those who think being a vegetarian is a fair idea at all, see above

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/cancer/the-china-study-vs-the-china-study/

For those afraid of eating fat or protein to excess (or in moderation for that matter)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgqa5rXrxqs&feature=player_embedded

Elliots Wedding pictures

2010-07-16T22:28:00.001-08:00

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0IcuGrVuxaM3ZA

Juneau Pictures

2010-07-14T23:52:00.001-08:00

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0IcuGrVuxaM3Vw

Here's a link to some of the Juneau Pictures. Hit view album then play slideshow. Enjoy.

Myth Buster and the Maltese Falcon.

2010-06-10T09:52:00.002-08:00

I watched a great interview with the hosts of the popular TV series Myth Busters in which one of the hosts, Adam Savage, talks about a fascination with objects he's had his whole life. Here is a very entertaining presentation about one such object. Enjoy.

Memorial Day 2010

2010-05-31T22:35:00.002-08:00

Butch Speedy and Micky

2010-05-19T09:52:00.004-08:00

Well I got a surprise visit from an eccentric trio of relatives yesterday. Butch my uncle, Speedy (Dad\Butches cousin), and Micky my great Uncle were driving through town! They were in the interior to visit Denali before driving down to see Kenai and then back to Haines to take the ferry back to Juneau.

As luck would have it Uncle Micky got sick on the trip and wasn't doing well when they got into town so he laid pretty low and recovered on a strict diet of vanilla ice cream and no chicken (he said he'd been throwing up chicken and poopin' chicken so when we suggested having it for dinner last night he wasn't interested).

Butch had been sick but was feeling up to an adventure so the three of us went and did the only thing not worth missing out on in this town, the Chatanika gold dredge. Below are some pictures Speedy took. According to Wikipedia "Gold dredge #3 was owned and operated by F.E. Company between 1928 and 1958." (So If Dave Parish ever come to town to visit me I'll be forced to take him to it as well, check out the belt driven grinder and drill press or the 40 foot long rock tumbler i'm standing in and tell me you're not interested.)

After we got back, as chicken wasn't on the menu, I made the guys some of my primo bachelor chow: moose burger, coconut milk, red cabbage, avocado, and bell peppers all cooked down together. They wanted something bready so I broiled a loaf of garlic bread for them. It was good enough for me to talk them into doing the dishes so well worth the effort as the kitchen is cleaner now than we they arrived, (thanks again guys).

Butch is the one with the hat on, and speedy had the camera the whole trip so his picture is one that was left over on his camera from visiting his latest grand-daughter in California and Micky is as he put it "the old fart in the picture." All very nice guys and I'm sorry they had to leave so soon.

Adventures of early summer 2010

2010-05-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

John Durant

2010-05-05T16:36:00.002-08:00

Sadly I can't get his to embed check out the link.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/263270/february-03-2010/john-durant

Sign me up for one as well

Angel rocks

2010-04-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

Aaron and Cargo dog, summer adventure #1.

The reason the edges are cut off is that i recorded on my phone in profile mode instead of landscape. sorry won't happen again.

I didn't get a chance to say good bye to the girls before they left for Jo's house in Anchor Point, so I hope you have fun and take some video of Beautiful Janey on the beach.

Come on down to the hedgie hut!!

2010-04-22T18:09:00.003-08:00

http://www.hedgiehut.com/

The one and only licensed bonded and insured hedge-hog breeder\distributor in Fairbanks, Alaska. Starting at just $200!!! Its time to get out the doe eyes kids!

Boogie Hedgehog @ Yahoo! Video

Lisa is preg0es!!!

2010-04-21T18:28:00.000-08:00

Hooray!

300 pound deadlift PR

2010-04-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

when I grow up i want to be a forklift.

Ido Portal

2010-04-15T11:05:00.001-08:00

The Spirit Assisting

2010-03-21T08:20:00.003-08:00

http://www.godrules.net/library/pink/255pink25.htm

This is a piece written by an rank Calvinist that has blessed me encouraged me and brought me to tears (which isn't hard). Please please please take some time and read it. Seriously. Pick a quiet morning, do your devotion, then come read this. Its like 4.5 pages printed out so i'm sure you can handle it.

Well on another note we lost a family member yesterday. Our beloved male beagle Bandon (Goobie) was hit by a car on the road. I was listening to music on the way to work yesterday and this song called "pastures new" came up and its just so sweet and somber it reminded me of how much we're all gonna miss him. I put together a collection of the pictures I have of him and embeded the song I was listening to so take a minute and remember the best little buddy on 4 legs any of us ever had. If you've got a favorite memory (or several) post them to comments, I'll go first.

Another free slideshow by Smilebox

Cargo Dog

2010-03-19T14:58:00.005-08:00

The lamest part of most long hikes is the pig... By pig I mean your back pack. Despite ones best efforts its usually heavier that you'd like. That why this year I invested in upgrading the Humphrey's regular Lab into a sleek, designer, fuel efficient, 2010 cargo-dog. There were a few colors available but I went with the green.

Yesterday I took Jane out on one of the cross country ski trails to test it out. I loaded her pack up with 5 Liters of water, 11 pounds. I was a little concerned she wouldn't like it or it'd be too heavy and cumbersome for her but she didn't mind a bit. She would stop to shake occupationally and would forget it was there and bump it into stuff. She did however spent the whole walk trying to get me to throw sticks for her so... yeah she wasn't too distracted.

-a five finger action shot-

2010-03-17T14:50:00.008-08:00

So... I got some new shoes for crossfiting in. They're called Vibram 5 fingers and the idea is that they're the closest thing to bare foot as you can get with out having to do the "Alaska

tenderfoot walk".

The work out of the day (WOD) today was called Josh to commemorate SSG Joshua Hager, United States Army, who was killed Thursday February 22 2007 in Ar Ramadi, Iraq.

For time:

95 pound Overhead squat, 21 reps
42 Pull-ups
95 pound Overhead squat, 15 reps
30 Pull-ups
95 pound Overhead squat, 9 reps
18 Pull-ups

16:16

I'm tellin' ya its tons of fun and you're welcome to join!

lately

2010-03-11T15:23:00.006-09:00

I got over staffed today. Thats where they have too many nurses on the schedule and they call you up at 0545 to see if you want to stay home. Course at that time I don't even know what my own name is or what planet i live on let alone that I'm up to my eye balls in student loans and need to work. They prey upon my weaknesses and rob me! I talked to the Mrs. Boss and she said If I wanted I could take my name off the list, I think I will.

Although I did have a pretty good day today. I read part of an article written by Pink I believe about the roll of the holy spirit and how he silently help our infirmities and intercedes for us. How often is the believer cut deeper than thought possible yet is not undone? How are we stayed back from the brink of irrecoverable despair though confronted with it sometimes so frequently? The Spirit.

I spent some time in my garage gym today. Yesterday I PR'd on the clean and jerk with 175lbs (ground to shoulders then over head. I got a personal best on two lifts today: the snatch (pulling a barbell from the ground to over head in one movement) and the press (pushing the bar from the shoulders to overhead) 127.5 lbs and 122.5 lbs respectively. Then I did a short Metabolic conditioning workout with double unders, pull ups, and dumbbells hang squat cleans with 2 45 lbs'ers. left me good and gassed after 11 min. I really have NO idea how all you people can stand not to crossfit, its like my own personal street drug...

The struggle to eat for performance continues to be a struggle. I've got a lot of moose meat and chicken breasts in the freezer but cooking takes so much time and I get bored of what I've got pretty fast. I'm starting to mess around with making curries and Indian food. I got what I thought was curry paste but its a "10min simmer sauce" (read: loaded with sugar) so my nose is running 2nd to the insulin spikeng systemic inflammation.

Below are some pictures. We've got the chicken curry (I'm pretty much in love with coconut milk.), some sauteed sweet potato (that is one sweet potato).

If me talking about working out has left any of my readers sighing and bored I'd just like to leave you with a helping of "don't for get you asked" and a side of "shut up fatty"

Bon Appetit!

Nurse Caleb

2010-03-10T14:38:00.003-09:00

This is a video our hospital did as a funny way of illustrating why its important for nurses to check on their patients more often. In the video our very own Caleb Humphrey makes his film debut as a self absorbed air headed nurse who does his best but often misses the bigger picture. He is of course very humble about what a good job he did but hopes to star in bigger rolls as the summer movie season sets in.

(Actually he said "I can't believe I lowered myself to do that")

The American Idol

2010-03-04T13:00:00.004-09:00

I want to take a moment today to talk about a serious subject: Sin. Not the sin of lust, not pride, not covetousness, nor hatred or laziness, but something every bit as serious and prevalent in our lives (mine included).

Idolatry.

Miriam-Webster online defines idolatry as 1 : the worship of a physical object as a god 2 : immoderate attachment or devotion to something. (I think its appropriate to add the idea of inappropriate –reliance- upon something)

Anyone regularly attending a sound Baptist church (and all of you should be) knows Israel’s sordid history with idolatry. They also know how seriously God takes it and that in the end it took 70 years of captivity by a foreign power after countless smaller occupations before Israel finally put her idols away.

This was the first sort of idolatry mentioned above. The golden calf in Exodus and the golden image Nebuchadnezzar set up in Daniel are both examples of worshiping a physical object as a God. The widely accepted reality that God is an amorphous omnipresent spiritual being has largely done away with this practice in western civilization.

Our western worldview might ask: “Why were so many nations attracted to idols? I have no desire to pray to some silver statue I just paid $10 for!” I’ll tell you why. Idolatry allows people room to sin. Do you think that Molek and Baal had the same standard of righteousness that Jehovah does? Look at the temple of Diana in Corinth. Diana was a goddess of sexual pleasure. What happened after Israel made the golden calf? They all “rose up to play.” (not as innocent as it sounds for the record).

The western idolatry that pervades our culture is a more subtle, externally acceptable and internally deceptive form of its eastern and historical cousin. But make no mistake, idolatry is still deceiving Christians, destroying lives, and leading the lost away from Christ’s blood today.

At this point I want to lead you (and myself) in examining our lives to see if we can find any idolatry. Remember that second definition (immoderate attachment\reliance or devotion to something) Its going to be the one we struggle with more so than the first (making an object deity)

When we go to examine our lives looking for idols we need specifically to look for things that are taking Gods place. If we trust in, hope on, wait for, look to anything to do for us what God has said he would do then that is the ugly face of idolatry. Remember Jesus said hate was like murder and lust was like adultery. God is absolutely concerned with our internal thoughts and motives no matter how they’re expressed (or not) in our actions.

Think about each of these individually.

What do you trust in?

Think about every aspect of your life. What do you trust to get you to work safely; your car? To do your work correctly; your intelligence?, To build your house; your effort? To find your spouse; your discernment?, To raise your kids; your commitment?, To lead your church; your knowledge of scripture? FOOLISHNESS! Unless the Lord does all these things we are helpless and hopeless. Solomon said he didn’t know how to go our or come it, he also said: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it”

What do you hope on?

Consider the following thought patterns: “If I lose 50 lbs then I’ll live longer and I can do more for God.” Vs. “God help me live more healthy for your honor and Glory, extend the life you’ve given that I can serve you with it.” Can’t you almost see a Pharisee\publican difference in the heart of these two desires?

What do you wait for?

I’m guilty of thinking: “If I can just hold out till I get married and have a family then life will be worth living.” Remember Isaiah 40:31 “But they that wait upon –a change in their circumstances- shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint, right? WRONG the verse reads “But they that wait up on the LORD shall...” Having a Family or getting a better job can be idols to comfort us or give us hope if they are allowed to occupy territory in our hearts that should be reserved for God. He alone should be our comforter and hope!

What do you look to to solve your problems?

There is an important distinction between knowing that we are what we are by Gods grace and trusting in our own ability to pull ourselves up by our own boot straps and forge ahead. Often our hearts say “Thanks for offering to help Lord, but I’ve got this one, you can sit it out. I’ll take it from here. I think I’m smart\able\stubborn enough to handle this little problem.”

How often does our heart pray:

O my Education, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. O keep my future, and deliver me from a lack of employment: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

Or:

Delight thyself also in simple pleasures; and they shall give thee satisfaction, the desire of thine heart. Commit thy way unto sleep and sweet bread and they shall bring it to pass.

Reading these great psalms so foully corrupted is offensive but when we live like this is 1000 fold over offensive to our holy God. Commit yourself today to finding just one idol in your life and Pray that God would help you pull it down and put him in its place.

Here's a great tool to go idol hunting. Ask yourself what you want. What do you REALLY want. you might want money: Why do you want money? To be more secure to feel safer about the economy? If you're trusting in your money to make you more safe and secure in your life then you're worshiping money! Find what you're trying to accomplish with your desires and if its to get something God has promised to give you then its an idol. God can use money to make you more secure but we need to trust in the source of the power(God) and not the tool the power might choose to use (money).

Remember the fastest way to make sure any of you endeavors will fail is just to trust an idol for success. God will give you failure to show you that only he is the living and true God.

Let us who know our savior beat our breasts afresh with the publican and cry out “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

For those of you who aren’t Christians I’m sure if you’re honest with yourself you can see idolatry in your own life. So what of it? Does that necessarily mean you’re a bad person?

Lets look at some of the other commandments and find out how you’re measuring up to Gods standard of rightness. If its just the one you might be ok right?

How about the commandment not to take Gods name if vain. Ever used God name in the place of a filthy 4 letter word?

Or how about lying?

Ever dishonored your parents?

What about coveting, desiring something that wasn’t yours?

As I mentioned above Jesus said Gods standards were so high he saw unjust hate as murder and lust as adultery. Ever done either of those?

What about theft. Ever stolen something?

If we’re honest with ourselves then all of us have busted every one of these commandments wide open. If someone kills they’re a murderer right? Lies they’re a liar, steals they’re a thief, lusts they’re an adulterer.

So if after just a short examination you and I have found we are lying, thieving, blasphemous, murderous, adulterers at heart, as well rank idolaters. Considering this do you think we deserve to go to heaven or hell when we die? If God is a just and holy judge he can’t let us go free and still be called just any more that an earthly judge can let a guy who rapes and kills little kids go free. Imagine the convict says “I’ll never do it again, I made a mistake. I’m so sorry” we’d say: “well you scum bag you should be sorry, but not as sorry as you’re gonna be after we stretch your neck.” How would you feel about a judge who let a guy like that go free. He ought to be hung right next to him!

The fact is that we’ve broken the law and that the only punishment acceptable to God is eternity in the lake of fire. Right?

Ok but what about all this God is merciful and forgiving stuff. Won’t he forgive me? He can’t let your sin go unpunished but there is a way for you to get out of paying it yourself. When God became a man he lived a perfect life and died in our place. If you come to a place where you agree with God about your sin and place every ounce of hope you have on that savior then you can be delivered from the punishment you rightly deserve.

People who say that their God wouldn’t send people to hell are, ironically, IDOLATERS!
They’ve created a God to suit themselves. The God who doesn’t judge sin is a partaker of their sin just like an earthly judge who lets the guilty go. How much more merciful and Glorious is our God who didn’t have to provide himself a sacrifice but chose to out of his abundant goodness?! Think about it, one God is good the other is a wicked monster.

Christians are not perfect they are just forgiven

Repent and be saved.

Jesus is waiting but he wont wait forever.

Have some bologna ya fat head!

2010-03-04T12:47:00.001-09:00

Not amused

2010-03-03T00:11:00.004-09:00

I have no idea what's going on here but i'm not impressed.

- Pug

This is just some thoughts on liberalism that i'd written down and wanted to make a more concrete paper but I couldn't really nail down what I wanted to say. In the end its all good stuff (I think anyway) but its a little disjointed. Pug unrelated

In the wild if an eco system isn’t abundant enough to support the population of a species then the species starves and the population is reduced until the eco system can support them. Equilibrium. In the wild no animal has the right to live. If it can live, through luck, skill, desire, trickery, thievery or stubbornness: then it does. If an animal isn’t able or desirous or otherwise fortunate enough to make ends meet then it dies.

The individual only has the rights it can keep from being taken. Here life isn’t sacred and the causing of another life form pain is simply a byproduct of you attempting to continue your existence.

This is the very essence of a free market system. You and I can start whatever business we want and it is allowed to succeed or fail depending entirely on its own merit. It doesn’t matter if the family is depending entirely on its success to survive if its doesn’t make money it goes under no remorse. If a leopard can’t kill anything then it and its cubs die the slow and miserable death of starvation.

We can apply this principal to economies, if allowed to naturally grow or fail then the system will get stronger and stronger, or more accurately the strongest system will rise above the rest. How strong do you think the population of African lions would be if every weak sick old and injured lion was allowed to eat an even portion of the zebra steak? The fact is that the only way for a pride to maintain itself is to leave behind those who fall behind. BRUTAL!!!

We are not animals, we don’t eat our young and we shouldn’t be indifferent to the suffering of others. So what should we do when we see our fellow man falling behind? Should we feed him? Should we ask our government to feed him? Should we tell him tough luck? This is where the great divide comes between liberals and conservatives. Liberals tend to be short sighted and emotional in their thinking. “Pain (or misfortune or any bad thing/situation) is the worst thing on the earth and we can’t allow it.” This is why liberals are the ones trying to spend our money feeding needy Nigerians or creating other socialist programs.

These principals are no more real when considering human families/populations/economies. The reality is that our increasingly pseudo-socialist situation is very similar to this idea of a pride of lions who feeds its weakest members. To apply this rule of the jungle to human lives is a difficult thing to do. Its not as though our ability to perceive pain, hunger, or cold is any more real than that of raccoon but the fact remains that people don’t generally like to watch others suffer when they live in comfort. The problem is that when they start asking their government to just give food to people to keep them from starving they don’t realize that its being taken from them.

Economics was described to me as managing a world of unlimited wants with limited resources.

Take the struggle to end world hunger. To illustrate the principal we’ll try ending lion hunger. We don’t drop a dead zebra out of a plane every time we see a hungry pride trying to make ends meet while they watch the cubs starve and they elders grow lean. Why not? Don’t you have any compassion?! Can’t you see their pain and anguish!? Its because life is brutal. The problem here is that we’ve been taught we have rights and we don’t. Lions don’t have rights! And though we’re different from lions in that we have souls we are exactly the same in that we have unlimited wants and limited resources. If we get more resources what happens? The same thing with lions there’s just more mouths to feed. There’s always going to be the unlucky ones no matter how great our ability to grow food.

Feeding hungry people is something liberals do to feel good about themselves but it really just perpetuates the problem. People look to their government to do something about so they don’t have to feel personally responsible. When you look at how the poor were treated in the bible they never became wards of the state it was always up to individuals to take pity on them and provide. When you treat the symptoms instead of the disease all you get is more disease.

The reason its left up to the individual to decide who gets a helping hand and who doesn’t is because individuals can tell when they’re being manipulated and a government can’t. If a man and a woman have a family but neither of them can find work and that’s all the information the government has to operate on then it has to either help all families in this situation or none of them. However if it was left up to the individual to invest their own hard earned money into helping their neighbor they can take into consideration the fact that this family has worked hard their whole lives and are honest and want nothing more than to have work to do. Or that the family is lying, manipulative, lazy drug addicts and proud of it. This is what being a “player” is maybe you’ve heard people use the phrase “I’m a playa!” There is an America sub-culture of people who make it their job\livelihood taking as much as they can get with out working and they are proud of it. They play the system. The government it too big picture to tell who is who. But individuals investing their own money aren’t.

This is why I don’t care if its humiliating for your neighbors to have to go get food stamps. What’s humiliating is that you won’t help your neighbor yourself. You have your government deal with it so you can sleep an night. In the mean time the system is bleeding money in inefficiency, unnecessary jobs, and red tape beurocrosy.

So what is the solution? What do we do about it?! The same thing as lions do, work your hands off; strive, struggle, fight, grow, sniff and scurry, win at all costs. Our nation can ‘fight world hunger’ itself into irrecoverable debt because its not a hole we can fill. You don’t help people learn to work for themselves buy giving them the fruits of your work, you teach people to be ‘players’. America needs to stop getting played and refocus.

The fact is that if a system is broken, take communism, to the point that its people will starve then the people who invested in the system deserve to starve just like lions who crossed a river to an area where there’s no food. The people die and then other systems that aren’t bogged down with false ideals rise up and take their place (hence a reduction in net suffering after a temporary increase in current suffering) Liberals are never able to do this because as stated above they’re short sited. If every time someone took hostages we just dropped a bomb on the whole building and said “sorry hostages, guess you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Know what would happen? -a reduction in net suffering after a temporary increase in current suffering- In other word people would quit taking hostages.

Ok this has been mostly an rabbit trail of disjointed thoughts. Hope you enjoyed, post thoughts to comments.

Just throwing it out there, Haha...

2010-02-23T12:21:00.004-09:00

Andy Goldsworthy

2010-02-12T21:38:00.001-09:00

"Whenever there is a simple error that most laymen fall for, there is always a slightly more sophisticated version of the same problem that experts fall for."
- Amos Tverskyy

-QUOTE UNRELATED-

This guy is amazing:

My Mooser

2010-02-08T17:21:00.000-09:00

Roots, Redecoration, and Roadkill.

2010-02-03T09:26:00.004-09:00

I found this picture of my mom's house in Juneau and I liked it so much I made it the desktop for my computer, Brings back memories. This is one of the few sunny days but it sure looks beautiful there when it is sunny. My room was on the second floor all the way right in this photo.

Below is my house now that it has furniture in it.

And below that is... morbid and hilarious. and a pray request for the guys who do the road kill ministry, both that we'd stay safe and that we'd have boldness to witness to the people who we give the meat away to.

STUDY DONE RIGHT

2010-01-27T13:48:00.001-09:00

Poor rich plumber boy has to take his big test so he's been staying home to study up. GOOD WORK JORD WE'RE ALL PULLIN FOR YA!

Man the Betrayer

2010-01-24T13:24:00.003-09:00

I wrote this about 3 years ago when I'd thought God had called me to preach. Though now I don't believe he has (call it youthful zeal, probably too much youth and too little zeal) I really did feel led of God writing it. Its long but in my humble opinion worth reading.

Man the Betrayer

ISAIAH 33:1

Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

This verse was written during the time of rebuke and correction in Isaiah’s ministry, before “Comfort ye, comfort ye” was penned in chapter 40. As a nation Israel has displeased God, they had spoiled the blessing of God, having consumed them in their lusts. They dealt treacherously, betraying a God who had cared for them. Look back one chapter to Isaiah 32:6-7

6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

7 The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.

though this is a prophetic scripture Israel had done all these things.

The Lord Jehovah, who wanted nothing more than to bless Israel and multiply them, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey had been repented of, turned from, and his mercy and love betrayed.

The sin of betrayal, brethren, is a serious one, and as benefactors of Christ’s blood it is our duty and should be our desire never to be guilty of betrayal toward our Lord.

To better understand how this can be accomplished lets first look at the beginning of betrayal.

We have in Isaiah recorded for us the account of what occurred when Lucifer first betrayed God and fell from Grace. Isaiah 14:12-14:

12 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which dist weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high.

God created all angels for the purpose of serving him and for praising his holiness. When Satan fell Revelation 12:4 says that he drew “the third part of the stars” with him probably with the same subtle tongue he used to draw Eve away. John 8:44 says that Satan has been a murderer and a liar from the beginning, no doubt Christ was remembering, among many things, this event, this betrayal. Satan betrayed the God that loved him and created him but he also betrayed that third part of the angels who followed him, paying counterfeit promises all the way.

Here in Isaiah we have the first ever act of betrayal in history.

Betrayal has often been regarded as one of the worst offences a person can commit. For what it’s worth Dante, an ancient author, wrote a book in which he was (absurdly) led on a tour through all the levels of hell.

Upon reaching the deepest part of hell where the torment was the worst, Dante discovered that it contained Satan his angels and all those who where guilty of betrayal including Judas of course, Brutus and many others from through out the ages.

Of course the bible teaches us that Sin is sin and the lake of fire is going to be just as intolerable on one end as on the other but we can see here that the sin of betrayal is one that is deeply despised and intolerable even to fallen man. The punishment in militaries both modern and ancient for betrayal is death. A traitor to Rome wasn’t just killed, they where crucified, a process that we are all familiar with and as we know could last days.

I want to ask you tonight if you can think of a time in your life when you were betrayed. When you placed your trust in a person to keep a secret or just to be on your side and they maliciously did the opposite. If you can it’s still painful to think on.

Well When God is betrayed, Christian; it is painful for him just as it is for us.

Histories second act of betrayal was worse that the first because of who it was that betrayed God, and what that meant for the new creation. Go to Genesis 3 and we’ll see man’s betrayal.

1¶ Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 ¶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 ¶ And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 ¶ And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

When God created mankind he wanted us to be in perfect fellowship with him, he created us so he could love us and so we could love him back. Creation as God intended it was very good the bible says. But it didn’t last. Eve knew what God had said about the tree in the midst of the garden but still she chose to turn away from God. Adam was right there with her and he chose the same. Furthermore we can see in verse 12 Adam tries to blame his wife saying “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Make no mistake you who are before me tonight that we are the children of this error; we are turncoats, defectors, and betrayers, every one. It’s in our blood and in our nature to sin and try to hide from God as Adam and his wife did that day.

Betrayal is a big deal to God, and if you can imagine, he doesn’t like to see you wearing the other teams colors one bit, especially if you are saved.

“How does one betray God?” you may be thinking, "I never go hand out Satan worshiper tracks or sacrifice animals or anything weird like that." The answer is the same today that it was in the Garden many thousands of years ago, it’s the same to the child of God and to the lost man. The Answer is SIN! SIN IS BETRAYAL.

Hebrews 10:26-31.

26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:

29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

We will be held accountable for every time we bent the knee to the will of Satan. If you are lost here today then you need to pay special attention to verse 31 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

I would like to call you attention to the fact that in the beginning we were on Gods side. He made us for his pleasure and to live in and tend the Garden of Eden. To be lost, especially if you’ve rejected the Gospel you are troding underfoot the blood of Christ, counting it an unholy thing. I must ask you lost person, lost children. Is the precious blood of Jesus not worthy to be saved by? Ask yourself that because if you choose to remain lost, make no mistake it is a choice, and that fiery indignation is saved up for you. Its like lighting a match, you either choose to light it, choose to be saved. Or you choose to stand there in defiance and betrayal toward our merciful father. The clock is ticking, if you die without Jesus you're spiting in his face. Then you’ll burn and burn and burn and burn and wish you’d repented.

For you who are saved here today praise God that you have no more need to fear hellfire but be wary nonetheless because it is still very possible for you to commit the sin of betrayal both to God and to man. Young people when you nurse infatuations for the opposite sex you are betraying your future spouse. Married people, when you look too long and too fondly you work the same destruction. When you fudge a little on the time card, when you don’t take stands out of fatigue, when you are inconsistent with your children, its betrayal. Many saved people have played the turn coat and it has wrought destruction and misery in their lives.

Go with me to II Samuel Chapter 11. We all know the story of King David and his sin with Bathsheba. How David failed to go to war with his men and subsequently sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba. She became pregnant by him and David attempted to conceal it by calling her husband Uriah the Hittite back from the field and trying to get him to sleep with her which he wouldn’t do because his men where still at war. Uriah had spent the night outside the city walls. David finally said he could go but that he needed to take a letter back to Joab his commander.

After Joab read the letter he told Uriah that he was to go where the fighting was the most intense, near a wall where there were bowmen. Uriah was no ordinary soldier you see

1st Chronicles 11 mentions Uriah in a list of especially valiant men, nevertheless this wall is where Uriah the Hittite died. His men suddenly pulled back he was left exposed and he died having his body pierced by arrows. Its just speculation but I imagine Uriah died wondering what was written in that letter.

14 ¶ And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.

16 And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were.

17 And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

24 And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.

King David betrayed his servant Uriah.

David knew this man, I’m not saying they where best friends by any means but Uriah was with him for at least one of his campaigns against the philistines. I’d be willing to bet that Uriah did the kings bidding that day without a moment’s hesitation. Uriah probably thought the king was trying to bring him some special glory by trusting him to be where the fighting was the hottest.

Everything about the event recorded in II Samuel 11 is a betrayal. The Great King David, the man after God’s own heart, turned his back on God, on Uriah, on Bathsheba, on his child, and on his kingdom, and it tore his life apart. Tamar his daughter was raped by one of his sons shortly after, two children of his died, Absalom and the one by Bathsheba. David’s kingdom was also split by civil war.

When we betray God we always betray our best interest. If you betray God unto the damnation of your soul then the penalties are obvious. But even in out personal lives if we run from God we cheat our selves. Look at our Pastor.

He’s told us on many occasions that there was a time he was running from God after being called to preach. I look at him and I see a man who is in the center of God’s will for his life. He is pastoring a church that he loves. He is living in Alaska which he loves. He loves his wife and his kids. But where would he be now if he had continued in his betrayal? Who knows. Who cares?! because he’s here and I don’t think he’s going anywhere.

In order to us to keep from fulfilling our nature unto the betrayal of God I want to put us all in remembrance once again of the forces and devices in our lives that are going to betray US in an attempt to serve their ends and draw us away from God. We must know our enemies.

1) The first is one that we have already looked at tonight. SATAN, he’s been a liar and a murderer from the beginning right? We all should know what 1^st Peter 5:8 says already.

Be sober, be vigilant because you adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

My parents as baha’is don’t believe in Satan, and the end of this belief is there destruction. The French Poet Named Charles Baudelaire said “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” Satan is real, and his aim is to steal Glory from our God and to bring our lives and testimonies to ruin. When we, as James penned, are drawn away of our own lust, and enticed we must remember that if we sin it glorifies Satan in our lives. Our actions show who we love and who our master is much more than our words do.

Praise God that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

James 4:7 says Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. If you don’t want Satan to win in your life, if you don’t want to be a vessel for him then follow these words. SUBMIT TO GOD, RESIST THE DEVIL. This is a two step process that we can take to the bank.

2) The second great enemy we face in our lives is the world. Go with me to 2^nd Corinthians chapter 6.

14Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 18And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

The LORD Jehovah wants you, as an individual, to be his son or his daughter. If this is what we want then we must follow the command given. God wants us to lead Separated, holy lives.

I have heard the world described as “the force of collective sin of the people.” When you live among many people there is pull, a herd instinct that drives everyone to do the same thing, to fit in. If you add sin to this phenomenon then you get a real mess.

Make no mistake that we must fight this force not to hold ourselves from the world’s lines because they change but to hold ourselves to Gods lines because they don’t. The world hates this, every time you turn down a beer or an invitation or a job opportunity that would conflict with church the lost person is irked. They know that there is a God and that they are out of phase with him and they will hate you for reminding them of it.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.”

Jesus said in John 15:19: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

The world is ever changing, what it decides is acceptable changes by culture and by time period. That is why it is imperative that we not just keep our distance from the world but that we trust the scripture to show us what is black and what is white.

In the movie Gladiator the General Maximus had some important words for the cavalry regiment. He shouted “hold the line, stay with me” as the horsemen charged. If in our service we fail to do this then we are combat ineffective. We must hold the line and stay with Christ. An unorganized force is easily confused and picked off. This is part of why we won the revolutionary war; we targeted British officers, separating the troops from their commander. It works the same with us; if anything can separate us from Christ then it is only a matter of time before death takes us.

So how do we defeat the influence of the world?

Galatians 6:14
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” What happens when you crucify something? It dies; shamefully.

Crucifying the world unto yourself means that you quit caring about the things of world and regard it as dead. If something is going to come to dust, it should be regarded as dust. It also means that we die to the world, do dead men try to please others?

What it means to crucify yourself unto the world is that you kill your little image as “the cool guy who happens not to cuss” or “the pretty girl who happens to wear dresses a lot.” If the only difference you make between you and the lost people you work around is that you don’t cuss or you wear dresses then shame on you. If we are as concerned about our popularity as dead men then we’ll have no problem confronting the lost world with the law and their need of a savior.

3) Finally the last of the great enemies is found in the last place we’d want to find an enemy. Our own flesh is the third element in this unholy trinity.

Go with me to Romans 7:23. We see here that Paul says that in his body there is a war happening. “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

The bible has a lot to say about our flesh and the doctrine of total depravity.

Romans 7:18: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…

Galatians 5:17: For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

1^st Corinthians 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

1^st Peter 2:11: Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

We’ve been talking about traitors. And it should cause us to fear with great sobriety of spirit that with in the temple of our body there is a Judas. We must be vigilant over our selves because our natural person is evil.

I ancient days when people built strong tall castles to stay safe the only way to take one of these castles was to surround it, cutting off its supply lines and starving it. The way the siege of a castle is portrayed in books and movies is a lot more exciting that the reality, there was a lot of waiting involved. However, if you wanted to take a castle quickly you must have a man on the inside. It only takes one traitor in the castle to open the gates at night and let the enemy come pouring in.

Our flesh is like a castle with a traitor inside who we cannot see. The only way to keep him from opening the gate is to keep the word of God close at all times, so that when he acts we can see it and resist it.

Recall a sermon preached by Bro. Noah. He said “If you have run out of battles to fight then I go so far as to say that if you’re not being challenged to give up something of your self in your life then you are not serving Christ like you could.” Wordy but true ; )

The devil must be resisted, the world must be crucified, and the flesh must be fought. Know your enemy.

Now I speak to the lost people, and to the lost children of this church. If you enjoy anything about this life, if you eat anything from off you parents table, if you are Gods creation, which we ALL are and you remain lost then you are a traitor. Every time you are presented with the gospel and you say: when I’m older, not today or what ever excuse you use then you betray Gods love, Jesus blood, and the Spirits call. Not only that but you betray yourself. Ask any one who’s saved if they wished they would have waited another year. Go ask Brother Gerth what he would give up now to have known Christ at the age you are today.

Let’s look at what happens to Traitors.

Isaiah 14:13-15.

13For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

15Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Genesis 3: 17-19

17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

I beg of myself and everyone here to betray Satan, stick him in the back. Suddenly and stubbornly refuse your pet sin, read daily and pray hourly. Satan could be using you so regularly that he counts you as dependable, blow his plans. If you need to get saved then do it, if you need to repent of sin in your life the DO IT!!

I remember when I was saved the overwhelming sense of betrayal, feeling that Christ shouldn’t have died for me but knowing that because he did the only way to keep from betraying him again was to believe on him to save me.

The last scripture I want to look at tonight is in the book of 1^st Chronicles Chapter 12. This is when David was warring with Saul. Verse 8 says:

And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness. Men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains.

We need to pray that God would give us the Grace to repent of our sinful allegiances and Join with the men of this world who are after Gods own heart. This church knows very well that we are in a war. Paul said: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.”

My Sister's 2 Babies

2010-01-13T00:31:00.003-09:00

No name yet

Don't know baby "stats"

(accept its a girl)

All I know is my sister's are prettier than yours and they make cuter babies...

This might smell bad... but it'll keep you warm

2009-12-26T22:00:00.004-09:00

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/bags/817c/

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bb2e/

Can they immunize for stupid?

2009-11-30T23:48:00.001-09:00

Enjoy the following clips from the magazine "wired"

Full version available here

This isn’t a religious dispute, like the debate over creationism and intelligent design. It’s a challenge to traditional science that crosses party, class, and religious lines. It is partly a reaction to Big Pharma’s blunders and PR missteps, from Vioxx to illegal marketing ploys, which have encouraged a distrust of experts. It is also, ironically, a product of the era of instant communication and easy access to information. The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online, nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media, which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate” where there should be none.

“I used to say that the tide would turn when children started to die. Well, children have started to die,” Offit says, frowning as he ticks off recent fatal cases of meningitis in unvaccinated children in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. “So now I’ve changed it to ‘when enough children start to die.’ Because obviously, we’re not there yet.”

Before smallpox was eradicated with a vaccine, it killed an estimated 500 million people. And just 60 years ago, polio paralyzed 16,000 Americans every year, while rubella caused birth defects and mental retardation in as many as 20,000 newborns. Measles infected 4 million children, killing 3,000 annually, and a bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type b caused Hib meningitis in more than 15,000 children, leaving many with permanent brain damage. Infant mortality and abbreviated life spans — now regarded as a third world problem — were a first world reality.

If two things coexist, the brain often tells us, they must be related. Some parents of autistic children noticed that their child’s condition began to appear shortly after a vaccination. The conclusion: “The vaccine must have caused the autism.” Sounds reasonable, even though, as many scientists have noted, it has long been known that autism and other neurological impairments often become evident at or around the age of 18 to 24 months, which just happens to be the same time children receive multiple vaccinations. Correlation, perhaps. But not causation, as studies have shown.

And if you need a new factoid to support your belief system, it has never been easier to find one. The Internet offers a treasure trove of undifferentiated information, data, research, speculation, half-truths, anecdotes, and conjecture about health and medicine. It is also a democratizing force that tends to undermine authority, cut out the middleman, and empower individuals. In a world where anyone can attend what McCarthy calls the “University of Google,” boning up on immunology before getting your child vaccinated seems like good, responsible parenting. Thanks to the Internet, everyone can be their own medical investigator.

To be clear, there is no credible evidence to indicate that any of this is true. None. Twelve epidemiological studies have found no data that links the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine to autism; six studies have found no trace of an association between thimerosal (a preservative containing ethylmercury that has largely been removed from vaccines since 2001¹) and autism, and three other studies have found no indication that thimerosal causes even subtle neurological problems. The so-called epidemic, researchers assert, is the result of improved diagnosis, which has identified as autistic many kids who once might have been labeled mentally retarded or just plain slow. In fact, the growing body of science indicates that the autistic spectrum — which may well turn out to encompass several discrete conditions — may largely be genetic in origin. In April, the journal Nature published two studies that analyzed the genes of almost 10,000 people and identified a common genetic variant present in approximately 65 percent of autistic children.

A while back, Offit was asked to help put together a reference text on vaccines. Specifically, his colleagues wanted him to write a chapter that assessed the capacity of the human immune system. It was a hypothetical exercise: What was the maximum number of vaccines that a person could handle? The point was to arm doctors with information that could reassure parents. Offit set out to determine two factors: how many B cells, which make antibodies, a person has in a milliliter of blood and how many different epitopes, the part of a bacterium or virus that is recognized by the immune system, there are in a vaccine. Then, he came up with a rough estimate: a person could handle 100,000 vaccines — or up to 10,000 vaccines at once. Currently the most vaccines children receive at any one time is five.

For the record my kids wont be dying of smallpox whooping cough or stupid if I can help it...

Steven Pressfield

2009-10-01T21:21:00.003-08:00

This series of videos is about the war in the middle east. What we're doing wrong, why it isn't working what we can do right and what we can learn from when Alexander the great fought these same people 2300 years ago. Enjoy

There's a bad word at 4:24 (just hit the little button that looks like a speaker for a second)

Travel Prejudice and Peace

2009-09-02T10:13:00.005-08:00

I went to Juneau a few weeks back. I saw my family and my friends from high school. Sadly I didn't manage to find any time for a grand adventure, though I did ride on the fly bridge of a 20ft boat while on step, that was pretty fun. My niece and nephew were in town from PA, they're the jewish step children of my step sister... which makes them my... niece and nephew. Exactly. I started calling the boy, josh, "Wahkeboo" cause it kinds sounds jewish ya know? to which he replied by calling me "uncle poopie" alas. You can't argue with that kind of logic can you?

We also went to Chitna the weekend after. I was a pretty small representation of the tribe this year. Just Pastor, Jordan, myself and my little brother who's here for school. We didn't hardly catch any fish but we rode the snot out of the 2 four wheelers we brought. Jordan's new one is pretty amazing.

In other news jane is enjoying her first time going into heat. And poor Goobie (the little beagle man-puppie) Is so tormented that he won't even eat. Whats really funny is that some of the girls have started taking pity on him. Noah and I advised them that it was a pitiful state but that they should by no means have pity on him. Yesterday at the store Elliot and I saw the man for jane. He was a huge yellow lab with a big ol' meat head on him a happy face and strong limbs. I really should have gotten out of the car and asked if they wanted to breed him. here's the best representation I could find.

I'm pleased to report that there has been peace in the house of God like there hasn't been for the last four years. The pastor has been given some time off and has been able to disciple my brother some. I asked Elliot how it went after their first meeting yesterday and he said "best part of my day" Its amazing how he really seems to be a new creature. He still has bad habits like we all did after we were saved but his heart has changed completely. I think the timing of this couldn't have been better to offer encouragement to my pastor so I'm doubly grateful for this second birth.

Bruddie

2009-07-24T18:00:00.002-08:00

My little brother moved in last week. He's gonna start school up in the fall but until then we've got a month or so to get reacquainted having not lived together for more than ten years. So far its been really fun. We've got swimming a few times rented a pedal boat and cruised the sloughs looking for moose. We're gonna got on an over night hike next week.

I've of course introduced him to crossfit and he's been enthusiastic about enduring some real pain, (he's also been walking around like C-3PO) Right now we're cooking dinner. Some chicken with vegetables.

Wednesday we went the the Humphrey's for dinner. We had a good time and he got on molly's bad side so thats extra points from me. Naturally Jane didn't have a problem with him.

Going it "alone"

2009-07-06T22:08:00.003-08:00

For those who don't know yet I moved out of the Humphrey's house last Wednesday into my first abode. It a duplex which happened to be just down the street (like with it walking distance) from their house and the church. I was just searching through the classifieds online for the area and called several places and when this lady said "oh we live on Athena circle too" I was like... jackpot!

The place is really pretty cute. It's a duplex with a single entry and a boiler room between the two sides, plus the bedrooms are at the ends of the house and I haven't heard boo from the other people. I've only seen them once, I think it might be an old couple but the lady didn't even look at me when she walked inside... weird, oh well.

The actual apartment is fairly roomy, the main living area and kitchen/laundry are all in the front with two bedrooms and a bathroom in the back, huge closets as well. There's a deep garage for each apartment that are together in a separate building. Naturally I've got a world class crossfit affiliate started up in it, complete with rings, kettle bells, a squat rack, medicine balls, two oly bars and more steel that two people could ever move at once. All I need is a rower and I'll be "increasing my work capacity across broad time and modal domains" like a big dog.

So last Wednesday to get the place livable I spent about $250 and today spent another $300 and I still don't have ANY furniture. I had my buddy Dave over to check the place out Sunday and we ate sitting on my bed, which is a queen size -mattress-... (as in, on the floor, no box spring, trailer park style) Travis was gonna trash it so he just gave it too me.

I used the pastors trailer to get my stuff over there and it worked really well accept that the thing is much longer than it looks like it is out the rear view mirrors and I managed to back it into garage on day one. The land lord wasn't mad at all though he just gathered his tools together and (being an old guy) just pointed and coached me into pounding and screwing it back together. Glad that didn't turn out any worse. The annoying thing was that backing it was pretty hard but I did really good turning it around I just couldn't see the end of it and didn't realize it... lesson learned "NEVER BACK A TRAILER WITH OUT SOME ONE BEHIND YOU WATCHING"
(or just don't be a retard, that works good too)

So back to buying stuff for the place... I walked around freds today with a cart full of homey touches (like a lamp, and a vacuum cleaner, a broom, garbage bags) It was so awkward, I felt like everyone was staring at me thinking: "Why is that huge 12 year old buying all those Wifey/Mom things?" At one point I just wanted to ditch my cart in a back aisle and run out of the store crying "I want my Mommy!" I'm normally just a hand cart, in and out, man alone, runnin' and gunnin' style; Turkey breast, apples, almonds and beat a hasty retreat. This was a different animal.

Spending this kinda time alone and trying to create a working (though one man) house hold makes me think it'd be really nice to be married when I'm doing all this. Watching Caleb and Lisa doesn't to much to dissuade these thoughts. I just read "Watership Down" which is an amazing, epic adventure story about rabbits who leave their warren to start another one. After doing so they realize the don't have any does (i.e. purdy girl bunnies) So the last half of the book is about the liberating some from a terrible oppressive warren who doesn't need them yet wants them anyway. Today in Fred Meyer I was thinking this would be a lot more fun if I had a pretty little doe on my arm... Not at all to be confused with a pretty little "doh", those only come in one size... big, and uh... hairy. Though one of those wouldn't be too bad I guess. (For those unaware "Doh" in a nick name for Noah G. my good friend and a... "Traveling Christian")

At any rate I won't live there alone for too long, the point of me getting a two bedroom house was that my Brother Elliot is coming to go to school here so I offered to let him stay with me. He should be driving up the end of August.

Having some space to go it alone isn't all bad though. I'm not as distracted with other peoples activities and have found more time to read my bible and just enjoy things like washing dishes, cooking, listening to music. I never did listen to music except in my car. But now it's either music or deafening silence.

Cooking has been fun. I've been asked by several concerned women "What are you going to eat!, Aaron... can you cook?" (all of whom, btw, are welcome to come cook for me) I've really been eating very well. Sunday I made Dave and I and I spinach salad with bacon, sauteed onions, orange bell peppers, pepper jack cheese, and avocado. I had blue cheese dressing and he had a honey mustard dressing, very tasty (and no fast carbs) for dinner last night I had scrambled eggs with meat and cheese added in, apples with peanut butter and strawberries for desert (also no fast carbs). For lunch/dinner ( not sure what to call that meal you have at 4:00 because you at breakfast at 10 and were in town all day) at way it was delicious as well: A diagonally cut hot link with pepper jack cheese and sauteed onions. Steamed Broccoli with the honey mustard dressing (is more like a honey mustard flavored ranch dressing that a mustard at all), also no fast carbs... are we noticing a trend here?

Honestly I don't plan on ever letting things like bread, pasta, cereal flower or sugar into my house. I find generally white powders and things made from them are bad and bad for you. I also don't have a microwave on purpose... and I won't be pursuing broadcast television. A friend's house back in Juneau (the navy Seal's family) doesn't have any of these things (maybe the white powders) and their kids are very intelligent and athletic. They seem well spoken and very driven.

Don't get the wrong idea though fan kids.. I'm still making very regular appearances at the Humphreys house, though some are happier about it than others about it. The Pastor said he was going though withdrawals, and when I showed up at 10pm he said "You need to come check in a little earlier". Jordan on the other had has said all of "don't eat that I'm taking it for lunch in the morning" too me. (I think he's just jealous I moved out and he's left all alone.)

I'm still waiting to get internet hooked up at my place so I won't have any pictures until then, maybe never... I am nevertheless compelled to leave you with an unrelated parting thought in the form of a picture:

Enjoy

Wing Suit

2009-06-24T21:07:00.001-08:00

Wingsuit BASE, getting better from neil amonson on Vimeo.

haiku

2009-06-24T11:19:00.000-08:00

Big Fat Lies

2009-06-10T22:39:00.003-08:00

This video will change the way you perceive obesity. Conventional wisdom says that if you eat excessive calories and are sedentary you are going to be fat. So what happens when a person looks for exceptions to this rule, an area where this hypothesis doesn't apply?

Gary Taubes is just such a man. This video gets a little scientific but if you just listen and don't worry about it to much you'll be amazed and what scientists knew 50 years ago but we've forgotten and only then gained and obesity epidemic.

I know its long but it is AMAZING, watch it in a few sessions if you have to but seriously watch it.

Why functional movements?

2009-06-04T22:45:00.011-08:00

I don't care how much you can curl, I don't care how long you walked... and I REALLY don't care if you can do a 3/4 squat for 2 minutes... what matters is power out put. Moving a load a set distance and quickly, that is power and that is what will effect change in fitness infinitely more than holding a squat (which is some load, no distance traveled and some time (hence ZERO power output)

Scoff all you want but for some fire, police, military, (sadly not nursing). Fitness=survival.

Why deadlifts mixed with running and airsquats for time? why pullups and not the lat pull down machine... why thrusters and not calf raises? why rowing and not pilates? why box jumps and not an elliptical.

Power is the reason.

Is this different for women? nope... sorry

Not for the video "Fran" mentioned is the name of a work out.

Double feature: Mice with knives...

2009-06-04T16:00:00.003-08:00

MICE

well the other day I heard some "sckritching" yes thats right, I herd a sckritch... its the sound a mouse or other small mammal makes (babies are included sometimes...) any way I though I was crazy the first time then I heard it again in another spot... now I was getting a bit freaked out. I walked over to where the nose was and found a disguarded popcorn bag from a viewing of "24" after asking Jordan if he knew what it was i saw the culprit. It was a cute little vole. big ears, whiskers little pot belly. The works, I instantly started cooing with delight like when Miss Suzie gets to hold and especially fat baby. I found a mouse trap pretty quickly and discussed our options with Jordan. I didn't think jord would tollerate it so I though we'd best get down to buisness. After a bit of discussion we decited that it wasn't really bothering either of us. This is when I remembered a design for a live trap.

This is about how ours works, except We're using a skipole and a toilet paper tube. I saw where they come into the house so I just put the bottom of the ramp right there. I caught one yesterday a red mouse, let him go, two more yesterday brown ones, jord was petting one and it jumped out of his hands but I think we've got him back as their's two in there again.

Mack (the knife)

I used to work in a knife store so I know about lots of different brands and what's good and whats junk. After needing a knife one too many times and not having one I decided to just get the one I've always wanted. without getting into artiasan/hand made knives Benchmade is as good as it gets. check this out:

I've always though this was one of their best looking folders. I think I had one in high school but lost it, hopefully this one does better.

In other news I went fly fishing for the first time today, Jordan did pretty well but I didn't catch anything, that's OK it was good shoulder rehab (yeah I hurt my shoulder on our memorial day hike... sledding of all things believe it or not...)

also as we were driving home today there was a huge smoke header coming up from right around our neighborhood, We were all pretty worried at one point that I might be coming from somewhere on our the Humphrey estate but It wasn't. Jordan tried to call the house but no one answered, that freaked us out a but. Turns out they were in town and no one was home anyway.

Summer of the (jordy) Bear

2009-06-02T17:26:00.002-08:00

As most of you are aware Jordan has been looking for work for along time now. As much as I hope he gets a job I hope he doesn't. Its SO nice to have somone to hang out with on my -middle of the week- days off. One day we went out for sushi, he hadn't had that before. Today we bought an innertube and tied it to the 'Family' kayak (as it's "owner" won't be able to use it this summer/ever again). Anyway, we were both kinda irritated that it wasn't very sunny but it was still fun to go out for a paddle.

This other picute is just what happens when we spend to much time lazing around... it reads "The Happy Family"

Teddy

2009-05-23T23:00:00.004-08:00

Quality

2009-05-21T18:53:00.003-08:00

I had a very good day today.

I bought a golf driver the other day and today Jordan, Jock and I went to the lake and smacked some balls around. I also went swimming for the first time this summer. The water was incredibly cold.

We set the tee up in front of a big hill I didn't think we would be getting much over it but Jordan the magnificent proved me wrong. He eventually got scared of taking car windows out and quit. After that we grabbed the dogs and Ross (Jock's friend) got towels, goggles, dog toys etc. I though I might not swim but brought my stuff just in case. of course the first time I through the ball into the water I pulled my socks and shoes off and said "I'm gonna beat the dogs to the ball." Which I did. The dog's we both pretty cold as well, Jane's teeth were chattering and Molly's was enduring some brain freeze digging in leaves trying to roll but vibrating too hard. She also tried to pull rocks out of the watter with her paws without getting her body we again. The nice thing was that she was too cold to make much noise, ugh... that one is VERY vocal ordinarily.

Yesterday was pretty good as well, I took Jordan out on a sushi date. Its nice to go and get a lunch meal to split and each pick a roll. I'm not sure he's a believer yet but I though it was very very good. I live the herring roe and eel meat is so delicate, the avocado is hard to beat as well.

I also learned a valuable lesson: Don't ever, even in desperation, ask a female for help in a retail store... she's just there to look cute(most of them don't even do that right) and push buttons... I accidentally subjected the two of us to 10 minutes of silly banter that was all wrong anyway.

I got my car washed... we'll see how long this lasts, It's nice to see it all blingin' for a while anyway.

We went to sport's authority, of course they don't carry bumper plates like every other "fitness" store in town... do they have bowflexes and curl bars?! Oh yeah man "curl's for the girls" they'll set you up. they also had kettle bells... up to about 25 pounds... what do you even do with a kettle bell that small?!

Work is going really well, I'm done with orientation now so I'll be making another $4 and hour, and I got called in so I made about 4 hours of over time this week. They had me scheduled for a Sunday so I texted the Humphrey boys to just pray for me while I went and talked to my boss. Tobi texted back something like "good luck on the test to see weather you're serious about serving God or not" and that kinda put it into perspective. I realized that for me to miss church services for work is a sin. The whole reason I'm not fighting fire right now is because I've got priorities. The truth is they don't want me on a Sunday, I'd be throwing up and crying all day... my boss was able to shift things around and now I'm gonna do a swing shift on Monday instead, but that's a small price to pay.

Just a little wraith humor.

2009-05-13T16:34:00.002-08:00

(for those unaware these aliens suck the life out of you with their hands...)

enjoy

For those of you unaware of Stargate Atlantis you really should remedy that, it's awesome...

Lil' Brudder

2009-05-04T23:58:00.004-08:00

So lil jordi is passed out behind me right now, I thought he was so cute I had to take a picture. I remember an old photo of him as a little boy all 'summer time dirty wearing shorts' and sitting up in a chair, mouth agape and again... utterly unconscious.

The latest adventure

2009-05-04T16:14:00.003-08:00

Well the last documentary of my adventures went SO well and created such an increase in my fan base that I've decided to give you all another taste.

Oh and here's a great picture that I found on the camera from the other night. I guess jock came up with a bubble maker and the black dog seemed to enjoy it. The beagle how ever... stayed in that position all... night...

So embarasing

2009-04-27T23:50:00.004-08:00

So today I had kind of a "fashion disaster". So normally I wear some small shoes for work with some straight leg scrub pants that I had to ask for specially as they were being removed from circulation in favor of tapered leg scrub pants... (why?! no one seems to know). anyway I brought my shoes home after work last week as I've really only got dress shoes and boots right now I wanted some shoes to work out in. Anyway, This morning I, of coarse, forgot my shoes and wore the biggest pair of boots I've got. No problem, It looked a little silly to have my big ol clod-hoppers but they didn't look that silly as they were mostly covered up by my nice wide pant leg. All is going well till about 10:00 am when I'm getting a patient out of bed and her Foley catheter bag (containing urine) pops open mysteriously and before I know it soaks my pant leg and the top of my sock. Ok this is just gross, so I go change... (throw away) that sock and (as terrible as getting pee'd on was here's the real dilemma) now I'm only left with a choice of no pants or tapered leg pants till I can drive back to north pole and get my shoes and other pants. So I went to the scrub exchange machine and pulled out some stupid looking clown pants and finished the morning with huge mountain slayer shoes like I was playing "I'm ready for anything"(like when the little boys show up in church with 37 knives and multi tools hanging off there belts, cute for them no so much for me), I looked like SUCH a retard. There was a moment I remember very clearly pulling my pant leg down over my boots and sighing heavily like I do... no fun at all.

The important thing here is that we learned from this and I now will permanently keep a spare pair of pants in my locker. Sorry if you're easily grossed out and this sent you reeling but I though it was pretty funny... In hind sight, naturally. (after my preceptor told Caleb the story HE though it was pretty funny too, "welcome to 2 south" I believe were his words.)

The dog show!

2009-04-25T10:19:00.003-08:00

So, I've decited to break into the elite sport of Dog showing. I've already got access to the worlds finest Dogs, there's only one problem. I don't have a dog pedestal to show them on!!! So I found a plan online yesterday, bought a piece of plywood and had Jordan help me. Through blood and tears we asembled a stand worthy of the dogs above them.

Ok, actualy I'm a huge nerd and this is a 20" stand for doing crossfit, a lot of the work outs call for box jumps. So now I can do

3 rounds for time of
400m run
185 lb deadlift, 15 reps
21 box jumps.

3 2 1 GO!

cool shirts

2009-04-21T22:05:00.002-08:00

I found these at vikingtactics.com, I just bought a new t shirt so I think I'll hold off but I thought these were pretty cool. Deus Vult means "God wills it."

um... nevermind,,, watch this!!

2009-04-19T20:04:00.001-08:00

smart mama

2009-04-16T09:13:00.003-08:00

Miss Suzie isn't my mama, and my mama IS smart. But let me just say that Miss Suzie is one smart mama. Today at breakfast she got all tired of all the stupid little start up icons that pop up the bottom right of the screen next to the time, so she googled hot to get rid of them and figured out you go to start==> run ==> type "msconfig" and then select the systems tab and just un check all the useless ones. its easier to tell what they are if you look and where they're stored on your compy and if you don't know what one is you can google that.

in other news it's been about 2 hours and 17 minutes since my shift would have started but its the weekend for me, a very long 4 day weekend and I' m already all depressed and bored. Not that I want a whole ton of suggestions about how I can clean your house or throw a ball for you dog or spank your kids for you. It makes me wonder what on earth I'm gonna do with myself on my days off for the rest of my life. I really wish I could work 4 or even 5, 12 hours shifts a week till it chokes me.

Chena dome

2009-04-10T14:27:00.008-08:00

After coming down off the hill I needed something to do so I left "the pig" (my pack) in the cabin and went another 3 miles to the end of the trail and back.

So in no particular order, cause blogger is lame like that, here's the pictures form the trip. Among them you'll find a moose bed, some diamond willow in the raw, and a little cabin with a funny sign, heavy food, and a great big dog track.

Chena dome day zero

2009-04-09T00:08:00.002-08:00

Double feature: "the best dog" and "look what tobi found"

2009-04-05T15:09:00.005-08:00

So yesterday I was really feeling "quite ready for another adventure" and decided to make it a ski as Caleb said the snow on the trail we ski was really fast. So about 6pm I dressed down, got my favorite podcast downloaded, summoned my adventure shadow with a sharp whistle and headed on to the Chena lake ski trails. Bub was right it was pretty fast. being a crossfiter at heart I of course wasn't content to just 'go get some exercise' I had to time the thing. 4.5 kilometers was the distance. the first ski this winter was about 30 minutes, after several trips i've peared it down to 23:40 last night. I'd like to hit sub 20 or sub 18 next winter but its time to start thinking about 5k run times as the snow melts... (not that running is "it" that kinda thinking is for losers). I was thinking this summer it'd be fun to bring one of the kettle bells down to the beach and to somthing like

3 rounds for time of
swim to the rope and back (life jacket optional)
55lb kettle bell swings, 21 reps
12 burpees

That'll separate the men from the boys.

Any way back to 'the best dog' (lucky you actually got a triple feature today) so after taking the dog on a 5k ski, (which she probably ran more like 10k what with all the sniffing and exploring going on) I let her run behind the car out to the main road. she can keep a 22 mph pace for a good distance, not to shabby. When I got home after the ski I swapped out the ski's for skates as every one was at the ice rink. I got there and there was a game in progress on the other end so I just skated around on the other end. I'm not really into the idea of hockey as much as just skating. I just love how its so fluid a powerful, just brilliant. I just started this winter, Jordan got me all hooked up with his old skates and gloves, then the guy went out and bought me my first stick (it even matches my gloves... cool but NOT on purpose) after the game was over I told Bek that her dog was still in my car and we let her out on the ice and she chased a puck around on the ice. I think she was pretty weired out by the idea of people moving really fast and her moving very slow, then there's the whole not being able to stop thing, that was funny. so she chased pucks around while her mommy acted all paranoid about her losing a puppy-toe to a skate.

All in all, a pretty full day for the dog. I for the record thing dogs should be athletes and not just snuggle bunnies. I guess she was having muscle pain all night afterwards. kept getting out of bed and having leg twitches and stuff. Don't forget you can give dogs ibuprofen people!

the other thing I wanted to share was just a cool web comic tobi found called one swoop fell, I've ready web comics in the past, 'sluggy freelance' was pretty entertaining through most of high school. I really just wanted to put this picture up and give credit where due. I just was really struck by the cute little scene interjected while the bear and his bird friend stopped for sushi, a favorite past time of mine with my Juneau buddies

Steriotypes at Wherk, and a red face moment

2009-04-04T00:10:00.003-08:00

So work is going pretty stellar, though I think I've lost my iron stomach. I only retched once in school at that believe it or not was due to the smell of urine. Nowadays is seems that I a lot more sensitive to that kinda thing... any way If it was all pleasant they'd call it a hobby and not a job.

I really like most of the people I work with, there are only a few exceptions. the first is this dumb younger girl who cusses a lot. I said in a conversation with another RN within ear shot of her that I though people who cussed did so because they lacked the brain power to come up with something else to say. Later she made it clear she disagreed with me... and cussed doing it... lawl, sum people are so silly.

One time this girl disappeared, no one could find her and I ended up having to give one of her peeps a pain pill. After ward I was joshin' about how if she quit that'll probably be what its like... she just disappears one day and thats the end of it. This older quiet nurse looked over at me and said "Aaron I'm really glad you're working with us." I just said thanks...

Other than the young dumb nurse stereotype I've encountered the old curmudgeon Nurse. the kind that has an excuse for why she does everything even if no one ask, as though you can argue your way into having a perfect reputation. again I lol'd. (the example story involves bed pans... be advised) we were putting this 400# lady on a bed pan and she grabbed one of the small ones. another RN said "did you want one of the big ones I think they're blue" the old lady replies "no I the new big ones now are pink (like the one she had in hand)" I looked over at the other RN and she rolled her eyes and smiled. Later I went into the storage room and grabbed a big blue one and just set it in her pts room all passive aggressive like... guess what (I'lol'd again)

Ok if you've made it this far you've earned a treat. I was taking a lunch break in the little break room and one of the boss's 15 year old daughter was in there doing homework or whatever. I started talking to her, no wait... she was reading that stupid twilight vampire book. I started razing her about how Edward was totally emo and whiny and... well emo pretty well sums it up (see links if you're confused about the verbage here) any way I was in the med room pulling drugs and her Mom walks up to me and says "so.. my daughter has a little crush on you now Aaron" INSTANT FACE FLUSH. I was pretty embarrassed. I guess she'd asked how old I was and her my boss lady said "he's like 26 so too old for you" to which she replied "yeah but grandma and grandpa were 20 years apart"... I Told her I was sorry, we had a good laugh about it (so did everyone else in ear shot) and I scurried off all serious business... so far i've been told I look like every thing as young as 21 or 19... one guy asked me if I was the worlds biggest 12 yearold... can you guess what I did? right again, I lol'd.

Pillow lava

2009-03-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

Somthing wicked this way comes

2009-03-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

yarf...

2009-03-27T03:00:00.002-08:00

0257 hrs: early morning of the 27th

You know that euphoric feeling you get after you finally throw up after feeling terrible for hours... that would be me. I'm actualy glad, i always feel so much better afterwards. It was so brutal, I was dreaming about work and being asked to do stupid useless things over and over again (I call 'em fever dreams) finally I woke up, went to the bathroom and on the way out (I'd been packing a bucket with me for some time by now, sleeping by it and such) I Doubled over hurling... again and again. The first one curled my leg up involuntarily, and... yeah very unpleasant. No mess though which is a plus. So I'm not sure if this is a throw up every hour for the next 24 or a throw up once and feel totally recovered in 24. If I had to judge right now I'm thinking the later.

Up dates to follow!!
(kidding, that's gross...)

down into the rabbit hole again we go.

2009-03-25T22:18:00.008-08:00

Wow, so this whole working thing is super interesting. I mean its affect on me is interesting. I've been striving toward this end for all my life really, why did I learn to read in 1st grade? So I can be a productive member of society, and like 20 years later here I am doing it. In a sense Its kind of a let down, I feel a bit like "Ok I did that thing were all supposed to grow up and do, so what next?"

I can definitely understand why some people become workaholics. At work I'm like a somebody with tasks and responsibility and authority, ya know? people come to ME and ask MY opinion about MY patients. I guess now I have this thing in my pocket, or maybe around my neck, called "nursing judgment" that I whip out and make freelance decisions with. It's all wild west style, I have some If-->Then guidelines but I'm not dominated buy them, and most of them are like "If your N.J. says to then go ahead, otherwise... don't" Also I'm making a pretty stupid amount of money, I think its a total scam, but I'm an "if there's room for my thumb in the pie why not" kinda guy. I can also understand how one would get very distracted from serving God like one should with their job. But work is very satisfying, like a good CrossFit work out, you feel like you really got something done and don't have to feel all convicted about what a lazy slob you are. Then there's all that "i have money so I don't have to feel terrible about buying something" deal, thats good fun too.

nice night

2009-03-19T21:48:00.001-08:00

One Tough Pup

2009-03-19T19:56:00.002-08:00

Here's a video that should illustrate tenacity. This is a tough dog who NEVER quits

ttv9

2009-03-19T19:43:00.000-08:00

TTV8

2009-03-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

pt 7

2009-03-15T20:41:00.001-08:00

maybe this will get you higher video quality

pt 6

2009-03-13T18:45:00.002-08:00

pt 5

2009-03-13T16:58:00.002-08:00

pt 4

2009-03-13T11:37:00.002-08:00

pt 3

2009-03-13T10:15:00.002-08:00

Pt two

2009-03-12T22:44:00.003-08:00

Hope you're enjoying it

Touching the Void pt one

2009-03-12T19:05:00.007-08:00

This is a must watch for everyone who loves adventure stories. This takes a lot of work to crop together so please watch!

I managed to get this movie to work in a form worth watching (ie. no cussing). I think this is probably one of my favorite movies of all time.

I'm gonna be putting about 10 minutes of it on my blog at a time so you can enjoy it at your own pace. It gets kinda scary in parts but has a happy ending.

I messed up the editing a bit so there's a short scene at the end that's out of order...

Killer whale dog

2009-03-06T12:45:00.002-09:00

This snow in the yard has been largely undisturbed this winter, Jane went charging out into it earlier for no reason and it was so funny watching her try to muscle through it that I thought I'd share it, even better is watching poor pregnant beagle dog get frustrated at how Jane can do what she can not.

This is kinda what Jane reminded me of ungulating though the snow.

-be advised this video is pretty brutal-

Graphs FTW

2009-02-27T00:58:00.002-09:00

these made me lol

more music charts

more music charts

more music charts

Alone in the world

2009-02-24T14:36:00.002-09:00

The good ship continues to float.

Tobi and I went into town today, he had some class and I had to do some hospital stuff. I though the barrage of immunization requirements and hence paperwork was over with nursing school. Wrong! I get to prove to them that I had it all... I guess I start on Monday at 7:45 making about double the best wage I've ever made. After going to TVC for some records I ate lunch at the taco king with my boss from last summer and then went out on farmers loop and looked at the cabin I was talking about.

It was very cute, bigger than the typical dry cabin it had a porch and a 2nd story deck outside, as well as a shed. Inside it has a living, full bath, dishwasher, with a toyo stove and a blaze king wood stove. the stairs going up wrap around the back of the cabin. Upstairs is all upon with big south facing windows and a washer/dryer. Lots of closet space.

My brother Elliot (21 y/o, only biological sibling) is talking pretty seriously about coming up to Fairbanks to get a civil engineering degree. A lot can happen between February and September so who knows if he'll find something he'd rather do by then. I told him he could stay with me if he did come up. We've never been super close and I've always regretted what a bully I was to him so I'd be really good if we could just have some time together to try and rebuild what brothers are supposed to be.

I think we're gonna go help Travis on Allen's house tonight. needs a bit more sanding before we're ready to paint. We go the Pianist and Eagle Eye for our viewing pleasure at some point this week as well. Ok enough blogging I'm teaching twice on Sunday so I'd better get after it.

All alone

2009-02-23T20:24:00.002-09:00

Well the bulk of the Humphreys left us early this morning. It's only myself Jordan and Tobias remaining to keep the good ship afloat. There also seems to be a bit of a rat problem on the ship, fat tri-colored rats with pig-tails who like to watch you eat.

It was pretty depressing to come home and find the house all quiet, especially depressing when I found it with out the familiar aromas of -The 'Miss Suzie's' Home Cookin' Cafe-

Having found myself with the barest of essentials for the evening (steak chimies and crunchy delicious broccoli) I decided to invest in the only real luxury a man truly needs... coffee.

Jordan and I spent most of the day finishing up the Band of Brothers series and skating. It's pretty frustrating not to be able to as well as other people (like when you're there with just Jordan) never the less skating backwards has started to come together a bit. Also there were a few moose laying down behind the house when we got back. I wanted to sick Molly on them but Jordan was worried they would charge her and she couldn't run away in the deep snow.

I get to go into the hospital for a quick drug test tomorrow. Afterwards I'm gonna head out on farmers loop and check out a cabin that a girl in my class built and is selling. I know I'm not in any position to be buying but I might get some better idea for the place I want to live. Maybe she'd let me rent in until I could get a loan to buy the thing. I like the idea of a cabin I just don't want to have to haul water.

Like anyone hasn't heard...

2009-02-22T20:59:00.002-09:00

I got a job offer on Friday. It's exactly the job I wanted on 2 south (the medical floor) in the Fairbanks hospital. They are OK with me not working any Sunday's or Wednesdays (as I stipulated in my interview) so I won't have to miss church. Also the offer was for a day shift position so I won't have to work any nights. (once you're on day's they'll leave you on them, their's no mandatory rotation like other shift work)

Thanks for all the prayers.

This guy is pretty cool...

2009-02-21T22:42:00.004-09:00

Found this picture of a SEAL in Kabul, just kinda cool.

Dog Joke

2009-02-18T18:49:00.004-09:00

I though up this joke while walking outside to get wood. Lemme know what you think.

Why do beagles bark at nothing?

Because nothing barks back.

...

You're not laughing, what's up with that?

Math Fail

2009-02-15T00:24:00.001-09:00

Sometimes people go to public school...

vetoed

2009-02-12T19:08:00.004-09:00

Look !!! a geek eating lunch

I've been viewed

2009-02-10T14:43:00.002-09:00

I had my FMH interview today. I feel like it went fairly well. It was obvious they were impressed by all the places I've worked. Some of their questions were easy to answer and I had ready examples and others were harder to come up with responses.

Of course they didn't say anything about how interested they were in me but I feel like I represented myself well. I was able to make it clear that my 1st priority is to be in church and that I'm available for work any time otherwise, so whether I get this job or not I can't hold my head up high because I did the right thing.

The Dragon is Slain

2009-02-04T14:36:00.004-09:00

So... now that I've passed (link here!) I feel like I can really talk about my experience with the test. (And apologies for moping around like a hairless rat with one leg for the past few days...)

the test is set up so you can take between 75 and 265 questions. It will only boot you off before 265 if you either run out of time (6 hours) or it is 95% sure you're above the passing standard. So I got to take all 265 questions... in 5 hours. I can say that it was one of the most miserable experiences of my life.

I went in under fed and mentally under prepared. I had expected to take maybe 90-130 questions so at about question 170 I was just begging God to make it stop. I didn't take any brakes like I should have and didn't eat anything between 6 am and 1pm when I was done.

I started to get really worried about not passing and why it wasn't going to shut off. I was completely spent by about 3.5 hours in. I started to worry about how horrible it would have to be to go down there again and deal with all this again. I feel like the Humphreys have really bent over backwards inviting me into their home and dealing with what a chore I am. (I think Mike was a much better foster kid than me), but failing the exam would be like a slap in the face to their hospitality and patience.

Three different times I cried during the test, sounds silly now but when you've been asked 100 questions you don't hardly have a clue on for the last 2 hours, and its supposed to be what you spent the last 2 years prepping for its gets pretty heavy.

Glad that chapter of life is over and now I can concentrate on being stressed out over getting a job, and after that I'll be a real boy!

NCLEX-RN: passed

2009-02-04T09:20:00.002-09:00

No news: test news

2009-02-03T19:33:00.003-09:00

Well it seems every time I finally come to terms with the reality I've failed the test there appears another glimmer of hope.

What made me think I'd failed it was that the girl whom it tested with had her licence number posted on the AK website.

she called me today and said that she paid the 8 dollars for the quick notification provided by the NCLEX website (not the AK one) as her license number hadn't been posted yet. What I had seen was actually an old license from being a nursing assistant and her temporary license. She has in fact passed, but due to the fact that God wants to teach me some patience I am unable to log into the web site to make the same request (which I would gladly pay 5 times the price to know right now) there was a mix up about my email address early on and I believe that is the reason for the snag.

Your continued prayers are appreciated, mostly I'm just praying God will give me peace about not passing. I keep trying to settle my heart on that fact so as not to be disappointed... alas, hope springs eternal.

I should be able to call customer service tomorrow and get is straightened out.

test up date, and an answered question

2009-02-02T12:48:00.002-09:00

No word so far on the test, delay doesn't look good though.

Ok so bek when we watched that episode of SGA and they called the A-10's in to destroy that wraith in the trailer remember I said their gatling gun sounded to slow and too much like a regular *tat tat tat* gun and not like a roar. Here's a clip of an A-10 gun being tested.

The A-10's gun 2100 rounds a minute, the p 90 fire 882 rounds a minute.

Ok here's another cool video that talks about the difference between a regular machine gun and a multi-barreled gun.

Blasphemy challage

2009-02-01T14:50:00.001-09:00

So... there was a little movement on the internet a while back

and the hilarious todd friel responce

The last dragon

2009-01-29T17:26:00.002-09:00

Hey everyone, Just wanted to let you guys know I made it to my buddies house at about 3:00. The roads were pretty bad and I saw: one dead moose, one flipped truck, one truck with horse trailer attached, backwards in the ditch. So yeah, God saw me through a potential dangerous adventure just fine.

I'm gonna get up early go take my test tomorrow, probably hang out in anchorage a bit and then go get some dinner and watch a hockey game that Jer's wife is gonna get us free tickets for.

Ok we need to start on dinner so I'm gonna say l8er.

Also, I appreciate everyone praying for me, I've never been let down by God before and I don't suspect he'll start tomorrow.

Double Feature

2009-01-25T23:17:00.006-09:00

Firstly I'd like to publicly apologise for putting such an inapropriate picure on my blog, as a 25 year old MAN I should know better.

Secondly today was a kindof a big first for me.

I've always hated team sports, in high school I liked Swiming and weight training, in fact I did more PE credits than I had to but I NEVER did any team sports. Once I accidently got signed up for a class called (if you can belive it) "Team Sports" I guess a buddy of mine heard them call my name on the roll and when I told him it was a mistake he was leik "dude drop the other class, basket ball is fun"...

I'd rather run though the school in short shorts and a pink headband with the song "maniac" blareing than do somthing as offensive as play with all the dorks who think their "B-balls" skills are gonna be worth somthing some day.

Any way that all changed tonight when I enganged in my first ever pseudo-game of hockey. I just started learning to skate this winter and have gone maybe 6-8 times but I'm starting to feel fairly comfortable moving forward with a puck and shooting. As far as that crazed backward or hard stoping stuff (you know that stuff that is really cool looking and looks really fun?) Yeah I can't do that. But you know what I can do?! SCORE!!!

Ok this is how it was. Caleb passed my the puck and like 900 miles an hour and I was skating at probably 225 mph or like 235, (it gets hard to tell when you move that fast) and I santched the puck off the melting Ice (that's annoying when you're so fast you ju

st leave melted Ice behind you, I think the pros' have to use refrigerated skates so the other player's don't get wet)

So I was blitzing up toward the net the only thing between me and it was the puck and all of a sudden, this uh... tozier girl named after a lake I think (like the lake of melted ice I was leaveing behind me "lol" <== (I HATE it when the ATB does that; and I know you all read my blog, I'm just dissapointed you always check tobi's world first )) She had this look on her face liek "Oh its Just Aaron, he's really cool and smart and funny, but I'll be able to stop his puck for sure." But guess what sports fans I Deked left the deked right then started the crosby spin like the erroneous tornado wearing really classy clothes and BOOM (that was a sonic boom btw) the puck come flying out she tried to swat it out of the air with her wiley girl moves but she was too slow, the net came flying a part and was singed and smoldering slightly around a blowing ball sized hole behind which was only the shattered plexi-glass of said Toziers hopes and dreams.

And now the rest of the story:

Yeah we played a little game, it was pretty fun, jordan and I were headed towards the boards together one time and he screeched at me like a banchee and scared me, that was annoying. Its funny how normaly he's just a goof ball who doesn't scare me a bit but on the ice it's like he has wings and I'm just a fat kid with a broken leg.

There was another time when the puck got passed up between me and lisa toward her goal, we both shot after it (she skates about as good as I do, probably better) everyone was yelling "Go lisa he's all yours" we both shot after the puck and I almost had her but (wanna know what an excuse looks like kids, pay attention here) the ice was so messed up my skates kept getting pulled weird angles and I just couldn't get going so she grabed it a pulled it away. I've never had so much fun with her as tonight.

My goal against kluane was more like, she's standing in front of the goal, I pull up really slowly and just fire it off in some random direction and I accedetly went though. If she'd turned her skates side ways it probably wouldn't have gone in.

Manliness

2009-01-21T23:02:00.007-09:00

True and False Manliness

By: James Freeman Clarke, 1886

MANLINESS means perfect manhood, as womanliness implies perfect womanhood. Manliness is the character of a man as he ought to be, as he was meant to be. It expresses the qualities which go to make a perfect man, — truth, courage, conscience, freedom, energy, self-possession, self-control. But it does not exclude gentleness, tenderness, compassion, modesty. A man is not less manly, but more so, because he is gentle. In fact, our word ” gentleman ” shows that a typical man must also be a gentle man.

By manly qualities the world is carried forward. The manly spirit shows itself in enterprise, the love of meeting difficulties and overcoming them, — the resolution which will not yield, which patiently perseveres, and does not admit the possibility of defeat. It enjoys hard toil, rejoices in stern labor, is ready to make sacrifices, to suffer and bear disaster patiently. It is generous, giving itself to a good cause not its own ; it is public-spirited, devoting itself to the general good with no expectation of reward. It is ready to defend unpopular truth, to stand by those who are wronged, to uphold the weak. Having resolved, it does not go back, but holds on, through good report and evil, sure that the right must win at last. And so it causes truth to prevail, and keeps up the standard of a noble purpose in the world.

But as most good things have their counterfeits, so there is false manliness which imitates these great qualities, though at heart it is without them. Instead of strength of will, it is only willful; in place of courage, it has audacity. True manliness does what it believes right; false manliness, does what it chooses to do. Freedom, to one, means following God given convictions of truth; to the other it means thinking as he pleases, and doing as he likes. The one is reverent, the other rude; one is courteous, the other overbearing ; one is brave, the other foolhardy; one is modest, the other self-asserting. False manliness is cynical, contemptuous, and tyrannical to inferiors. The true man has respect for all men, is tender to the sufferer, is modest and kind. The good type uses its strength to maintain good customs, to improve the social condition, to defend order. The other imagines it to be manly to defy law, to be independent of the opinions of the wise, to sneer at moral obligation, to consider itself superior to the established principles of mankind.

A false notion of manliness leads boys astray.

All boys wish to be manly; but they often try to become so by copying the vices of men rather than their virtues. They see men drinking, smoking, swearing; so these poor little fellows sedulously imitate such bad habits, thinking they are making themselves more like men. They mistake rudeness for strength, disrespect to parents for independence. They read wretched stories about boy brigands and boy detectives, and fancy themselves heroes when they break the laws, and become troublesome and mischievous. Out of such false influences the criminal classes are recruited. Many a little boy who only wishes to be manly, becomes corrupted and debased by the bad examples around him and the bad literature which he reads. The cure for this is to give him good books that show him truly noble examples from life and history, and make him understand how infinitely above this mock-manliness is the true courage which ennobles human nature.

In a recent awful disaster, amid the blackness and darkness and tempest, the implacable sea and the pitiless storm, — when men’s hearts were failing them from terror, and women and children had no support but faith in a Divine Providence and a coming immortality, — the dreadful scene was illuminated by the courage and manly devotion of those who risked their own lives to save the lives of others. Such heroism is like a sunbeam breaking through the tempest. It shows us the real worth there is in man.

No matter how selfish mankind may seem, whenever hours like these come, which try men’s souls, they show that the age of chivalry has not gone; that though

” The knights are dust, and their good swords rust,”

there are as high-hearted heroes now as ever. Firemen rush into a flaming house to save women and children. Sailors take their lives in their hands to rescue their fellow-men from a wreck. They save them at this great risk, not because they are friends or relatives, but because they are fellow-men.

Courage is an element of manliness. It is more than readiness to encounter danger and death, for we are not often called to meet such perils. It is every-day courage which is most needed,—that which shrinks from no duty because it is difficult; which makes one ready to say what he believes, when his opinions are unpopular; which does not allow him to postpone a duty, but makes him ready to encounter it at once; a courage which is not afraid of ridicule when one believes himself right; which is not the slave of custom, the fool of fashion. Such courage as this, in man or woman or child, is true manliness. It is infinitely becoming in all persons. It does not seek display, it is often the courage of silence no less than speech; it is modest courage, unpretending though resolute. It holds fast to its convictions and principles, whether men hear or whether they forbear.

Truthfulness is another element of true manliness.

Lies usually come from cowardice, because men are afraid of standing by their flag, because they shrink from opposition, or because they are conscious of something wrong which they cannot defend, and so conceal. Secret faults, secret purposes, habits of conduct of which we are ashamed, lead to falsehood, and falsehood is cowardice. And thus the sinner is almost necessarily a coward. He shrinks from the light; he hides himself in darkness. Therefore if we wish to be manly, we must not do anything of which we are ashamed. He who lives by firm principles of truth and right, who deceives no one, injures no one, who therefore has nothing to hide, he alone is manly. The bad man may be audacious, but he has no true courage. His manliness is only a pretence, an empty shell, a bold demeanor, with no real firmness behind it.

True manliness is humane. It says, “We who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.” Its work is to protect those who cannot defend themselves; to stand between the tyrant and the slave, the oppressor and his victim. It is identical in all times with the spirit of chivalry which led the good knights to wander in search of robbers, giants, and tyrannical lords, those who oppressed the poor and robbed helpless women and orphans of their rights. There are no tyrant barons now, but the spirit of tyranny and cruelty is still to be found. The good knight to-day is he who provides help for the blind, the deaf and dumb,the insane; who defends animals from being cruelly treated, rescues little children from bad usage, and seeks to give working men and women their rights. He protects all these sufferers from that false manliness which is brutal and tyrannical to the weak, abusing its power over women and children and domestic animals. The true knights to-day are those who organize and carry on the societies to prevent cruelty, or to enforce the laws against those who for a little gain make men drunkards. The giants and dragons to-day are those cruelties and brutalities which use their power to ill-treat those who are at their mercy. Knights today are those who bring the light of the Gospel of truth into a dark world which hates it.

True manliness is tender and loving; false manliness, cold and hard, cynical and contemptuous. The bravest and most heroic souls are usually the most loving. Garibaldi, Kossuth, Mazzini, the heroes of our times; Luther, who never feared the face of man; Gustavus -Adolphus and William of Orange; Lafayette, and our own Washington are examples of this union of courage and tenderness. Bold as lions in the defense of the right, such men in their homes and their private life have a womanly gentleness. False manliness is unfeeling, with no kindly sympathies, rude and rough and overbearing. True manliness is temperate; it is moderate, it exercises self-control, it is capable of self-denial and renunciation. False manliness is self-willed and self-indulgent…….

True manliness differs also from the false in its attitude to woman. Its knightly feeling makes it wish to defend her rights, to maintain her claims, to be her protector and advocate. False manliness wishes to show its superiority by treating women as inferiors. It flatters them, but it does not respect them. It fears their competition on equal levels, and wishes to keep them confined, not within walls, as in the Islamic regions, but behind the more subtle barriers of opinion, prejudice, and supposed feminine aptitudes. True manliness holds out the hand to woman, and says, ” Do whatever you are able to do; whatever God meant you to do. Neither you nor I can tell what that is till all artificial barriers are removed, and you have full opportunity to try.” Manly strength respects womanly purity, sympathy, and grace of heart. And this is the real chivalry of the present hour.

Bubalicious!

2009-01-19T22:00:00.003-09:00

So Caleb got all this pent up energy working on house loan stuff today so some of the boys and I went scating and when we got back Jordan and I decided to crossfit.

The workout of the day was

21-15-9 of
Push ups
Kettle bell swings
Jumping air squats
(so thats 21 of each, 15 of each, then 9 of each)

I started off at a blistering 5:38
Jordan, curse of the tall guys, got a 7:03. Push ups are killer for him.

Caleb was sitting around trying to look small working on more silly bank stuff. So I told him if he just did it I'd leave him alone about it. So he did.

after a brief explanation of the different movements he showed us what a freak of nature he really is. The fact is that if you're short you don't need to move as far to complete each movement so the formula for power
(Force X Distance)/Time = Power
He has less distance and therefore more power. To make a short story... uh over. Untrained and post skating, with solid push ups, sloppy squats, and slow transition he pulled a 5:02 out of the air.

Jordan and I recovered pretty quickly, owing to our experience. Caleb, an old workin' guy, however is moping around flopping on couches and groaning like he's been horse whipped.

I'm hoping this little taste has wet his appetite enough to keep going, never to return to the ancient pathetic body building/cardio style that has plagued the fitness/health community like a cancer for the last 50 years. I'd really like to see what he can do. I'm sure he's got a lot more potential than either Jord or I.

I guess tonight just goes further to prove that Lisa sure can pick 'em.

Good job sister!

Flowers?!

2009-01-16T21:41:00.002-09:00

So this new template I"m using was tagged with: lotus, red, white, flowers, brown, abstract, girly. GIRLY?!?! is there something girly about flowers?

Once when I was working in the garden over the summer it was all rainy and I was working on the irrigation system and all the girls were planting flowers. When it was lunch time we all headed in together and they asked me what I was up to. With out thinking I said "oh just super fun manly stuff like irrigation lines." I didn't think a thing about it but later one of my man bosses came up and said "You know i don't consider planting flowers to be women's work, i've been planting flowers for 25 years and..." Anyway, i guess that's what I get for opening my big mouth on the liberal center of the Alaskan interior.

Ok, so...

My flowers are very manly, just ask them they'll tell you.

A day that will live in infamy

2009-01-15T21:21:00.002-09:00

Today one of the Humphrey's got pregnant.

The family name has been shamed and dragged though the mud by a certain very naughty beagle. I'll just post to let the world know but there was a blue heeler dog that had been hanging around the house for a few days and when Tobi and Travis got home tonight, Travis came inside and allegedly said "there's some love making happening out in the yard"

There's very mixed feelings about this among the family. I for one am excited, puppies are great. Tobi feels like she's shamed the good Humphrey name, and is acting like hes having her thrown out. I went down stairs after I heard and Tobi, Krista, Aimee and Jock were in Tobi's room. Tobi was sitting down with his hands folded looking like a disapproving father, molly looked pathetic, she came up to me like "I've been a naughty beagle, my dogged passions have carried me farther than I wanted to go" you can check out Aimee's blog to get an idea (an ideal idea) of what their puppies might look like.

In other news...

Joanna cut my hair tonight and mannaged to gouge a big swath in it. I've got the big job interview here soon so that should be interesting. I've got two weeks to let in grow out so I think it'll be ok.

Sam the desert SEAL, (no flippers)

2009-01-15T07:48:00.004-09:00

So most of you know about my buddy Sam who is a Navy Seal. He funished up 'Buds' (Basic Underwater Demolions, Seal) about a year ago, got assigned to team three (no that doesn't really mean anything anymore) and went to Iraq for the end of his teams deployment. His job was to hand around a certain spot and just wait to get shot at basicly. I guess another part of his team was in another area and the the 25 killed over 200 Insurgents.

"They deserved it" he said.

Whats kind of funny is that he is still pretty liberal, he just always wanted to be the best. His Mom was 'shocked and awed' When he finished paramedic school in Colorado and joined the Navy. Jordan Sanders and I were expecting it.

He was droped from buds twice, once during hell week for getting SIPE (swimming induced pulmonary edema) and again from the next class when he fell off the his mountain bike, off duty, and smashed his wrists up.

I guess he made the mistake of telling the instructors he could draw, so they made him draw a cartoon on the board everyday before class. "And it has to be funny"

This is him on the right. I guess they have to blur out their faces, and they don't wear name tags or rank in the field, not sure why, thats just how special forces roll I guess. You can see they make the young guys use the SAW (the big machine gun he has)

I have no idea what that thing they're driving is, I think the wreckage is a russian MIG we shot down though.

Interview and Car news

2009-01-14T15:30:00.005-09:00

(101st post yay!)

So I found out today that the interviews for the job at the hospital I want are gonna be on the 28th. Hopefully I'll be a real boy soon.

Also I got my car back today, my blunder and Caleb's blunder are both fixed, new oil, new tires, new alignment. I was going to wait on the tires till after I got a job but they were so chewed up I could see the steel banding inside them and I didn't want to drive to anchorage on anymore faith than absolutely required. 375 miles though an Alaskan winter can be challenging enough.

Oh and while were on the subject, Check out this car. Its supposed to be the fastest steet leagal car in the world. Called the Mclaren F1 they only made 100 of them back in the early 90's. the thing looks like a fighter plane. Notice anything unusual about the drivers seat?

Jack LaLanne

2009-01-13T16:57:00.002-09:00

This guy was Mr. Fitness for about 34 years on TV, way back in the 50's till about 1984. He's kind of a strange guy but I though his message was way ahead of its time.

anyway this video I thought was pretty funny.

He's still alive at 94 years old so he knew something.

Feats of strength:

# 1954 (age 40): Jack swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks. A world record.
# 1955 (age 41): Jack swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. When interviewed afterwards he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which reduced his chance to star jump significantly.
# 1956 (age 42): Jack set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program with Art Baker.
# 1957 (age 43): Jack swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500-pound cabin cruiser. The swift ocean currents turned this one-mile swim into a swimming distance of 6.5 miles.
# 1958 (age 44): Jack maneuvered a paddleboard nonstop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore. The 30-mile trip took 9.5 hours.
# 1959 (age 45): Jack did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, 22 minutes. His well-known white German shepherd, Happy, was born this year, the same year The Jack LaLanne Show went nationwide.
# 1974 (age 60): For the second time, Jack swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a 1,000-pound boat.
# 1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, Jack again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000-pound boat.
# 1976 (age 62): To commemorate the "Spirit of '76", United States Bicentennial, Jack swam one mile in Long Beach Harbor. He was handcuffed and shackled, and he towed 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
# 1979 (age 65): Jack towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.
# 1980 (age 66): Jack towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida. The boats carried 77 people, and he towed them for over one mile in less than one hour.
# 1984 (age 70): Once again handcuffed and shackled, Jack fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen's Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.

I figured it out!

2009-01-11T18:48:00.003-09:00

If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty woman your wife
So from my personal point of view
Get an ugly girl to marry you

A pretty woman makes her husband look small
And very often causes his downfall
As soon as he marries her, then she starts
Doin' the things that will break his heart

But if you make an ugly woman your wife
You'll be happy for the rest of your life
An ugly woman cooks your meals on time
An she'll always give you peace of mind

Don't let your friends say you have no taste
Go ahead and marry anyway
Though her face is ugly and her eyes don't match
Take it from me, she's a better catch

See its not really their fault, I'm just glad they've made the mistakes so I can learn from them.

Combat "Nurses" in Afganistan

2009-01-10T02:36:00.006-09:00

My SEAL buddy Sam told me about the school these guys go to in order to be special forces medics. They're pretty cool. I did some research about them and found out they do all kinds of stuff from Surgery to dentistry to veterinary medicine. I guess they do so much on people without anesthetic that their motto, according to Sam, is "the operator feels no pain" it takes more than a year to finish the school and they send SEAL's to it as well as Green Berets (for those who don't know they are the special forces for the Navy and the Army respectively)

This is a clip for a Nat Geo presentation they did on a group of GB's who work in Afghanistan fighting the taliban, they do a lot of "hearts and minds" operations in order to help the local people trust their government and resist the taliban.

Being in the medical field I think this guy, obviously Jewish by birth, is really cool. If I could snap my fingers and have any job it'd probably be this one. I really have a heart for the afgani people and how miss treated they are by the taliban, it really is terrorism at its worst. These people are putting their lives at risk just accepting aid from Americans.

I put this video together just to show the kind of things they do and deal with. This is a clip form a medical clinic in a village where there had been a lot of gun fighting with the taliban in previous weeks. In addition to medical supplies they brought rice, flour, and hand crank radio's tuned to the pro-government radio stations.

Enjoy.

(Oh BTW, your prayers are working wonders. I did really good on a practice exam for the NCLEX-RN and my RN friend tells me their are 6 openings on the floor I want to work on at the hospital. Keep it up, thanks!)

4th picture

2009-01-09T14:57:00.003-09:00

I didn't even have to get tag to think this one was gonna be cool.

My dad went to cabo in mexico and went sport fishing, I've got his pictures cause they're so cool. this is a fish he caught i think its called a mahi-mahi. they're delicious.