Took me long enough
Deep breath now son, the way is hard and the road is long
So here I am, sitting at a computer in my family room. It's 2:59 in the morning, and all the lights are off. The flicker off the computer screen bathes me in a faint light, just enough to reach beyond a silhouette. Clad in only pajama pants and my Purdue knit cap I stare idly at the letters dancing across the screen of their own accord. Four minutes pass. I am mesmerized, enchanted and held in trancelike reverie. The TV screen hums faintly, as the theme song to Final Fantasy X pervades the air, complementing two words humbly displayed on the television: The End.
I'm feeling a very intense wash of profundivity (no it isn't, and yes I know) here. I dunno. It's just the effect the completing the stories of any Final Fantasy game tends to have on me. I remember after IX I went and lay down in bed just reflecting for literally the rest of the day. The good people at Squaresoft simply spellbind. What can I say? They weave a good tale. At any rate, aside from my feeling very profound and such, I also was reflecting on relationships and such (as that's what makes the FF stories so awesome), and like wow. I was just talking to my younger brother and telling him that if only real life were as interesting, but it just occurred to me that in this one little way, life is kinda videogamesque. What I mean is, how there exists that bittersweet reality of always having people to miss. I miss all you people, but now that I'm back home the idea of re-leaving the few really good friends I have here, sorrow is perhaps too strong a word, but I'm given pause and a sigh passes my lips. But failing to re-unite is not satisfactory either. Bittersweet tragedy of life. Now all I need is a girl that shares my love but that can never be with me because of some hugely improbable conflict. ... sigh...
Ahh, but there I go again.
I feel it appropriate to let you good people know that this is the first of what is likely to be two posts. Two because this one is being done without my having read any of your entries, and so any of my potential responses and so forth will be in the second to be existent post. Meanwhile, this initial post of mine shall be my catch-up one.
With that being said, I shall now take up space by pasting in the quiz thingy from Kat, Erin and RJ...
Quiz.
A - Age you lost your virginity? I'll let you know
B - Band listening to right now? Most likely some Japanese one (FF X)
C - Dream car? Two words, Optimus Prime
D - Dads name? James/Jim
E - Easiest person to make laugh? Myself, or hmm, yeah prbly Kat
F - Food you miss most? Strawberries, definately strawberries
G - Any encounters with ghosts? Not yet
H - Person most hated at the moment? Fortunately no one
I - Interesting unknown fact about yourself? Hmm, left handed (but you guys knew that, right?), equally proud of being Irish as of being Chinese and all the others (well, maybe not that half-percent French and Welsh), didn't learn that lowercase letters existed let alone what they were until first grade, hmm it would seem I'm just not that interesting...
J - The first letter of the last person who broke your heart? J
K - Kissing with eyes opened or closed? Well, open and you're more likely to hit what you were aiming for, but then again once you're that close there's really not that much distiguishable features to be seen anyway... so I guess that translates to open 'till you're in the process and then closed. ;)
L - Last time you did LSD? took some speed recently, well sort of, I'll get explain in a bit...
M - Most memorable moment you can think of in a minute? Being prayed over and praying for a bunch of freshmen I'd just met at school
N - Nicknames? SS, Scotty, Scotch, Scooter, 'Topher Jr. (in reference to my older brother ChrisTOPHER), Steiner, Scotty too hotty, Sco
O - What's the most valued possession? feeling loved (yeah yeah, I doubt really have anything material that's all that interesting or irreplaceable)
P - Poison of choice? Strawberry Bannana V8 Smoothie, haven't tried one since so I don't know if it counts as poison or not
Q - The last quote you heard: "It knows we're here to kill it," - Chick from Armageddeon in reference to the asteroid
R - What are you allergic to? grass, pollen, animal dander (like dogs, cats, ect), dust, mold, tree nuts (cashews, almonds, ect), strawberries, milk to a slight degree
S - Song you sang last? Sang? well, one of my invented ones, but otherwise either "Salvation" or "A Whole New World"
T - Time you woke up? about 11:20am
U - Fav. pair of underwear? My "Zam" , "Pow" "Fwhoosh!" ones
V - Vegetable you hate most? green beans or cooked carrots
W - What are you the most afraid of? authority ... honestly some of them have no business having it
X - X-rated love life? well what the heck does that mean? If you have offspring then a video of such would be rated X, or is creativity and or deviation from the accepted standard norm ... oh wait, love life? Ahahahaha, nevermind...
Y - Year you were born? 1986
Z - Zodiac sign? Aquarius
Wow, that took a lot more energy than I thought it would. Good grief. Then again it could have something to do with it being like 4am now (or so). Huh, funny how that works. I may have to have an interlude. Not that you people will notice. I'll post the finished product as a whole all at once. Huh, and I haven't even started to catch up yet. Meh, okay, signing off for a lil bit...
And I’m back. Okay so quite a bit has been going on lately, well mostly because there’s always things going on, and so when I let them pile up by the week, well, that’s a lot of stuff. Right, so the last time I wrote I was rather doped up from just having my wisdom teeth pulled out. So yeah, it hurt and that really sucked. But there’s no rest for the weary, or the insane anyway. Yeah so you see, ever since getting back home to MN, I had this insatiable desire to play DDR, but alas I had no such system or game or pad. Woe is me. Hmmm indeed. But I was determined, so I started talking to people and finagling finoogles. Well, I had some initial problems but I managed to procure a DDR dance pad. Then my younger brother had a friend over who brought his playstation 2. That left the game. Well, I was supposed to be borrowing a game from the same gal I borrowed the pad from, but that just wasn’t panning out. SO I ended up just renting it. w00t. So there I was, the day after having my wisdom teeth pulled and yes, I’m playing Dance Dance Revolution. Ahhh right! So it was shortly after this that my younger brother (the self-same one who had the friend over) became enamored of with E-Bay and proceeded to successfully bid on a PS2 (the little miniature one). So what is the first game he goes out and buys? Yep, Final Fantasy X. Oh my good grandmas gravy! I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before, but I am a HUGE Final Fantasy whore. Beat FF IX without having a memory card, system, or game, so needless to say persistence spanning a couple years was required. It was awesome. So anyway, FF X and DDR proceeded to ownzore my soul for the next week. Then I had to return DDR, so it was just FF X, and Wal-Mart of course, but really all my Wal-Mart goings on follow a certain theme, so we’ll get to that later. At any rate, I was doing all that madness up to the point of having my Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle with us as we went to some weird place called Cragun’s for the Fourth of July weekend. It’s this hotel/cabin lakeshore resort thing near some city called Brainerd. No, I don’t have any idea where that is either. So there I am, at this hotel thing on some lake, Gull Lake I believe it was, and suh-weet cable tv! So I rediscovered how incredibly freaking awesome Adult Swim is, Go Team Venture! And while doing this, stumbled upon Samurai Champloo, which I have to say, I’m now going to look into. This of course reminded me of the stark bleak ever present reality of my cataclysmic Naruto and Bleach deprivation. So yes, I will have to catch up or burn them all when I get back or something. Maybe I’ll just move to Tokyo. Warm toilets there, or so I hear. But I digress. So, other than tv, which honestly I didn’t really watch all that much of (except of course at around midnight, for obvious reasons to those who know) I was basically chill’n, and maybe playing ping pong or something. I did however play golf for the first time ever. I must say it was an experience and I rather suck at it. I’m not utterly terrible, like, I was never double digits over par, and I would have some actually decent shots but then I’d miff it all up in short order. So that was golf. Oh, I also played tennis, and went to the beach. This resulted in me getting a decent bit darker what with all the sun exposure. At least my arms got real dark and my front, but not so much my back ( I was in a chair on the beach, reading a book about a cult - fun stuff). Anyway, that kinda segways nicely into my next topic which incorporates Wal-Mart and Craguns meaning of course that said subject matter is the ever mysterious and perplexing female race. However, it’s like 1pm in the afternoon, and things need to be done. Things like taking my younger brother to Best Buy to go get Final Fantasy X2 (kinda an obvious move), and then hanging out with a friend followed by being taken out to dinner by my Grandparents before they head back to Indianapolis (marginally ironic I know). So I shall leave again, only to return and discuss the enigma that is the ladies, and then I’ll close with a bit on the fast approaching future…
Well, -sigh- , lol, I really should have seen that coming. I mean, did I really expect to have access to Final Fantasy X-2 and not stay up till at least 4am? Honestly. Well yes, so it has now been a good couple of days since my last little, “I’ll post soon when I have more time” thing. Oh well, se la vi right? At any rate my life has been oh so interesting as of late. I have deigned to delve into the aforementioned world of women so as to finish that segment before it falls out of my head. So without further adieu …
It has occurred to me that my life is horribly fickle. And by fickle I mean 3 parts charmed, 2 blessed, and a good 5 parts ironic. Yes indeed I lead a strikingly mundane yet twisted life. So allow me to perhaps elaborate. Some of you may know, or at the very least strongly suspect due to my inherent plethora of flaws, that I have gone throughout my entire academic career with nary a date, romantic tryst, or even a study buddy. Naught but friends in ever increasing numbers throughout middle and high school. And college? Ha! I’d say don’t make me laugh, but clearly that’s a forgone conclusion. So here I am, firmly under the impression that I’m entirely unable to intrigue the opposite sex, despite the constant assurances from my small army of female friends that there is indeed nothing wrong with me. Cue the madness. So let’s see. Wal-Mart. I return to Wal-Mart and I’m awash in all the new employees and the old ones that I haven’t seen in a while. So in particular there’s a gal that works in an area right adjacent to the registers, and a couple of girls - twins actually ; ) - that just seemed to come into Wal-Mart really often. Now, I’m going to go ahead and say now that I remain in the same state of absence of new interactions with persons of the female persuasion. Yes, and even yay verily I can say that I’ve had opportunities but let us say that it would have profited me nothing. I guess to be fair, I ought to mention that in the past I have had an unsettling degree of success in attracting girls that are younger than me, as well as being ehh .. a bit disturbed. Here’s why I felt that recent event’s were deserving of a footnote in Xiaohouzi’s liverjournaldom. Well, firstly a gal expressing any manner of interest in me is a momentous occasion worthy of being recorded, but additionally all the girls that I could have most likely had some degree of success with (at least until they became dis-enchanted) were normal. This is very novel for me. The other thing that adds to the curious nature is this. Okay Wal-Mart stuff, so the customers, the girls that just like come in with a high degree of frequency; I dunno why but we’ve just taken a shine to each other. They’re really outgoing and bubbly. So that’s them. Then there’s this other gal. So she’s like the opposite of the twins. She’s like extremely un-outgoing. So as it is in my nature to just hi randomly to people and wave ect.. I do so. Well, after many days of working, she actually kinda waves back and we finally have an actual conversation. Now mind you, I was just meeting a new person here, I wasn’t trying to flirt or anything like that. Well, at the end of one of these conversations, she’s like, “Hey, I’m going for a walk would you like to go with me?” ….. and I’m like thinking, HOLY COW, is she asking me what I think she is? Well, I said sure, partly ‘cause I’m a putz (as I had no intentions of pursuing anything with her) and because I like adventures. We never did actually go on that walk, but in short I found out that yes, she had been asking what I had thought she was. I mean, friends that you just met aren’t someone you ask to join you on a walk right? Well anyway, here’s the kicker, she’s 23. And yes she knew I was 19 and I knew she was 23. It was all very overwhelming. So meanwhile, I totally forgot about the third Wal-Mart incident with a gal. So this one involved a super longtime friend of mine, who’s a year older than me (lest you people think I cruise for younger women - especially with the stories to come) and we’ve known each other pretty well for some years. So anyway, we’ve always just been friends, but like, I go in to work one day, and she’s talking to me for whatever reason when as she leaves she totally just randomly comments that “Scott, you smell really good”. …. pause … hmmm. So the next day it like happens again, only it’s like you smell good, and you always seem to smell good. I mean, does telling a guy that they smell good strike anyone else as … interesting? I guess I just never really thought of that as a very plutonic comment. And if I always have been uh.. good smelling, she certainly never mentioned it. This and the fact that when we were hanging out one time 2 or so years ago her other female friends and her in particular cited a sense of smell as one of a guys most attractive qualities. Hmm. The world may never know. So I manage to escape to the 4th of July and we go out of town to this resort place on a lake. And what should happen? This time yes indeed I seem to have enamored myself of the younger ladies. So picture this. I’m sitting on the beach reading a book (one about a cult actually, interesting stuff) minding my own business, and reflecting on the fact that there ought to be some sort of ordinance requiring girls to wear one piece swimsuits, unless they’re like at least 19, and being a tad annoyed by the lack of said ordinance, when two gals in regular attire approach as they make their way to the lodge part of the facility across the self-same beach I’m reading on. So everything’s normal as they are traversing across the sand and I casually note with an air of disinterest that they’re probably a year or two younger than me, when the actually start to pass me in their little trek. Well they didn’t finish. Yep. They completely stop and engage me in conversation, and I was also wearing headphones listening to music at the time mind you. To be fair, I did acknowledge their presence with a smile, but if a man can no longer smile to a fellow traveler than the world is truly in a fetters. But I digress. So they stop and ask me how I’m doing, what my name is, and introduce themselves, finally leaving with the assurance that they’ll see me around. Hmm, so bizarre I think while looking over at my father sitting on a chair in the grass a few yards off giving me a double thumbs up. Bizarre indeed. Well, I finish the book and begin start the return journey when I promptly get myself into more shenanigans. I would like to take a moment to yell at my fellow man. None of my actions would have been worthy of being shenanigan inducing if you (plural masculine in nature) schleps would exercise a tad bit more gentility and common courtesy. That being said. As I’m walking along the path up to our weekend room, there approaches a small convoy of gals proceeding in the opposite direction. So as we pass I toss out the smile and we exchange hello’s. Again that this is seen by girls as unusual and noteworthy attention from a guy is really just indicative of the sorry state of the expectations of a mans behavior. Honestly. But I digress again. So I guess maybe but I daresay it isn’t prudent to stray too far down this line of reasoning, but it probably also didn’t help that as we passed I was in a state of freshly tanned from the beach, and clad in a manner to make this quite apparent. But, let’s be serious people, I’ve never known my visual nature, burnt or not, to be have a terribly devastating effect - note my track record or lack thereof. Moving along. So that evening, the hotel or whatever you want to call it, is putting on a free dinner with quite a lot of pretty decent food and drink. So my family and basically everyone else staying there decides to eat at this free spread. While I’m moseying about purveying this prospective provender, I notice and am noticed by the very same group of girls I passed earlier in the day. Well, t’would have been rude and shameful to not acknowledge their presence with a friendly smile so as to say, “Oh hey, it’s you from this afternoon”, would you not agree? Of course you would. Well, again this simple smile seems to have garnered quite the reaction as when I get in line for the foodums, the girls suddenly seem inspired to do the same and get in line directly behind me. Well thanx to my older brother I had to abandon this rather advantageous position, but as I pass them again, I with a note of amusement tell them, “hello again”. Now, perhaps here I erred, but I refuse to cow-tow to the rigors of an ungracious standard, besides I’m immature and like to play. (for goodness sake my screen name is meant to conjure images of a small primate stricken with hilarity) Well, suffice it to say, when I did get back in line I was forced to endure the glances back from my little group of new friends, and worse yet the bashful (on their part) smiles and giggles when eye contact was unintentionally established. I really can’t pinpoint in reason for all this apparent madness. To be sure, nothing has changed with myself, other than the fact that I’m 19 years old instead of whatever. So really, the only thing I can conclude is that girls have an inherent ability to detect guys that are inappropriate for them. And when I stop to think of a fair number of the relationships that go on, really this theory seems pretty solid after all. Of course that still leaves me with being someone lacking anything particularly appealing about them, other than the ability to make the counter-part feel daring a rebellious. Hmmm, bizarre indeed.
Well, that’s that then.
Of course as today’s date is July 20, 2005, you probably surmised that I by now have more to talk about. Firstly though, I shall uphold my prior mentioned schedule and expound on the ever fast approaching year. As far as I know, all of us are just going to be trickling back in, though I will be arriving early, so as to be able to go to a certain nerd celebration and just in general arrive early.
Hmmm, that doesn’t seem to have taken nearly as long as I thought it would. Well, so it goes as the tralfalmadorians would say.
So really that brings me up to my next vacation that I just got back from, which was so AMAZING!!! The one were I go up to some weird little hollow nestled away in upper MN called Wilmar for a festival called Sonshine, where the bands started playing at 11am and didn’t stop until midnight, for three days!!! w00t!!
So, Sonshine, right. WOW. Basically it was this really really tight festival concert thing that I went to with a bunch of friends. One friend from highschool and middleschool, and a bunch of other peeps that he met in college that I’m hanging out with over the summer. At any rate, the swag of it is, that this was a Christian festival, so like two things. One, the focus was entirely not on myself or anyone having a good time (like focusing on themselves) but on glorifying God (which is prbly different than what goes on at a non-Christian concert, though to be fair I can’t really say, as I’ve never been … we’ll have to remedy that …) and two, I don’t want anyone to feel like I’m ramming religion or whatever down their throats as I wax poetic and all that madness. So if hearing me say how sweet my God love fest was doesn’t strike you as your cup o’ tea, skip down till you see in big bold letters the word “ OVER “ . Although, if you’ve actually read to this point, you probably are insane so it shouldn’t matter anyway. But without further adieu …
So yes I’m aware that’s it’s been like another week or so, or something like that. Um yeah. Moving on. Sonshine. So like basically it was sweet. I go to this festival thing and I had no idea what on earth to expect, or at least I was unsure. I suppose that it’s not exactly true that I had no expectations. Essentially I thought that we’d like go, here some really great Christian music, maybe even some inspiring stuff, hey maybe I’d even pray for a little bit, and otherwise I’d be camping out with friends and having a good time. Well the reality of the trip was actually in retrospect a lot like second semester. Everything material or earthly (or a lot of it) was falling to pieces around me, while everything to do with the spiritual or my faith was going splendidly. Allow me to elaborate a little bit on all this. So, from the very beginning of the trip stuff was going wrong, lol. I mean, firstly we (we being myself and my friend Dave) set off late. So we didn’t get there until it was dark. Then when we finally did get there and attempted to join up with the rest of our crew we had cell phone difficulties and even when we could talk to them the conversation consisted of this, “Hey, we’re by the tennis courts, well gotta go we’re setting up!” , and we’ve got no clue where that might be. So we proceeded to get lost and wander around aimlessly while getting bit by mosquitoes and lugging around our packs. … though a random girl did come up and give me a flower, which was pretty sweet… (yeah, that’s seriously the extent of that story). Well, at long last we just chose a giant flagpole as a mutual landmark and met up with our friends there, and had them lead us back to their campsite, which we had naturally passed by unknowingly in the dark. So we finally meet up with them and get our tent set up in the dark. Now during all this time running all around us are these like, … middle schoolers … aghhhhhhh. Like random little 14 or 16 or 12 year olds running amok unsupervised saying things like “I like cheese!!!!” or saying “Hi!!” to everyone they see. Now, don’t get me wrong, I too like cheese, and I daresay that being randomly outgoing is something I’m quite adept at, but one) there is a time and a place and two) they weren’t really saying hello to greet you warmly or meet someone new but rather their own amusement. But we managed to get some sleep anyway. The next morning came and found us outside in the sun, resulting in my realization that the sun is both bright and in July heat inducing. Like, it was bleeding 7 in the morning and I’m awake (I’m an extremely light sleeper) and hot and more than a little initially confused. After getting my bearings I went and investigated the premises. Outhouses were to be avoided if at all humanly possible, and after checking the showers found them to be entirely intolerable. I mean, perhaps if the right element had been there, but old men and …. ehhhh, look I don’t plan on going to jail so I don’t see why I should subject my eyes to that sort of thing if I don’t have to. But I digress. So I walk all around the place, and promptly go back to bed. I believe that I re-woke up at some time in the afternoon and proceeded to eat our brought foodstuffs. Things of the chip and snack variety. So ( I sure do say “so” a lot huh?) we kinda just pud around until like the big name bands start playing. And by pud around I mean I stupidly torched my nose and neck at which point I put some sun-tan lotion on my nose and neck. My asian heritage saw the rest of my body through thankfully. Well, we also listened to a couple of the less well known bands and then closing for the night were the Newboys. And it was interesting, ‘cause like naturally more bad stuff happened, lol. Like, right after they came out, and before all of the members were on stage, they suffered massive technical difficulties and all the lighting effects failed. Go fig. Well, they played anyway (I’ll get to that later), and then we went to bed. So, the second day went much the same as the first, except that I bought a the cd of one of the bands which I’m listening to right now. Which, let me tell you, is a very very big deal, ‘cause I don’t generally buy music due to a short attention span. The band is Barlow Girl by the way. At any rate by this point I’m both pretty tan, pretty dusty and my hair is just reprehensible. Though it was so long and scruffy that I kinda just flipped it up in the back (the hair on my neck that is) and it kinda looked cool, lol. Well, the big name bands got out to play, and it was a little disturbing ‘cause first they came out and made this announcement about drinking water. Like, at first it was just the usual, “remember to drink water guys, it’s hot out” , but like it changed to “Seriously, we’re having people fainting and requiring medical attention left and right, drink water .. a lot” which was, yeah disturbing. So they arced a fire hose over the crowd which people were pretty happy about. Uhm yeah, lol. Then we had Reliant K perform, except they had technical difficulties too so they couldn’t hear themselves. So they were kinda frazzled the entire time. Then Casting Crowns came on, a band I really like, but the lead singer had a head cold ( I mean seriously! Does it ever end? ). Last was Switchfoot, which was pretty sweet, except I was by now a little too far into the crowd/close to the stage, so had this strapping young lad politely trying to move through me to get closer to the stage. Honestly a simple “excuse me” would have been far superior to repeatedly trying to force me aside. Well, anyway, the bands finish and we (my little posse of people) go to this tent thing … no that doesn’t sound nifty enough … we enter an enchanted pavilion … much better J , and watch this movie called like, “Shadow of the Supernatural” which like basically gave this breakdown of how over history people or humanity has always been obsessed with the supernatural, whether it’s magic, the occult magick, ghosts, movies, tarot cards, blah blah all the way to the various religious beliefs, and like it identified some reasons for that, and then analyzed some things from the Christian perspective. So anyway, it turns out that the guy giving this presentation or whatever traveled all the way from Georgia or something like that, and but what should happen when he gets here? Stupid kids steal some of his equipment. I mean honestly! Oh, and he was fighting the flu while trying to narrate this video. Well, this second night we rigged up a fan in our tent thing so that was pretty awesome. Except that at some point randomly after the police and security walk right over the extension cord (you see we were next to a highschool, so we ran it to the side of the building and presto!), some dude with a walkie talkie pulls the cord, wakes us up and tells us we can’t do that. Pretty sweet I know. Like, yeah, there was other stuff too, like being told to have our shirts on (for modesty purposes) at all times unless we were on our little camp space. Like, seriously we’re guys, but even still it wouldn’t have been bothersome, except that this is being randomly enforced all the while you have girls running around in most decidedly un-modest attire or lack thereof. .. sigh .. I’m reminded of how much I’d like my ordinance to take effect. Oh well. But yeah, so the third day comes and goes along much the same lines, with random things going wrong like getting lost more or losing things that have to be paid for/re-bought, and getting our extension cord confiscated permanently (well you knew we were gonna try and stick it to the man, especially after we got permission from security to run the cord, … sigh), oh and getting towed and nearly fined $100 cash. And finally we left. So, I guess to me it kinda felt like Satan (yeah I know, I’m gonna sound pretty much like a lunatic to all you analytical, factual, if I can see it it’s real folks of which I’m generally one) was really working overtime to make this whole trip suck. Which is basically the overview that I’ve just given you. Ahh, but of course there was so much more going on than that. If this was all the trip consisted of it would not have been nearly as w00t worthy and AWESOME!! as I’ve been declaring it to be.
So why was it awesome? Okay, so the actual awesomeness started I’d say with the Newsboys. Yeah, their lights failed, but who cares!!! Like, their lead singer has this kick’n Australian accent, owing to the fact that he was from Australia, go fig. and this other guitar guy has this totally awesome long hair. Yeah, and I just freaking love their music. It’s so upbeat, happy, and high energy. But most importantly, and paramount to why I enjoyed the songs so much, they were just so totally glorifying to God. It was fantastic. Like, I was listening and singing along, and I’m surrounded by thousands of people, all lifting up our voices to God. Awesome awesome awesome. I can’t properly describe it, I mean, it was just sooo cool, surrounded by all these people I didn’t know, praising God, having fellowship and with nothing in common but brought together as brothers and sisters in Christ. I mean, I dunno, it was sweet. So, I left that concert, and me and Dave were thinking to ourselves, and actually saying to each other that we didn’t know if they’d be able to top that first night. Hah, the trip just got better and better. Like day two, I totally didn’t expect to hear Barlow Girl a band I’d never really hear before, and head cold or no, the Casting Crowns performance was great. What was really cool, was what the lead singer said though. Like, it’s inspiring, ‘cause basically this guy is both AD/HD and he’s also dyslexic. I don’t know if I spelled that right (ironic I know), but as he put it, he never read things right due to the dyslexia and when he did he wasn’t paying attention anyway. And yet here he was as this highly successful musician. And I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you people that you need to be able to focus to be a lead singer. It was cool though, because he was saying that it was like God was telling him, “I don’t need you, I want you” , and joking that if God had needed him, we’d all be in pretty serious trouble. So like, the bands play, and then we go to watch this video. It was actually a pretty decent video. And like, I picked up some stuff I really hadn’t been expecting to. Like, okay, one of the reasons it listed for people being obsessed with the supernatural was for power, like the Nazis and how they screwed around with the occult. Well, then it talked about Adolph Eichmann or something like that. At any rate the guy behind “the final solution” . And that one of the survivors of his concentration camps was given a chance to confront and say something to Eichmann during the Nurrenbern trials. So they have a clip of the trial in the film, and it says that when he (we’ll call him Bob ‘cause I can’t remember his actual name) , that is, when Bob was given the opportunity to say something to this Nazi, he looked at him, and then just like broke down and collapsed to the floor crying. Now, I was like “well duh, I’d probably do the same” , but when I heard the reasoning, I was totally blown away. Turns out when Bob looked at Eichmann, what he saw was just a normal man. And he realized that he himself had the potential to do just as terrible things, and that so did anyone, which just brought him to his knees. “There is a little Eichmann in all of us” , that quote hit me like, wow! It helped me to realize that yeah, I’m really not better than anyone else out there, I’m just blessed to have the grace of Jesus covering me, and that relationship with God preventing me from, I guess succumbing to my more evil nature. It’s interesting ‘cause I think that’s something God really wants me to get. Because at more church services or events I have heard messages all about accepting others accepting everyone not being judgemental or self-righteous. All about how Jesus hung out with the social rejects, the drunks, the prostitutes and so forth so how can I justify looking down my nose at someone else? I think I hear somewhere that Gandhi said he liked Jesus, it was these Christians that he didn’t like so much. I mean, it really just kept getting hit home that so many people proclaiming faith are all mixed up, that it’s about loving the world not condemning it. So that was that little part of the video. Then there was just like, crazy supernatural stuff that it gave examples of. Like, I’m sure you’re all at least familiar with the movie “The Exorcist” , well apparently that movie was based off of a true story. I’m having a little trouble remembering the exact details now, but there was the kid in Mt. Ranier Maryland I think. So this kid we’ll call Tim, his Aunt is a medium that channels spirits, and she gets him involved with talking to spirits with a Ouje Board (or however you spell the sound wee-gee). So like, after this, some kinda weird stuff starts to happen at his house, but it isn’t until his Aunt suddenly dies a couple months later that it gets really messed up. Like, at this point the kids temperament takes a bad turn, and I guess like, scratches and claw marks started appearing on the walls, furniture and windows and his bed started moving on their own. It wasn’t until after all the doctors and psychologists couldn’t explain this stuff that they called in a priest. So the priest gets there and then all the crazy stuff in the Exorcist starts happening. Like, the rapid temperature drops, animal howling, projectile vomiting, most foul blaspheming, and unnatural strength. Like, this is just a kid and I guess he broke free of his restraints and ripped a spring out of his bed that he used to gash the priest on the arm with causing a wound that took 100 stitches to close. And I guess that like all throughout this, witnessed by like the doctors and family and everyone there would appear words on the kids body in scar tissue. Like, in scar tissue would be spelled out “Help Me” or “Spite” or “Hell” . So I mean, ehhh, thas pretty jank. But like it followed up with this verse from I think Luke, that was saying that yes we (followers of Jesus) would be opposed and attacked by minions of darkness and stuff but that through Jesus all power would be given to us to over come it all. And like, the last little thing that I took away from the video was like, what all was going on when Jesus died on the cross. Like, before I had already been aware of all the physical punishment, a little more so after Mel Gibson’s movie, but I thought that was pretty much all that had gone on. Well, I had never thought about the spiritual aspect. The way the video put it was that, when we (everyone) do something wrong, since we screw up all the time, we feel bad about it, but we also tend to get over it pretty quickly and yeah we feel bad but not that bad. Well, for Jesus who was this totally perfect and holy being, uhm like telling a lie would have made him feel so terrible. And when he was on the cross, all the sins of all people everywhere, past present and future, for all time were put on him. So like all the sins of the nazis, serial killers, ect ect ect, all laid on him crushing him, like it say’s that in the bible (crushed by our transgressions, pierced by our transgressions, or something like that) but I’d never thought about what was really going on. So, during all this, when he’s hanging and physically destroyed, he’s spiritually crushed as well. And at that moment, God turned his face and left Jesus, because he became the sin of the world, leaving him utterly alone. And Jesus Christ voluntarily went through all this, out of love. It just blows my mind.
So after the video we went back to our tent and just talked for hours, and it was so cool. It was like, yeah, there’s bad stuff out there, but “yea though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I shall not fear” and how as Christ ones, when we have committed our lives to Jesus and made him our master instead of ourselves, we serve the ultimate master so demons or whatever can’t touch us. Not by our own power, which Satan or demonic powers can and do overcome, but because they must answer to the authority of our master. It was a pretty sweet talk. And we also talked so much about how like, we were all guilty of looking down on people, and being self-righteous or whatever like, oh well I go to church more than so and so or all the kind of stuff and how that mentality is completely missing the point. It was an awesome conversation. So then we moved into day three, the last day, and yeah like I totally wasn’t expecting the bands to be up to the Newsboys level, but since at this point I was just completely in the mood for praising God, the last band Mercy Me, was exactly what I had been looking for. It was just really really amazing stuff. And like, during these three days, there was this thing called Compassion International, where you could go and sponsor a child with like $30 a month, so that they could you know, have food and actually get an education and present them with the good news the of God’s love. So like, by the last day, I think almost all if not all of the available kids to sponsor were sponsored. Which is … I can’t think of another word besides awesome. Well then, that was the last day. Ahh but it doesn’t end there. So that last night, I really didn’t feel like going to bed, so I just kinda wandered around for a bit (nikhil if you read this, or anyone else manages it of the Greyhawkian sort, ehh, I couldn’t leave it out) seeing what was going on.
Well, first a little info that is I think pertinent for the event about to be described. After quite the whirlwind of a first year at lovely Purdue, and well it was freak’n hard, but a lot of it was unnecessarily so, I question whether Engineering is what I want to pursue and/or if this is what I should pursue. The other path I’ve always toyed with is counseling. So anyway, I’m working at Wal-Mart (naturally) one day, and in comes this girl Amanda who used to work their. So we catch up and chat, and I ask her what she’s majoring in and she’s like counseling, and I’m like Really?! So we talk a bit more and it turns out she’s majoring in something called nouthetic counseling which is basically all the counsel you give is biblically based. So now I’m like, huh, that sounds rather appealing actually. So basically I’ve been praying for direction from God on what I should do this entire time, and kinda been like “help! Throw me a sign or something!” Okay, back to Sonshine trip… So I didn’t want to go to sleep, so I’m wandering around randomly when I hear singing. Naturally curious I investigate the matter and stumble upon this random group of people gathered together sitting around and singing acapella worship songs, and actually they all sang really well. So I sat down and listened ‘cause they sounded really good, and I found out that they were just this random group from some church in Iowa. Huh, whatever I thought. So I hung around and even sang along a little. Well, it was late, and we ran out of songs to sing so a whole bunch of ‘em went of to bed while about 7 of us decided to stay up. So this little group moved off into the grass just a little ways off and kept singing worship songs, resigning when we couldn’t think of new songs. Well, truncating a short trip to the bathroom I made, as we were singing a song this guy walks up out of nowhere (I don’t mean like, he materialized out of the void, but he just well, you know randomly walked over, lol) and I toss him a wave. So when were done with the song, he’s like “Hey, I hope you don’t mind but I really just love worship songs”. So this is where things get incredible. After introductions, he walks over to me and just starts commenting that I strike him as someone really filled with joy. And I’m like, uhhh, well hey, thanks man J And so he kinda reiterates this sentiment, and then he asks if he can pray for me. And I’m thinking to myself like, oooooookkkkkayyyy, this sorta odd ….but hey why not right!? So I say like, uhh yeah sure man that’d be great! And he you know is like, you don’t mind, and I’m like no no, I’ve kinda been unsure about direction and stuff, Purdue engineering, yes or no, or what so yeah I’d really appreciate you praying for me. So we separate ourselves from the little singing group and he puts his hand on my shoulder and just starts going. Like he thanks God for me, and asks God to bless me, to continue to bless me, thanking God for the ways he’s blessed me, that I’ve just been given a heart of compassion, that I’m so joyful, that I love others so much, that I’m smart (and here he pauses), very smart, (and like he says all this like it’s just getting beamed to him), book smart, - and at this point I’m thinking to myself, .. wow .. uhm yeah wow. - and like he just keeps going like this and interspersed with his praying he prays in tongues which to those who aren’t familiar is speaking in an unknown language through the power of the Holy Spirit … so then he starts saying like how God is going to bless me and that I’m going to be very successful and just be so eager to give all the glory to God, that I’d be a witness to people at a high stress job in that I would be so happy anyway and people would wonder how, and that God really really wanted me to draw close to Him and just get in a real close relationship with Him. He ended with praying that I would “test everything, test the spirits” and that Jesus would remove everything from my mind that wasn’t from Him, and seal and have me keep everything that was from Him.
So, yeah, that was definitely one of the oddest, and most amazing experiences of my life. Having some guy out of now where, that I’ve never seen before in my life come up and prophesy over my life like that. And how it was right after I was so anxious and had been praying to God that this all goes down. This like, definitely is one of the times when I feel like God is making Himself known to me, that He personally acts in my life.
And all that is why the trip was so incredible. Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything rash, I’m still pursuing engineering and all that, but I’m just a lot more at ease that God is in control and has a purpose for me and a plan for my life.
Whew, uhm, okay I think that part is….
OVER
So…. If you’ve actually gotten this far, CONGRATULATIONS!!! Don’t worry, I don’t even expect my mom to get this far, lol. But anyway, I really really miss all you people! I know it’s silly, especially since I’m very happy with my friends here, but there you have it! You guys are pretty sweet!
Uhm, in other news, life goes on as ever with CHM, lol, yeah so I’ll be continuing that adventure start of this semester (more distraction yay!!! …sigh) lol, ahh but actually I’m pretty pumped about this semester ‘cause insanity with CHM or no, I’m still going to be taking a NUCL class, so I feel like I’ll hopefully be able to get a feel for my intended major, and I’m also taking a Psych class, and to top it off, my classes are apparently like M W F classes, which granted results in 8:30am to 5:30pm M W F, but it also means that I only have math recitation at 12:30pm on Tuesday, and no class on Thursday!!! Suh-Weet!! Well, I’m afraid I can’t think to terribly much on what else to write … so I shall just have all of these little random quizzes to amuse you who haven’t left yet. Do you guys like these things? I mean, I love them, but hey, I’m a freak. Well, uhh, yeah here you go.
The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
LevelScorePurgatory (Repenting Believers)ExtremeLevel 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)HighLevel 2 (Lustful)LowLevel 3 (Gluttonous)LowLevel 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)ModerateLevel 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)LowLevel 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)Very LowLevel 7 (Violent)Very LowLevel 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)LowLevel 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)Very Low
Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test
Which File Extension are You?
You scored as On the Edge. Oh. Watch your step. You're teetering on the edge- it could go either way. You're not a pyscho, but there is potential-insaneness, if you want it. Your own mind controls it from here- if you'd rather fit in, it's not too late. Then again, being an oddball is more fun:D
Hyper Insane
86%
On the Edge
86%
Totally Insane
64%
Normal/Boring
61%
Your Sanity Rating (Fun)?
created with QuizFarm.com
7 Types of Intelligence - Which is yours?
brought to you by Quizilla
clearly I’m meant to be an engineer ….;)
Your Political Profile
Overall: 40% Conservative, 60% Liberal
Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Fiscal Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
How Liberal / Conservative Are You?
anyone surprised? Lol, funny thing is some people would still put me with the extreme religious right and all the ensuing stigma.
You are
What Rejected Crayon Are You?
interestingly enough, my boxers were grey, but I didn’t think that was accurate enough, ‘cause they’re striped, so I went with Zebra. When I did do gray though, it came up with “spousal abuse black” and “spousal abuse blue”. Go fig.
Which OS are You?
You scored as Yoda.
Yoda
72%
Anakin Skywalker
67%
Darth Vader
67%
General Grievous
58%
Mace Windu
53%
Clone Trooper
53%
Chewbacca
47%
C-3PO
44%
Obi Wan Kenobi
39%
R2-D2
36%
Padme Amidala
36%
Emperor Palpatine
33%
Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
w00t!!! I’m Yoda!
You Are 40% Extrovert, 60% Introvert
You're a bit outgoing, a bit reserved
Like most people, you enjoy being social
But you also value the time you have alone
You have struck a good balance!
Are You An Extrovert or An Introvert?
What Gender is Your Brain?
Your Brain is 66.67% Female, 33.33% Male
Your brain leans female
You think with your heart, not your head
Sweet and considerate, you are a giver
But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!
Somehow I always knew … lol, sorry fellahs, I’m still terrifyingly straight.
If you actually read all this, leave a comment saying as much for posterity, it’s a feat worth making known.
~Xiaohouzi (laughing monkey) aka Comple (Complex and Simple) aka ME!!
So here I am, sitting at a computer in my family room. It's 2:59 in the morning, and all the lights are off. The flicker off the computer screen bathes me in a faint light, just enough to reach beyond a silhouette. Clad in only pajama pants and my Purdue knit cap I stare idly at the letters dancing across the screen of their own accord. Four minutes pass. I am mesmerized, enchanted and held in trancelike reverie. The TV screen hums faintly, as the theme song to Final Fantasy X pervades the air, complementing two words humbly displayed on the television: The End.
I'm feeling a very intense wash of profundivity (no it isn't, and yes I know) here. I dunno. It's just the effect the completing the stories of any Final Fantasy game tends to have on me. I remember after IX I went and lay down in bed just reflecting for literally the rest of the day. The good people at Squaresoft simply spellbind. What can I say? They weave a good tale. At any rate, aside from my feeling very profound and such, I also was reflecting on relationships and such (as that's what makes the FF stories so awesome), and like wow. I was just talking to my younger brother and telling him that if only real life were as interesting, but it just occurred to me that in this one little way, life is kinda videogamesque. What I mean is, how there exists that bittersweet reality of always having people to miss. I miss all you people, but now that I'm back home the idea of re-leaving the few really good friends I have here, sorrow is perhaps too strong a word, but I'm given pause and a sigh passes my lips. But failing to re-unite is not satisfactory either. Bittersweet tragedy of life. Now all I need is a girl that shares my love but that can never be with me because of some hugely improbable conflict. ... sigh...
Ahh, but there I go again.
I feel it appropriate to let you good people know that this is the first of what is likely to be two posts. Two because this one is being done without my having read any of your entries, and so any of my potential responses and so forth will be in the second to be existent post. Meanwhile, this initial post of mine shall be my catch-up one.
With that being said, I shall now take up space by pasting in the quiz thingy from Kat, Erin and RJ...
Quiz.
A - Age you lost your virginity? I'll let you know
B - Band listening to right now? Most likely some Japanese one (FF X)
C - Dream car? Two words, Optimus Prime
D - Dads name? James/Jim
E - Easiest person to make laugh? Myself, or hmm, yeah prbly Kat
F - Food you miss most? Strawberries, definately strawberries
G - Any encounters with ghosts? Not yet
H - Person most hated at the moment? Fortunately no one
I - Interesting unknown fact about yourself? Hmm, left handed (but you guys knew that, right?), equally proud of being Irish as of being Chinese and all the others (well, maybe not that half-percent French and Welsh), didn't learn that lowercase letters existed let alone what they were until first grade, hmm it would seem I'm just not that interesting...
J - The first letter of the last person who broke your heart? J
K - Kissing with eyes opened or closed? Well, open and you're more likely to hit what you were aiming for, but then again once you're that close there's really not that much distiguishable features to be seen anyway... so I guess that translates to open 'till you're in the process and then closed. ;)
L - Last time you did LSD? took some speed recently, well sort of, I'll get explain in a bit...
M - Most memorable moment you can think of in a minute? Being prayed over and praying for a bunch of freshmen I'd just met at school
N - Nicknames? SS, Scotty, Scotch, Scooter, 'Topher Jr. (in reference to my older brother ChrisTOPHER), Steiner, Scotty too hotty, Sco
O - What's the most valued possession? feeling loved (yeah yeah, I doubt really have anything material that's all that interesting or irreplaceable)
P - Poison of choice? Strawberry Bannana V8 Smoothie, haven't tried one since so I don't know if it counts as poison or not
Q - The last quote you heard: "It knows we're here to kill it," - Chick from Armageddeon in reference to the asteroid
R - What are you allergic to? grass, pollen, animal dander (like dogs, cats, ect), dust, mold, tree nuts (cashews, almonds, ect), strawberries, milk to a slight degree
S - Song you sang last? Sang? well, one of my invented ones, but otherwise either "Salvation" or "A Whole New World"
T - Time you woke up? about 11:20am
U - Fav. pair of underwear? My "Zam" , "Pow" "Fwhoosh!" ones
V - Vegetable you hate most? green beans or cooked carrots
W - What are you the most afraid of? authority ... honestly some of them have no business having it
X - X-rated love life? well what the heck does that mean? If you have offspring then a video of such would be rated X, or is creativity and or deviation from the accepted standard norm ... oh wait, love life? Ahahahaha, nevermind...
Y - Year you were born? 1986
Z - Zodiac sign? Aquarius
Wow, that took a lot more energy than I thought it would. Good grief. Then again it could have something to do with it being like 4am now (or so). Huh, funny how that works. I may have to have an interlude. Not that you people will notice. I'll post the finished product as a whole all at once. Huh, and I haven't even started to catch up yet. Meh, okay, signing off for a lil bit...
And I’m back. Okay so quite a bit has been going on lately, well mostly because there’s always things going on, and so when I let them pile up by the week, well, that’s a lot of stuff. Right, so the last time I wrote I was rather doped up from just having my wisdom teeth pulled out. So yeah, it hurt and that really sucked. But there’s no rest for the weary, or the insane anyway. Yeah so you see, ever since getting back home to MN, I had this insatiable desire to play DDR, but alas I had no such system or game or pad. Woe is me. Hmmm indeed. But I was determined, so I started talking to people and finagling finoogles. Well, I had some initial problems but I managed to procure a DDR dance pad. Then my younger brother had a friend over who brought his playstation 2. That left the game. Well, I was supposed to be borrowing a game from the same gal I borrowed the pad from, but that just wasn’t panning out. SO I ended up just renting it. w00t. So there I was, the day after having my wisdom teeth pulled and yes, I’m playing Dance Dance Revolution. Ahhh right! So it was shortly after this that my younger brother (the self-same one who had the friend over) became enamored of with E-Bay and proceeded to successfully bid on a PS2 (the little miniature one). So what is the first game he goes out and buys? Yep, Final Fantasy X. Oh my good grandmas gravy! I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before, but I am a HUGE Final Fantasy whore. Beat FF IX without having a memory card, system, or game, so needless to say persistence spanning a couple years was required. It was awesome. So anyway, FF X and DDR proceeded to ownzore my soul for the next week. Then I had to return DDR, so it was just FF X, and Wal-Mart of course, but really all my Wal-Mart goings on follow a certain theme, so we’ll get to that later. At any rate, I was doing all that madness up to the point of having my Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle with us as we went to some weird place called Cragun’s for the Fourth of July weekend. It’s this hotel/cabin lakeshore resort thing near some city called Brainerd. No, I don’t have any idea where that is either. So there I am, at this hotel thing on some lake, Gull Lake I believe it was, and suh-weet cable tv! So I rediscovered how incredibly freaking awesome Adult Swim is, Go Team Venture! And while doing this, stumbled upon Samurai Champloo, which I have to say, I’m now going to look into. This of course reminded me of the stark bleak ever present reality of my cataclysmic Naruto and Bleach deprivation. So yes, I will have to catch up or burn them all when I get back or something. Maybe I’ll just move to Tokyo. Warm toilets there, or so I hear. But I digress. So, other than tv, which honestly I didn’t really watch all that much of (except of course at around midnight, for obvious reasons to those who know) I was basically chill’n, and maybe playing ping pong or something. I did however play golf for the first time ever. I must say it was an experience and I rather suck at it. I’m not utterly terrible, like, I was never double digits over par, and I would have some actually decent shots but then I’d miff it all up in short order. So that was golf. Oh, I also played tennis, and went to the beach. This resulted in me getting a decent bit darker what with all the sun exposure. At least my arms got real dark and my front, but not so much my back ( I was in a chair on the beach, reading a book about a cult - fun stuff). Anyway, that kinda segways nicely into my next topic which incorporates Wal-Mart and Craguns meaning of course that said subject matter is the ever mysterious and perplexing female race. However, it’s like 1pm in the afternoon, and things need to be done. Things like taking my younger brother to Best Buy to go get Final Fantasy X2 (kinda an obvious move), and then hanging out with a friend followed by being taken out to dinner by my Grandparents before they head back to Indianapolis (marginally ironic I know). So I shall leave again, only to return and discuss the enigma that is the ladies, and then I’ll close with a bit on the fast approaching future…
Well, -sigh- , lol, I really should have seen that coming. I mean, did I really expect to have access to Final Fantasy X-2 and not stay up till at least 4am? Honestly. Well yes, so it has now been a good couple of days since my last little, “I’ll post soon when I have more time” thing. Oh well, se la vi right? At any rate my life has been oh so interesting as of late. I have deigned to delve into the aforementioned world of women so as to finish that segment before it falls out of my head. So without further adieu …
It has occurred to me that my life is horribly fickle. And by fickle I mean 3 parts charmed, 2 blessed, and a good 5 parts ironic. Yes indeed I lead a strikingly mundane yet twisted life. So allow me to perhaps elaborate. Some of you may know, or at the very least strongly suspect due to my inherent plethora of flaws, that I have gone throughout my entire academic career with nary a date, romantic tryst, or even a study buddy. Naught but friends in ever increasing numbers throughout middle and high school. And college? Ha! I’d say don’t make me laugh, but clearly that’s a forgone conclusion. So here I am, firmly under the impression that I’m entirely unable to intrigue the opposite sex, despite the constant assurances from my small army of female friends that there is indeed nothing wrong with me. Cue the madness. So let’s see. Wal-Mart. I return to Wal-Mart and I’m awash in all the new employees and the old ones that I haven’t seen in a while. So in particular there’s a gal that works in an area right adjacent to the registers, and a couple of girls - twins actually ; ) - that just seemed to come into Wal-Mart really often. Now, I’m going to go ahead and say now that I remain in the same state of absence of new interactions with persons of the female persuasion. Yes, and even yay verily I can say that I’ve had opportunities but let us say that it would have profited me nothing. I guess to be fair, I ought to mention that in the past I have had an unsettling degree of success in attracting girls that are younger than me, as well as being ehh .. a bit disturbed. Here’s why I felt that recent event’s were deserving of a footnote in Xiaohouzi’s liverjournaldom. Well, firstly a gal expressing any manner of interest in me is a momentous occasion worthy of being recorded, but additionally all the girls that I could have most likely had some degree of success with (at least until they became dis-enchanted) were normal. This is very novel for me. The other thing that adds to the curious nature is this. Okay Wal-Mart stuff, so the customers, the girls that just like come in with a high degree of frequency; I dunno why but we’ve just taken a shine to each other. They’re really outgoing and bubbly. So that’s them. Then there’s this other gal. So she’s like the opposite of the twins. She’s like extremely un-outgoing. So as it is in my nature to just hi randomly to people and wave ect.. I do so. Well, after many days of working, she actually kinda waves back and we finally have an actual conversation. Now mind you, I was just meeting a new person here, I wasn’t trying to flirt or anything like that. Well, at the end of one of these conversations, she’s like, “Hey, I’m going for a walk would you like to go with me?” ….. and I’m like thinking, HOLY COW, is she asking me what I think she is? Well, I said sure, partly ‘cause I’m a putz (as I had no intentions of pursuing anything with her) and because I like adventures. We never did actually go on that walk, but in short I found out that yes, she had been asking what I had thought she was. I mean, friends that you just met aren’t someone you ask to join you on a walk right? Well anyway, here’s the kicker, she’s 23. And yes she knew I was 19 and I knew she was 23. It was all very overwhelming. So meanwhile, I totally forgot about the third Wal-Mart incident with a gal. So this one involved a super longtime friend of mine, who’s a year older than me (lest you people think I cruise for younger women - especially with the stories to come) and we’ve known each other pretty well for some years. So anyway, we’ve always just been friends, but like, I go in to work one day, and she’s talking to me for whatever reason when as she leaves she totally just randomly comments that “Scott, you smell really good”. …. pause … hmmm. So the next day it like happens again, only it’s like you smell good, and you always seem to smell good. I mean, does telling a guy that they smell good strike anyone else as … interesting? I guess I just never really thought of that as a very plutonic comment. And if I always have been uh.. good smelling, she certainly never mentioned it. This and the fact that when we were hanging out one time 2 or so years ago her other female friends and her in particular cited a sense of smell as one of a guys most attractive qualities. Hmm. The world may never know. So I manage to escape to the 4th of July and we go out of town to this resort place on a lake. And what should happen? This time yes indeed I seem to have enamored myself of the younger ladies. So picture this. I’m sitting on the beach reading a book (one about a cult actually, interesting stuff) minding my own business, and reflecting on the fact that there ought to be some sort of ordinance requiring girls to wear one piece swimsuits, unless they’re like at least 19, and being a tad annoyed by the lack of said ordinance, when two gals in regular attire approach as they make their way to the lodge part of the facility across the self-same beach I’m reading on. So everything’s normal as they are traversing across the sand and I casually note with an air of disinterest that they’re probably a year or two younger than me, when the actually start to pass me in their little trek. Well they didn’t finish. Yep. They completely stop and engage me in conversation, and I was also wearing headphones listening to music at the time mind you. To be fair, I did acknowledge their presence with a smile, but if a man can no longer smile to a fellow traveler than the world is truly in a fetters. But I digress. So they stop and ask me how I’m doing, what my name is, and introduce themselves, finally leaving with the assurance that they’ll see me around. Hmm, so bizarre I think while looking over at my father sitting on a chair in the grass a few yards off giving me a double thumbs up. Bizarre indeed. Well, I finish the book and begin start the return journey when I promptly get myself into more shenanigans. I would like to take a moment to yell at my fellow man. None of my actions would have been worthy of being shenanigan inducing if you (plural masculine in nature) schleps would exercise a tad bit more gentility and common courtesy. That being said. As I’m walking along the path up to our weekend room, there approaches a small convoy of gals proceeding in the opposite direction. So as we pass I toss out the smile and we exchange hello’s. Again that this is seen by girls as unusual and noteworthy attention from a guy is really just indicative of the sorry state of the expectations of a mans behavior. Honestly. But I digress again. So I guess maybe but I daresay it isn’t prudent to stray too far down this line of reasoning, but it probably also didn’t help that as we passed I was in a state of freshly tanned from the beach, and clad in a manner to make this quite apparent. But, let’s be serious people, I’ve never known my visual nature, burnt or not, to be have a terribly devastating effect - note my track record or lack thereof. Moving along. So that evening, the hotel or whatever you want to call it, is putting on a free dinner with quite a lot of pretty decent food and drink. So my family and basically everyone else staying there decides to eat at this free spread. While I’m moseying about purveying this prospective provender, I notice and am noticed by the very same group of girls I passed earlier in the day. Well, t’would have been rude and shameful to not acknowledge their presence with a friendly smile so as to say, “Oh hey, it’s you from this afternoon”, would you not agree? Of course you would. Well, again this simple smile seems to have garnered quite the reaction as when I get in line for the foodums, the girls suddenly seem inspired to do the same and get in line directly behind me. Well thanx to my older brother I had to abandon this rather advantageous position, but as I pass them again, I with a note of amusement tell them, “hello again”. Now, perhaps here I erred, but I refuse to cow-tow to the rigors of an ungracious standard, besides I’m immature and like to play. (for goodness sake my screen name is meant to conjure images of a small primate stricken with hilarity) Well, suffice it to say, when I did get back in line I was forced to endure the glances back from my little group of new friends, and worse yet the bashful (on their part) smiles and giggles when eye contact was unintentionally established. I really can’t pinpoint in reason for all this apparent madness. To be sure, nothing has changed with myself, other than the fact that I’m 19 years old instead of whatever. So really, the only thing I can conclude is that girls have an inherent ability to detect guys that are inappropriate for them. And when I stop to think of a fair number of the relationships that go on, really this theory seems pretty solid after all. Of course that still leaves me with being someone lacking anything particularly appealing about them, other than the ability to make the counter-part feel daring a rebellious. Hmmm, bizarre indeed.
Well, that’s that then.
Of course as today’s date is July 20, 2005, you probably surmised that I by now have more to talk about. Firstly though, I shall uphold my prior mentioned schedule and expound on the ever fast approaching year. As far as I know, all of us are just going to be trickling back in, though I will be arriving early, so as to be able to go to a certain nerd celebration and just in general arrive early.
Hmmm, that doesn’t seem to have taken nearly as long as I thought it would. Well, so it goes as the tralfalmadorians would say.
So really that brings me up to my next vacation that I just got back from, which was so AMAZING!!! The one were I go up to some weird little hollow nestled away in upper MN called Wilmar for a festival called Sonshine, where the bands started playing at 11am and didn’t stop until midnight, for three days!!! w00t!!
So, Sonshine, right. WOW. Basically it was this really really tight festival concert thing that I went to with a bunch of friends. One friend from highschool and middleschool, and a bunch of other peeps that he met in college that I’m hanging out with over the summer. At any rate, the swag of it is, that this was a Christian festival, so like two things. One, the focus was entirely not on myself or anyone having a good time (like focusing on themselves) but on glorifying God (which is prbly different than what goes on at a non-Christian concert, though to be fair I can’t really say, as I’ve never been … we’ll have to remedy that …) and two, I don’t want anyone to feel like I’m ramming religion or whatever down their throats as I wax poetic and all that madness. So if hearing me say how sweet my God love fest was doesn’t strike you as your cup o’ tea, skip down till you see in big bold letters the word “ OVER “ . Although, if you’ve actually read to this point, you probably are insane so it shouldn’t matter anyway. But without further adieu …
So yes I’m aware that’s it’s been like another week or so, or something like that. Um yeah. Moving on. Sonshine. So like basically it was sweet. I go to this festival thing and I had no idea what on earth to expect, or at least I was unsure. I suppose that it’s not exactly true that I had no expectations. Essentially I thought that we’d like go, here some really great Christian music, maybe even some inspiring stuff, hey maybe I’d even pray for a little bit, and otherwise I’d be camping out with friends and having a good time. Well the reality of the trip was actually in retrospect a lot like second semester. Everything material or earthly (or a lot of it) was falling to pieces around me, while everything to do with the spiritual or my faith was going splendidly. Allow me to elaborate a little bit on all this. So, from the very beginning of the trip stuff was going wrong, lol. I mean, firstly we (we being myself and my friend Dave) set off late. So we didn’t get there until it was dark. Then when we finally did get there and attempted to join up with the rest of our crew we had cell phone difficulties and even when we could talk to them the conversation consisted of this, “Hey, we’re by the tennis courts, well gotta go we’re setting up!” , and we’ve got no clue where that might be. So we proceeded to get lost and wander around aimlessly while getting bit by mosquitoes and lugging around our packs. … though a random girl did come up and give me a flower, which was pretty sweet… (yeah, that’s seriously the extent of that story). Well, at long last we just chose a giant flagpole as a mutual landmark and met up with our friends there, and had them lead us back to their campsite, which we had naturally passed by unknowingly in the dark. So we finally meet up with them and get our tent set up in the dark. Now during all this time running all around us are these like, … middle schoolers … aghhhhhhh. Like random little 14 or 16 or 12 year olds running amok unsupervised saying things like “I like cheese!!!!” or saying “Hi!!” to everyone they see. Now, don’t get me wrong, I too like cheese, and I daresay that being randomly outgoing is something I’m quite adept at, but one) there is a time and a place and two) they weren’t really saying hello to greet you warmly or meet someone new but rather their own amusement. But we managed to get some sleep anyway. The next morning came and found us outside in the sun, resulting in my realization that the sun is both bright and in July heat inducing. Like, it was bleeding 7 in the morning and I’m awake (I’m an extremely light sleeper) and hot and more than a little initially confused. After getting my bearings I went and investigated the premises. Outhouses were to be avoided if at all humanly possible, and after checking the showers found them to be entirely intolerable. I mean, perhaps if the right element had been there, but old men and …. ehhhh, look I don’t plan on going to jail so I don’t see why I should subject my eyes to that sort of thing if I don’t have to. But I digress. So I walk all around the place, and promptly go back to bed. I believe that I re-woke up at some time in the afternoon and proceeded to eat our brought foodstuffs. Things of the chip and snack variety. So ( I sure do say “so” a lot huh?) we kinda just pud around until like the big name bands start playing. And by pud around I mean I stupidly torched my nose and neck at which point I put some sun-tan lotion on my nose and neck. My asian heritage saw the rest of my body through thankfully. Well, we also listened to a couple of the less well known bands and then closing for the night were the Newboys. And it was interesting, ‘cause like naturally more bad stuff happened, lol. Like, right after they came out, and before all of the members were on stage, they suffered massive technical difficulties and all the lighting effects failed. Go fig. Well, they played anyway (I’ll get to that later), and then we went to bed. So, the second day went much the same as the first, except that I bought a the cd of one of the bands which I’m listening to right now. Which, let me tell you, is a very very big deal, ‘cause I don’t generally buy music due to a short attention span. The band is Barlow Girl by the way. At any rate by this point I’m both pretty tan, pretty dusty and my hair is just reprehensible. Though it was so long and scruffy that I kinda just flipped it up in the back (the hair on my neck that is) and it kinda looked cool, lol. Well, the big name bands got out to play, and it was a little disturbing ‘cause first they came out and made this announcement about drinking water. Like, at first it was just the usual, “remember to drink water guys, it’s hot out” , but like it changed to “Seriously, we’re having people fainting and requiring medical attention left and right, drink water .. a lot” which was, yeah disturbing. So they arced a fire hose over the crowd which people were pretty happy about. Uhm yeah, lol. Then we had Reliant K perform, except they had technical difficulties too so they couldn’t hear themselves. So they were kinda frazzled the entire time. Then Casting Crowns came on, a band I really like, but the lead singer had a head cold ( I mean seriously! Does it ever end? ). Last was Switchfoot, which was pretty sweet, except I was by now a little too far into the crowd/close to the stage, so had this strapping young lad politely trying to move through me to get closer to the stage. Honestly a simple “excuse me” would have been far superior to repeatedly trying to force me aside. Well, anyway, the bands finish and we (my little posse of people) go to this tent thing … no that doesn’t sound nifty enough … we enter an enchanted pavilion … much better J , and watch this movie called like, “Shadow of the Supernatural” which like basically gave this breakdown of how over history people or humanity has always been obsessed with the supernatural, whether it’s magic, the occult magick, ghosts, movies, tarot cards, blah blah all the way to the various religious beliefs, and like it identified some reasons for that, and then analyzed some things from the Christian perspective. So anyway, it turns out that the guy giving this presentation or whatever traveled all the way from Georgia or something like that, and but what should happen when he gets here? Stupid kids steal some of his equipment. I mean honestly! Oh, and he was fighting the flu while trying to narrate this video. Well, this second night we rigged up a fan in our tent thing so that was pretty awesome. Except that at some point randomly after the police and security walk right over the extension cord (you see we were next to a highschool, so we ran it to the side of the building and presto!), some dude with a walkie talkie pulls the cord, wakes us up and tells us we can’t do that. Pretty sweet I know. Like, yeah, there was other stuff too, like being told to have our shirts on (for modesty purposes) at all times unless we were on our little camp space. Like, seriously we’re guys, but even still it wouldn’t have been bothersome, except that this is being randomly enforced all the while you have girls running around in most decidedly un-modest attire or lack thereof. .. sigh .. I’m reminded of how much I’d like my ordinance to take effect. Oh well. But yeah, so the third day comes and goes along much the same lines, with random things going wrong like getting lost more or losing things that have to be paid for/re-bought, and getting our extension cord confiscated permanently (well you knew we were gonna try and stick it to the man, especially after we got permission from security to run the cord, … sigh), oh and getting towed and nearly fined $100 cash. And finally we left. So, I guess to me it kinda felt like Satan (yeah I know, I’m gonna sound pretty much like a lunatic to all you analytical, factual, if I can see it it’s real folks of which I’m generally one) was really working overtime to make this whole trip suck. Which is basically the overview that I’ve just given you. Ahh, but of course there was so much more going on than that. If this was all the trip consisted of it would not have been nearly as w00t worthy and AWESOME!! as I’ve been declaring it to be.
So why was it awesome? Okay, so the actual awesomeness started I’d say with the Newsboys. Yeah, their lights failed, but who cares!!! Like, their lead singer has this kick’n Australian accent, owing to the fact that he was from Australia, go fig. and this other guitar guy has this totally awesome long hair. Yeah, and I just freaking love their music. It’s so upbeat, happy, and high energy. But most importantly, and paramount to why I enjoyed the songs so much, they were just so totally glorifying to God. It was fantastic. Like, I was listening and singing along, and I’m surrounded by thousands of people, all lifting up our voices to God. Awesome awesome awesome. I can’t properly describe it, I mean, it was just sooo cool, surrounded by all these people I didn’t know, praising God, having fellowship and with nothing in common but brought together as brothers and sisters in Christ. I mean, I dunno, it was sweet. So, I left that concert, and me and Dave were thinking to ourselves, and actually saying to each other that we didn’t know if they’d be able to top that first night. Hah, the trip just got better and better. Like day two, I totally didn’t expect to hear Barlow Girl a band I’d never really hear before, and head cold or no, the Casting Crowns performance was great. What was really cool, was what the lead singer said though. Like, it’s inspiring, ‘cause basically this guy is both AD/HD and he’s also dyslexic. I don’t know if I spelled that right (ironic I know), but as he put it, he never read things right due to the dyslexia and when he did he wasn’t paying attention anyway. And yet here he was as this highly successful musician. And I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you people that you need to be able to focus to be a lead singer. It was cool though, because he was saying that it was like God was telling him, “I don’t need you, I want you” , and joking that if God had needed him, we’d all be in pretty serious trouble. So like, the bands play, and then we go to watch this video. It was actually a pretty decent video. And like, I picked up some stuff I really hadn’t been expecting to. Like, okay, one of the reasons it listed for people being obsessed with the supernatural was for power, like the Nazis and how they screwed around with the occult. Well, then it talked about Adolph Eichmann or something like that. At any rate the guy behind “the final solution” . And that one of the survivors of his concentration camps was given a chance to confront and say something to Eichmann during the Nurrenbern trials. So they have a clip of the trial in the film, and it says that when he (we’ll call him Bob ‘cause I can’t remember his actual name) , that is, when Bob was given the opportunity to say something to this Nazi, he looked at him, and then just like broke down and collapsed to the floor crying. Now, I was like “well duh, I’d probably do the same” , but when I heard the reasoning, I was totally blown away. Turns out when Bob looked at Eichmann, what he saw was just a normal man. And he realized that he himself had the potential to do just as terrible things, and that so did anyone, which just brought him to his knees. “There is a little Eichmann in all of us” , that quote hit me like, wow! It helped me to realize that yeah, I’m really not better than anyone else out there, I’m just blessed to have the grace of Jesus covering me, and that relationship with God preventing me from, I guess succumbing to my more evil nature. It’s interesting ‘cause I think that’s something God really wants me to get. Because at more church services or events I have heard messages all about accepting others accepting everyone not being judgemental or self-righteous. All about how Jesus hung out with the social rejects, the drunks, the prostitutes and so forth so how can I justify looking down my nose at someone else? I think I hear somewhere that Gandhi said he liked Jesus, it was these Christians that he didn’t like so much. I mean, it really just kept getting hit home that so many people proclaiming faith are all mixed up, that it’s about loving the world not condemning it. So that was that little part of the video. Then there was just like, crazy supernatural stuff that it gave examples of. Like, I’m sure you’re all at least familiar with the movie “The Exorcist” , well apparently that movie was based off of a true story. I’m having a little trouble remembering the exact details now, but there was the kid in Mt. Ranier Maryland I think. So this kid we’ll call Tim, his Aunt is a medium that channels spirits, and she gets him involved with talking to spirits with a Ouje Board (or however you spell the sound wee-gee). So like, after this, some kinda weird stuff starts to happen at his house, but it isn’t until his Aunt suddenly dies a couple months later that it gets really messed up. Like, at this point the kids temperament takes a bad turn, and I guess like, scratches and claw marks started appearing on the walls, furniture and windows and his bed started moving on their own. It wasn’t until after all the doctors and psychologists couldn’t explain this stuff that they called in a priest. So the priest gets there and then all the crazy stuff in the Exorcist starts happening. Like, the rapid temperature drops, animal howling, projectile vomiting, most foul blaspheming, and unnatural strength. Like, this is just a kid and I guess he broke free of his restraints and ripped a spring out of his bed that he used to gash the priest on the arm with causing a wound that took 100 stitches to close. And I guess that like all throughout this, witnessed by like the doctors and family and everyone there would appear words on the kids body in scar tissue. Like, in scar tissue would be spelled out “Help Me” or “Spite” or “Hell” . So I mean, ehhh, thas pretty jank. But like it followed up with this verse from I think Luke, that was saying that yes we (followers of Jesus) would be opposed and attacked by minions of darkness and stuff but that through Jesus all power would be given to us to over come it all. And like, the last little thing that I took away from the video was like, what all was going on when Jesus died on the cross. Like, before I had already been aware of all the physical punishment, a little more so after Mel Gibson’s movie, but I thought that was pretty much all that had gone on. Well, I had never thought about the spiritual aspect. The way the video put it was that, when we (everyone) do something wrong, since we screw up all the time, we feel bad about it, but we also tend to get over it pretty quickly and yeah we feel bad but not that bad. Well, for Jesus who was this totally perfect and holy being, uhm like telling a lie would have made him feel so terrible. And when he was on the cross, all the sins of all people everywhere, past present and future, for all time were put on him. So like all the sins of the nazis, serial killers, ect ect ect, all laid on him crushing him, like it say’s that in the bible (crushed by our transgressions, pierced by our transgressions, or something like that) but I’d never thought about what was really going on. So, during all this, when he’s hanging and physically destroyed, he’s spiritually crushed as well. And at that moment, God turned his face and left Jesus, because he became the sin of the world, leaving him utterly alone. And Jesus Christ voluntarily went through all this, out of love. It just blows my mind.
So after the video we went back to our tent and just talked for hours, and it was so cool. It was like, yeah, there’s bad stuff out there, but “yea though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I shall not fear” and how as Christ ones, when we have committed our lives to Jesus and made him our master instead of ourselves, we serve the ultimate master so demons or whatever can’t touch us. Not by our own power, which Satan or demonic powers can and do overcome, but because they must answer to the authority of our master. It was a pretty sweet talk. And we also talked so much about how like, we were all guilty of looking down on people, and being self-righteous or whatever like, oh well I go to church more than so and so or all the kind of stuff and how that mentality is completely missing the point. It was an awesome conversation. So then we moved into day three, the last day, and yeah like I totally wasn’t expecting the bands to be up to the Newsboys level, but since at this point I was just completely in the mood for praising God, the last band Mercy Me, was exactly what I had been looking for. It was just really really amazing stuff. And like, during these three days, there was this thing called Compassion International, where you could go and sponsor a child with like $30 a month, so that they could you know, have food and actually get an education and present them with the good news the of God’s love. So like, by the last day, I think almost all if not all of the available kids to sponsor were sponsored. Which is … I can’t think of another word besides awesome. Well then, that was the last day. Ahh but it doesn’t end there. So that last night, I really didn’t feel like going to bed, so I just kinda wandered around for a bit (nikhil if you read this, or anyone else manages it of the Greyhawkian sort, ehh, I couldn’t leave it out) seeing what was going on.
Well, first a little info that is I think pertinent for the event about to be described. After quite the whirlwind of a first year at lovely Purdue, and well it was freak’n hard, but a lot of it was unnecessarily so, I question whether Engineering is what I want to pursue and/or if this is what I should pursue. The other path I’ve always toyed with is counseling. So anyway, I’m working at Wal-Mart (naturally) one day, and in comes this girl Amanda who used to work their. So we catch up and chat, and I ask her what she’s majoring in and she’s like counseling, and I’m like Really?! So we talk a bit more and it turns out she’s majoring in something called nouthetic counseling which is basically all the counsel you give is biblically based. So now I’m like, huh, that sounds rather appealing actually. So basically I’ve been praying for direction from God on what I should do this entire time, and kinda been like “help! Throw me a sign or something!” Okay, back to Sonshine trip… So I didn’t want to go to sleep, so I’m wandering around randomly when I hear singing. Naturally curious I investigate the matter and stumble upon this random group of people gathered together sitting around and singing acapella worship songs, and actually they all sang really well. So I sat down and listened ‘cause they sounded really good, and I found out that they were just this random group from some church in Iowa. Huh, whatever I thought. So I hung around and even sang along a little. Well, it was late, and we ran out of songs to sing so a whole bunch of ‘em went of to bed while about 7 of us decided to stay up. So this little group moved off into the grass just a little ways off and kept singing worship songs, resigning when we couldn’t think of new songs. Well, truncating a short trip to the bathroom I made, as we were singing a song this guy walks up out of nowhere (I don’t mean like, he materialized out of the void, but he just well, you know randomly walked over, lol) and I toss him a wave. So when were done with the song, he’s like “Hey, I hope you don’t mind but I really just love worship songs”. So this is where things get incredible. After introductions, he walks over to me and just starts commenting that I strike him as someone really filled with joy. And I’m like, uhhh, well hey, thanks man J And so he kinda reiterates this sentiment, and then he asks if he can pray for me. And I’m thinking to myself like, oooooookkkkkayyyy, this sorta odd ….but hey why not right!? So I say like, uhh yeah sure man that’d be great! And he you know is like, you don’t mind, and I’m like no no, I’ve kinda been unsure about direction and stuff, Purdue engineering, yes or no, or what so yeah I’d really appreciate you praying for me. So we separate ourselves from the little singing group and he puts his hand on my shoulder and just starts going. Like he thanks God for me, and asks God to bless me, to continue to bless me, thanking God for the ways he’s blessed me, that I’ve just been given a heart of compassion, that I’m so joyful, that I love others so much, that I’m smart (and here he pauses), very smart, (and like he says all this like it’s just getting beamed to him), book smart, - and at this point I’m thinking to myself, .. wow .. uhm yeah wow. - and like he just keeps going like this and interspersed with his praying he prays in tongues which to those who aren’t familiar is speaking in an unknown language through the power of the Holy Spirit … so then he starts saying like how God is going to bless me and that I’m going to be very successful and just be so eager to give all the glory to God, that I’d be a witness to people at a high stress job in that I would be so happy anyway and people would wonder how, and that God really really wanted me to draw close to Him and just get in a real close relationship with Him. He ended with praying that I would “test everything, test the spirits” and that Jesus would remove everything from my mind that wasn’t from Him, and seal and have me keep everything that was from Him.
So, yeah, that was definitely one of the oddest, and most amazing experiences of my life. Having some guy out of now where, that I’ve never seen before in my life come up and prophesy over my life like that. And how it was right after I was so anxious and had been praying to God that this all goes down. This like, definitely is one of the times when I feel like God is making Himself known to me, that He personally acts in my life.
And all that is why the trip was so incredible. Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything rash, I’m still pursuing engineering and all that, but I’m just a lot more at ease that God is in control and has a purpose for me and a plan for my life.
Whew, uhm, okay I think that part is….
OVER
So…. If you’ve actually gotten this far, CONGRATULATIONS!!! Don’t worry, I don’t even expect my mom to get this far, lol. But anyway, I really really miss all you people! I know it’s silly, especially since I’m very happy with my friends here, but there you have it! You guys are pretty sweet!
Uhm, in other news, life goes on as ever with CHM, lol, yeah so I’ll be continuing that adventure start of this semester (more distraction yay!!! …sigh) lol, ahh but actually I’m pretty pumped about this semester ‘cause insanity with CHM or no, I’m still going to be taking a NUCL class, so I feel like I’ll hopefully be able to get a feel for my intended major, and I’m also taking a Psych class, and to top it off, my classes are apparently like M W F classes, which granted results in 8:30am to 5:30pm M W F, but it also means that I only have math recitation at 12:30pm on Tuesday, and no class on Thursday!!! Suh-Weet!! Well, I’m afraid I can’t think to terribly much on what else to write … so I shall just have all of these little random quizzes to amuse you who haven’t left yet. Do you guys like these things? I mean, I love them, but hey, I’m a freak. Well, uhh, yeah here you go.
The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
LevelScorePurgatory (Repenting Believers)ExtremeLevel 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)HighLevel 2 (Lustful)LowLevel 3 (Gluttonous)LowLevel 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)ModerateLevel 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)LowLevel 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)Very LowLevel 7 (Violent)Very LowLevel 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)LowLevel 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)Very Low
Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test
Which File Extension are You?
You scored as On the Edge. Oh. Watch your step. You're teetering on the edge- it could go either way. You're not a pyscho, but there is potential-insaneness, if you want it. Your own mind controls it from here- if you'd rather fit in, it's not too late. Then again, being an oddball is more fun:D
Hyper Insane
86%
On the Edge
86%
Totally Insane
64%
Normal/Boring
61%
Your Sanity Rating (Fun)?
created with QuizFarm.com
7 Types of Intelligence - Which is yours?
brought to you by Quizilla
clearly I’m meant to be an engineer ….;)
Your Political Profile
Overall: 40% Conservative, 60% Liberal
Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Fiscal Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
How Liberal / Conservative Are You?
anyone surprised? Lol, funny thing is some people would still put me with the extreme religious right and all the ensuing stigma.
You are
What Rejected Crayon Are You?
interestingly enough, my boxers were grey, but I didn’t think that was accurate enough, ‘cause they’re striped, so I went with Zebra. When I did do gray though, it came up with “spousal abuse black” and “spousal abuse blue”. Go fig.
Which OS are You?
You scored as Yoda.
Yoda
72%
Anakin Skywalker
67%
Darth Vader
67%
General Grievous
58%
Mace Windu
53%
Clone Trooper
53%
Chewbacca
47%
C-3PO
44%
Obi Wan Kenobi
39%
R2-D2
36%
Padme Amidala
36%
Emperor Palpatine
33%
Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
w00t!!! I’m Yoda!
You Are 40% Extrovert, 60% Introvert
You're a bit outgoing, a bit reserved
Like most people, you enjoy being social
But you also value the time you have alone
You have struck a good balance!
Are You An Extrovert or An Introvert?
What Gender is Your Brain?
Your Brain is 66.67% Female, 33.33% Male
Your brain leans female
You think with your heart, not your head
Sweet and considerate, you are a giver
But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!
Somehow I always knew … lol, sorry fellahs, I’m still terrifyingly straight.
If you actually read all this, leave a comment saying as much for posterity, it’s a feat worth making known.
~Xiaohouzi (laughing monkey) aka Comple (Complex and Simple) aka ME!!