DONE!

Thursday afternoon just before 2:00 I finished my 3M paper, the absolute last paper I had to write for my college career! No more homework!

Next, I get to work for the college maintenance departement working on cars all spring semester while living in a nice little cabin on Rushford lake :)

Latenight On Victory Expressway(?)

So once again its been a long break. Chloe, what happened to your incessant pestering for new posts? I will, by the way, be sticking around for the spring semester, having secured a job here at the college.

Anyway. The reason for this post is similar to the reason for the last. Its late, I'm avoiding my work, I'm zoned out, and my thought process was shifted towards the idea of... well you'll figure it out. (thanks my dear anonymous friend) But I will do my best to make it not sound repetitive or boring, etc.

Perfection. Its impossible they say
except for God.
But I don't see any flaws
no matter where I look
I might be blind
or deaf
or dumb
I don't know
avoidance hasn't worked
indeed its made it worse
if that was even possible

proscribe that pitiful parole!
oh pray I prefer I perpetually
did proximately perceive
that phrase!

But now I must learn it
no choice have I
though desperately paths
around it I seek

perhaps it will one day
turn out the way I
have hoped all this time
but I am sure all the same
I will survive and be better for it

but oh, the turmoil that writhes inside
vamoose!

Tripping

Yup, first post in a wee while... just figured I'd share my (un)enlightened state with y'all right now...

Crying out, I dash my head against the wall
trying not to fall
I hold my head up high
way up in the sky
but there are clouds up there
ever so thin
I can feel the sun so close
but I can not quite grasp it
this aching hole I feel
I need to sooth and fill
but am not sure how
not quite pain
not quite joy
somewhere in the hazy fringe I roam
longing for a way out
too blind to see the door
right before my very eye
the end is near
but I lengthen the path
not wanting to let go
weary though I am
I grip with all the strength I have
the existence I've always had
will I never know
that which I always thought was best
or do I only tease myself
with false hope of something new
when all I have is all I need
but weary, I stumble
soon I will fall
but I will still crawl
for the end is very near
but every new beginning
is some other beginning's end
and that which follows
brings great promise and great dread
I only wish
for that one little piece of knowledge
that I have sought after for so long
but what will I find when I grasp it?
I can only guess, for my skill there falls short
fading into the future...

Lord, be thou my comfort
for I know You are all I need

21!

So I turned 21 on Monday :) Since I had such a long night writing a paper for class, I took a nice nap and then bought myself some goodies to treat myself since I have cut back severely on my dessert food intake recently. But to make sure I didn't get fat, I still went for a 4 mile run lol. And I took some nice pics of what must be the largest tree in the county, if not the state. Oh, and I got a nice phone call from Lindsay that was quite entertaining but left me longing for the home state... only a few days left... well, enjoy the tree pics and the only pic that exists of me on my 21st Birthday :)

35 Yards away

10 feet away

Arm's length

Free Time

What does one do on a lazy Saturday afternoon with no pressing homework? Well, I went to Moss Lake. I got to see views like this...



And this...



Lookit all the bullheads!!



And there's the freaky hole in the bog... only 2 feet in diameter but a solid 10+ feet deep! (yep I got a long stick)



Oh dear... I discovered a hollow stump...



Never been in one of those before... no, I'm not kneeling, that opening is about 6 feet off the ground...



And here's looking up the other side... that hole is probably 15 feet up.




Gotta love free time! :)

In related news...

... I banged my head at least a dozen times (add another couple dozen instances for pinched fingers) on various vehicular parts today as I helped take out the toasted transmission from one of the college's crappy, poor excuses for transportation... oh oops, I meant the college's '95 Chevy work van...



...but despite Mitch's sarcastic comment that auto mechanics was obviously an easy career, my resolve was unshaken and I perhaps... just maybe... enjoyed myself...

um yeah, I, uh, bit off more than I bargained for...

230 pages of reading in 3 days of class... including 100 pages that had to be read before the first class!... but its good, I can run thru the stuff without real comprehension cuz we can't possibly discuss ALL those details in 3 hours of class...

Wish I'd Gone Contra Dancing

Any past or present Shen man be advised that the following statements are blasphemous (sorry Job, Steve). Shenanigans was a waste of my time. There, I said it. I had the choice of going to a contra dance in Fillmore tonight or going to the much hyped Shenanigans which of course no one would tell me anything about. What a wonderful tradition, where I got to see 1,000 times more male flesh than I would have cared to see in my lifetime. And no time spent with females. It was almost enough to send me running to South. Almost.

Marathon Training

This past week I've been getting back into my groove of running every day. But I skipped yesterday. So to punish myself for this horrible lapse of habit and to earn some new bragging rights, I went all out today. A new personal record folks! 7.2 miles in 71 minutes... in no time I'll be in the big leagues running 10 miles in under 55 minutes... yeah thats a ways off still...







Boy, I don't want to think how sore I'm gonna be tomorrow...

Morgan

My car has a new name... and a new sub... let the fun begin :)

Honestly, I had NO idea this answer was coming...

President You scored 75 Goodness and 54 Determination!

You should become President!!! You are a determined, good man who will be good for this country without becoming too power-hungry or weak. You are determined enough to strive for good reforms, and good enough to care about those reforms actually happening. You aren't that determined that you will want to declare yourself dictator of Earth, nor will you decide that there needs to be a representative in Congress for homosexual, half-Polish, half-Irish Eskimos. Perfect President material.

This test tracked 2 variables. How the score compared to the other people's:

	Higher than 68% on Goodness
	Higher than 57% on Determination

The What To Do With Your Life Test

Church...

Yesterday was a first for me... my friends Lindsay and Annie decided we should hold our own church service outdoors since it was such a beautiful day...

So there we were, dressed in nice clothes, lugging a guitar and a backpack, hiking around Moss Lake looking for a good spot to settle down. We found a beautiful spot with dappled shade not far from the water's edge to hold our little worship service... What an amazing experience to sing praises, read the Word, and pray together out in the wonderful creation God has surrounded us with, and on one of the most beautiful days of the year... The Lord hath truly blessed us :)

Test I took recently... This shouldn't come as a surprise to those of you that know me

You are a Social Liberal (63% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (75% permissive) You are best described as a: Libertarian

No More Secrets

I finally came clean... Everything is out on the table and its in God's hands now... what a relief!

Beauty

OK... this may seem a bit strange... but I feel motivated to tell it nonetheless...

So Wednesday morning I'm sitting in my Pentateuch class staring out the window thinking about and dreading all the work I had to do in the coming days/weeks (and much of it still to do) and feeling pretty much rotten sorry for myself. When suddenly, I realized the beauty of the world outside that I was staring at... It was so incredibly gorgeous that I had to blink back tears of joy at the wonderful creation God has made for us all...


Thank you Lord for brightening my day and reminding me of the importance of a positive attitude.

Secrets

I hate secrets. I hate not knowing them and I hate keeping them. And there seem to be a lot of them in my life right now. I did manage to get one off my chest Wednesday night... only to have more appear last night... Grrr. But, for those involved, I would just like to say I respect your feelings, attitudes, and right to keep secrets even though they may frustrate me sometimes... and that will never change no matter what I know or don't know. As for me, I will admit the only reason I keep secrets is that I am afraid that the actions and attitudes of those I know may change for the worse if I open my mouth... perhaps I have too little faith... but y'all will know sooner or later, I promise.

On a slightly more mystical note...

177 days. Flew by? Too fast? Eternity? Yes. I think not. I think so. I've never. I'm sure. How? How long? I don't know. I can. Crater, trees, marsh, island, terrestrial or extraterrestrial? All of the above. Language? Math? Opposite? all have meaning my friend. Two phrases, eight words... and... complete?

The author would like to thank God, Chris Cagle, Rob Thomas, his friends, and a four-letter word.

Here is thine update Miss Chloe:

Once again, Miss Ackerman takes partial credit for the existence of this post... mayhaps I'll get into this thing on my own again sometime in the near future...

Anyway, I am currently celebrating being ALIVE. I have had just a hair over 5 hours of sleep on average in each of the last four 24-hour periods, and the first three 24-hours' average was even more impressive: 3.75 hours. At no time during the last 96 hours have I had more than 5.5 hours of sleep consecutively. Thats what happens folks, when one never reads in his classes and then has 7 yes thats right SEVEN quizzes and/or tests in 5 (FIVE) class days! Yeah. Oh and add in regularly scheduled homework (thanks Bradshaw) and homework that comes due test day (thanks Bobby) and a presentation (thanks a million Bates). Conclusion: I am STUPID! When will I learn to do my work ahead of time?? But its all over and done with... thank you and goodnight, here we come Easter break! Hallelujah!

Bowling... and other stuff

So here it is 2:45 AM and I just finished up my homework for the coming day... yeah yeah same old, same old. Funny thing is I just finished writing up an assignment on procrastination haha...

So anyway what I really want to write about is bowling Friday night :)
It was a dark and stormy night (this is pronounced breathtakingly wonderful winter scene and tremendous driving fun) and Annie and I had to do a little persuading to drag Lindsay along since she wanted to get some sleep in order to get a head start on homework Saturday (imagine that!...). We arrived just before 11pm, and found several other Houghton students were already there. The three of us decided to join Chris Cole and Chris Morris on a lane and we quickly got down to business.... sorta. The music was loud, the black lights were on, and everyone was just having to much fun to even care about bowling scores... well mostly. (I am in a sarcastic/funny mood right now can you tell) Second frame of the first game I had two gutter balls. First frame of the second game I had two gutter balls. Both games I had over 100. Third game was cut short for lack of time but I had 94 in the 8th frame. So not a bad night for me. All 5 of us did decent actually, with the low score first game being 88 and second game low score was 96, with none of us pro bowlers or all that concerned about getting good scores. The trip home was a bit slow because of 2 inches of fresh snow since we had arrived... and the fact another car was in front of us driving slower because of the conditions (imagine that!...). I really should get over my impatience on the road... but anyway with such wonderful conditions I could not resist some late night sliding fun in Fire Hall when we got back hehe.... I would zoom down an alley 25 or 30 miles an hour and then at the empty end of the lot spin the wheel and grab the ebrake... zoom back the other way and do it again... throw it in reverse get up to speed and whip the wheel/stomp on the brake for a 180 the other direction... then mix it up with a few wildly careening S curves on the carless side of the lot... Needless to say, I had a grin a mile wide plastered to my face and Lindsay was enjoying the experience nearly as much as I was. Annie did not seem to enjoy this quite so much so I cut short the fun to bring the girls back up to Gillette... where Lindsay refused to get out of the car and Annie refastened her seatbelt after discovering there was a lack of motivation amongst us to go to bed lol. So back down to Fire Hall for more crazy driving :)

Water Polo

I am immensly enjoying Houghton's intramural water polo. The only damper on the fun is our record. Our team is now 0 and 4 ... sigh... I have decided to quit keeping score as it is only getting more depressing each time... we had a particularly good routing tonight loosing 13 to 1 ... total points for the season we have let in 33 and only scored 6... oh right I was gonna stop keeping score! But really it is a good time :)




More updates soon I promise Chloe ;)

Where is the snow?!

This post is dedicated to Chloe - without her constant pestering this probably would not be here right now :-D

What happened to winter in the northeast? When I got home for Christmas break there were only patches of snow on the ground at my house in northern VT! This is unheard of in mid December and it made me very depressed since I was looking forward to some good skiing over break... but nope, we had a green (or should I say brown?) Christmas. Then the day after Christmas we had a few inches of slushy snow... enough to send my brother Seth and our old red mazda into the ditch on its roof... oops! ... then Saturday following we had about 4 inches of that good soft fluffy powder which made me very happy... and on Wednesday the 3rd I finally went skiing with my brother and my friend Lindsay and her brother Josh and her friend Ryan. We went up to Jay peak which had some very good conditions and had nearly all of its trails were skiable even tho supposedly half of them were closed... haha who pays attention to those signs anyway? Well I was glad we went when we did because Friday another warm spell hit... 50 plus degrees in early January?! what happened? and holy cow talk about POURING rain... bye bye snow :( .... here at Houghton there was no snow when I got here Sunday but then a blizzard Monday (which I got to drive through hehe) and more snow Tuesday night left us with a good covering until Thursday when it went and got warm again... Humph. I don't care about all you Floridians, I want COLD and SNOW... LOTS OF IT!!!