rick warren wants you to check out cbu.

watch the video on the side of the page. or don't. i wont ever know.
rick's top reasons why you should go to cbu:

1. it's not your father's school
   
2. most people find their spouses at college
3. missions is at the heart of the campus
   

oh rick, i want to find my spouse. but the 5:1 girl guy ratio will make that kinda hard.
so right now im content with living life with a bunch of girls. rick was half right. if your a boy you will find your spouse at college.

example: in my anthropology class of about 35 people there are only 2 boys.
Wow. i totally just figured it out... im single because i refer to them as boys. not men.

im high tech. i can post from my cell phone.

so i took this photo of some lovely ladies at dinner time.
with my cell phone camera.
then i sent the picture to blogger through a text message. im so high tech.

janai really needs to start a blog.
and jillian you should make your boyfriends start some too.
abby wins because she has already converted some people.

im telling you, by the end of the year lots of people will be bloggin'

a blog is a great excuse to procrastinate.

so i have a big presentation due tomorrow (technically today).
in my english class i am writing a research paper about the value of graffiti as art. the paper is not due for three more weeks but for some reason i have to present my findings to class tomorrow.

i am almost done but i cant stay focused.

i feel more pressure to deliver an interesting presentation because graffiti is cool and edgy. and i am cool and edgy. so of course my presentation should be cool and edgy.

i wish i had just written about nuclear physics so people would just tune me out and not actually listen to what i have to say.

i sat down at my mac to start it yesterday but didnt get very far. i found some more research so now i have about 20 articles (but i really need to actually read them now).

and i am a professional procrastinator so all day i have found things to distract me.
mostly things normally wouldn't do: reading for other classes. cleaning my room. making the bed. doing dishes.
and then i had a legitimate excuse:
chelsea and hannah! (pictured below at my last beach trip with the high school (we were playing some crazy picture game))
today there are about a million high school seniors at cbu for the preview day.

so right now as i "work on my presentation" they are sleeping on the floor behind me.
SCRATCH THAT. chelsea is sleep talking and hannah is telling her to stop sleep talking and go to bed. haha. that was funny.

ok. well i have checked my email, facebook, myspace, google analytics, my blog roll, and written a blog. its time to get back to work.
i realize that was not parallel structure, sue me.


actually i am going to get one more glass of water. then work some more.
well i might as well use the bathroom one more time.

a saturday fulla riverside pride.

if i was a gangster i would for sure be in one of the gangs that is all about riverside pride.
i would get 951 tattooed on my back.
i would have a fatty rain cross sticker on my car.

saturday morning i DARED TO CARE.
pretty sweet way to start out the day. i would estimate about 300 people from the grove and the path of life shelter were there. we divided ourselves into groups and set off to clean up downtown riverside.

my team was pretty hardcore. we were out in a a dust storm cleaning up train tracks. my legs were sore today when i woke up. im not used to using the "bending over and picking up trash muscles" they are very similar to the "rice planing muscles" i used in cambodia.
(im at the end of the row planting with the locals.)

after the clean up everyone ate lunch together.
hot dogs + chili + cheese + onions = gas.
:]


then saturday night emily, cynthina, stephen, and i went to the mission inn to look at the lights and have a crazy intense photo shoot.
kettle corn!
pretty lights.
spider pig, spider pig, does whatever a spider pig does.
more pretty lights.
mish.
giant orange!
how much longer will this behavior be accepted? i really love taking pictures with my friends. but i cant picture a mature 20 year old doing this kind of thing.

a serious subject.

(attention readers: i understand this blog may cause you to think less of me. but i am ready to accept that. i just need to be honest with you. judge me. that is the human response. but know this: i am not apologizing for anything.)

it started April 1, 2002.
five years ago.
i was in eighth grade and there was no knowing what was in store for my life.

i am not talking about a life changing spiritual journey. a love. a death. a new life goal.
i am talking about a television channel.

the n (short for the nighttime network for teens) was launched. i first hear about this hip new station through many commercials on nickelodeon.

my first encounter was the series premier of degrassi: the next generation. it was a dumb canadian teen drama full of corn. i loved it. the actors were my same grade and unlike other shows (ex:the oc) the actors were cast in age appropriate roles.

it sounds so lame but i really have grown up alongside some of my favorite characters. i have followed their ridiculous story lines for five years. i have watched people die, create new life, move away, struggle with drugs, school shootings, and many other real life issues.
like seriously every major event that can happen to s person has happened to one of the characters.

possibly one of the saddest parts of moving away to cbu is that they do not get channel 169. it was hard to adjust to. last year i would attempt to stream the video online from the-n.com but the connection was slow so sometimes it would take up to two hours to watch one 20 minute episode. i have given up on that so now coming home means i can catch up on the show online.

im not big into owning dvds of tv shows, especially if they are constantly being re-run, and are available online. but seriously i would love to own the complete collection of this show.
i want the behind the scenes. the never before seen footage. i want interviews with the directors. i want. i want. i want.

degrassi is my guilty pleasure. but i do not feel guilty.
i want to scream out. i love degrassi. a lot. favorite show.
hands down.

ootah.

last spring i got the awesome opportunity to go to utah on a mission trip with some awesome people from my school. we worked with the utah partnership for christ organization in ogden utah. they own a blue house right across the street from weber university. weber is a public state school but their campus hosts a institute of religion that is sponsered by the lds church. so a few of the days we walked across the street and tried to talk to people about their beliefs. we also rented a class room and showed the movie the lost book of abraham: investigating a remarkable momrmon claim. and then had a short time of questions and answers.
on sunday we went to a mormon ward service and it was so dead. first the men and women meet separately for a study and discussion. then everyone meets together, they sing some hymns(lyrics to "praise to the man" look at them!), a few people from the congregation talk, and they take communion (they use water and leavened bread). its sad.

we were invited to come back fro their family home evining that week. so we got to go on a beautiful hike up a mountain. at the top there was a waterfall and snow. it was awesome to see God's creation. but also saddening because we shared it with a group of people who are blinded by deception. its so hard to talk to mormons because they consider themselves Christians. but the very term Christian means Christ follower and they are following a false prophet who contradicts Jesus's teachings.
after the hike everyone went back to the school for root beer floats. this is a picture of some of the friends we made. i feel corny saying this, but why not stop and take a moment to pray for them right now?
a big part of what we did in utah was packaging dvds. someone had paid alot of money to get this jesus christ/joseph smith dvd (watch it online) produced and printed up. and we had to put stickers on them and put them in a door hanger bag. this is a picture of a guy form the Simpson team working on stickers. we worked with a teams from the masters college, oaklahoma baptist university, and simpson.

we went to temple square (a major tourist attraction) a few times. the downtown salt lake area is completely owned by the lds church. there is a temple, history museum, research center, meeting hall, conference center, theater, and much more. this is a picture of the childrens museum. look at the pentagram on the wall. crazyness. the architecture is so beautiful but also freaky. this building is just creepy looking. it reminds me of the castle in beauty and the beast when it is still under the spell.
utah was a crazy trip. i dont know how else to explain it. basically we left our somewhat christian nation and entered a mormon domain. and guess what... cbu sent another team back to utah for thanksgiving. Andrew is going back and co leading the team. he is a cool guy who likes strawberry milk.

he is also a real photographer. a real one. so pray for the utah team this week.

i do do my homework. haha. dodo.

so in my graphic design class right now we are working on cd cover projects.
im designing a fake cover for my brother.

its supposed to be in illustrator by tomorrow but my program kept shutting down on me. over and over again. :[

so i just decided to move in a different direction and make a robot out of construction paper. so i will have something to show the class tomorrow.so i just realized i keep starting sentences with so.
the robot will be playing the keys. in my mind this cover is real cool. hopefully i can transfer the image in my mind to the computer.

stay tuned to see what happens next.

i love wikipedia.

wikipedia. i love it.
my professors have made it clear to me that they do not reciprocate the feelings of love.

in pretty much every class we go over the negitive atributes of the site.
they should just offer a course in wiki-hating.

but i wouldn't need to take it. i know that anyone can edit the site's content. i know that there has been a problem with insider editing. i know that often times the information is not cited.

but i also know that I DONT CARE.
i love how easy it is to search for information. i love how everything is linked. dont worry, im not using the cite to write a 10 page research paper.

but if i have to sit through another lecture on the dangers of wikipedia i might go to wiki how and figure out how to skip class.

converts.

sience i decided to limit my myspacing and facebooking i have converted three friends to the world of blogs.

abby was the first to jump in. she is super cool. and she is from minnesota, which makes her even cooler. last year she lived diagonaly across the hall from me. i met her becasuse one of the first days of orientation last year she wrote a note on sydney's white board saying hi. then i looked her up on myspace. and she encoraged me to get a facebook. so now i guess it has gone full circle.

next katelyn, abby's bff from mn started a blog. i finnaly got to meet her this summer and we all went to back to the grind and played phase ten. she has not been updating that frequently. katelyn, you need to step it up.

several days ago jillian finally started her blog. she is my room mate. and my friend. she is also super cool. or should i say hecka cool? she is from nor cal, after all. uh im pretty sure we met because we both did not have a 11:15 class seccond semister and then we had our 12:20 class together with dr m. so we would eat lunch and then go to class. she would eat pasta every day.

and yesterday kristin started one as well. she is from norway. no thats a lie. she is from ontario canada. that is also a lie. she actually is from ontario california. i dont really remember how we met. sorry. but she lives in my cottage. and she plays the piano. and her taste in music would lead one to believe she is a pot head. she is a pot head. no, thats a lie too.

so like the movie pay it forward if we all just get one more person to blog and they can get one more person to blog eventually the world will be a better place.
:]

doll house.

so i came across this band. Vonnegut Dollhouse while reading some random art blogs.

the music is so-so. but the album art is awesome. like i really want it, even though i would probably never listen to the cd.
i guess thats the impulse-online-shopper in me.
dont worry i resisted the urge.

naked toes.

today i took my toenail polish off. and i didnt put anything new on.
i left my toes NAKED.

and today during cultural anthropology (where the answer to every question is either culture, social norms, or society) i spent a good 10 minutes starring at my toes. because they just look so weird naked.

for the past 5+ years i always have something on my toes. and when i take old polish off i immediately put new stuff on.

sorry about this random post.
im really not vain. i know the song is not about me.

happy music.

when someone asks me what kind of music i like i usually respond with

"happy music"
i really like listining to music that puts me in a happy mood.
top pick:The Rocket Summer. Bryce Avery is AMAZING.
other choices: the format, hellogoodbye, jacks mannequin
but i also like some hard core/screamo/grind core
top pick in that catagory:
alexisonfire (alexis on fire. first i thought it was alex is on fire.)

i am never in the mood for country.
never, never, never, never. (i will listen to rockabilly, sometimes.)

i like some electronica/techno stuff.
indie, ska, pop-rock, folk, and punk-pop are also fun genres.

christian music. this is a tricky subject. i wont listen to something simply because it is "christian." im kinda against the idea of parents sheltering their kids from music and saying, "you can only listen to christian music." there are lots of secular bands out there who are real good. high quality stuff.that being said i think that relient k is wayy over rated.
some christian bands i like:
emery, mae, newsboys, five iron frenzy

right now my itunes library is at 4451 songs.
most embarassing song: probably something by lindsay lohan. or paris hilton. or brittney spears. or ashlee simpson.

oh man. i need to clean out my library.

graphic design

im currently an art major at cbu.
i say currently because im thinking about changing it to graphic design.


when i grow up i want to be an art teacher.
but i could also be a graphic design teacher. but i dont know if graphic design teachers even exist

i really like the idea of teaching art because that is a subject kids usually take because they want to be there. and i wouldnt have to assign tests or homework. so i wouldnt have that much stuff to grade.right now im in a graphic design class and i really like it. alot. like the class is 3 hours long every thursday and normally i would not be able to handle something for three straight hours. but i totally enjoy this.



thursday our menu projects were due. we had to create a resturant and come up with the concept and a logo and a menu.



im real proud of myself.
i think they look pretty sharp.

anyone want to hire me to design menus?

i need a job.

halloween

i carved a pirate jack o lantern. i totally used a stencil. i was considering lying and saying i came up with the design all on my own, but the stencil is totally in the picture so i couldn't really get away with that.



on halloween i helped out with trunk n' treat. kids are cute. but parents are kind of silly
its dumb when parents take their newborn trick or treating. how can a baby who dosent have teeth eat candy? they cant. the moms are going to eat it all.

oh and the highlight of my night was getting yelled at. we were told to only give candy to kids under 12. so when somone who looked older came to our trunk we would ask them how old they were. several kids admitted to being 13+ (one even admitted to bing 17 1/2) so we would tell them to go play the games and stuff. then some crazy mom on a power trip came to our trunk and said "you told my daughter she couldn't have candy, you were wrong. i talked to the head pastor and he siad there was no age limit. bla bla bla."
sorry. i was just doing what i was told to do.

i kinda don't really like the idea of trunk or treat. not because i think its a satanic holiday or anything. i don't understand why every church in riverside needs to have a carnival. i wonder how much money churches spent this year on halloween.
i was a jock. i got 2 comments on my costume.

1. "what year did you graduate?" "06" "i graduated in from poly in 85"
2. "dang, was there anything you didn't win" (yah, i was a stud back in the day)

and my dad was a parking cone. he takes his parking ministry at the grove pretty seriously.

midnight maddness

its homecoming week!

whatever that means.


midnight maddness was advertized as the kick off of our basketball season. the first 400 students would get free coldstone and everyone had to wear their crazies shirt.

everyone got a nice blue towel or a "lancer linen."
and i actually had lots of fun.
some freshman on the team had beautiful corbin bleu hair that was shaved completly off.


the night ended with a slam dunk competition.



im pretty excited about basketball season.

shane ^2

thursday (of last week) shane and shane came to the grove and put on a rockin' show.
i saw them last year at cbu and it was fun.

my job was to check wristbands at the door. and k and i were doing a pretty good job untill we found out pastor daniel bishop was sneaking his friends in by putting the wristbands on real loose and then giving them to his friends. yes this is the guy who leads our junior highers.

mom and brother.

so after the show jillian (roommate) and janai (friend) were freaking out because they are crazy fans. and they got a crazy idea- driving to arazona the next day to see shane and shane again. originally i was against the idea because there was no way i could miss classes on friday. i had a midterm and a paper due. then friday morning i wake up to darkness. the school was without power. classes were cancelled and i was free to road trip with my friends.

so we drove to az. checked into our motel. ate at sonic burger. went to the concert. went to bed. woke up. went to sonic burger for breakfast. and drove back to california.