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.