My Personal Website Evolution

Everyone these days is talking about HTML5 as the cool new way to do websites that is very compatible with everything, but I still really like Flash. To me, Flash websites are so impressive. I have never been one to want to pay for a website of my own but would rather use free services for my personal websites that I create.

I started off on my first website with a Microsoft online tool that started out free, and then it eventually went to a fee site. The cool thing about that site was that I had a free domain of www.timkirkman.com  It was quite a cool feature to have my own name as my domain. But, as I said, eventually that went to a fee site so I ditched it.

The next site that I created was with google. I love pretty much everything Google. They are very innovative. I tried out a Google Sites. Sadly, I never really got into the sites web. I liked that Google linked it to my google account and I could get to it easily and I liked that other google products (like Maps and Cal) could be imported into it. 

The next free site I tried was Weebly.com  Weebly is a great free site and looks very professional. Weebly is very easy to use and has some great abilities. I still have my Weebly.

The latest site that I have found via a google sponsored link is WIX.com  WIX is the first flash site that is free that I have found. WIX is very user intuitive and i think anyone could create a very diverse and professional looking site. Check it out. Its fun to use- but be warned- you will start working on it and not want to stop- There is so much you can do with it.

Day Thirty: A motto or Philosophy

I'm gonna 

go ahead 

and 

give 

my motto, 

but 

keep in mind 

that it is very deep 

and you have 

to really think about it 

for a while 

to get it...

"Never

Fry

Bacon

Naked!"

Yes, this is not my creation, but my Brother-in-Laws. 

But, I thought it was very catchy and true, so I have adopted it.

This is Day Thirty and that means that my 30 day Posting Challenge is over. How sad right? Where else are you going to get random facts and knowledge about my life? Well, stay tuned, because I spew out random thoughts and entries all the time 

(Hence the reason that the name of my blog is 

"Random Thoughts And Entries from Timothy James Kirkman."

Day Twenty-nine: Hopes, Dreams, and Plans for the next 365 days.

I think the biggest, hope and dream for my in the next year is to get a permanent job. A job has been the major thing on my mind since I ended my College career (With a Bachelors) and that was about 4 years ago- even over 4 years. A permanent job will be such a fulfilling feeling. As a substitute, I do enjoy my life- the ability to not have any homework to correct, being able to stand a super bad class for at least a day and to know that I don't have to go back to that horrible class again- but I would so enjoy the ability to have much more financial stability. I would love to have a class and classroom that I could call my own and really get to know the students on a deeper level, not just their names or only the names of the troublemakers. I want to make a difference in childrens' lives and as a substitute, it is very difficult to do that on a deeper basis.
I would love to have a job.

A plan I have for the next year is to get done with my Masters degree and pay it off totally. I know this is a big goal considering I have about 9 thou that I need to pay off, but I would love to make that happen so I could start saving my extra money (if there is any) for other purchases such as a newer car (notice I did not say, new, I said NEWER!) and larger items such as that.

Movies, Movies, Movies

Well, I just recently watched two movies in the silver screen. I watched Despicable Me and The Other Guys.
One of those movies was hands down a great movie, the other had its parts. I bet you can guess which is Better- Despicable Me! It was an amazing movie. There was a part in the movie where Gru, the main character, takes the girls to a theme park and they have some great bonding time. I was amazed that a movie could make me feel the way it did. Not in the, Oh how cute way, or emotions even, but in the sense that when they went on the Roller Coaster Ride, the first big dive actually made me have a momentary queezyness. I did not think that movies in theatre that are stationary could make me feel that way. Granted, if you go to Disneyland and go to the Star Tours ride, it is in a movie theatre and the chairs move and that can somewhat make me queezy, but thats a bit different.
Anywho, I really enjoyed Despicable Me and will most likely ask for the movie for Christmas or whatever. It had some great parts and great animation and great acting. ... It was just GREAT.

The Other Guys on the other hand, was not bad, but not as good as I thought it might be. I love Will Ferrell. He cracks me up so much.There were def. some good parts for this movie and many parts had me laughing out loud (yes, indeed, I was LOLing) but there were other parts that just made me think that they had nothing better to do than do some crass humor. I mean if they cut these crass, obnoxious parts out, it would be a truely great movie, but the film was riddled with these parts that they could have done without. So, even though there were parts that made me laugh SO much, I would have to give this one a 9.... out of 15 rating. (yes, I know its crazy, my ratings system and all, but I think that having just 5 options doesn't allow as much of an opinion as adding more stars to rate on.)

Day Twenty-eight: a Scar you have and your story

Well, the most infamous scar I have is from when I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade. It was summertime. My sisters were in Jr. high and having a friend over. I was being the annoying little brother that I AM and was making faces at my sisters through the outside window-door.

My sister decided that she would run up to the door and block my face from them so I would perhaps go away. Well, she gets up and starts running to the window where I was, and she ran right through the window. Well, needless to say since my face was pressed up right against the window when she was running her hand through it and it broke the glass and shattered right into my upper lip.
My mom was outside and saw the whole thing and had to come and help me and my bleeding all around my face. She didn't even see Kristin's wrist cuts as well.

Day Twenty-seven: A Feature You Like

Well, I would have to say that to find the feature that I like about me, all you have to do is look at the top of this page. I love my Eyes. The most physical comments I have ever gotten are about my EYES. The beautifulness, the bigness, the Blueness, whathaveyou. Also, in relation to my eyes is my Eyelashes. They are very long.
My one and only girlfriend, came up to me the first time I met her and asked if I was wearing mascara. Kinda funny right, but thats what I get for being a male with long eyelashes and big beautiful eyes.

Day Twenty-six: A Childhood Memory

I would have to say the childhood memory that stands out in my mind the most is kindergarten. Being the youngest and having my mother a stay-at-home mom for my early years, came with some great rewards. My sisters were off in Elementary school 3rd grade to be precise, and I was in Kindergarten.

Now, I went to an early Kindergarten at Sonshine School- my church Kinder, and then I also went to an afternoon Kindergarten at the Elem. school that I spent my years at. What I remember the most was coming home for lunch in between Kindergarten and having a Girl or Boy Cheese Sandwich and watching Perry Mason.

There are two things you need to know. One is that Girl Cheese was Cheddar. And Boy Cheese was Mozzarella. Being young, I did not know it was called Grilled Cheese. Those were good times.
Another very persistent childhood memory was when my mother was cleaning the kitchen and dining room floors, she would move all the table items to the living room and I would get to arrange them into a fort and use blankets to cover them up. IT WAS AWESOME!

Day Twenty-five: A recipe

Well, it seems that every time I create this pizza recipe, everyone says that it is best Pizza they have ever had. And It's true. Tristan's is AMAZING. So, when this post came up, I knew exactly what recipe to use. The dough has some weird ingredients- Molasses-but try it out even if it sounds gross. These are actually two separate recipes- Tristan's Spiffy Pizza Dough and then the Pizza sauce. I learned of Tristan's from my Redmond High Restaurant Class and the sauce I just found by searching the internet.                                     

Pizza (a few parts)

Preheat: 375 Time:20 Min.

Tristan’s Spiffy Pizza Dough

Makes:

3 C. Water	2 tsp. Salt
1 ½ tsp Sugar	1 TBS Molasses
¼ C. Oil	8 C. Flour
3 TBS Yeast	¼ C. spice mixture (Garlic Salt, Italian Seasonings, anything else sounding good)

Directions:

Add salt, sugar, molasses, and yeast to 3 C. of warm (not hot) water. Mix together with spices.  Add about ½ of the flour slowly. Once mixed, stir in the oil, then remaining flour. Place in large bowl and cover with warm, damp, cloth. Let rise until doubled in size, then divide and roll out into pans.

Pizza Sauce

1 (15oz) can of Tomato Sauce	1 (6oz) can of Tomato Paste
1 TBS Ground Oregano	2 tsp. Dried Minced Garlic (or fresh)
1 tsp. Dried Basil	Pinch of salt and pepper to taste.
Italian seasonings @ your discretion.

Directions:

Mix tomato sauce and paste together until smooth. Add other ingredients and mix well.

For Pizza:

Roll out Tristan’s Spiffy Pizza Dough into pizza sizes. (Its best to make 4-5 equal dough clumps to create individual pizzas).  Add the pizza sauce in a thin layer. Add generous amounts of shredded mozzarella cheese.  Add any chosen pizza toppings. For the final touch add more mozzarella and a light sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Place on a pizza rack or cookie sheet and bake at 375 unto fully cooked.

Day 24: A movie no one would expect you to love.

 Well, I am not going to presume that there is a movie that others would not expect me to like. What I am going to be blogging about today is a movie that I did not expect I would like. That movie was August Rush.
It did not seem like a "Tim" movie, but I found out a few years later that I did like it.
To be totally honest, because I had this preconceived notion that I would not like this movie, when it was given to me as a gift for Christmas about 3 years ago, I left it in the packaging cellophane until just a month or two ago when I finally decided to give it a try. Well, I found out that I really did like it quite a bit. Not an absolute favorite, but a good movie, especially if you are into music.

Day 22: The way you want to be remembered.

I think that I would like to be remembered for my character. I want to be remembered for my sincerity. I want to be someone who is known for saying true statements. I don't want to be someone of whom you can't trust. I want to be remembered as a great friend. As someone who loved his wife and kids (the future ones, you know). Someone who values family. Someone who is helpful. Available to talk. Someone after God's own heart. That is the most important thing that I want to be remembered for- following after God's own heart.

Day 22: A Website

There are so many good websites out there. How can I choose just one. The post challenge doesn't even have a criteria. It doesn't say a favorite website. It doesn't say a website that you hate to go to. It doesn't say a website you created. It doesn't say a website that you go to everyday. It doesn't say a website that has your personal content on it. It doesn't say a website that you find very useful.

So...
Because there is no criteria, I have decided to find websites for all those above criteria that I wondered about.

It doesn't say a favorite website. 
Google.com
I love Google because for one thing, I can find pretty much anything I need. And another reason is because Google has amazing products and services too.

It doesn't say a website that you hate to go to.
 edzapp.org
 I do not like to go to edzapp because it is a teacher job search and everytime I go there, I see the sad state of no jobs around or the fact that the few jobs there are, that I applied to, are already filled. I don't enjoy going to Edzapp.

It doesn't say a website you created. 
 http://timkirkman.weebly.com/
 I created this site specifically for my schoolwork last year. It was an easy interface and if you want to create your own website for free and make it simple, try out weebly.com.

It doesn't say a website that you go to everyday.
facebook.com
gmail.com
blogger.com
There are a number of websites I got to everyday. I enjoy checking my mail, my facebook, and my blog each day to see what is new with people around me.

It doesn't say a website that has your personal content on it. 
http://www.youtube.com/user/timothykirkman1984
YouTube has my personal content on it. I enjoy uploading videos to YouTube. My YouTube channel has 71 uploads on it plus a number of favorites that I enjoy watching.

It doesn't say a website that you find very useful.
 http://churchmediadesign.tv/
 I find church media design to be a great website that is useful to me. I enjoy watching the vodcast episodes that Brad puts out. He has a plethora of knowledge and I like to learn more and more things in that field.

Day 21: Something you know you do differently than most people.

WOW, this post challenge is quite a tough one to think about!

I have to think about things that I do that others do differently. What could it be.

I have even enlisted my family to think about this with me, but we have no idea.
Now my sister thinks that I, along with the rest of the family, sing the Messiah parts during the Christmas story, but I totally deny that. Most people would not sing the Messiah parts during a reading of the Christmas story, but my family does. That is something they do differently than most.

One thing that I do differently than my family though is wanting a schedule.
When we go on vacations, I like to know when we are leaving and where we are going and then what, and then what...
The rest of my family is very flexible, but I enjoy knowing exactly what is going to happen.
I know it is not all that much different than most people, but it is different than the rest of my family.

Day 20: A hobby of yours

My hobby is my technology. I love everything about technology; The way that the tech keeps getting better and faster and smaller all at the same time. I love the innovation. I love the ability to connect to others. I love how smart the technology can be. There are many out there who are nervous about this idea of smart technology, but I think it will all be great for use.

A big part of this hobby of Generalization of Technology is Video Editing for me. I could (and have) spent hours on video editing- creating footage and splicing it together to create something wonderful.

I had a great time with the Life in a Day sponsored by YouTube. I had the opportunity to upload footage from my day into the major producers and director. That is all due to Technology.

Day 19: A Talent You Have

Well, anyone who knows me, 

knows my talent 

because 

I do it 

all the time.. 

Picking my nose.

Just Kidding, my talent is singing. I love to sing and I am confident to say that I am good at it. I can make people cry with my singing (in a good way- not the PLEASE please stop singing way)
I was able to do many extra things in High School because of my singing talent. I got to be in District Honor choirs 3 of the 4 years I was in school (Freshman year, I was still trying to hold onto the trumpet, but was not enjoying). I got to sing at District solo festival all four years. I got to go go All-State choir two times and All Northwest Choir once. It was all awesome. 
So, there is my talent that I have. (But, I am pretty good a picking my nose too)

Day 18: Time when you felt passionate and alive

I am not one who shares feelings in such a way. I really cannot tell when I feel passionate and alive. Im not really an introspective person. I like to take a look at the outside of myself rather than in, I would say. Passion is a funny thing. I think that most of us are those who think of passionate as a love language. Its something you feel for something or someone really really deeply. Most often to me though, when I think of Passionate or passion, I think of an intimate relationship between two people. Now, I know that people use passionate for other things too. Like someone who really enjoys hiking might say they are passionate about hiking, but the default for my understanding is still the relationship type of passionate that infers intimacy. So, as I discuss that, I have not felt that way yet! I am looking towards God for that spark of passion to ignite when He brings someone into my life that creates that Passionate feeling within me.

As for the word, Alive, I feel alive everyday. When I wake up in the morning, I feel alive. When I see the beauty of God's Creation, I feel alive. When I sing, I feel alive. When I drive in my car, I feel alive. When I dunk my body into the swimming pool, I feel alive. Everyday I feel alive.
He's Alive, Alive, Alive- Hallelujah, Alive-Praise and Glory Amen. (repeat)

Day 17: An art piece.

My absolute favorite piece of art is Van Gogh's Starry Night. I love the swirls of color.

Day 16: A Song that makes you Cry

There is one artist that I find can make me cry pretty easily. That is Mark Schultz.

Walking Her Home

He's My Son

Letters From War

Day 15: A person I admire.

Well, one person that I admire because of talent and other things- Will Smith.


Now, I know what you are thinking- How can I admire someone of whom I have never met? Well, I find that he is incredibly talented in his acting career. Pretty much every movie that he has done is amazing. They are pretty much all (especially the later ones) super hits in the box office.


I also really Admire Will Smith because of his virtues (at least the ones I know of). What I mean by that is that He has been in the Hollywood industry for 25 years and has been married to Jada Pinkett Smith for 13 years and is still married. That is quite an impressive idea. Hollywood marriages seem to be in and out. Get married (for what seems at times to be for publicity reasons) and then get divorced a few months later (again for bad reasons), but this family, the Smiths, have been doing a great job. I find that Will is an amazing role model. I think that it's great that he includes his children in his movies too. Jayden, his son, was in The Pursuit of Happyness, and Will also produced Karate Kid. His daugher, Willow, was in I Am Legend. I did not know that before researching.




"In fact, he is the only actor in history to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office as well as being the only actor to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at the #1 spot in the domestic box office tally.^[3] Fourteen of the 19 fiction films he has acted in have accumulated a worldwide grosses of over $100 million, and 4 of them took in over $500 million in global box office receipts. His most financially successful films have been Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, I, Robot, The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, Hancock, Wild Wild West, Enemy of the State, Shark Tale, Hitch and Seven Pounds." (Wiki)

Day 14: A Vacation spot

I think my ideal vacation would be to visit European Countries- I would love to take a few weeks (or months) and travel through various Euro countries- from England, to France, to Germany (even though I have already been there for one day for one night), and Austria. It all sounds great.

Day 13: A guilty pleasure.

I would have to say that I feel guilty about all the DVDs (and now Blu-Rays) that I buy. I have way to many, and yet, I am addicted to my collections.

Day Twelve: A song I want at my Wedding.

Now, I am not some girl who has planned her wedding since she was 2. I have certainly thought it would be nice to have my mother's Quartet for the processional, and to have my dad officiate in a church venue, but other than that have no other plans so this posting is hard for me to know off-hand.
What song do I want played at my wedding?
Well, I guess if I had to choose, after taking a bit to think about it...

I would choose:
ideally, I would like to create my own song to sing to my bride- but if that was not working out
perhaps From This Moment On
or Just the Way You Look Tonight.

Again, I have not really thought about this, but after some research on popular wedding songs, this is what I would choose at this moment right now.

Day Eleven: A recent Photo

I don't take that many photos of myself and I don't have many photos that are not mine and so it was very hard to find todays challege posting. Pictures of me just aren't taken that much- probably so noone breaks their camera. But, the story behind this photo is that I was working on day on getting a picture of myself to upload for the top of my Blog and so I took a million pics of my face, my eyes, whatever and eventually came up with the Black and White Eye picture that you see up there, but I am putting this one on the daily "A Photo of You Taken Recently" post because I thought it was funny lookin'.

So, there ya go.

Day 10- A Photo Taken over 10 Years ago.

Well, this photo was not only taken of my over 10 years ago, but also over 20 years ago. It was a long time ago.

I beleive I was around 3 or 4 and visiting my grandmother in Sunnyvale. (Not positive though)

This is one of my mother's Favorites of me.

I was so cute.

Deschutes County Fair Photo Entries

So, I thought I would tell all that I have entered a few of my photos into the Deschutes County Fair this year and so if you go, pass by the photo exhibit and take a look for my photos. Granted they might not have the most fancy borders or mattes, but I am very proud of them.

Day Nine- A Photo I took

Well, for today's challenge post, the prompt is to post a photo that I took.

Here it is. I felt that I had already shown off so many of my photos that if I chose one of the generic ones that I love so much, that many will have already seen it, so I chose a photo that I was sure that I had not previously uploaded.

You like?

It's a dead fly.

I took it one afternoon while I was working on my computer and saw this dead fly on my windowsile.

It just looked so artistic.

I like all the details of the fly.

"We are food for worms boys"- Dead Poets Society.

Day Eight: Thank You Letter: To my HS Choir Teacher.

30 Day Blog Posting Challenge for today:

To my HS Choir Teacher:

Swear, you are one amazing man. You were always there for me in school. You gave me the confidence that I needed to be sure of myself and my voice. You made fun of me. And I of you.

You comforted me. You were there to talk about personal things too. You always made the time and special care for those of us who were focusing on our voices. You gave up your free prep period to give us private voice students the place to grow. You spent countless dollars of your own money on Doughnuts for the Choir on Friday after Friday. I still think of Caroling around the Elementary Schools on the Friday before Christmas Vaca.You were available to take time out of your schedule to bring me (and others) to out of area events such as All-State and All-Northwest. You were firm when you needed to be, and fun the other 98% of the time.

 You really helped me to separate myself from my sisters' shadow in High School. It was nice for once to not be the Perfect Twins' little brother, but TIM. That means the world to me.

Thank You for all you did for me and the thousands of other High School Students are Redmond High through the years.

Thank You also for the opportunities to sing at the places I was able to. I will never forget singing at the Blazer's Game in Redmond.

Day Seven: 5 Things I couldn't live without

There are many things I depend on. The first would have to be my Computer

The next thing that I would have a hard time living without is High Speed Internet Access. I find so much of my information on the Internet and I could spend countless hours on many sites. The third thing that I could not live without is my DVD/BluRays. I know that most of you know that my collection of DVDs and start of BluRay is very vast and I feel I have a problem with restraint when I am around great deals.    Warning- This is NOT my collection- I am not that possessed (yet) And hey, if I have my collection of DVDs and BluRay, I would need to have a Bluray Player and TV. I would not be able to live comfortably without them. The last thing that I would not live without would be my Music. Of course, if I have my computer, I have my music. It is all located on there, but just in case you can't count that.

Day Six- A moment rre-lived

Now Katy seems to think that 

"A moment you wish you could re-live" 

means something you would do differently,

but I take it totally differently.

The way I look at the post prompt 

is something that you want to experience 

from your past, 

once again. 

In this veiw, 

I would like to re-live the moments 

when I accepted Christ, 

so I could feel 

that feeling and newness 

once again. 

I was at such a young age 

that I remember very little 

and so I would re-live that moment with Juanita 

in Church 

at FBC Redmond 

after service 

so I could take it all in and remember it for good. 

(That is until I become 100 years old 

and forget what I had for breakfast)

PS- don't ask me why I formatted my posting this way, 

It 

was 

just 

something 

I 

did

!

!

Day Five- Favorite Quote(s)

I have many quotes. There are many that I like that I do not ever remember. So, when This days task came up. I went searching for good quotes. Some of which I have heard, and some I just found and thought were great.


Work like you don’t need money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one’s watching

—Unknown Author

 

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.

—Kurt Vonnegut

 

I’d rather live with a good question than a bad answer.

—Aryeh Frimer

 

A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the advice -Bill Cosby

 

 

Another that is great is from many movies such as Coach Carter and Freedom Writers:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3])

 

 

Day Four: Favorite TV Show

Well, if we are going for currently aired shows, I would have to say that my favorite show is How I Met Your Mother. It currently has completed 5 seasons and 6 is due to start in the fall. I love the way they tell the stories. It's a show that is based on (you guessed it) a narrative of how Ted- the main character- met his wife, telling his children. There are 5 friends who are in their 30s and tells of their lives and experiences. To tell the truth, at times, this show can bit a bit inappropriate with lots of sexual references (especially from Barney) but it is a sad fact that you pretty much can't find a show on prime time nowadays that does not have that sort of stuff.

















If we are going for shows of all-time. I would have to say, I have many more. To name a few: Boy Meets World, Home Improvement, The Cosby Show, Frasier, Veronica Mars, Scrubs, and Monk.

Day Three: A Favorite Book

Well, I get made fun of a lot because of the book choices, but I am an elementary teacher and so I find myself reading (when I read) children's books. Some of my favorite authors are:
Beverly Cleary, Louis Sachar, Andrew Clements, Roald Dahl, Judy Bloome, and Megan Mcdonald.
I would have to say though that my absolute favorite book would have to be There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom. This story is an amazing story about a 5th grade boy who has trouble in school. He never does his work and is just a pain in the butt (Do I relate to him?) and he starts to visit the new school councilor and she helps him to adjust his life. It is just a great story and if you haven't read it- YOU NEED TO!
Also, Holes by Sachar and School Story by Clements are very high on my list of Favorites.





But, if we are going Adult books (Not adult content, but you know what I mean) then I would have to say that Crazy Love is my favorite. It is a book by Francis Chan that speaks of how we need to be thinking of our relationship with God. He is very challenging in his thoughts.

Day Two- A Favorite Movie- UP

My Favorite Movie has to be UP from Pixar. It is amazing. I am just so in awe of the power of music in portraying emotion in the opening scene. There is NO words, just visuals and music and it makes you cry. AMAZING.
You can click on the link on the side to go to amazon to buy the movie. Good deal too.

Awesome UP Quotes:
Carl Fredricksen: This is crazy. I finally meet my childhood hero and he's trying to kill us. What a joke.
Dug: Hey, I know a joke! A squirrel walks up to a tree and says, "I forgot to store acorns for the winter and now I am dead." Ha! It is funny because the squirrel gets dead.

Dug: I was hiding under your porch because I love you. 


Charles Muntz: Adventure is out there!

Ellie: [her last message to Carl] Thanks for the adventure. Now go have one of your own.
 

I Was Bummed

So, last night my camera started acting up... must have been after I took that picture of myself- musta broke it... anyways, I was trying to figure out why the card would not work. I have a 2GB SD card that I have had forever and it would not recognize the card and when put into my computer to check it out, it would not find it. That tells me that the card is just too old. So, I figured that it is time to get a new card and why not go big so I can always add this card to my future camcorder so itd be smart to get a High Capacity card with around 8GB and a fast transfer rate. I checked around all the areas for inexpensive cards and found that Best Buy was having a sale on an 8GB card for $25. Pretty good deal, so I planned to go get it sometime this week.
That did not help for me this morning because I am planning to hike today. So, I went rummaging through my dads office to find an SD card from his camera. Did not find the camera but found the camcorder (that they were supposed to take on their trip BWT) with two 8GB cards available to use. I stick one in to find it doesnt recognize that card either. I dump the stuff on the card (because we already have the footage) and make sure it looks new (inside the card) then put it back in the camera and it still does it. This tells me that its my camera NOT the cards. So, Now I am REALLY bummed. I decide to use an old camera for my trip- 5MP and old wow. I put the 8GB HCSD card in and get the same problems. I finally realized that these devices are so old that they don't like High Capacity cards. So, I found an old 256MB card in my old camera that I put into my current camera and it works great.
Problem solved. Wahoo.

Day One- A Favorite Song- City on Our Knees- tMac

City On Our Knees is an amazing song by tobyMac.
If you just listen to the lyrics, it is very empowering.

Challeging Book of ELI

The Book of ELI... What do I say, other than... It challenged me.
Here's the overview- The book of ELI is about a man in the future in a world devastated and deprived by war and global conditions. There was a huge war, and something broke the sky barrier and the sun is now burning down and blinding eyes (without the proper sunglasses). There are few people left and they have very little. They are traders of goods, and water is a commodity. Cue, ELI- he is a man traveling West and he is walking that way because a voice in his head was telling him to. His only major possession is a book.
ELI comes in contact with a man in charge of a little city that was searching for this very book that ELI owned. ELI would do anything to protect this book. We find out later (Spoiler Alert) that this book was a Bible- The very last one. ELI would read from it every night and he would do anything to stay in contact with this book.
This movie challenged me for a few reasons... One- in the movie they talk about before the war (current day) where "people would throw things away that people would kill for". It just shows our current consumerism and how "I need" we get.
Two- I got to thinking about how many bibles we have in our house. How we take our availability of the Bible for Granted. Some countries are smuggling bibles in so those who thirst for the Knowledge of God can find it, but here I am with probably around 6-8 bibles in my household and I can't seem to find enough time in my "Busy" schedule (Sarcastic) to pick it up and read it. Very challenging.
I would def. recommend The Book of ELI, but be warned, there is quite a bit of "Blow Em Up" too. It's worth it. Thanks to Brice Wolford for the recommendation. Oh, and You will all LOVE The Ending of this movie- it's great.

How'd she do that?

So, my sister finally started a blog and followed me, which is fun, but I was confused when I saw some options on her blog postings that I had not seen on mine before. Why does she get that extra buttons to share on Facebook and blogger and Buzz and what-all-else.
It could not have been a setting I missed. It def. could not have been her technical expertise. How'd she do that?
Well, I was baffled. I looked all throughout my settings and did not find anything. I figured maybe it would be a new feature that if I created a new blog then it would show up. So, I go through the process of making a new blog to post on the internet, and try out my post, and sure enough... There were those buttons for sharing. Well, I figure that since it is on a new blog posting of mine with pretty much the same settings I had before, it should be on my normal blog posting. This post right here is to check that cuz... I WANT THOSE BUTTONS.
Well, if they are down there beyond this post, that is great and I will probably leave this up, but if not, I will be very upset and most likely delete this posting.

On another note. I went downtown Redmond today to view the carshow. I had fun. There were lots of great cars, but I found myself like the 1920's, 30's, and 40's cars the best- specially with the Rumble Seat ( the ones on the back of the car that pop out. But, I did not see any as cool as this car that we took pics of in the WOU parking lot a few weeks ago. WOW.

Late Night in Salem and Disappointment

Last night, I was restless at around 8 O Clock at night and so I drove down Mission street in Salem. I came upon a City Transit Bus that had people on it, but no driver, so I decided that I would take charge and figure out how to drive this bus.


Well, I continue on the route that the bus was on and figured it out. At one stop, someone got off, but still had other people on it. I found it interesting that the accelerator was on one side where I use my right foot (as normal cars), but then the brake was on the other side of this huge barrier and I had to use my Left foot which was a bit different.


After driving the bus a while, I wanted to take the bus to Costco to get some food and let the people on the bus have a break. Well, we get to Costco and I park the bus and we all go inside to get some food, but Costco was already closed and there was a huge line outside the building all wanting food.


The line was for a vending machine and we we all got in line to buy something to eat through the vending machine. After a while, we head back to the bus, to find out that it would not start back up. I was panicked, because I had the responsibility to get all these people where they needed to go.










Then, I woke up and realized




that it was all






just a WEIRD dream.


Don't ask me why I dreamed this or even remembered it (because most of the time I do not remember my dreams) but I did and thought it was humorous and wanted to share on my Random Thoughts Blog... What could be more Random of Thoughts.

Summer Classes, Toddler Teaching, and Mess Ups!

Well, the first day of class yesterday was IN-TER-EST-ING.
For starters, I was expecting the Summer term to be a smaller flow of students because its not the traditional academic year. Most students take the summer off and start again in the Fall, but I did not take into account the amount of students that are teachers who only have summers to do their coursework. WOU has quite a large population of teachers and those wanting to be teachers, and so that has a factor.
So, I drove up to the school expecting to get a prime parking spot only to find none. I had to park where I usually park, way over by the city park. That is a problem because those are only 2 hour limit and my classes were from 8:30-3:30.
I got into my class and found it alright. It was a beautiful site to see all those large iMacs to use. But, what I was not too happy about was the fact that my teacher for this first class was a regular Elementary teacher and treated us as her 5th graders. It was very degrading. She counted down from 5 for our attention and she had us get up and make a continum of where we were in the technological sense from 1-6, 1 being lowest, and 6 being highest. It was actually kinda funny because we ALL put ourselves in the 6 category and so there was not much moving around. She must not have realized that we all felt confident in all things technology.

I had the chance to meet my parents for lunch because they were on their way to the Oregon Coast for a few days in celebration of their 31st Anniversary. What an accomplishment. I do not know many couples who are happily married after 31 years. Congrats to my parents as of TOMORROW (unless it was yesterday, I always get mixed up if its the 21st of 23) After having lunch and showing the parents around the campus, I had to get to my next class- Digital Music.
We were all there, waiting for the instructor to find out that he was way-late. The staff of WOU was scrambling to find a solution and eventually brought in Bill Hamlin to teach. He did a good job after gaining his composure from switching tasks. It was kind of a crazy time to have that sort of mess up.
Let's hope today goes a bit better.

The State of Bashing and Comparing- How Sad!

Its really sad to think of the way the church is acting in some aspects.

One major thing I found in Chapter one of Philippians is Paul's yearning to see the Philippians and his prayer:
"(9) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ."

What came to my mind is the competition that churches nowadays have. Churches now compare numbers and staff and everything. Denominations bash each other. The Charismatics call the Presbyterians and Baptists rigid and uptight and old, and the Baptists call the Charismatics crazy vision seeing weirdos and all seem to be in a race to get the largest numbers to prove that their denomination is better.

But, it doesn't just stop at denominations, it goes even deeper.
Like-believing churches also have competition.

I can remember a church I was a part of and a similar situation. I was a part of a Mexico mission trip where two churches joined together for the trip (of the same denomination, in fact one even was birthed from the other as a church plant) and a comment was said by a student and one of the leaders made the comment that if you go to their youth group, you can learn about the bible- implying that the other church was not doing a good job of teaching during youth group. I was just so upset by that comment.


Churches are always comparing. I have even been known to do it. When I was in charge of the podcasting at a previous church, I was happy when we had more podcasts of sermons than another church. I would actually look at this churches podcast site to see if we were still #1 in the podcast number. That is the stupidest thing ever if you ask me.

We should be happy to see growth in other churches, even if its not in our denomination. As long as these other churches believe in the big picture of the fact that Jesus Christ was Fully God and Fully Man and Died for sins for all, it shouldn't matter if a different church is growing faster than mine.

We need to be praying for other churches just as we pray for ours that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that they may be able to discern what is bet and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.

What a Day!

What a day it's been! I have had quite a bit of car trouble today. I decided to head over to Silverton to watch a matinee movie for $4. Pretty good price, so I figured, it'd be fun to watch The Karate Kid.
I start making my way over to Silverton and right at a huge intersection, my car starts to stall out on me. I am freaking out because I am in the middle of this intersection and my car is not cooperating. I flip my hazards on quickly and try turning over the engine. it is not helping.

I keep working on it and after about a minute of turning over the car, it starts up again for me. I find the closest place to stop the car and turn it off. I try it again, and the car is working fine. It took a bit to start, but that is normal. I turn the car off and check the oil, put in a quart and check it. It seems to work fine. So, I keep making my way to Silverton. Once I make it all the way to Silverton, I come to a stop sign, and there it goes again. It cuts out and won't turn back over. I keep trying until it works again, I pull over again and decide since I am there, I will worry about it when I get out of the movie.

At this point, I am very frustrated with my 195,000 mile car. I try the car when I get out of the movie, and it turns over just fine. I leave it running and call dad (what I always do when I have a car problem) and he gives me some suggestions for the problem. I baby the car as I drive back home and I had no problems.

One thing that I thought was curious was that I had not used my Air Conditioning before today and the car stalled out just a few minutes after turning the AC on. THEN, I let the car run a while before turning on the AC again and it stalled again, with the AC on. On the way home, I did not use the AC in fear of a correlation.



On a happier note, I did have a good time with The Karate Kid. Jadon Smith did an awesome job, and of course so did Jackie Chan. I did not find that many similarities from the Original to the new version, but I think I liked that about it.

My Graduate Status at WOU!

It is SO, SO good to be done with my Spring Term Classes. I am hoping to be looking at A's and a B, or two for my term. I am not expecting any C's. I am pretty proud of the work I have done all this year at Western.

There were a few classes this term that I kind of dreaded. Quite a few were fun and I had a great time with, but two that I just felt lost the whole time, but even in spite of that, I am happy to say that I still expect A's or B's in these classes.
You may be wondering how many classes I took this term because I talk about quite a few being good but two being not so fun. Well, FYI, I took 4 classes- equaling to 12 Credits. Now, that does not seem like such a large amount of credits to take for me because I was known to take 18 and even 21 Credits in my Undergrad(per term), but in Masters programs that is not permitted. And if you take a look at the per credit price for Graduate studies programs, you would cringe. WOW, how can Graduate studies credits be worth that much more than undergrad credit?


Oh well, I just have 2-1Cr. classes for three days this summer of June 21-23rd and then I just have to finish my Final Exit project and I will have successfully graduated from a Graduate Program at Western Oregon University. That's a nice feeling.

But, after that, I am not encouraged to continue my education to get a PhD/Doctorate because my father jokingly says, that would make us (his children) smarter than him and that's not acceptable.

Shrek Forever After

I went to see Shrek Forever After, the Final Chapter tonight at Regal. That was a great flick. If you were all about the previous Shreks, you will def. enjoy this one. The graphics just keep getting better and better and the storyline was perfect. Some of these lines and actors did such an amazing job.
A few parts I thought were funny:


Shrek is asked by a chubby little boy with his dad to give them an Ogre roar. Just the way the boy asks for the roar is hilarious because hes got this muted low hick-type of voice. And he keeps on asking Shrek to roar.


Another great part that I just couldn't stop from laughing at was when Shrek and the crew meet the Gingerbread man and he tells them of this diabolical plan (Don't worry, I won't ruin it for ya) and Donkey looks at the Gingerbread man and says "What are you talking about Cracker" Yes, a bit racist, but so incredibly funny.


There were many other parts to this movie that got me laughing, but it would take all night to type them out.
I will just say, you MUST go see it if you liked even just ONE of the Shreks. I would put the quality of the Shreks in order from:
Shrek Forever After,
Shrek 2
Shrek
Shrek 3
Yes, it was THAT good. When a friend said that it was the best yet, I had my doubts, but found them to go away after I watched this movie.

Revolution of the Heart

I have been hearing alot about a book by Dan Merchant. My Veritas leader has talked about it numerous times and it sounded funny to start, but very interesting. I saw it in a bookstore today and picked it up. It's called

"Lord, Save Us From Your Followers"  It's a book that looks at the culture today and how Christians are viewed.

The first chapter talks about how Dan, the author, went to Downtown NYC in Times Square and wore a jumpsuit with many different christian bumper stickers and asked people five questions. Some of their answers were very interesting. I think this was a great way to engage the culture around and draw people in. Anyone can go downtown and ask questions of people, but it takes something a little bit special to wear a jumpsuit of bumper stickers that are very controvercial and ask those questions.
One passage that I found very compelling is as follows:

"When Jesus waked the earth, He lived in an extremely political time; the Romans occupied the land, the local Jewish politicians and religious leaders aggressively jockeyed the position and favor, and Jesus stayed out of it. Many of those sandal-wearing folks who followed Jesus around wondered why He wasn't leading a revolution, as the expected the Messiah to do. They trick was that Jesus did start a revolution, but not in the way many expected. He led a revolution of the heart- a revolution that called for self-sacrifice, kindness, patience, forgiveness, and grace."

I am very interested to see where this book goes. Check it out.
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Save-Us-Your-Followers/dp/0849919932/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275782726&sr=8-2

Memories and UnCondon

Well, as it turns out, I was not chosen as the candidate for Condon Grade School. Its kinda funny cuz I must have put my home phone number (as in Redmond) on my application process somewhere (Who knows, maybe its a default in EdZapp and I haven't changed it) and so they keep calling my father. Dad took the message this morning that I did not get it and then sent me an email. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tiny bit disappointed, but God has given me a Peace about this job opportunity, even before I went there and interviewed. 

I knew that it would be quite a change for me to be living in a small community like that, and was wondering how it would go. I was starting to like the idea of living in a small place though, but I  knew that I would miss some huge things, such as my home church, and family, and Best Buy, Fred Meyer, Walmart, Target, Fast food, choices, friends, the big-city life, and many other things that I would not get in Condon. (not in that order BTW)

Now, unless I find a different job, I am Central Oregon bound and if nothing else, I will be substituting in Central Oregon again next year.


Now, I just have to convince the parents to let me live in the house if they move so I can find some roommates and keep the family dwelling in the family. I love that house. We had it built for our family and it has such great sentimental value for me. I still think about the images in my mind of when we were building the house. 

I remember as a kid, going to the property with dad and Kelli and Kris and getting to drive the "vette" (Chevette)  all over the property. That was a great time. And just seeing the changes in the house from month to month and year to year. Dad has put so much work into that house and it would be sad to see it go. I would also miss the Hot Tub.

Condon Peace

Well, my interview went fairly well. As many know, I have a job opportunity in Condon, Oregon. At first, I did not know what to think of this. I was interested only because they called me. I had not been to Condon (that I remember) and when looking up data from the city, it was a very small town with very few choices (goods).

After thinking about it, and praying about it, God gave me a peace about the whole situation. I went into this interview saying if its God's Will, then I am happy to be in it. I liked the prospect of teaching full-time in a small school atmosphere. I have really enjoyed the interactions from Perrydale SD and wouldn't mind being in a small school such as that.

Well, the drive was uneventful, but CURVY. I knew the road had some curves to it, but did not know it was this much. It took quite a while to get there. Luckily, I did not get behind anyone really slow for very long. Once I got there, I took a quick look at the school and where it was, then I drove to one end of the town and parked my car. Then, I proceeded to walk to the other side of town. This took all of about 5 minutes. I couldn't do that in Salem, or even Redmond for that matter. There were a few people out. I took a tour through the one and only market. I was pleasantly surprised that the prices weren't all that different from the big city. Then, I took a look at the Pool that dad was saying he remembered. It was not full yet, of course, but looked like a nice one. I walked through most of the stores that were open. Most of these stores have general items of all sorts. One store- the Country Flowers store, had gifts, flowers, bridal registries, books (from Powells?- it had a sign and looked similar), a deli, a coffee shop, candles, kids toys, games,... all sorts of stuff. There was another like it, but was not as scattered, it had a pharmacy and other items as well.
I was happy have people say hi to me and smile. Nice people over there.
After bumming around town, I headed over to the school.
I was there half an hour early- as usual, and so after waiting for a while, I was finally in the interview. It was the Superintendant and the 1/2 teacher, and another lady that teaches spanish at HS and was an aide of some sort as well. Dr. Robinson- superintendant, was the one asking all the interview questions. I felt fairly well about the way the interveiw went. There were a few questions that I did not know answers to. One was what are the HS graduation standards for Oregon and how does that affect a 2/3 teacher (what I am applying for)?  Well, I had no clue. I tried my best to answer the affecting 2/3 question, but told him outright that I did not know and would have to look that up to be certain.
After the interview, the two teachers took me around the school and showed me the facilities. Its an older school but seems to be kept up well.
I was told at the end of my interview that there were 64 applicants to this one job, and that I am one of 8 who were called for an interview. I should know by next week (im assuming, later on in the week) whether or not if I got the job.
I am so thankful for the opportunity and for the ability to want the job, but in the same way, be okay if I do not get it, because I will be back in my hometown (or somewhere else if I get another interview opportunity)

Thank You to all who were praying for me and my possibilities.