Nonsense, Drivel, and Balderdash

I am sitting in MY room here in Madrid, Spain. It is a beautiful day. The skies are clear and the temperature is cool, but not cold. The cold comes later in the day, and at night. It is a welcome change from the constant frigidity of the northeast. I was looking forward to coming back to Madrid for Christmas, but I forgot how beautiful it was. The sun goes down, but everyone is still going to and fro; the streets are alive with people. Eager, and somewhat desperate, shoppers bounce from store to store. The masses of bundled families circulate around the downtown section of the city eating, drinking, and being merry. Churros are dipped in mugs of thick chocolate, as people down their strong spanish coffee. Unlike the US, in spain Christmas day is still a religious holiday; since presents are given out on epiphany (Jan 6). There are few santas around, and wise men are more common. This is the Christmas I like. No plastic "frosty the snowmen" on front lawns, no empty songs about...

Yes my friends, I am still here. Despite what my recent amount of posting has shown; I am alive and kicking. What am I kicking? The dog of course. But that is beyond the point. Christmas day has come and gone here in sunny spain. My cousins were here for a week and that was a great privilege. They used to live in Spain 8 years ago, before they moved to the USA. It was the first time that they had been back to the motherland and it was fun to see them enjoy the fine pleasures of this beautiful country. There were 3 of them: Andrew, who is 24 and is a bon a fide artist. Caroline, who is 21 and is studying psychology at the University of Santa Cruz (or somewhere in california). And Bethany, who is 18 and is doing something with her life. It was marvelous to have them all here. We were also blessed to have my friend Kenny's family over for a couple of days. They are full of energy and kept the house lively. I have not seen a family that likes to play games as much as them. I think they...

Well, it is 8:30 in the morning. I have been up for two hours now. I got up early to study for international relations, my final is at 10:30. I got a really bad grade on the midterm, so I am hoping that I will do better now. I got a B on my paper, which is good in that class. After this final exam I will be done with all my tests and classes for this semester. This evening I have an "RA time" before we all leave to go home tomorrow. I have gotten to know my staff pretty well during the last couple of months. There are still people that I relate more to, or whose personality matches mine; but on a whole, I dont have any complaints about my staff. At the start of the year I sort of dreaded RA meetings, but now I enjoy them. I am really looking forward to going home tomorrow. I will try to get "bumped" if the flight is overbooked. They give you a little cash and put you up in a hotel, it isn't a bad deal. I am ready to get home, but if they offer enough moolah, the...

It is 12:20 at night. Upstairs people are serving themselves pancakes, taking a break from studying for finals. Further upstairs, a girl lost a part of herself tonight. Her brother died. I do not know her well, but I do know her. She is a nice girl. She is pretty and has a great sense of humor. She has a lot of friends. However; tonight, she probably feels like she has nothing at all. Yet, I suppose I should not presume to know how she feels. I know how I feel though. My heart feels heavy. I would cry if I could, but the tears never come. My eyes have moistened up several times, but I have never cried. I wish I could. To lose someone so close... my heart reaches out to her. Right now, only my heart does so. What does one say to someone who has lost somthing so valuable? Words seem empty, and letters mundane. A cold hug from a stranger is the last thing someone needs. So I sit here in my room, trying to shed some tears... for her.

I just figured out how to show pictures on my blog. Here is a picture of me with my fro. That is for all of you that are wondering what the heck I look like now. This should be cool. I will try to get a hold of some pictures of the campus under snow.

Right when you think you are starting to fit in, and feel at home, something happens to remind you that you are and always will be an outsider. I was going through my friends' blogs; reading what they had written. Then I thought to myself, "I wonder if there are any other MK's (missionary kids) from spain that have blogs?" So I embarked on a search to find out. I think I DID find one kid, that I didn't know, but for the most part my search came up with no good results. So I tried to find blogs by MK's in other places. I dont know why I did it, but I did. I found a couple, but it was pretty ridiculous, cause I had never met them and I did not know what they were talking about. However I read this post by a girl who goes by the name of " Mary Margarine " and she said something that caught my eye: (there's something about a whole bunch of MK's together that just can't be duplicated. It's like we understand each other without saying a wor...

The storm has come and gone, and left the landscape painted white. The trees are coated with thick ice, and the once red roofs are now covered with a thick layer of waxen, frigid dust. What was green a week ago, now shines silver under the moonlight. The ghostly wind that once beat against my walls, has left the world looking alien and foreign. Smooth sculptures of alabaster litter doorsteps, roofs and streets. Curls and waves on the drifting snow, reminding me of a burtonesque movie set. Winter has shown us its full power, reminding us to stay humble. Now, the unyielding storm has moved on to crush another unsuspecting town. The sun is shining, making me squint when I look over the immaculate landscape of ice and snow. It shines down apon our frosted world, warming our hearts; while our noses still freeze with the unwelcoming winter wind. It started snowing at 11 PM on friday. It stopped snowing last night around 8 PM. We have gotten over two feet of snow in most places, and it reache...

Today one of the people that I admired most has left this world, and gone to be with God. His name was John Garlock, and he was one of the people that has had a great impact on my life. Looking back on my life, and the times and ways that he crossed it, I can see that I would not be who I am today, if it were not for John. He has been, and always will be one of my favorite speakers. An expert in cross-cultural communications, he taught at Christ for the Nations bible school, in Dallas TX. He was one of my parents instructors when they went were preparing for missions. My first recollection of John is me sitting in the back of our old Ford Sierra station wagon, traveling on a journey up from the south of Spain. We were listening to some annoying children's tapes, when my parents decided that it was time to listen to something better. They put in a preaching tape, and I was disgusted. They asked me to give it a chance and I did. I must have been no older than eight, but I was enchant...

I was walking around campus and I thought, "I am going to watch a movie." After all, it is the only thing to do when you have at least a foot of snow on the ground and are in the middle of a snow storm. So, as my ears and nose started to go numb, I tried to decide what kind of movie I was in the mood for. I didn't feel like a comedy, or an action flick. I wanted something with more emotional depth, but did not feel like a drama. Then it hit me. I want something that doesn't exist. I wanted a movie about love. You are probably thinking, there are many movies about love. Yes. But they are all for women. Now, before you crucify me for being sexist or insinsetive, hear me out. All romance movies are geared towards women. The title "chick flick" is not ill-named. I would bet money on the fact that when a movie labeled as "romance" is in the theater, 80% of the people that see it are women. The 20% of guys that go to those movies are dragged there by the...

I remember reading about these in junior high somewhere: they are called prince rupert drops , and are a kind of glass formation. Really interesting stuff. They contributed to the creation of the tempered glass we know today.

Do you ever get that feeling in the middle of the night, where you are possessed by an emotion so strong, that you cannot help but to try to express yourself? It is almost one in the morning, and I am sitting at my computer. The dim glow of the screen bathes me in its pale light, as my feelings try to form themselves into thoughts. My emotions sit chained inside me. Then suddenly, as if hearing their master's call, they rise up expectantly. The tension rises and I can feel them watching my every move, waiting for the moment when they can be free. That moment does not come. My emotions tug at their chain, like a guard-dog in a junkyard, hoping that their bondage will suddenly give, and they will break free. I sit and watch them from across the way. I gaze sadly at them, knowing that they long to fly. Then the unexpected happens. The chain snaps and the mighty beast is free. Inside me, it races from my heart to my mind. It is a blur of motion; a whirlwind of passion, lifting the dust...

Heh, heh, if a lot of swearing doesnt offend you, then you will probably think that this cartoon is pretty funny, otherwise, you will be offended. They swear a lot, but I think it is pretty funny.

I am mad dazed and confused. I just got out of choir practice... the dress rehearsal fo our big Christmas Gala this weekend. It was a four hour long rehearsal. I want to die. So now, I am sitting in my chair... with Led Zeppelin blasting... trying to relax for a bit...

Well, it has finally happened. I am here, and outside of my window there is snow. Not much, just an inch or so, but it doesn't look like it is going anywhere. It is -9 degrees celcius... and it isn't so strange considering that we are in december. However, yesterday it was about 18 or so degrees outside. Nice and warm, I was in a long sleeved T-shirt. Not now... well, I only have to put up with it for a couple of weeks... It seems that I have incited the Blogg revolution. I started a blogger account this summer, and now about 8 people have started one. The only person that I think had a blog before me is Chris, and I DID start one last summer, but it sucked. I had been planning on starting one again for a while now. Daniel might have had one before me too... I'm not sure. But they are on live journal, and it is a little different. I am really looking forward to going home for Christmas. I am excited to get back, but I am not homesick really. So that is good. I have 2 more ...

1 John 2:9 I was reading this passage and it struck me how cosmic Love is. The innate power that is within Love is amazing. Love goes against everything that our own human nature stands for. If we were scared and about to die, our natural reaction would be to run. The pack runs away from the hunter, hoping that the slowest one will get eaten, giving the rest time to escape. What force can be so strong that it will make someone wait behind and get taken, in order for the rest to escape? Only Love. In death there is no recompense, and yet many have taken death to save those that they love. Love keeps our heads on straight. They say "love is blind", but hate blinds us more. When we love our brother, we are not walking in a haze of hate. These verses warn us about hate and tell us that hate is not from God. We cannot say that we love God and hate our brother. How many times have we heard this verse said to us, and yet we still hate. Everyone hates. I realize now that hate is not ...