MySpace Blog: Towards a theology of voting

I've spent the last chunk of time researching all the propositions and trying to figure out how to vote. This is my first election since I shifted to a much more moderate political ideology from the more mainstream Republican view I used to have. I did a little thing called "reading the Bible," and it says that we should take care of the poor, and says nothing about making sure that we have enough money and that the government doesn't take too much. I figure that in California, so many new taxes are going to pass anyway. If I vote for the ones that will fund programs that I like, then I am choosing to support those programs, whereas if they pass with me voting against them, I am reluctantly being forced into helping a homeless person or abused woman (see Prop. 1C). I often do end up agreeing with the traditional conservative Christian view, but on the other hand, I often don't.

I've made up my mind on everything but Prop. 85. I'm actually kind of shocked, since that's the one that you would think most Christians, regardless of political affiliation, would support wholeheartedly. It makes it so that girls (under 18) cannot get abortions without parental notification.

In many instances, I agree with the idea. I've heard all my life from Christian radio, church, and school about how the secrecy around abortion is a big problem. Minors aren't allowed to take any medicine without parental consent, but can have a life killed by their own choice. Yes, that is a very compelling argument.

Here's the problem: most people don't come from healthy homes with stable parents. If a girl is thinking about getting an abortion, chances are that in this state, her parents are going to support the decision. In some cases, the parents might freak out, inflicting as much emotional trauma on her as would have been the case had she gotten the abortion. Maybe the baby would be saved though. But then again, maybe the emotional scars from the confrontation between parent and child are greater than the emotional scars from the abortion of the grandchild.

I think what would make more sense is a bill that forces girls and women of any age to get more complete counseling and education before making a decision.

The thing that sucks about voting (the most) is that you are forced to choose between 2 options. One is right and the other is wrong. Everything is black and white. One of the great lessons of postmodernism is the rejection of universal solutions. Hear me out...I am a Postmodern Christian, so I do believe there is absolute Truth, but I do not believe there is an absolute truth (lowercase t) for every discussion. I believe that Jesus is the only way, but I think there can be different solutions to similar problems facing different people.

For example, if a girl in a Christian home is thinking about getting an abortion, and she is talked to by her parents, that is a good thing. On the other hand, a girl whose father abuses her should not have to tell her father that she is thinking about an abortion, because in all likelihood, the baby will die from the abuse, and then the girl will be beaten.

I do think I have a good solution for the idea of gay marriage. I think I've written about it before, but if you're a newer reader, here it is again.

The state should offer civil unions to straight and gay couples, and not offer marriage licenses. Marriage is a religious institution, not a political one. If a specific church wants to offer its marriage licenses to straight and gay couples, then straight couples who believe in the sanctity of marriage can get married at a different church that agrees with their beliefs. If I was a pastor in that system, I would only perform weddings for people that I knew loved Christ, because it would protect the sanctity of marriage in the sense of lowering the divorce rate.

I hope this generates some debate. Keep it nice though, and no gloating if you convince/have convinced anyone of anything



By the way, sorry for the plethora of blogs. The streak of writing has provoked me to actually set up an e-mail and myspace for my magazine. I changed the name, but I will announce it later. You could probably figure it out if you did some looking around.

Myspace blog: A series of unfortunate events

Remember that Jim Carey movie from a few years back about "a series of unfortunate events?"   Well, I feel like Lemony Snicket right now.  

(I don't really remember the plot, and I don't think I saw the whole movie, so maybe the unfortunate events happened because of him, not to him.  If you've read the book or seen the movie and remember, feel free to correct me, but I was just using it as a witty literary statement).  

My video camera died a few weeks ago.  It would still play and record, but the mechanism that opens the door for removing/inserting tapes broke.  So, I took apart the camera in hopes of repairing it.  I knew it was a longshot, but I figured that it would cost more to have it repaired professionally than to buy a new camera of about the same quality (it was 4 years old, and not that good).  

I got it apart, but I had to break it in order to finish taking it apart.  My new goal was just to take the 3rd of 3 tapes from my New Orleans trip this summer and capture it to my computer.  Unfortunately, the computer thought the camera was open when it was supposedly closed, so that didn't work.  The camera now resides in the trash can.  

Also, a few days ago, I accidentally deleted a bunch of files from my computer.  I figured I had just moved them or something and that I could search for them and they would show up.  So I ran a search, and they're gone.  Today, I realized that I backed up my hard drive on another hard drive, so I could copy the files back over, which I did.  I was working on the song that I said I'd post on my other myspace (the music page), and I tried to open the drum track and other programming I had done in Reason (an audio program), and discovered that I still didn't have that file.  It turns out that I hadn't backed up my hard drive recently enough.  

Also, today, I threw away a guitar stand that I've had for 5 years or so, that was broken by someone at Risen King.  

None of these are really that big a deal, but it sucks throwing away expensive things when I don't have a job, so I can't replace them (although I already did replace the guitar stand).  And I spent a few hours working on those tracks, and now they're gone.  

In light of these events, I will still be moving to Redding tomorrow. 

Myspace blog: what is the plural form of mongoose? More Hawaii pictures & my birthday (a month late)

I finally edited some more pics from the Hawaii trip, so I'm finally putting more up.  I've decided that if you want to buy any of the pictures, you can.   I figure that if Jeremy can sell his pictures on myspace, then I can too, but I'm not motivated enough to get organized until there is demand for it.  Most of the pictures in here aren't that cool, but there are a few nice ones.   This might look long, but it's mostly pictures.  If you want, just check out the pictures, and then if you're wondering what they're of, read the above paragraph.

If the pictures don't work, just go to http://pointfromwhichiexclaim.blogspot.com/
The pictures won't be in the right order, but you'll be able to see them.  


So, here is the story of my birthday (34 days ago).  

I woke up in Hilo, Hawaii (the eastern town of the Big Island).  For Breakfast, we went to Ken's house of Pancakes, and I had Fish, eggs, and rice (and some pancakes, i think).  That was the first time I've ever had fish for breakfast.  


Next, we headed West, across the Big Island.  We listened to Jack Johnson the whole trip.  My parents had never heard him, which I found surprising.  But they enjoyed it, and I really noticed just how Hawaiian he is (he's from North Shore Oahu, if you didn't know that).  

We stopped at the World Famous Punalu'u Black Sands Beach, but these pictures aren't of the black sand.  


We checked out the waves and then looked in a rather large tide pool.  To our surprise, there was a sea turtle just hanging out in the tide pool.  we took a lot of pictures, since sea turtles were extremely rare when we lived in Hawaii, and we figured it was still pretty rare (although we have seen one in each of our trips back--compared to seeing none the whole time I lived there: 9 years).  That is a record of some type--I just used a parentheses, a dash, and a colon.  Here are pictures of us taking pictures.  In the second one, you can see the turtle in the water, near my feet.




Here's a picture I took of the sea turtle.  Lauren's camera is waterproof to 5 feet.  I borrowed it a lot.


So that was cool, I saw a sea turtle definitely out of its normal environment, but still in the wild on my birthday.  I don't think it was stranded for good.  Hawaiian sea turtles are different from normal ones in that they like to lay out on the rocks just because.  

It wasn't the last sea turtle we would see on our trip, or even of that day.  

But first, we continued around the southern tip of the Big Island.  We came to Punalu'u Bakery, the Southernmost bakery in the US. 


There were a few mongooses there.  


I asked the question in the blog title, "what is the plural form of mongoose?"  But, I already knew the answer.  Feel free to disagree with me and the English language, if you want.  

After having a nice snack of Hawaiian sweet bread (and buying a lot more), we continued on from the bakery, to the southernmost point in the US- "South Point."  I know, that's not the most creative name.  It has a Hawaiian name, but no one calls it that.  It's all lava of course.  There is a bunch of white coral, though, so we made a cool little sign.  
 
I honestly just made that for the pictures.  

My dad took this one (well, these ones...I put them together).  Hopefully it animates.


The Big Island is very triangular as a whole (check out a map if that's confusing you), so the waves hit each other at near 90 degree angles at the point.  That makes for cool breaks, like this:


We drove on up the Kona coast to our hotel.  My brother and I went snorkeling at our hotel, and saw another turtle as we were getting in.  My parents and Lauren decided to walk to the beach on the other side of the hotel, so Andrew and I swam over there.  We found 4 more turtles hanging out on a rock, so I went to get Lauren's camera, but one of the turtles left.  I still took a couple pictures in the sunset glow.  


At the Punalu'u beach, the sign read: "Stay 1 foot from turtles."  We figured that the 3 feet we were giving them was more than enough.  Then some Hotel employee in the Hotel restaurant, which is open air, yelled at us, "Stay back 15 feet from the turtles please!!!"  

We said ok, took a couple more pictures, and left.  Of course, the hotel guy got everyone's attention, so they all took pictures of the turtles, and probably of us.  

We got out, and dried off.  As we walked back to the hotel lobby, the sun went down.  I took some pictures.  here's one:


I love sunsets, so my birthday was awesome.  I got an amazing sunset, and saw 6 sea turtles.  I went further south than I'd ever been, which is a good theme for this year.  I spent 5 weeks total in the South of the US, and I'm going to spend 4 weeks in South Africa.

But the day was not done yet.  We went out to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Kailua-Kona, and while we waited for our table, watched some beach volleyball on a court next to the restaurant.  

I have more pictures up, so I better write about them too.  
The next day that we got up and saw that the tide had gone out at our hotel.   The area where we had been snorkeling the previous day, was now a series of large tide pools.  So I took some snorkeling pictures from above the water.  Each of these urchins is bigger than my hand.

After breakfast (and lunch, i think), we went kayaking (one of my favorite hobbies) to one of the best snorkeling spots in Hawaii.  Kealakekua Bay is also where Captain James Cook's memorial is.  Captain Cook "discovered" the Hawaiian Islands, and he was killed out in the bay.  You can only access the spot by boat or a very long, dangerous hike.  
The reef:

Andrew and Lauren:


3 or 4 foot Moray eel (only the 2nd I've ever seen):



Clownfish (it's blurry, but hey, it's Nemo!)


I forget what kind of fish this is.  It kind of looks like a parrot fish colorwise, but it doesn't have the beak, so i think it's something else.



Here's a puffer fish.  We saw a bunch, but none of them got scared and puffed up, which is too bad.  It's kind of cool when they do, because you can scoop them up if you take your mask off and use it as a glove.  


The water gets shallow right next to the cook monument (since it's on the land), and the waves do some cool things there.  The fish (and the snorkelers) get pushed around in the waves.  You have to be careful not to get tangled in the Banyan and Hala tree roots, but there are more fish there, so it's fun.


I actually had a disposable underwater camera that can go 25 feet down, and I can dive maybe 20 feet, so it came in handy.  My dad can go 30 feet under and he did a lot.  It was fine, but once, he went around 20 feet down and swam under an arch on Kauai.  I'll put a picture of that up, when I get to the Kauai stuff.  

The next day, we did surfing lessons, and I got sick from sitting on my board.  It was fun, but my arms hurt from paddling the kayak, so I got really tired paddling my board, which sucked.  I had never surfed, despite being a local boy.

The day after surfing, we flew to Oahu via Maui.  While we were on the big Island, a hurricane was headed at us, called Hurricane Daniel.  It dissipated into a tropical depression, which was good, but it made for cloudy weather, which limited our views of the other islands, and made it rain the whole time we were on Maui (which was only about 2 hours).  Here are the islands in the order we saw them.  

Maui in the background (Mt. Haleakala is very visible), and Kaho'olawe in foreground:


Kaho'olawe:


Lanai (north shore):


Molokai:


We did some weird figure 8 thing, then landed in Maui.  we took off and headed past Molokai for Oahu.  This is Honolulu during our approach:


from this point on in our trip, there were a bunch of funny signs.  This was one in the airport on the baggage claim.  It's not that funny in itself, but the fact that such a sign exists is interesting:


Alright, more will come, and hopefully it will be sooner than a month.  

Oh, I listened to Sufjan Stevens and The Listening while I worked on this stuff.  go to myspace.com/thelistening.  It is sheer sonic delight.

Myspace blog: 5th and final thoughts, i think

I'm back in Santa Rosa right now.  I got some good job leads during my 3 days in Redding, and hopefully one will come through before I actually get there on September 1.  

I was thinking after dinner about what I wanted to do, and I thought, "I should call up one of my friends to get coffee."  I started going through a mental list of friends in my head and realized they were all gone.  Then I decided that I really do belong in redding, and I will try to stay there as long as I can, until the seasons change (that is seasons of my life, not literal seasons, since Summer techincally ends in 28 days or somthing like that).  

Myspace blog: second thoughts...and third and fourth

I'm sitting in this apartment right now trying to stay awake for a little longer.  Eric and I came up to Redding yesterday to start moving in.  

I went to bed at 12:30 last night, but didn't fall asleep until after 3:30.  Then I woke up around 6 and couldn't fall back asleep, but I stayed on the couch until 10, hoping for just a few moments of rest.  

My mind was so restless.  I'm still unsure about being here.  I realized that I have to earn about twice as much money as I'd originally thought, because I have to pay for things like gas and car insurance (which I totally forgot about).  Gas is going to be expensive, since I have committed to being in Santa Rosa or the Bay Area at least 3 times due to meetings for the South Africa team.  I also figured out that it's not really 3 months between when I move in and when I leave for Africa--it's only 9 weeks.  That means I have less time to work.  

I figured the only jobs that are going to pay enough but be available for that kind of time are temp jobs, so I went to a temp agency.  I've done the whole temping thing before, and it sucks.  So right now I'm thinking I'll still move here on September 1, but if things don't work out employment wise, I'll be forced to go back to Santa Rosa for a while.  I think I will give Redding a month, though.  

I keep thinking about how much good there is here, and how many of you I want to hang out with and all that, but I'm really questioning if I was actually hearing from God when I chose to move back here.  It sucks.  

Part of me wishes that something like a huge earthquake would happen that would create an opportunity for ministry in Santa Rosa, because then i would know that I should be there.  Or maybe something drastic happens here, like I get a job tomorrow.  It's kind of weird that I'm equating disasters with getting a job now, but I'm half asleep, so that's the way things go.  

I keep thinking, "what kind of manager would want to hire someone who is going to be gone in 9 weeks, and has to be gone on a bunch of weekends?"  The answer is "a bad one"(who I don't want to work for) and "a Christian one."  I suppose someone who thinks it's cool that I'm going to help orphans in Africa might be inclined to actually hire me.  

Myspace blog: Snakes on a Plane

I saw Snakes on a Plane with Jackson, Eric, and Sarah.  It was the most entertaining movie I have seen in a very, very long time.  Eric and Jackson agreed.  It does have a lot of startling things in it, a sex scene, and a whole lot of swearing (besides the obvious violence), but if you can remove yourself from that stuff, you will have fun.  If any of that really gets to you then I reccomend waiting to watch the movie on a flight, because they always censor movies for flights.  Except that I would not want to watch Snakes on a Plane on a plane.  

I am most likely driving to Redding this afternoon and moving some of my stuff into my new place with Eric (we'll be living downstairs from Jeremy Coverdale in Manzanita Manor).  I also am going to be looking for a job this week, so call me if you have any connections.  

My hair is getting really long and is tickling my ears.  With that, I bid you all adieu.

Myspace blog: another day, no more dollars

Check out  my brother's blog .   It was the first day of his Senior year of HS today.  It's funny. 

As for me, I didn't do anything exciting today.  I really need to finish working on that song.  I also need to finish editing some pictures and post some of my hawaii trip.

DId you know that the president of Iran (yes, the one who wants to destroy Israel and is researching nuclear technology for "domestic" uses) has a blog?  Apparently he grew up poor, and wants to get more of the oil proceeds to be given to his people.  You know what I think about all this?  This guy really is doing what is in his country's best interest.  He wants his people to escape poverty, and he sees that the American Oil companies are to blame for his people's poverty (which is at least in part correct).  Since the US and Israel are so closely aligned, it wouldn't matter if Jews and Muslims traditionally were best of friends, he still would want to hurt the Americans' friends.  

So I still think the guy is a little screwy for being so anti-semitic, but I can see why his people would love him, and why he would think he's doing the right thing.  

Oh, I also thought it was funny that a bunch of Israelis logged onto his blog at the same time, which caused the server to crash.  That was what they were trying to do.  creative stuff. 

Myspace blog: It's almost 5 in the morning

Sweet.  I've been working on a song recently (in the last 24 hours), and I will probably have it up on my music page soon.  

I think I will go to bed now, since even in Hawaii, it is almost 2 AM.  

Here's a little update on things first:
Saturday, I had an all day meeting about my South Africa Trip.  I will be in London for a few days before I go to Cape Town.  I'm looking forward to that.  I also think that I will not try to take any liquids or gels on the plane.

Sunday I went to Kevin and Janay's wedding.  I played a song during communion.  It was "Open Me" by Shawn McDonald.  I actually don't like the song very much, but that was the one they asked me to sing, so I did it.  I was nervous, it was hot; but, it went well.

Afterwards, I drove to Santa Cruz (I was in Fremont) and went to Vintage Faith Church.  It was pretty cool, but nothing spectacular.   Then I drove home.  

Monday I recorded a song, and kept working all through the night.

Goodnight.  err..morning

Myspace blog: stupid video camera

This is a story that exemplifies the strange neural connections in my head.  

A couple nights ago, I was wearing an olive shirt, and observing how my hair was getting pretty long, so I grabbed one of my brother's hats to see if my hair would come down below it.  It does.  

But then I realized that since the hat was camo and my shirt was army-looking, I looked really army-ish.  

Then for some reason I remembered that my video camera is broken.  

Then I took a picture, and since you shoot video like you shoot guns, I decided on a stupid caption, that you can read on my picture section.  I forget what it is exactly but it has something to do with not being able to shoot people because my "gun" broke.  

yep.  that's it for now.

Myspace blog: Hawaii Pictures: flying and Volcanoes National Park

Here are the first few pictures from Hawaii.  They are from the flight between Oakland and Hilo (7.23) and our trip to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (7.24).  I will have to teach you some Hawaiian and geography as we go.  A lot of it I knew from childhood, but there is also a lot that I learned during this trip.

I like the view of things from above.  This is a picture I took of Oakland as wee took off:


I don't know if you know anything about the new bay bridge.  I read about it a few years ago, and it is interesting to see it take shape. This is what it looked like as we took off:


After we flew over Alcatraz, we could see this view of the North Bay.  I can see Mill Valley, where my Uncle and Aunt live.  Somewhere in the distance is lovely Santa Rosa, but it's either behind hills or haze.  


This is the Golden Gate Bridge, obviously:



So, we left around 7:30 PM and landed about 9:30 Hawaii time.  We went to bed as soon as we got to the Hotel, since it felt like 12:30 to us.  Oh, I should mention that my legs were really sore because I went swimming/waterfall climbing in Redding the day before we left.  So I took my sore legs and sat on a plane for 5 hours straight.  

We woke up Thursday and my legs hurt even more . We went to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  When you hear Volcano, what do you think of?  Probably lava and then  mountains.  Mountains involves hiking up and down.  And when you hear National Park what do you think of?  Probably "beautiful sights" and then "hiking."  My sore legs had fun walking around the park, but it wasn't too painful.  It was the kind of pain that reminds you that what you're doing is really good for you and that makes you feel good about yourself.  

Alright, a picture's worth a thousand words, so here is one of Lauren in front of Kilauea Crater:


That is actually a panorama that was 6 pictures wide, so it's actually a lot bigger, but I couldn't keep it that big and post it.  Sorry.  The small crater inside of Kilauea Crater is Halema'uma'u Crater.  This is a close up from inside of Kilauea, peering into Halema'uma'u.  In the background is the largest (in volume) mountain in the world: Mauna Loa.  


I knew that Mauna Kea was the tallest mountain in the world (measured from the seafloor bottom), but I didn't know that Mauna Loa was the largest.  

We proceeded around the crater (this is actually out of order now, but whatever, we'll just pretend that it's still sequential).  As I was saying, we proceeded around the crater to the Southwest Rift.  


It was pretty hot.  I suppose that is to be expected when surrounded by black rock in the tropics.  I looked up from inside the rift (we had to climb down, but my siblings and I enjoy that), and took this shot of my parents:


Now, here is actually where the picture of Halema'uma'u should be, if we were going in order, but I figured the crater-within-a-crater thing would make more sense if the 2 pictures were together.  

After we visited the long-named crater, we went to Thurston Lava Tube, which has a Hawaiian name, but I don't remember it.  When lava flows down a mountain, the top hardens first, so the bottom continues to flow.  Since the inside is not exposed to the elements, it doesn't dry, which means that when the volcano is no longer erupting, a tube is left.  While Kilauea is still erupting, currently all of its lava is going through Pu'u O'o vent, which is a few miles down the slope.  In fact, Pu'u O'o has been erupting since 1983, nonstop, which is the longest active eruption in the world.  

Now that we've had our daily geology lesson, I'll return to the pictures.  Many people take the short hike through a part of Thurston Lava Tube.  It's really not that exciting, but you have to do it if you go to the park.  It did make for a couple cool pictures.  One of my mom and sister and another of some other tourists.  




After leaving the Lava Tube, we headed downhilll toward the Ocean.  The drive down Chain of Craters Road takes you from the 4000 foot summit of Kilauea to the sea cliffs at an elevation of about 100 feet.  On the way down, we stopped to take some pictures.  It's time for another geology/Hawaiian lesson.  

Pahoe'hoe  (pa-HOY-hoy) is the Hawaiian word for the smooth lava you see here:


notice that it looks like a man laying down:


Back to our lesson, Pahoe'hoe lava flows have the same chemical makeup as the sharp, brittle A'a flows.  This is one of the easiest Hawaiian words to remember.  "AH AH!" is the noise you make when you step on A'a.  Contrast that with the smooth sound of the word Pahoe'hoe.  Here is a picture of a Pahoe'hoe flow covered in part by a later A'a flow (in the middle).  


The Pahoe'hoe was actually darker than it looks, but my camera must have adjusted the lighting based on the A'a or something.  Most Hawaiian lava is black, but some flows have other minerals in them, as seen here.  It looks like the top layer of lava (representing the most recent lava flow in that spot--1970-something, I believe) was chipped off, exposing previous flows.

I think the colors are so amazing.  Even though they're just rocks, there is so much beauty in them.  It's crazy to think that you have to know so much geology to understand something as simple as a rock, and God just spoke it into being.  

It's crazy, too, that God created an earth that is continually creating more earth, so to speak.  When the lava hits the water, it is cooled, causing it to harden, and creating new land.  Often, this land is hanging out over the water or is not supported by the underwater mountain that is the island, and this causes it to break off.  Spectacular black sea cliffs result.  Since it is a sheer drop off, the waves don't break, but just slam into the cliff, then bounce off.  You couldn't surf here, even if you had a death wish.  I won't go into all the oceanography, but it's fascinating too.  


Ah, the most amazing sight in the park, the actual lava flow.  Unfortunately, the middle of the Pu'u O'o flow has wiped out so much of the road that you can't drive to where the current flow is, and it is a 7 mile hike, which takes awhile.  It's a hot hike, since it's all black rock, and since it is so sharp in the A'a places, we decided not to do it.  Most people don't.  But, you can see the steam coming from where the lava hits the water and is cooled off:


In 1989, before I started Kindergarten, we went to the park, and at that point, the lava was flowing just a few hundred feet from where the road ended at that point (I think more has been wiped out since then).  I just realized that talking about the road being wiped out might be a little confusing, so this picture might explain it:


It's also very cool how the plants grow in spite of being on bare rock.  Scientists are unsure how that all works.  How did the seeds get to places like this in the first place?  How do the grow on sheer rock?  How do they survive water that comes from clouds mixed with smoke, creating natural acid rain?

What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, 1989.  We went to the Big Island for a short vacation, and we walked out on the lava flow.  We were with another pastor and his family, and we were walking around on the dry flow, when we discovered a hole in the black, hard rock, through which we could see the flowing orange lava.  It was so hot.  I still remember that.  And I remember the 6.0+ earthquake we had while we were at one of the craters.  We didn't feel it, because of where we were, but it's not very reassuring to parents of small children when they're on a volcano and a rather large earthquake happens (earthquakes can signal new eruptions, although small earthquakes happen every few minutes at Kilauea).  

Back to the present.  Well, not quite the present, I'm actually talking about 12 days ago.  This trip to Hawaii allowed me to bring together so much of what I've learned.  Geology, Oceanography, some meteorology.  My dad lived in Hawaii for 28 years and did a lot of sailing when he was young, so he knew quite a bit about how things work naturally.  Some of you probably think this long blog is nerdy, but it was so amazing just to realize how complicated nature is.  So much has to go right.   Thinking about it makes me feel small.  

I saw this amazing tree near the Pahoe'hoe and A'a flows that I showed you earlier.  

I learned a few photography things on this trip: pictures of single trees in front of something unique looks cool.  Also, not worry about whether the horizon is straight is very freeing.  

But back to that tree.  It looks like it was on a hill before the last eruptions happened.  Then a Pahoe'hoe flow came and covered the hill right up to the tree, partially engulfing one of its roots.  Somehow it didn't catch on fire.  Later, an A'a flow surrounded the hill.  This tree survives.  Look at the little green spot behind the trunk at the bottom.  Creation amazes me.  

This tree was taken care of in spite of tons of rock flowing down a mountain at thousands of degrees.  There's this verse in Matthew 6 that is talking about how God cares for plants, "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith?" (Mt. 6:28-30, TNIV).  This tree was even protected from that fire.  

I think it's good for me to remember that God will provide, as I leave home again.  

Miscellaneous items of note:
+Go up a few lines and notice that I am now using a TNIV Bible.  Call me a feminist, call me an enemy of Dr. James Dobson, but I am using a really accurate version of the Bible now.  

+stay tuned for more long blogs and more pictures.  

+I listened to Thom Yorke, U2, and Bleach while writing this.  I'm still listening to Bleach so they get to be on the little currently playing thingy. I accidentally clicked on them in itunes,and now I get to hear a CD I used to really like.  It's pretty good.

+Nevermind, the stupid currently listening to thing is taking forever to work, and I've been writing for one hour and two minutes, so I quit...

Myspace blog: words that rhyme with going

Here are some one syllable words that rhyme with or have similar construction letter-wise to the word "going:"

boing
loin
groin
Also, there are sounds, such as "doing, zoing, poing," that are found in superhero comics and sci-fi movies.

Howeer, I think the interesting thing is that if you do something, you are doing something, while if you bounce off of something springy it could make the noise "doing."

Or it could make the noise "boing," which is obviously one syllable, because if it were two, it would be spelled "Boeing," which is the name of an airplane manufacturer.  

I'm sure there are other words that have a similar construction that are clearly two syllables.  However, when I do the clapping thing with "going" it is probably one syllable, although I do say the word in two ways, depending on its context within a sentence (sound-wise, not meaning-wise).

I will probably write another blog after dinner so you can start to hear about my trip and see some of the 1200+ pictures I took.

Myspace blog: Is going a 2-syllable word?

I'm going home in a little while.  I'm sitting in the airport again, during a 4-hour layover. 

I just read the comments on my haiku blog.  Jenn says that one of my lines was six syllables, not five.  It had the wordgoing in it, which I guess can be pronounced with either one or two syllables.  I usually pronounce it as one.  But I think both are valid.  So this is a survey, how do you say "going?"

Speaking of which, there are signs all over Kauai that say "Do not go beyond railing."  These signs are next to cliffs.  So, I thought it sounded like it was telling you to pee on your own side of the railing.  Only because of all the weird places guys pee when in outdoors settings (e.g. on signs, in the middle of the street).  Some of you know what I'm talking about, and which instances I'm referring to. 

Well, I'm ready to be home.  The rest of my family isn't really, but I am.  I took 900+ pictures.  I was running out of space on my memory card, so i got a 1 GB card for our 3 days in Kauai.  I took 724 pictures (and there were more that I deleted).  I'll probably post a lot of them in the days to come. 

Aloha a hui ho (until we meet again)

Myspace blog: sitting in an airport....

Here's an update on me:

a couple weekends ago, I went to Redding for a wedding.  I came back pretty certain I would be moving there in the Fall.  So, that's the plan.  At the end of this month (wow, it's august already), I'll move back up to Redding.  I just need to get a job.  Unfortunately, I will be gone for the end of Novemeber and all of December (in Cape Town, South Africa on a Missions trip).  So if any of you Redding people have any ideas, let me know or hook me up with a job.  I don't really care if it uses my college degree or not; i just need to pay the bills for a few months.

So the day after I got back from Redding (mid-heat wave), we flew to Hilo, Hawaii, and spent 4 days on the Big Island (mostly in Kona).  We went to the volcano, went snorkeling, kayaking, and I learned to surf finally.  Also, while we were there, Hurricane Daniel approached, but it turned into a tropical depression.  It hit on the day we flew from Kona to Honolulu, so we had a very turbulent flight.  We landed on Maui first, and the whole time we were on Maui, it rained (it was only a couple hours).  Then we came to Oahu, and spent time with my Grandma and cousins (and second cousins, great aunts, etc.)  We did some boogie boarding yesterday and I got sunburned.  Right now I'm paying 15 cents a minute to do some internet related stuff in the airport.  We're about to board for our flight to Kauai, where we will be until Friday.  Then, we're going home. Well, they just called us for boarding.  Aloha!

Myspace blog: Musings on...

Muse show yesterday
'twas good, really amazing
They're great musicians

Matt Bellamy is
perhaps the best guitarist
I have ever seen

Although Phil Keagy
was pretty good too, that time
I saw him playing

Matt Bellamy is
one of the better pianists  (make sure you read pianists as 2 syllables, not 3)
I've ever seen play

He sings well also
Tied with Phil Wickham for best
vocals I've heard live

If you're wondering
Why I am writing like this
You've every right to.

Sunday afternoon
I was in Barnes and Noble
And found a book there.

It was entitled:
"Office Haiku" understand?
This blog is haikus!

As you may recall
Last year I composed haikus
During a trip in June.

These may be less fun
But it is challenging me
to think as I write.

In reality
I think I am becoming
more Japanese now.

I've started doing things:
Sudoku puzzles, haiku,
consuming sushi.

But I am going to 
my place of birth this weekend
Hawaii or bust!

Hawaii is made
of many japanese men,
women, and children

Along with others.
But many can say Japan
is part of family   (family is 2 syllables in my book)

Including myself,
and now I am just rambling   (i say rambling, not ramble-ing)
at least it's English...

The only language
I am fluent in: English
I want green tea now.

Myspace blog: Coming to Redding...

Hello all (particularly those of you who reside in the greater Redding area).  I would like to let you know I will be around from Thursday evening until Saturday afternoon/evening.  So hopefully I will be able to see a few of you.

Then I shall go to Hawaii for 2 weeks on Sunday.  

But tomorrow I will be in San Francisco to see a little band called Muse with my sister and some of you very Redding ones.

Myspace blog: I posted a song.

I put up a real song on my music page.  I kind of like how it came out, but it could have been better.  I could keep working on it, but it's good enough.  If you want to read more about the song, there' a blog on the music page.  

I wrote this blog immediately after writing the chorus.  
And here is the original blog about it first being played in public (including the lyrics..

Myspace Blog: Collision

Dang it.  I had written over half this blog, then I accidentally closed the window.  This story is about collisions that have occurred over the last few days.  I am also listening to the new Crowder CD, "B Collision" right now. 

In my story, Red Letters will denote the occasion of an injury.  

On Monday, I went out to the coast with Eric and Ike.  We decided to go climbing at Sunset Boulders.  On our way, we stopped at Alliance Redwoods to borrow some gear.  We only needed a harness for Ike and something to run the rope through (an FRD, which is like a pulley, kind of).  While we were at camp, I realized that there might be a bunch of people climbing because so many people had the 3rd off this year.  But, we headed out, and much to our surprise, the only 2 other people there were on their way out.  

It was a beautiful day.  70-something degrees, clear (strangely), although it was somewhat windy.  This is the view from the top, facing west:


We freeclimbed up and set up.  This is the freeclimbing, or "easy" route:


We had a great time climbing, although the wind picked up considerably during our time.  We had difficulty not getting blown off the rock, since we were climbing the north side of the rock, and the wind was blowing from west to east.  Also, the rock is pretty slippery because of all the salty sea air.  Ike actually has climbing shoes, but even he was having a hard time keeping his footing.  On my first attempt up the rock, my shoe just lost traction, and I went swinging to my right, banging and scraping up my elbow on the rock.   It still hurts, over 30 hours later.  I got back on and managed to figure a way up the rock, and then I did it again later, without falling.  Eric and Ike made it, too.  

I didn't take any pictures of us climbing, but we got video.  Here is the view from the top of us taking everything down.  It's kind of boring, but you get an idea of the distance, since Ike is in the bottom right corner of the picture.  


We started heading out, and we had to jump off a six foot rock to get back on the ground.  Since I had carried most of the gear in, Eric was taking it, which meant that I only had to carry the Alliance Redwoods gear and my camera bag.  So I clipped the carabiner to my camera bag, and jumped off the rock.  Upon hitting the ground, the pulley swung into my left knee.  The pulley is made of steel, so it is quite heavy.  The force of the pulley hitting my knee prompted a yelp to escape my lips.  (I like the word yelp, except I sound like an injured dog).  

We were close to the beach, so we continued down the road, to the mouth of the Russian River, at Goat Rock Beach.  Here are some lovely pictures of the rare sunny day: 



^birds flying around




^The sun starting to set.


^the rock in the middle is arch rock, and the rock on the right is goat rock.

The following picture has undergone some major photoshopping, and I think it's awesome.  But I made it, so I'm going to think it's awesome.


That is Ike on the right and Eric on the left.  Well, actually it's about 7 Erics on the left.  

Goat Rock Beach has a large seal population.  The cool thing about seals (I think), is that not only do humans enjoy watching them, but they seem to enjoy watching us.  Here are some seals playing in the river mouth.



After we were finished at the Beach, we dropped off the stuff at Alliance Redwoods.  We were pretty hungry, and we were pretty close to Occidental, so we ate at the Union Hotel pizzeria.  

I like it when restaurants give you breadsticks or french bread before you eat.  At the Union Hotel, they give you breadsticks.  One of my breadsticks had some weird bubbles in it, so when I bit down, it looked like a face.  I didn't do anything to the breadstick or the picture:


After Ike took that picture, I got the brilliant idea to "french my bread."




I really do like breadsticks more than french bread, but it was funny.  The other caption I have for that picture is "breadstick, breadlick."  But in fact my tongue was partially in the "mouth" hole of the breadstick's face.  I'm sure it looks weird to all of you, but it felt weirder to me.

Well, rock climbing left me thirsty, so I had a hard time falling asleep monday night.  I was laying in bed for about a half hour, and it was around 1 AM.  I got up to get a drink of water, and thought I was about to run into my coffee table in my room, because I saw something dark in front of me.  I stopped quickly, which caused me to fall forward.  It turns out the dark thing I saw was just my area rug.  As I fell down, my left arm scraped the side of the real coffee table.  I laid on the ground and rolled around in pain, trying not to "yelp" so that I didn't wake anyone.  

The fourth of July was pretty fun.  We went to my grandparents' house and swam for awhile.  I decided to hang off the diving board with my feet.  I let go, and dove down, planning on swooping up and swimming toward the surface.  Unfortunately, I thought I would be facing the other way, and I'd closed my eyes (even though I had goggles on), so I really thought I was going the other way.  I hit my head on the side of the pool, which made me really dizzy.  I came up to the surface a little freaked out, and really sore.  My head still hurts (9 hours later), and my back and neck are really bad.  I couldn't turn my head side-to-side at first, and it is still hurting pretty badly when I do.  

I haven't gotten any other injuries today, because I've had to take it easy since that one.  But I'm really sore from all the rock-climbing and swimming I've done.  I think it's worth it.  Tonight we barbequed and planned our Hawaii trip.  I hope I'm not sore when we get there.  I really hope I'm not sore a few days from now.  But I very well could have a pretty messed up neck and upper back right now.  I'm going to the chiropractor probably, so hopefully that will help some.  

I'll leave you with a picture from Barnes and Noble on the Katrina trip:



I swear we were just posing and I have no clue what that book actually said.