More videos of the crazy lights

As promised, here are more videos of the house in Windsor, CA (read the previous blog for more info). What a great place to live. Sorry if your connection is slow--these will take awhile to load. They are between 10 and 30 seconds a piece. The shorter ones are short because it wasn't as cool of a section of the program, while the longer ones get cut off at 30 seconds because that is the longest video my phone will let me record if I am going to send it as a message.

If I have time after the Christmas Eve service tomorrow, I will go film it with my video camera and try to put it up sometime in the next week. If I don't get it up by then, Merry Christmas!



In the following one, you can kind of see the inside decorations and the paint job on the house which looks like a gingerbread house.



Below: The house has a face, and the mouth sings "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch." The car that drives up in the middle of the video is the one that I mentioned came to pick up a kid who lived there.



The rest are all from "Wizards In Winter" (Trans Siberian Orchestra), which has the best programming.





The grand finale is already up on the previous blog. So check it out over there.

Christmas Lights in Windsor (awesome video)

Julie heard about this house from her boss. So we drove there tonight. The whole neighborhood is really lit up. Some houses were pretty atrocious. This one was kind of ugly, but it was also amazing. I think it is not as classy as the house that was made popular on YouTube, but it was also cooler in some ways because there were mostly Christmas lights, and not inside lights. Also the house had a facade on every surface of its front that made it look like a gingerbread house. And one of the garages (the one on the right) has a real batmobile in it. Weird.

Another reason this house was better than the one on YouTube is that it takes about 7 minutes to drive there, so it's a lot better.

Here is the last clip I shot with my cell phone. They had the music on a radio station that played for about 2 miles around the house. The garage was opened, and there were Christmas-y things in it.



Sorry about the cars driving in front. This was the best part of the show, and 2 people decided to leave right when I recorded. Earlier, a car pulled up right in front of the house, and we were kind of frustrated, until a teenage kid walked out of the house and got in the car. It must be weird to live either in this house, or next door in the little cul-de-sac.

I will probably try to post the other 4 or 5 videos I have on my phone, or maybe go tape it with my video camera.

Safeway

Every time I go to Safeway, I use Julie's Safeway Club Card number. I don't have a card for it, so I just put in her phone number. I signed up for a card a few months ago (June or July), but it was late at night and there was a line, so the clerk just set up the card and told me to fill out my info later, so it probably won't work.

I am really into getting airline miles all the time. I flew a lot for all the missions trips I was going on and I managed to get close to having a free domestic flight on United. Since United is partnered with Safeway, you can earn United miles when you use your club card. Julie has a pretty decent chunk of miles too. So I really want to make sure we're getting miles when we shop there.

Whenever I shop by myself, I use Julie's card and pay with my credit card, and they usually just say "Thank you" at the end of the transaction. But 3 out of the 4 times I've gone to Safeway with Julie (both before and after being married), we used her club card and my credit card, and a really dumb thing happened. Safeway clerks are always supposed to say "Thank you, Mr. So-and-so," or "Have a nice day, Ms. So-and-so." And they get your name from your club card or your credit card, if you use either.

Usually they read "Ratiani" and don't even try, but when I pay and use Julie's Club card, they always say, "Thank you, Mr. Swinburne." And they always say, "Swine-burne." Julie always laughs as we walk away. I told her yesterday as we were walking away from the store that at least "Ratiani" is intimidating enough that they don't try it, whereas "Swinburne" seems easy enough to say that they all attempt it and fail miserably.

Also, I realized that in Sonoma County, things are liberal enough that a large chunk of the married population does not have the same last name as their spouse. So even assuming that Julie and I are married and sharing a Safeway account (which we are), it is not a very safe assumption for a Safeway clerk to make that we still have the same last name. By the way, Julie legally still does not have the same last name as me.

The Christmas Star

Lately I haven't had much time for creativity besides when I get to create a logo at the printshop. The only other thing I really do is make slides and backgrounds for church. I want more than just a gradient. I kind of like the slide backgrounds to look like stage lighting. I usually start with a blank photoshop document, and by just using solid colors, gradients, and filters (and creative blending), I can get some cool looking backgrounds that kind of look like the Windows Vista startup screen or the Mac standard background (the purple spacey thing).

I made one the other day for our young adults' group meeting, and figured it would maybe work for a song background with some tweaking.

Well, I was just making a slide for the Christmas Eve service and I wanted to find a picture of the Christmas star. So I googled "Christmas Star" and didn't find anything I liked. I did find this:



So, I tweaked what I had made in photoshop to give it the traditional Christmas star shape at the center of the light source. I think this might be more what it would look like if you were in outer space near the Christmas star and could see the swirling gas clouds around whatever the light source was.

End of the semester update

I don't know who reads this anymore besides 2 or 3 people, but that's OK. I still need to write because it is good for me. I would like to get back into it more.

I have not had much time for blogging lately. As I've mentioned, I'm working 2 jobs--20 hours at church and 20 or so (between 15 and 30 really) at a print shop as a graphic designer. And I just got married, and I have been going to school full time at the Santa Rosa JC.

This is finals week. 2 of my classes were short classes that ended a couple weeks before I got married. 2 just finished, and I have one more class that ends on Wednesday. They were all online.

I am done going to school for now. I took the classes for a few reasons: to learn new stuff, to have fun, and to enable myself to become more creative. I did all those, then started working on an associate's degree. I don't really care about the degree very much, so in and of itself, it's not a reason to keep going.

It was not very fun anymore, since I was busy, and while I definitely have empowered myself to be more creative, I haven't had time to apply my new skills creatively at all.

And as for learning, I learned a lot. I can do all sorts of stuff in InDesign and Photoshop, which makes my graphic design job really easy, and I am very efficient at doing things that took me and their previous employees a lot longer to do. As for the webdesign classes I've taken, I can make standards-compliant websites with cool features like drop down menus. And while I don't need a web editing program to do any of that, since I know all the code, I can use the best one available (Dreamweaver) to speed things up.

But, I am really glad I don't have to take classes. I will probably start back up at some point. It is really nice to have my student loans from Simpson in deferment, and I don't know if they will remain so if I don't keep taking classes. I would like to learn some more about video editing, photoshop's more obscure capabilities, and flash animation.

Hopefully in the next few months, I can do some creative things. First off there are a couple wedding videos I need to finish, and then my own. Also, I bought ProTools this summer to start recording more music, but I haven't had time to even install it. I would like to redesign our church's website. Right now the pastors are going through a process to define our vision more clearly. Once we do, there will be new verbage and imagery to capture that, and a new website and potentially logos and graphics will need to be developed. That will be a lot of fun to do.

Speaking of recording music, the best produced CD of the year just got re-released in a deluxe version. I'm talking about Coldplay. And the coolest thing is that they released the extra disc as an EP. I just bought it. I'm listening to it for the first time. I am pretty excited that in about a minute, Jay-Z is going to come on during a Coldplay song. So as for this blog, I am going to stop so I can listen to this collaboration. (Did you catch the words stop, collaborate, and listen in that last sentence? (did you catch my re-ordering to match Vanilla Ice in the last parenthetical question?)
.....

And...after hearing the collaboration, I don't really like it. It sounds very added-in later, even though I think that Jay-Z was there during the recording process, because I seem to remember reading about that in the Summer of 2007. But now at least I know what the song is about, since his rap clarified that. Still a good buy overall, if you liked the last Coldplay album.

Money Management Story #1

Here is a story about how I poorly managed money.

Julie and I have been unpacking our stuff for about a month now. We have a second room that we're using as an office (it also has a bed for guests). The other day, I was putting my books on the bookshelf, and opened one of them to see where I got it. I thought maybe someone put a note in the front cover, because I knew I hadn't bought it myself.

A card fell out. I pulled the card out of the book and realized it was a graduation card. I didn't recognize the card, but it has been over 2 1/2 years since I graduated from college.

So, I opened it. There was a check in there from a family that used to go to our church. It was for $25. I felt kind of stupid for not realizing I had a check for 2 1/2 years.

Then I looked at the date on the check.

2002.

That was my high school graduation.

The bank that the check was written from closed around 2004 or so. And I know you're not supposed to cash/deposit checks after 6 months (it's either courtesy or it just doesn't work).

Oh well. There's $25 I don't have. Too bad, though. That family had some money back then (I don't know about now), while I am not very rich, and I never have been. I probably could have used the $25.

This concerns me a lot.

I think the Outkast one is the best part. But, watch until the end.

Married

Julie and I got married. We went on a honeymoon. First we went to San Francisco. We went to a 49ers game. We rode a cable car and ate chili bread bowls on Pier 39. We rode public transportation.

Then we went to Cancun. We saw 4 different ancient Mayan cities. We got stopped by the military and had our rental car searched. They made us open our bags. I think they thought we were drug dealers.

I got pulled over for speeding. I had to bribe the cop.

I hit a tropical bird (maybe it was endangered) while driving through the jungle. I killed it.

We saw Spider Monkeys and Howler Monkeys on a hike we went on with a Mayan guide.

We saw one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

I will probably put pictures up soon (and some in a long time). I took around 1,000 I think. Plus there are all the wedding shots.

Getting married in a week...

I can't believe it. I am really getting married in 7 days. It felt close before, but when I woke up this morning, I was shocked how real it felt. There are still a few small things to do. Some for the wedding, some for the honeymoon, and some things need to be wrapped up since we are going to be gone for a couple weeks. One thing I still need to do is vote, which means I need to learn about what all the propositions are for.

I am looking forward to every day for the next 3 weeks or so. I am looking forward to using each last day before the wedding to be productive, looking forward to the wedding and to having a week and a half to vacation after that, and then to getting back and not being as busy as I've been for the last 2 or 3 months.

That is probably what I'm most excited about--normalcy, but a new kind of normalcy.

Finals at the SRJC - a couple websites I just made

I had to make some websites for 2 of my classes. They were short classes that ended this week. I will now only be in 3 classes (instead of 5) for the rest of the semester, which is so great. Here are the 2 sites I just made:

One about my wedding, for my Screen Design class.
One about the public transit systems I've been on and the one that is on our ballot in Sonoma and Marin Counties this year. That was for my Dreamweaver class.

I don't know which one I like better. The splash screen on the trains site is cool. If I had more time, it would have been animated too. I am looking forward to having time to do my own things and combine everything I'm learning and everything I already know how to do.

Jesus is My Friend (in church, or by the David Crowder Band, or whatever).

Ever since seeing the original "Jesus is my Friend" video, I've thought...how could you show this during church? You would need to make it obviously funny, so no one got the impression that you thought it was good.

Apparently at David Crowder's church, they showed it during announcements, so the band went in the office during the sermon and learned the song. They came back out at the end of the service and played it. From the looks of things, the sermon was going to end with the words "Jesus is still your friend," so it really was "the perfect setup" as Crowder said on his blog.

Goodbye, wamu

I'm at washington mutual. This sign is pretty ironic given that wamu just tanked amidst the mortgage crisis. It's ok. I am closing my account today because julie and i are combining accounts. A few weeks ago we asked my aunt if we should stick with wamu (where i was) or wells fargo (where julie was). My aunt, a senior vp at wells said wamu was doomed and to get out. So apparently the financial community was not completely blindsided by this economic crisis despite what the government says.

Jesus Is My Friend

If you haven't seen this yet, you're missing out. This is my favorite song right now. So funny.

Things I would write about if I had the time

I can't believe how long I have gone without blogging. Well, I guess I've written a few, but there are some things I've been wanting to write about for weeks and months now that I just haven't gotten around to.

One idea I wanted to write about before I had my appendectomy (just to give you an idea of when I started putting off blogging) was how the point of Christianity has been forgotten by so many.

A lot of Christians are running around with the idea that power is the main point. Or that identity is the main point.

But they're not.

It's love.

How's that for an ugly picture? But it probably got your attention a little.

I want to write more about this power/identity/love thing, but I don't have time. So just remember that my intentions are to write about it.

I would also like to write a blog about my second job. I am working part time as a pastor and part time as a graphic designer. I don't get paid very much, but it is a "cool" job, and I have a steady income from it, unlike most graphic designers, who have to try to build up their business. I work for a printshop, where I do fairly simple layouts, with mostly text. I also spend a lot of time looking up old files that are either lost from computers crashing or hidden from previous employees who were bad at file management.

So I am a lot better at using certain software apps, such as InDesign and Illustrator than I was month ago when I got the job.

I also am going to school full time at the Santa Rosa JC, taking 6 classes this semester. I would like to write a blog about that.

I work 20 hours at church, 16-25 hours at the printshop, and am taking 13.5 units at the JC, which works out to a lot more than 13 hours a week (probably more like 25-30, if I wasn't cutting corners).

My computer crashed, and it turned out I fried the motherboard. I had to buy a new motherboard, so I rebuilt my computer and it is now awesome. I would like to write about that.

I have reversed my position once again on stage lighting in church, and am back to supporting it. But I am all about getting eco-friendly lights, and not high-wattage cans. If you're not using LED, then you're killing polar bears. I would like to write about that.

We're doing some cool things in our church and in our young adults' ministry that I would like to write about.

I would also like to put in writing my thoughts of the last 2 1/2 years about long-term ministry versus short-term ministry. I always used to say in my blog that I would write about it in a few months, but still haven't done it.

And if I had time to blog, I would probably write about how the wedding plans are coming. I would probably work on the html for my blog and make it a little prettier.

But I don't have time.

I guess that when you have a lot going on, you have a lot to write about, but don't have the time to write any of it.

I got the poopy on me!

The title of this blog is a quote from Joe Dirt.

Here's an article I saw that I'm going to quote in its entirety.

Burglar Hiding In Port-O-Let Gets Dirty Dumping

Man Accused Of Stealing Cars

TAMPA, Fla. -- A suspected car burglar in Tampa made a dirty mistake when he hid out inside a Port-O-Let.

Tampa Police said Lorenzo Earl Knight, 22, is accused of breaking into two cars Saturday. One of the owners fought Knight and chased him to a nearby construction site.

Knight tried to hide in the Port-O-Let, but when the victim found him, he overturned the toilet, dumping huge amounts of human waste on Knight.

Knight has been charged with auto burglary and possession of burglary tools.

Hunting at work.

I was just walking outside church and saw a gopher digging. I ran inside and grabbed a broom.

I came back outside, found it again, then swung at it a few times and missed. It started hissing and squealing and I started to feel a little sorry. Then i remembered how much of a nuisance they are and finished it off.

And i was wearing flip flops and shorts so i was a little afraid of it either biting my toes or getting blood on my legs. But, It all worked out in the end.

Why I'm voting for Obama -or- Rick Warren is awesome

I just watched Rick Warren's interviews with Obama and McCain. Before tonight, I was about 85% for Obama, because I think for one thing, I believe he is actually a Christian, but I wasn't totally sure.

After tonight, I am convinced that he is. I am less convinced about McCain's faith than before.

Also, I found out that Obama's beliefs about abortion and gay marriage are almost identical to mine. I have blogged about those two issues in the past, and I will try to find my blogs about them and repost them.

I think it is very significant that the Democratic Party just added to their platform that they "strongly support" lowering the number of abortions, which the Republican Party doesn't state as clearly. Of course, they would argue that by illegalizing abortion, that would lower it, but that doesn't really affect anything in the immediate future.

I already knew that Obama was stronger on most of the other issues that are important to me as an evangelical (i.e. justice, the environment), so I have to vote for him.

The best answer I thought was Obama's view of evil. Instead of these movie-like portrayals of us as the good guy and Islamic Extremists as the bad guy that Bush and now McCain have given, there is recognition that we are all fallen.

In essence, I think that Obama displayed a postmodern understanding of the world, where things are more complex than simple black-and-white statements. McCain critcizes this as being dodgy. But I think McCain is living in the 80s (he talks about Reagan incessantly) not only politically, but philisophically.

People don't view the world in black-and-white terms. I think Postmodernism is great in its rejection of certain Modernist ideas, such as this extreme categorization.

Yes, good is real, and evil is real, but like Obama, I believe that only God can solve the problem of evil.

Also, major props to Rick Warren for doing the evangelical community proud, by not just addressing the issue of the candidates' faith, which is so crucial to the undecided evangelical voter (like me), but for being the first person in this election to actually get the candidates in one place.

It's about time that the Church was a leader in culture again. I think this is a sign that God is at work in the American Church is a powerful and historic way.

Mark "the Swearing Preacher" Driscoll

Check out this video about what the most infamous swearing preacher has to say about harsh language in the Bible and in the life of a Christian.




This video is for John Piper's upcoming conference

I fully agree with him. It's what I've been saying for a few years too.

Cool stuff I learned about my family background today

There's someone else with the last name Ratiani who I've been in contact with on Facebook. He told me in a message I got today that the last name Ratiani is from the region of Svaneti in North Western Georgia. Check out wikipedia for more details.

I am pretty excited that Svaneti is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It says it's because it is one of the best preserved collections of medieval buildings anywhere, due to its isolation.

I am starting to doubt that a Ratiani castle exists (under that name).

It looks pretty beautiful. Apparently, this is right in the Caucasus Mountains.

Also, it is right next to Abkhazia, and since the Russians came through farther east in South Ossetia, I bet it's been bombed and invaded a ton in the last week.

Hopefully they don't mess up our castle (if it exists).

The Wikipedia article says that it is the highest inhabited region in Europe, at over 4,000 meters. That is 12,000 feet! I get altitude sickness at far lower elevations sometimes (and other times I'm fine). Crazy.

Georgia: The Motherland

As I'm sure everyone knows, there has been a war between Russia and Georgia in the last week. I wanted to write about it sooner, but I have had a really bad case of the stomach flu for the last few days.

I really cared about it, since my last name is Georgian.

Apparently, there is a Ratiani castle somewhere in the country.

I really hope it wasn't destroyed or damaged by the war this week. It would be cool to see it one day.

Apparently, the name Ratiani sounds very Italian, even to most Georgians.

Thanks to Facebook, I've been able to get in contact with a few of the other Ratianis in the world. Many have moved to the US in the last 10 years or less. It seems like this is largely in part to the westernization of Georgia.

My uncle or someone else in the family figured out that we actually aren't related to many of the other Ratainis. We descend from the Emperor, and they are descendants of serfs under the lords.

That is awesome.

_________________________________

The other day I was thinking about how really Georgia started the war, and it is their fault, and how it would be fair to actually say that it's not Russia's fault. Then I realized that I am free to side with Georgia, since I am Georgian.

Although, I actually am just as much Russian.


________________________________

Edit:

In fact, my ancestors ruled the empire of Georgia at least 3 times.

Back before the internet had as much information on it, it was easy to find information on the Ratiani dynasties.

Georgia was an empire for hundreds of years, and my ancestors weren't just on the throne for 3 generations, but took the throne for 3 dynasties. There is also a Ratiani castle somewhere in the nation.

The above 3 paragraphs were originally in this blog, but since I can't find any sources for any of it anymore, I don't want people searching for info on our family to think this is a credible source. That very well may be what happened to me in the first place in 2001 when I was searching for this stuff.

On the pastor who killed his wife and froze the body

I don't know if you've read the news story today about the pastor who killed his wife and froze the body in 2004. Let me summarize it:

Anthony Hopkins--a pastor in Mobile, Alabama--abused his oldest daughter (physically and sexually), and has been doing so for the last 8 years. In 2004, his wife caught him, so he killed her and froze the body. He has 7 kids. Finally, the oldest daughter went to the cops on Monday, and he was arrested that night right after preaching at a revival about forgiveness. His daughter had originally helped him hide the body. The police searched the home while he was preaching, found the body in the freezer (4 years later!) and went to arrest him outside the church, but let him finish preaching.

That had to be awkward.

The article ends by saying:
Of Hopkins' preaching ability, Porter said, "he was a bulls-eye prophet. If he told you something, you could pretty much bank on it."

This was one of the most interesting parts of the whole story to me. Apparently, this guy was known as a prophet. He also didn't have his own congregation, but went around to different churches in the South.

I think this is really telling about prophecy.

First off, it is very possible this man was gifted by the Holy Spirit as a prophet, and was also disgusting and a murderer. God gives spiritual gifts to all who are saved, and gifts are not fruit. You don't have to be living a godly life to have gifts.

This reminds me of what's going on with the really popular Todd Bentley in Lakeland, Florida (which is the Charismatic outpouring du jour). He has been accused of possibly embezzling money. I don't know if that is truth or false accusations, but in any case the argument should not be made that he must be living rightly, since he is a prophet.

The second possibility with this Anthony Hopkins guy is that he was not being empowered as a prophet by the Holy Spirit, but by the devil. This would make him a false prophet. Even if he was telling the truth sometimes, the fact that he was empowered by Satan is still not good, obviously.

Often, people get so in-love with acts of God, like prophecy or miracles or healing, that they become completely blind to the character of the person "performing" these acts of God.

It comforts me, honestly, to know that God will judge false prophets with a heavy hand. 2 Peter 2:3 says "their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping."

That is also just a really cool sentence about how their destruction has not been sleeping. The chapter goes on to talk about the final judgment, hell, and similar themes.

There are so many passages warning us to be on the watch for false prophets; even Jesus said so. I have seen friends come under the influence of people who are undeniably false prophets, and some come under the influence of some questionable people.

So I just want to say, don't start following someone just because everyone else you respect is following them. They could be deceived. They could even be deceived into deceiving you.

Don't follow anyone because they are powerful. The Bible does not say they will know we are Jesus' disciples by our power, but by our love.

Appendix: the final chapter (I hope)

Well, yesterday (Tuesday), I went to the doctor and had a follow up visit about my appendectomy. The surgeon said everything is fine and I can do whatever I want, but to be cautious. She also said that I should expect to be sore for another 2 weeks. That is good to know.

I have been feeling sick to my stomach since Monday night. I think it is probably unrelated to my appendectomy, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Here is a link list to all of my other blogs on the Appendicitis/Appendectomy story:

Here are the blogs written in the moment:
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Appendix 5: the Fever
Appendix 6: fever relief
Appendix 7 (an update on how I am right now)
Appendix update

And, here are the blogs I wrote to summarize events or to reflect on my feelings about the process:

My appendicitis: the cause?
How my appendicitis was accounted for by the songs we sang on Sunday morning
Appendicitis: what happened on Sunday
The Appendectomy and Recovery so far
Thoughts from my Appendicitis and Surgery

I am currently still copying a lot of my 2005 blogs from myspace to blogspot, which is very tedious, but I think it's a good way to pass time that is fairly constructive. It also forces me to read all the old ones, which is pretty fun. I was way funnier back then than I am today.

Hello, my readers

I just was looking at my Site Meter, and it has a little map of where people who have recently viewed your website are located.

I wasn't surprised to see people in the US and South Africa, since I know people there. But, I was surprised to see people from Australia and Austria, where I have never been. Although, both of those are countries I would love to visit (especially Australia). So if you're out there reading my blog, leave a comment so I can say hi!

I also was surprised to see what cities in the US generate hits on my blog. Almost none are from the Santa Rosa/Sonoma County Area, so I think this is mostly read by college friends or by people who have moved away. I actually suspected that few people who live nearby actually read this. Most of my blogging friends aren't local (there are a few locals though).

Anyway, just thought I'd share that.

I am going to continue copying my old myspace blog, and then reset my sitemeter to show my real total number of hits including both sites. So it will be more like 30,000 or 40,000 than the 1,220 it currently shows.

For those of you with blog readers, sorry for screwing it up for you.

Blog appearance tweaking

I tried to put my new knowledge of html and CSS to use a little tonight and started tweaking the appearance of my blog. A lot of it was in the small things that you don't really notice (e.g. spacing between lines and letters--vertically and horizontally, respectively).

I did a couple other things that you can't just do by editing the templates blogger gives you--turning the underlines on my links into little dotted lines, and having the rollover on my links be a highlight instead of a different color text).

I'm not sure if I think the new font is readable enough yet. We'll see.

Appendix update

I haven't blogged in a couple days about my appendectomy recovery. Things have been very up and down.

Thursday I improved a lot. As the day went on, I got better and better. Then, Friday I pushed myself too hard.

It was my birthday. I laughed. I rode in a car. I ate greasy Chinese food. I had a surprise party, and people bumped into me and did things that made me flinch in tiny ways that are barely noticeable usually, but when you have an injury, they really hurt (e.g. Josh Mello tickling my foot or someone walking past me and brushing against the chair, or someone walking past and just shaking the floor enough with their steps).

So Friday got worse and worse unfortunately. Not a great way to spend your birthday. I think if I had a graph of my pain level on Thursday and Friday, it would be a V. The right side of the V would only be about 80% of the height of the left side.

Today, though was awesome. Like Thursday, I got better and better. I am going to attempt leading worship tomorrow. We will see if I make it the whole way. Holding a guitar is a little painful. The guitar is either heavy (when I'm standing up), or resting right on my incision (when I'm sitting down). At this point I'm leaning towards the standing up option. It still is pushing against my incision, and holding up anything, let alone a heavy electric guitar, is pretty painful on my abdomen right now. But I think it will be manageable based on how I am feeling today.

I assume I will get a little bit worse throughout the day tomorrow because pushing myself did that yesterday, while sitting around and doing nothing was really good for me on Thursday and today.

Appendix 7 (an update on how I am right now)

This is the first one of my real-time updates I've done from the computer and not my cell phone. Earlier tonight, I was home alone for about an hour and a half (6:30 to 8). I was supposed to take more Vicodin around 7 pm, but I had decided that my pain was probably manageable without it and that I would rather take Ibuprofen since it would reduce swelling and fevers and not cause any more constipation like the Vicodin does.

I hadn't eaten anything, because continually putting more food in the digestive tract when nothing is coming out doesn't feel so great.

Around 7:40, I got the shakes and chills really badly. I took my temperature, and it was 99.7. Then I started shivering so badly that it became hard to breathe and hard to walk (to get some ibuprofen). I called my mom while I was shaking. I was really scared. She came home from helping out with Youth Group. I ended up with a 101.7 degree fever (at least that was the highest temp I measured). I ate a little, and took those 2 ibuprofens, and I think that fixed me up pretty well. Our neighbor Joe, who is an EMT, came and checked on me too.

Then, I finally was able to use the bathroom, so I took a shower right afterwards. Somehow, even though I was being very gentle, my incision (which is glued, not stapled or stitched), started oozing blood. It had oozed a little the first day, but it oozed a lot more than it has so far. It doesn't look very good (the blood dried on the Steri-strips), but I think it's fine.

Also, the area where the tortilla-ripping sensation was last night is now constantly weird feeling. I think either my intestine is moving around a lot due to the void left by removing tissue from my body (Joe's suggestion) or my intestine can now tell when stuff is moving through it really well, so I am conscious of stuff moving through my digestive tract that usually goes unnoticed. It's like a little checkpoint in the track.

I ate a little bit of dinner, and right now I'm feeling alright (besides the weird spot). I also haven't taken any vicodin lately, and I think the ibuprofen is going to be enough, thankfully.

One of my theories is that I was having withdrawals from the Vicodin, even though I haven't been on it for that long or in high doses, but maybe I get addicted easily.

Thoughts from my Appendicitis and Surgery

For three years, I have been making a big deal about how medical healing is a miracle that is more difficult than supernatural, miraculous healing. I really am glad I feel that way. Knowing that makes me so much more comfortable, knowing that when surgeons work on us, God is at work as well, using his amazingly created humans, who have created methods and learned how to implement them to save lives.

I told Julie on Monday night that if I lived in another part of the world or maybe if I was born 200 years earlier, I would have died right around my 24th birthday (which is this Friday), and right before I get married (3 months exactly after my birthday).

Isn't that crazy to think about. On Tuesday afternoon I wasn't feeling very good, and I told God, "I don't want to die. Julie would be devastated."

On Tuesday night, when I was in the throes of fever, I told God, "I hurt so much, I want to die. I want to come home."

It's weird, because we so often have this mentality that we don't want to die until we get married. Kids always think that, and I've always felt that way. In January, through hearing Francis Chan at the Passion conference and a number of other things, I surrendered that area of my life to God, saying that He can use and end my life whenever He wants, even if it is right before I get married.

So, through my sickness I was brought back to that point. But I also felt that there was no way I would die without one more time proclaiming that modern medical healing is a miracle that God deserves a lot of praise and thanks for. Now I can say that from logic and experience.

I don't think I'm going to die anymore. I feel a lot better. Not perfect yet, but a lot better.

The Appendectomy and Recovery so far

When I went into the OR on Sunday night, I was pretty surprised by the fact that even though appendectomies are simple procedures, the OR looks just like it does for any other surgery--those huge bowl-shaped lights over the table, 5 or 6 people working on me, etc.

I also was a bit surprised. They were going to have me keep my pants on and they'd take them off while I was asleep. One of the other nurses thought that was stupid and said I should just take them off right then.

I am not a very big exhibitionist, but this stay in the hospital has made me a lot more comfortable in my own skin, I guess. I have to be careful to be modest now, especially since it feels better to not have the band of pants right on my surgery area.

Anyway, back to the story...I couldn't wear my glasses into the OR, and since my vision is so bad, I was pretty confused. Once they put the General Anesthesia in my IV, they said, "Your vision will probably be getting blurry pretty soon."

I didn't really notice much of a change, since it was so bad in the first place.

Anyway, I fell asleep and then woke up in the recovery room. I never saw the surgeon, anesthesiologist, or any of the OR nurses again.

They took me to my regular room. My roommate was a 40-ish man who had a heart attack on Friday. He snored a lot. I slept pretty well that night. I had to get up a few times to go to the bathroom, they woke me up twice to take my vitals, once I woke up from the other guy snoring, and once I woke up because of the pain. That led to my first experience with Vicodin. I had a couple small doses of Morphine and 1 Vicodin pill. I felt a little better. The next day they gave me 1 morphine dose and 1 pill.

I have been prescribed Vicodin on 2 other occasions (for wisdom teeth, and for a really bad ear infection in High School), but I never took any.

One of the nurses also thought that my working on the field could have helped cause the appendicitis.

At 10:30 AM on Monday they told me I'd be going home, but I didn't get out of there until 1:30. The nurses didn't all know what was going on. My surgeon was working in another building, so she called another surgeon to come and give me the post-op spiel.

I was sent home without antibiotics, and the only instructions were: don't try to move a piano, don't swim (although showering is totally fine).

That afternoon, I was carrying 3 books from one room in the house to another, and it made my side hurt a lot. So I have decided against carrying very much at all.

Monday wasn't too bad, but Tuesday led to a lot of pain, especially last night when I had a 101 degree fever, which I wrote about in couple of the other blogs (fever | recovery).

This morning I had a bit of a fever again, and I just took some Milk of Magnesia to counteract the side effects of the Vicodin on my GI tract.

The next blog will have my thoughts from the whole process including my fear of dying, getting over it, and things I've learned.

Appendicitis: What happened on Sunday

Well, I want to clarify how this blog is working. Any of the blog posts titled "Appendix (and then a number)" were written from my phone with a picture from my camera phone. It's awesome that I set up mobile blogs a few weeks ago so that I could do this while in the hospital or in bed last night. Writing about this stuff really helps me feel better as I process things and name them.

The other posts (usually titled "Appendicitis") were written from the computer.

So in my last "Appendicitis" blog, I talked about church on Sunday and how the songs were really good for me.

After church, I talked to Brandon Cave, who is a 14 year old on the youth band. His brother, sister and parents are also really great friends of mine. Brandon had his appendix removed 2 years ago and asked me a few questions:

"Did the pain start behind your belly button or on the right side?"
It started behind the belly button and then moved.

"Does it feel good to hunch your back?"
Yes

"Are you not very hungry?"
Yes.

"Can you not go to the bathroom?"
Yes.

He told me it was appendicitis, so I went on WebMD in my office and looked up some more symptoms. I wasn't that sore at the time.

I attribute that to 2 things:

1. I didn't move that much during church.
2. Before church during worship team practice I was feeling sick and my Dad and Julie had a head cold so I asked the worship team to pray. Mike (Brandon's dad) prayed that I would make it through the service. I kind of thought, "Oh no, don't pray for that," because whenever I pray for that, I make it through the service and then have a terrible afternoon health-wise.

But, I believe God answered Mike's prayer. I think this is the kind of healing I experience most often. What one of my dad's friends calls healing "receiving the strength needed to complete the task in front of you."

I felt really good during church, and then after church I was sitting in my office talking to Brandon and Angie (his mom). They also have Kaiser and told me to call the advice line. I decided to wait and see how I felt in a few hours. I also had a job interview scheduled on Monday morning at a printshop in town where another friend works. It sounds like a great job for me to have--graphic design, part time, they'll train me to do what needs to be done. So I wanted to wait until after the interview to go to the hospital.

But once Angie and Brandon left my office, I walked back to the stage to turn off my guitar amp and was overcome by intense pain. So I drove home, called Kaiser's advice line, and they asked me for my symptoms. They told me "It sounds like you have a textbook case of appendicitis." So I went to the ER.

When the doctor finally saw me after a couple hours' wait, he told me he was unconvinced by my exam that I had appendicitis. He said my history was very convincing, and that the physical strain I'd had on Saturday from shoveling could have played a role in either appendicitis or an abdominal wall strain. So, he ordered a CT Scan, since he couldn't be sure which it was without more tests.

I have been terrified of I.V.s for my whole life. And for some reason since 5th or 6th grade, I've known that sometime in my 20s I would get appendicitis and need an IV. So, when they told me that the next steps were to draw blood, get an IV, and then have an enema for the CT scan, I was not very concerned about the enema.

I mean, hey, I am lactose intolerant. Nothing scares me (at least in that area). But I hate getting bloodwork drawn. They can never get enough blood out of my veins. I thought I would need to get poked for that, and then re-poked for the IV.

The nurse (his name was Miguel) told me, to my relief, that the IV would work fine for drawing the blood sample too. But, when he put it in, he had to pull it back out (which hurts with a huge metal needle with a plastic tube in it), and then put it back in. He was apologetic and said how he hates it when he has to poke around so much. I let him know it's always that way with me and bloodwork. I asked him why that might be the case. He told me I either have small veins or they collapse easily, so when the needle goes in, they bleed out a little, and then the pressure doesn't hold them open.

By the way, I have really low blood pressure. It got all the way down to 91/54 at one point.

I had to wait another hour before the CT Scan, so by that time, the enema seemed a little scarier, since I was over the IV by that point. It was not very fun, and I'll leave it at that again.

I got done, they told me I had appendicitis, and then I had to wait for a couple hours for the surgeon to finish more pressing surgeries. Thankfully I had gotten in so early that my appendix wasn't very inflamed yet. So around 8:00 pm--12 hours since I last ate (and I had only eaten a banana for breakfast) and 6 1/2 hours after getting to the ER--they took me into surgery. I'll write about that in the next blog. This one is too long.

Appendix 6: fever relief

My fever is down to 99.6. It was hovering around 100.7 to 101.4 for an hour and a half. Then I moved and had this weird feeling to the left of the incision. It felt like ripping a tortilla. It also felt like getting whacked in the funny bone. It was a sharp tingle that hurt but also felt really good. I am in a lot less pain now, although it still hurts some. I think something inside just moved back to where it belongs. Sounds like a theological analogy from a song.

Appendix 5: the Fever

I have a 101 degree fever. It peaked at 101.6 (at least that was the highest temp we measured). My side hurts and so does my head. My throat is dry but I am drinking tons of water (I have to pee around every half hour). My mom is on hold with kaiser's advice line. I am really gassy but haven't had to go yet. I have no idea what is going on, but writing about it and prayer are calming me down. Goodnight from my phone.

How my appendicitis was accounted for by the songs we sang on Sunday morning

Last week when I picked songs for church on Sunday, I had no idea that God would have me pick songs for myself.

One of the songs we did is a new song by Lincoln Brewster and Paul Baloche called "Today is the Day." The chorus says, "Today is the day You have made/I will rejoice and be glad in it/ I won't worry about tomorrow/I'm trusting in what You say/Today is the day."

The other songs we played were:
Hosanna (by Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown)--Hosanna means "save us!"
Forever (Chris Tomlin)--"Forever God is faithful, Forever God is strong, Forever God is with us"
You'll Come (Hillsong United)--"My Rock and Redeemer, shield and reward"
Be Thou My Vision (the hymn)--has great theology about how God is our all
Draw Me Close--"You're all I've ever needed"
Blessed Be Your Name--I will choose to praise God in my worst circumstances.

So during church, I was feeling pretty sick, and all the songs were about how great God is or about how we choose to worship Him despite our circumstances. Also, "Today is the Day" is super-catchy, so I had it stuck in my head the whole time I was in the hospital. That was a great thing to have stuck in my head. I went into surgery with the thought, "I won't worry about tomorrow."

I just took 2 vicodins a couple hours ago, since I was in more pain today than I had been even before the operation (I've been taking just one at a time, even though I'm allowed to take 2). So I'm feeling really relaxed right now and about to fall asleep. Hopefully this blog made sense.

My appendicitis: the cause?

Last week, I didn't get to work much on the field at church. As you may recall from my earlier blogs, we've been turning a field into a nicer lawn for a couple of reasons: a place to play games for the youth and kids, and a place for Julie and I to have our wedding reception.

Instead, I was showing the Lains around Sonoma County a little. On Wednesday, we went Rock Climbing at Goat Rock Beach. They posted a blog and some pictures (1 | 2) that you can check out. On Thursday Julie and I had the great honor of taking them to the airport and sending them on their way to Mongolia as they left to be missionaries. It was so cool.

I spent Friday with my dad working for 9 1/2 hours on the field. Not much had been done on it all week, so we rented a ditch witch (which is a machine that trenches for you) and dug the sprinkler lines. A couple times it snagged on a rock. Once I thought I came close to breaking my arm. I hadn't been holding it very wisely, so it pulled down on my arm and there was no bend in my elbow to serve as a shock absorber.

The next time it pulled down, it whacked me in the abdomen. It didn't hurt much, but now I think it may have tenderized some things.

We spent the rest of the day installing sprinkler line. I did most of the gluing and cutting of pipes. I am not the most handy person in my family, but I've helped with enough sprinkler systems to do it fairly well.

On Saturday, my dad and I went back around noon to attach the sprinklers, test the lines, and bury the pipes. I found out that the fastest way to bury the pipes with the least effort was to hold the shovel normally, place the butt of the handle against my hip, and push forwards parallel to the trench. In doing so, the dirt just fell right in to the trench, and while it didn't completely fill the ditch, it at least buried the pipe so none of it was showing.

I ate a pretty big dinner that night, and I thought my abs were sore from all the digging I'd been doing. But after dinner, I started hurting more and thought it was gas pains. I couldn't use the bathroom, and I went to sleep around 11 pm (which is pretty early for me) in a decent bit of pain.

For a few reasons ever since I was in 5th grade, I've just known that sometime in my 20s I would get appendicitis and have to have an I.V. (which I've been afraid of my whole life). So on Saturday night I made a few jokes to Julie about it being appendicitis, which was because I thought that joking about it would calm my nerves that it actually was appendicitis.

I fell asleep fairly quickly, but woke up the next morning to one of the longest days of my life, which I will talk about in the next blog.

Appendix 4

I just found out i'm getting discharged in the next hour or so. I hope they don't charge me for today. I hurt a bit and the vicodin helps. The morphine doesn't seem to do much but the doses of it have been pretty small. My side is feeling a little better and it actually feels pretty good to be standing.

Appendix 3

I got the appendectomy. I feel better. I get to eat liquids and crackers but it tastes great since all i've eaten today was a banana around 8 am. I get to stay overnight. My copay is 400 dollars per day. The day starts at 11 am. Hopefully i am discharged before that.

Appendix 2

That's my arm. I just had my ct scan. The enema was...no comment (it was so they could see my appendix better). I do have appendicitis. I will be in surgery sometime tonight.

Appendix 1

I'm in the hospital. I may or may not have appendicitis. I am going to have a ct scan. I have my first ever iv.

Sunday setlist return

3 years ago I first started leading worship at the Stirring. I also was a hardcore blogger. I used to post the list of songs that I led each week. I thought it was kind of stupid after awhile, so I stopped doing it. Now I see some value in it, so I think I will do it from time to time.

So here are the songs we are doing at church tomorrow and the artist who wrote/performs each one:

"All Because of Jesus" (Steve Fee)
"Glorious" (Chris Tomlin)
"The Stand" (Hillsong United)
"You'll Come" (Hillsong United)
"Your Grace Is Enough" (Matt Maher/Chris Tomlin)
"Nothing But the Blood" (the hymn)
"Lead Me to the Cross" (Hillsong United)
"Jesus, Lord of Heaven" (Phil Wickham)

I'm actually having Julie lead 2 or 3 songs this week. Usually she will lead 1 on the weeks she sings.

Odds and Ends

I haven't blogged in a few days. Here's an update on life:

1. The smoke has returned. Thankfully we still have no long-lasting large fires in our area, just smoke. I have started to take advantage of that and take pictures of the red sun and great sunsets.

2. I finished my html class and got an A. Unfortunately I was taking the class as credit/no credit, so I could have gotten a C and had the same grade. On the other hand, I also found out that my Photoshop class I took over the Spring didn't turn out as well as I thought it did, and I didn't take that one as credit/no credit. I got a B instead of an A. I had an A after taking the online final, but since I skipped class on the night of the actual final, the prof threw out my grade for the final. That sucks since he never mentioned it to us that we had to be at the final. He just said it was a potluck and we would look into what is done in the next class. I had to be at Conference for our district (in he Christian and Missionary Alliance). It's alright though. I'm happy with a B.

3. We're turning a field into a lawn at church. It's 175 feet by 100 feet. We've been working on it for about 5 weeks. We tilled it with a tractor, and then we started raking and straining the rocks out. It was over 100 degrees for most of this week, and it was very physically exhausting work. One day we worked from 7:30 AM until 3:30 PM. At first I thought, "well, we almost worked as long as a real work crew would." Then I realized that we took a lot fewer breaks than a real crew would, since construction workers always spend a lot of time standing around and we didn't. We have been being helped by Jr. High and High School Students.

I have learned that many teenagers don't work as hard as you want them to. A few do, and I think that something happens around age 15 that makes people suddenly have a higher tolerance for work, although 1 or 2 of the younger teens were working harder at the end of the week than they were at the beginning. I think that is because they learned how capable they were.

So we have gotten a lot of rocks out and leveled it partially. Today I got to drag it with a riding mower. It was fun. Just a couple more weeks of work, probably. Hopefully it has grass by Julie's and my wedding (3 months and 13 days!)

4. I just got Firefox 3 for web browsing. It's great. If you have gmail, you can set it up so that when you click on a "mailto:" link (one that opens your e-mail browser), it will launch gmail instead of outlook or whatever you have as your e-mail client. Also there are great things in firefox like adblock plus that keeps ads from showing up. Check it out if you're using Internet Explorer or Safari. Firefox is different than those 2 in that it actually complies with the standards for web pages.

5. Here is a picture I took of the sunset last Saturday. I love Wine Country. Even if I'm not allowed to drink wine anymore because of my job.

My First Ever Website

The first part of my html class is ending today, so I just finished my first ever website. I don't think it will be up forever, so this link won't exist for years and years to come, but for now, you can check it out.

We had to pick a topic, and then as we learned basic html code, we developed it more. So I picked Julie's and my engagement. I used our wedding colors for the final product.

It's pretty simple, but it meets all the web standards, which very very few websites do (e.g. myspace, ebay, yahoo, google all do not meet standards; craigslist does).

Also there are some things I wouldn't have done if I was just going to make it look nice, but I wanted to demonstrate to the teacher that I learned the concepts of html, not the concepts of aesthetics, so there are some ugly things, like making the bold words bright pink.

The smoke clears

I just was walking inside from driving Julie home to her apartment in the ghetto. I looked up at the sky, and I saw a bunch of stars.

Normally that's not such a big deal, but since the sky has been full of smoke or at least somewhat hazy for a few weeks, it was really cool to look up and see deep black and sparkling white.

The smoke has cleared.

I always enjoy looking up at the stars on a night following a storm. There's something about seeing the crisp stars after experiencing the rain. Maybe the air feels cooler from the humidity. Or maybe it's the fact that I've been staring at a gray ceiling of clouds all day, and to finally have some contrast above me is refreshing. It feels a lot like that now.

The smoke has cleared metaphorically speaking on my licensing process for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. I had my interview on Wednesday in Woodland, and it went well. I am now a licensed pastor. Doug, my future-father-in-law, was one of the people who interviewed me. That made it more interesting for me, as I had no idea if he would go harder on me or easier. I think he probably was about the same as usual.

My sister made a funky omelette. It now smells like food, which is making me quite hungry.

A Christian response to the Fires of Northern California

My dad said that a guy in church asked him if the sky covered in smoke had anything to do with the Apocalypse.

To some of you it may seem like a dumb question, but he sincerely meant it, and that's fine.

I think it's important that Christians be ready to take the lead in helping others during times of disaster. This means we need to help people answer 2 questions--"Why is this happening?" and "Where do I start fixing my life?" Insurance companies call these "acts of God," and we need to treat them as such. These are acts of a sovereign God who allowed them to happen so that His glory and renown would be advanced.

I took the picture on the left in early May. I thought it interesting that as our campfire died, a cross was left in the smoldering embers.

Isn't that how life--especially in times of disasters--should look like? When the fire is almost burned out, in the aftermath of people's lives burning up or burning out, the cross will remain. And we are to take up our cross and follow Jesus and be there for people.

Any church in the immediate area of any type of disaster needs to see how it can help others. Not by waiting for people to come to them, but by proactively seeking out those whose lives have been affected by disaster.

I have a real passion for relief ministry, stemming from wanting to go to Thailand after the 2004 Tsunami, and then through experiencing that sort of ministry in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina for 5 weeks while helping on missions trips.

I heard about churches in Chico and Paradise that opened their doors to evacuees from recent fires there. I heard about a huge church in a brand new multi-million dollar building that became an evacuation center in San Diego last year just months after opening their doors. They were afraid that their nice stuff would get damaged, but knew that God would have them do that, so they did it.
____________________

Part of me wishes that some of these fires were a little closer to home so I could do something to help. Part of me wishes that there was an earthquake, because that would definitely affect us. I recognize though, that those types of natural disasters are less accommodating to volunteer help than things like floods and hurricanes. For awhile I've thought about going to the Red Cross and becoming a first responder or something like that. The Red Cross for Sonoma and Mendocino Counties is located about a half mile from my house.

Maybe now is the time to move past just thinking about it.

I realize that Mendocino County is one of the hardest hit counties by the fires, along with Humboldt, Lake, and Shasta (Redding people, are you all still alive?). So, maybe the office will be crazy busy. But, I should do something about it anyway.

I don't want to waste my life.

Fires part 2

Here's a picture I took of the moon last night. Usually the moon is red like this when it's low, and it almost always has to be full, but this time, it was pretty high, half full, and still really red. It's definitely because of the smoke.

I just read that there have been 1,024 fires in Northern California since Saturday. This morning in the newspaper, it was talking about how Mendocino County has 136 fires, and 46 had zero firefighters on them. That is because there are some really big ones, and almost every county around has a lot of fires (besides us here in Sonoma County, who just get everyone's smoke).

Anyway, a lot of landowners are supposedly hiring private firefighting crews. The government won't send firefighters to fight fires unless homes are in jeopardy, since that is more important, and they have to pick and choose.

Of course, if you own a timber company in Mendocino County, then you kind of need to keep your trees alive.

Or, if you are a pot-farmer.

I'm pretty sure that millions of dollars of marijuana will be destroyed by these fires. That is saving the state money since the cops won't have to bust people.

I wonder if firefighting or pot-busting is more expensive.

__________________

Apparently the smoke from the 146 fires in Mendocino County is all blowing south, and the big fire in Napa County created smoke on Sunday that all blew East. So breathing is pretty hard here. Officially, the air is "Unhealthy for sensitive groups." I have never heard of Santa Rosa having anything but a "Good" rating by the EPA.

At least there are no nearby fires...yet.

The forecast for this weekend is more lightning and still no rain, so that means hundreds of more fires, probably.

Currently I have to make sure I don't go outside with an empty stomach. The smoke smell is so intense here that if I do, I get nauseous. In Lake County, the roads are shut down because people can't see the Fire Engines or the animals that have run out of the forest to safety.

That makes me think of, "Get up Bambi! Get up!"

I kind of want to drive to Lake County, but I'm pretty sure that is a very stupid decision.

I would like to go to the different ares of Northern California and see which areas have the worst smoke.

Fires part 1

It's been smoky for 4 days now. Those hills are a half mile away and it's so hazy they look to be miles from here. I get sick to my stomach when i go outside and breathe in the smoke.

Coldplay

I like this cd. A lot. I think i've listened to it 50 times already. It's the album i've been wanting someone to make since late 2006. This is mobile blog number 2.

stupid mouse, dead gophers

My mouse is dead. I am referring to my computer mouse, not a mammal. It sucks. It keeps ceasing to function in the middle of things. Then it starts back up again.

I built my computer last summer. It's great. But I didn't buy a new mouse or keyboard, and both of those have seen many years, a few moves to college and back, and been pretty abused.

I bought a $100 keyboard and mouse on ebay. After the cheap bid, the 10% off that ebay is doing, and the giftcard I had for filming my friends' wedding, I got it for $30.01. Sweet.

Speaking of dead rodents, a few weeks ago, we were clearing a field of some rocks at church. Dennis, who is over 60 years old, was driving the tractor, and 4 times he jumped off the tractor and stomped on a gopher that had climbed up.

One of the gophers was about a foot long. They rear up on their hind legs, and start hissing.

Seriously, despite the funny caption, this is what they look like:



Dennis had steel workboots on, but the gophers still survived a few stomps usually. In fact, one of them survived long enough that I had to give it one last stomp to kill it.

Puma Romas aren't nearly as thick as workboots, so I felt the gopher under my foot and rolled my ankle a little as I ended its life.

I felt manly.

OK, back to fixing my computer (not so manly).

Yellow Submarine

In the time that Julie and I have been dating, the majority of our days have been spent miles apart. We were long distance starting about 2 weeks into our relationship, and ending under a month ago.

So we talked on the phone.... a lot.

Sometime around January, Julie started something new when we were multi-tasking. When you're having a 2 or 3 hour conversation on a daily basis, you often have to do other things while talking (yes I am justifying my multi-tasking). When I multi-task, I tend to leave long pauses in the conversation. So, to fill the blank, she would start whistling.

For some reason, she would always whistle "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. Now, 5 months later, I hear the song "Yellow Submarine" on average more than once a day. It's still usually while we're on the phone.

The other day I was on the phone and laying in bed after I should have gotten up. She started whistling. I got up right away. That song is far more annoying than an alarm clock, and while I might hit snooze on my clock, there is no way I would just hang up on Julie. I guess I will have to take her on a yellow submarine sometime.

Blogging from my Cell Phone...attempt #2

A few months ago, I tried to set it up so I could blog from my cell phone. I finally was able to do it. So here's a picture I took with my phone last fall.

You may wonder why I would take a picture of something that is normal to the average consumer.

However, to the lactose intolerant person (such as myself), the words "Xplosive pizza" and "blasted" have a completely different connotation.

I want to live downtown Part 1

I have wanted to live downtown in a big city in a tall building for a long time. I think it's from watching Frasier, Seinfeld, and Friends on TV back in the early 2000s. I loved the idea of having 20' windows and being able to see the skyline.

When I was around 5 to 7 years old, my grandparents lived in an apartment in Honolulu that was pretty high up, and you could see down the slope of the island towards Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. I loved it.

Today I was reading an article about how our generation is leaving the suburbs because we all want to live in cities where we can walk and ride mass transit to work instead of commuting.

It says at the end that by the year 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes in the US. What will happen is the middle and upper classes will have moved into the cities, forcing up housing costs there as demand rises, and so the poor will now be living in these huge houses in the suburbs.

You think about how much gas will cost by then (assuming we're still driving oil-powered cars) and you can see how it will affect the poor.

It's so weird to think about.

It's also weird to think that churches that exist in suburbs today are going to be the equivalent of today's inner-city churches in about 15 years (as far as demographics go).

Granted, the article could be wrong, and it's just guesswork, but I am a stereotypical millennial who wants to live downtown to save on gas, save the environment, and because the TV made it look cool.

Partnerships: The Church Helping the State

A few months ago, I was at the Thrive Conference at Bayside Church, and I sat in on a seminar about how to create partnerships with local civic organizations, such as schools, Child Protective Services, and other government agencies.

The day before, I had gone to a lunch where I learned about how a few churches have done some of that with their communities.

A few weeks later, the churches in our area partnered with the town of Windsor to help clean up the parks.

I think it's really great for Churches to find ways to help local government do things that we both care about. Sure, you can't talk about Jesus when you are working with the government, but I don't feel that it is watering down the gospel if you are loving people as you love yourself.

I recently read an article about how a church in Chicago partnered with the city to offer safe surrender to non-violent fugitives. Over 5,000 people showed up to surrender to criminal charges in exchange for favorable consideration in court. That is some serious advertising for that church and for The Church.

Blogging Christians

Even though I have recently discovered that the author is a pretty strong atheist, I like the comic strip Bizarro. I saw this one a few weeks ago, and thought it to be blogworthy. I don't have anything to say about it.

The Wedding I Went to Today

Today I got to see my friends Isaac and Dannielle get married. It was a really great wedding. In fact, it was the best wedding I've ever been to. I think it's partly because it was just a beautiful day and location, partly because the reception wasn't dreadfully long, partly because I am engaged, and partly because Ike and I have been friends for almost 5 years (and not just "I-know-you" friends, but real friends who have had fun and serious conversations, prayed together, come up with ideas together for deep things and stupid things). But mostly I loved the wedding because I've never seen a bride and groom whose love for each other was so evident through a ceremony.

I've written in other blogs how sometimes weddings make me uncertain of the future of the bride and groom (if you click on the "weddings" tag, you'll probably be able to read about some), but in this case it was so nice to just be so confident that these 2 people love each other and are living for the glory of God and it's so obvious.

Eric and I got to film their wedding, so we will be putting it together in the next few weeks/months, and I'm looking forward to giving it to them. Hopefully doing some weddings for friends and friends of friends, etc. will eventually lead to a real video business where we actually make money and I can legitimately call myself "bivocational" instead of "part time," which sounds a lot less cool and a lot more poor.

Joshiani

Back in February, I got to see my friends, Larry and Krista Lain and their 2 kids, Averiana and Eli. The Lains are moving to Mongolia soon as development workers with CAMA.

I knew the Lains from when we lived in Redding and were both going to the Stirring. And, then I got to go to New Orleans and Baton Rouge with them for a week, and then work with them after they moved there. They worked with the FEMA villages and the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.

Apparently, sometime in the last few years, Averi has decided that my name is now "Joshiani," which is a combination of "Josh" and "Ratiani."

So, when I found all that out, I told Julie about it, and she said, "Oh, my name will be Juliani!"

That was especially funny because Rudy Giuliani was still running for president at the time. We didn't really share the new nickname, since we weren't publicizing yet that we had decided to get married. It's a funny nickname for Julie, so I thought I should share it with the world now that the world knows she will soon be Julie Ratiani. She's most likely the only "Juliani" in the whole world.

How we got engaged

Well...I figured I should write on my blog that I got engaged last Friday night. Also, I figured it would be good to talk about how I did it. So, here it is.

A couple weekends ago, I made plans with Julie's dad to talk to him about marrying her. I had jury duty on the 27th (a Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day). So, since I figured I might be selected, I would have to meet with him on Saturday morning. He was going to be in Santa Rosa for a meeting anyway, so it would work out fine.


On Monday, the 26th, Julie moved to Santa Rosa. On Tuesday, the 27th, I reported for jury duty, and got out of it. It was a 3-week trial for statutory rape. Over a year and a half period, the man allegedly had sex with a girl under 14 years old at least 3 times.

So it, was going to be a long trial, and I managed to be excused. I drove to Julie's apartment, and thought that it would be good to talk to her dad earlier than Saturday so I could propose on Friday when she wasn't expecting it.

I talked myself out of it, then that night, I wanted to again. Wednesday I woke up and thought I didn't really need to rush it, especially since when I called to check on our ring, they told me it might not be ready until Saturday.

Wednesday night, I really wanted to propose on Friday, so I asked my sister for ideas. We checked citysearch.com for "romantic dining" and found a restaurant called Cityscape in San Francisco.

Thursday, I woke up and called Julie's dad. He agreed to meet in Fairfield on Friday morning. Fairfield is about halfway between Santa Rosa and Woodland, where Julie's parents live. That afternoon, I got a call that the ring was ready. I spent the evening lying to Julie about my proposal plans and also mixing some truth in. We talked about my lack of skill as a liar. Little did she know how good I was getting at it. I pretty much told her my whole plan mixed in with other things, and she didn't suspect it that much.

So, on Friday morning, while I was "sleeping in" I went to Fairfield. Julie's dad wasn't even thinking of the fact that Julie's first house was in Fairfield when he chose the meeting place. So, he got to drive past her childhood home and sit outside before we met. That was really cool that he got to do that.

After we talked, I drove back to Santa Rosa and picked up the ring. She had a temp job for the day, so we headed down to the city right after she got off work.

On the way down I told her I was nervous about talking to her dad the next morning and asked her what she thought we should talk about. This was the best lie I told in the whole thing.

We got to Cityscape while it was still light out. Julie loves tall buildings, cities, and overcast weather. Check out how great it was.


This was the view of downtown. That is the Bank of America building all the way at the left. We could see all the way over to Coit Tower, and my view was mostly to the southeast, so I could see the Giant's stadium, where there was a game. I joked that it was like being at Applebee's--I could pretend to listen to her while I watched the game.


When I made the reservation, I told them that I would be proposing after dinner and would like a window seat to set the mood. They threw in a little extra and seated us at a table (table 17) with a "broken light."

A waiter came out as it was getting dark and said, "Your light is out, so here are some candles so you can see."

Julie said, "You planned that, right?" and smiled.

The waiter got a bit nervous and left. I think he thought he gave away the surprise.

Obviously they planned to have the light out. A nice restaurant would never seat guests at a table with a broken light. The ceilings are 20 feet, so either they have individual switches, went through a lot of work to turn out our light, or only seat special requests at that table.

At dinner I told Julie that the whole point of this date was to get back into being able to go on dates often and start off with a bang. So I had a decent excuse for having an expensive date.

The food was pretty good, and the view was great. I hadn't figured out how to propose yet. I left the ring in my jacket pocket in the trunk, along with a boquet of flowers. I was planning on getting my jacket when we got out at either the Treasure Island lookout or at the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge. We had been both places on the way back from the airport back when we were long distance (the season which so far has constituted the vast majority of our relationship).

But right before we left, I realized that the restaurant was only a few blocks from Union Square, and when we were up there, I could see the square and thought it would be a great place to propose.

So, after dinner, I called my parents and asked if the square was nice at night while Julie went into the bathroom to change out of her dress into something warmer. They thought I should just drive by it and decide. I was planning on doing that anyway, so that's what we did.

We got out to the parking lot and I pulled the flowers out of the trunk and gave them to her before we drove to the square.

As we drove, I said, "Remember how I told you that I always wanted to be romantic and now that I have you I finally can be? Well I don't feel like I've done a very good job while we've been apart, so I am really excited to be able to start doing that again." That statement is entirely true, but it also is a great excuse for me being so over the top, and to limit her suspicion that I would propose.

We drove past the square and I saw the red heart from the old "Hearts in San Francisco" art project. The square was pretty empty, and I knew it was the place. We parked and got out. I didn't know which corner the heart was on, so we walked to the middle of the park. I thought about how marriage is a union, and how it was Union Square.

I found the heart, and we walked toward it. I pretended to be surprised the heart was there. There was a man playing saxophone across the street, in front of the Disney Store. Julie loves the saxophone. She plays it.

The saxophone is my least favorite instrument.

I told Julie to stand by the heart so I could take a picture. I told her that I needed to back up to get the heart in the shot. I turned around to walk farther back, and pulled the ring box out while I was facing the other way.

I turned back towards her and took this picture. She said she tried to make a bad face because she hates it when I take pictures of her by herself when I should be in them. Of course, I would never take a picture of her by herself in front of a heart. But she didn't have time to think about that.
Even though that's not a very good picture, we have to keep it and share it with friends, because that was just seconds before I asked her to marry me. I walked towards her as if to show her the picture. I was holding the ring box in the other hand. I knelt down and said, "Julie will you marry me?"

Her first reaction was, "Shut up. There is no way."

Then, "Did you ask my dad?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"This morning." I was smiling ear-to-ear the whole time.
She pulled me to my feet and said, "Absolutely yes."

I put the ring on her finger, and then we took some pictures by the heart. They didn't come out great, but we kept them anyway.

Afterwards, we headed back over the Golden Gate Bridge to the north lookout. I told her what I talked to her dad about and how I planned the parts I planned, and how I did so much of it spontaneously, which I am quite proud of. While we were there, the Giants' game finally ended, and a fireworks show started. From where we were, the city skyline blocked some of the fireworks, so we got a silhouette of the city with a fireworks backdrop. The fog blocked the top half of the really huge explosions. It was a perfect San Francisco ending to our night.

One of the little great things is that the next day I found out how the game ended. The Giants lost in extra innings, which is why the fireworks show happened right when it happened (while we were watching). And in the seventh inning, the Giants pulled off a triple play. That is one of the rarest plays in sports. The Giants have only had 7 of them since they moved to San Francisco in 1954. So, the triple play affected the outcome of the game, and helped send it to extra innings, which delayed the fireworks until just as we were watching the SF skyline.

I was telling my friend Craig about all of that, and he said, "That just confirms that God is in this when you see all these little things lining up so perfectly." I hadn't really thought about that, but yeah it does. I love it. I love God so much. And I love Julie so much too.