KGBlog

here's a funny blast from the past

Posted in: on Sunday, December 31, 2006 at at 3:03 PM 0 comments  

if you remember the first blog about oranges, one which i still recieve comments on, then this one is nothing like it. i will not compare our lives to those of oranges on the side of the road. but i will say that i have partnered with those relatives, parents and friends of mine who chose to give cash as a christmas present and together we will be sending me to the orange bowl. go deacs. that is all.

Posted in: on Friday, December 29, 2006 at at 6:51 PM 0 comments  

while i never did fully reach christmas spirit in my brief attempt to attain full fledged deeply moving holiday cheer, i did have some success in a spiritual sense. After a few days spent focussed on jesus and his birth it would be hard to not start evaluating my own relationship with him. thus i think i was on the right track with my holiday plan. the full weight of christmas was not really ever felt but i think i am still moving toward it though the day is behind us now. why? well, ironically, i think that my relationship with god has been helped by the whole comercial gift giving side of things. my parents got me a new ipod for christmas given that my old one broke a few months back. since that afternoon, once i got all my songs loaded up, i have been rocking out to worship music like a fiend. passion songs, shane and shane, crowder...its great. after half a year stuck with talk shows on the radio in the morning i can now drive to work singing music i love praising my god. i love it. and god might too. so anyway to sum up on my experiment i think i've turned a corner thanks to the ipod and am now moving back toward a better and deeper relationship overall with the big guy.

Posted in: on at at 6:42 PM 0 comments  

so here it is less than a week before christmas and i'm not quite ready for it. no its not the shopping, i'm done with that. it's the mood. i'm working on it but i've yet to really spend any time thinking about christmas and what its all about and stuff. you know how every year christmas starts earlier and earlier but somehow goes by faster than ever and with less of the...i guess just the feel of christmas. perhaps we start it earlier every year in hopes that by giving ourselves more time with it we'll fall more into the spirit. i think that maybe we're a bit off if that's our thinking. why? well i think that the real problem is the depth to which we experience the season and what comes along with it. another week or two of skimming the surface with some christmas tunes and shopping is not going to get us any more into any kind of christmas spirit. so here is my challenge to myself. given that i have spent all month working 70 hour weeks and spending little to no time involved in any kind of attempt to experience christmas on a level deeper than the pictures of families and kids sitting by the christmas tree that i take every day i am embarking upon a test. i am going to spend the next few days (hopefully even those which are spent at work) in an attempt to go deeper with this whole christmas thing. how? reading the bible's version of this whole christmas thing, actually making it over to church on sunday and spending some time in community with others seeking to experience the real depth of christmas, and at the same time enjoy the things that have come to be a part of the season (ie: watch a few christmas classics like white christmas which i am enjoying as i type, maybe its a wonderful life or elf too, as well as spending time with the family away from the distractions of our typical lives once i make it home). anyway, i'll let ya know how it goes.

Posted in: on Thursday, December 21, 2006 at at 1:00 AM 0 comments  

i went into borders today after picking up a kayak paddle from great outdoor and overheard a wonderful conversation. a couple sitting reading and a lady shopping for mad libs for little christmas gifts fell into conversation. i know not what caught my attention save the rush of fresh air that swept me when i heard their voices and the excitement in them. the excitement of speaking of something that broke from the stream of comercialized american culture in which this conversation and its participants swam. and when they bobbed out above the river i did too and i felt the same breeze against my face. i dont know how or why it started but when i happened upon them the topic was the mind and travel. ah yes, it started from a discussion on the environment in which one reads. the mad lib lady professed to being a bed reader while the lady of the couple opted for variety and atmosphere. variety in atmoshere widens her experience of life you see. and the environment of which she reads does the same. its a win win. she can travel to rome without even leaving the comforts of a local eatery. she can travel the world at the cost of picking up a book. this she claimed was the beauty of the mind. and mad libs thought this to be a very profound insight to which lady of the couple replied, "no he is the deep one. i am very simple. i think like a child. but simplicity can be deep too, i suppose. and so can children." children create in their minds they live beyond their own world, beyond the rome of lady of the couple. they create entirely new worlds. their minds grow from use and travel. and when they question their own world it is with the simple penetrating observations that we have missed in search of something that makes us sound profound or at the least quite learned. so tonight i will take my paddle, which i am borrowing from great outdoor until i get my own, and i will paddle my kayak through my apartment and down the greatest rapids my mind can fathom and when i tip over i will not drown nor even get wet. come spring when i get this thing out in the water we may have quite another story altogether. dream dreams. hope. travel (inside and out). expand your mind. love. question life. live life. and if you happen across either of those ladies in some other world, thank them for me.

Posted in: on Friday, December 15, 2006 at at 10:00 PM 0 comments  

so...james just left to go home for christmas. he'll be gone till mid january and until then i have no roomate. i didnt think it would be too huge of a change but pretty much the second he walked out the door i felt like something was off. i think its that given my long hours i have no time to spend with friends and therefore coming home and having someone here to talk to is incredibly nice. anyway now i get to experience living on my own for a while which i'm not really excited about...

i mean who's gonna be here to laugh at me when i paddle my kayak around the apt, who's going to help clean, who's going to pick up my mail from the office while i'm at work, who am i gonna play connect four with, who's going to organize frisbee golf games, who's going to cook so we can have people over, who's gonna be asleep on the couch when i get home from work?

i guess i'll make it but things will be a bit more quiet on the home front.

Posted in: on Thursday, December 14, 2006 at at 8:56 AM 2 comments  

some of you may remember the last time i went into a frenzy over a musical artist. if you're thinking "oh yeah, lilly allen" then you are right. except its spelled lily and you thought it with two l's. since hearing her last year i'm pretty sure she's made it into every mix cd i've given/ been on every list of artists i've recomended for anyone. why do i bring lily up? only because i've run upon another musical phenom who, i hope, i will share as much over the coming year as i have lily since i heard her music. (ps if you still havent heard of lily she's big in england not here yet....but getting there)

so who is my newest musical crush?

regina spektor. remember that name. if it doesn't become famous thats ok because there are some amazing songs attached to it anyway. by all means check her out. got to the website and watch the video for fidelity imediately. if your not hooked after that then there is something wrong with you and i will need to terminate our friendship immediately.

Posted in: on Thursday, December 07, 2006 at at 7:09 PM 2 comments  

Posted in: on at at 11:58 AM 0 comments  

i'm really excited about the upcoming month for my blog. exciting stories and an exciting time of year. christmas and all that that entails...which may include a brief switch to the holiday header(i'll hold off as long as i can on that but it may not be too far off.) anyway, be excited, but not too excited because then i might let you down...just a medium amount of excitment and expectation.

peace out,
-kg

Posted in: on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at at 11:43 PM 1 comments  

answer me this. would i have believed you if you had told me i could get lunch (a full one with a side and cookie and drink and all) for a dollar? would i have believed you if you told me a few months back that all of my teams would be 10-2 by the waining weeks of the 06 football season? nay. not a chance. but here i sit today having witnessed both. amazing. this is a great day. did you know that moe's serves the maggie moo and other childrens menu items for 1 dollar on sundays? neither did i. sunday is now my favorite day to get my favorite moe's meal. maggie moo w/ chicken. also, well done on the seasons so far wfu, lsu, and notre dame. keep it up.

Posted in: on Sunday, November 26, 2006 at at 10:25 PM 0 comments  

so here i am on a late night ramble. it seems as if it's been quite a while since i last wrote anything that had any real significance to it. lots of humorous stories but nothing really about life or me or anyone else. i dont know what it is i want to talk about here but i feel the need to say something. i guess i'll just sum up my life right now. i work. all the time. its the busy season at the portrait studio. families, kids, everyone coming in for their christmas photos. really good for us since we just opened but it means we dont stop working. through december we're in 6 days a week from 830 till...well until the last appointment finishes which is usually 830ish as well give or take a half hour or so. last week i almost got to 60 hours. its crazy. and we all think so but if we can make it through then we will have rest in jan. thru till easter and then another couple of crazy weeks and then easy sailing till next christmas. but in the meantime there we are day in day out shooting pic after pic and doin our thing. so that is my life in a nutshell. do i like it? i guess so. pictures are fun and i really do love portraits. but i wont be able to go to church for a really freaking long time. and i miss it. last year working at 1st pres i realized that the thing i loved about the place the most was the community/family feel of it. and now i dont get to be involved at all. it sucks. i just got back from hanging out with a few friends. we had the guitars out and were singing worship songs. and it was the first time i had in like a month. and i miss it. music is huge for me and worshiping in community is something that connects me with god in a special way. i havent experienced it in so long that i wonder what effect it's really having on me. i mean i think i'm still nice and try to be there as much as i can for friends, which is all well and good but what about god? yeah of course i can find him in the mundane of life...he is there just as much as he is always there anywhere, but there is something so different about this life i lead right now. work, eat, sleep, repeat. that's about the same. but there is something so awesome about going to work when you know that much of your day will be spent talking about god and his work here. last years internship was so amazing for that reason. i find myself now with days going completely by without having one single discussion about god, without one hymn being sung, without the shared understanding that we are all striving to follow his purpose for our lives. its not that he is not there. it's just so much easier to remember his presence when one person or other is continually pointing him out for us all to see. i guess all that is to say that i miss living a life so continuously focused on pointing others to god because it so much of the time kept me focused on him as well.

Posted in: on Saturday, November 25, 2006 at at 2:23 AM 0 comments  

well yeah but this is a totally different and better story. one that may have just fulfilled a lifelong dream...

the other day a co-worker's (krystal) husband and son came in to say hi to her and see the place. we all greeted and met and such and then they took off for home. the next day as we chatted about the new season of OC, krystal said, "oh yeah, kevin, when i got home my husband said, 'that kevin guy looks just like seth from the OC.' " and just like that my year was made. the fact that everyone imediately agreed and comented that i not only look like seth but act just like him as well only confirmed the realization of said lifelong dream. check that off the list of lifelong dreams. i'll be smiling about that one straight through christmas.

Posted in: on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at at 8:57 PM 1 comments  

as i sat on the couch tonight watching part two of a two night OC extravaganza i came to a realization. Not only has ryan slightly, just slightly, matured over the past few years, but his fighting has improved dramatically. i harken back to the premier when the image of luke dropping ryan on the beach with one shot was seared into all of our memories. and tonight ryan did what we all thought may never happen. he did the same to volchok. one punch to the ground. well done ryan. i am almost as proud of him for this feat as i am for him not actually killing volchok with the broken bottle he was immediately hovering over him with.

i also came to the realization that even without marissa this season seems promising due to the fact that the writing seems to have returned to former glory after its slump last year. that and kirstin seems to be back to a healthy normal person weight. i guess i'll find out how those hold up as the season moves along.

ps: in other news, tomorrow is my first day of work.

Posted in: on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at at 10:47 PM 0 comments  

...at me for putting this up here but sometimes i blow myself away with my ability to guess random things. (ie my favorite example from a childhood game of trivial pursuit: who considers himself the errol flynn of B movies? (ps errol was in the original robin hood with olivia de havilland) ronald regan. (that was both my guess and the correct answer....did i know it or have a clue....nope)

....so back to the matter at hand. here is my most recent ridiculous guess from aim:

KillerRabbit92: hey
hp THAt GUY: what up?
KillerRabbit92: nm
KillerRabbit92: just getting read to go trick or treating
KillerRabbit92: guess who i am
hp THAt GUY: nice
hp THAt GUY: hmm
hp THAt GUY: hopefully chuck norris
KillerRabbit92: what????? how in the world did you guess that
KillerRabbit92: i even have chest hair though
hp THAt GUY: hahahahaha
KillerRabbit92: its incredible

Posted in: on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 at at 9:21 PM 0 comments  

one time long long ago....i think i was in my first or second year of college....i decided that when i got my first real job i would buy, with my first paycheck, a kayak. amusingly, i remembered this semi-pact with myself a few days ago and ironically i am in the midst of training for my job and waiting patiently for said first pay check. so now i have a dilemma. do i in fact go through with said decision made so many years ago? i'm debating but at this point i think it could be amusing. i mean i always thought they would be pretty pricey but in fact they really arent too bad. so anyway....i'll let you know how this story ends as soon as it comes to one. until then here are the options: a pyranha and a wavesport...clearly both very similar.

Posted in: on Sunday, October 29, 2006 at at 9:17 PM 1 comments  

i am happy. it's becoming one of my favorite seasons. i'll tell you how i know. even with winston's fluxuating weather patterns durring the months when summer goes winter and vice versa, there is one day when to me fall has arrived. the other day i arrived home and exited my car to the scent of fall. someone somewhere in this town has started a fire. the scent of a fire while driving along is one of life's subtle but great pleasures. and the first wiff on a brisk fall evening really gets me. it's a sign that jackets will start coming out of the closet, scarves are on the way, fuzzy little hats and all those wonderful wintery clothing accesories. now its not just the clothes that do it for me. this whole weather change means that people are about to start being festive. we americans may drop the ball on having legit holidays all year round like some countries but we really get going come this time of year. i mean the pumpkins are out, shortly followed by thanksgiving, which is quickly moved right on through in search of christmas, which is followed closely by new years to kind of start weaning us out of holiday mode, then valentine's day for those of us who didnt quite get the holidays out of our system with they other four. and finally easter to hold us over until the next time round. now there are a few others and there is the 4th as kind of a kind of a midway marker but these are the ones that create...well stress in some cases, but in others they create giving and lots of hanging out with friends and fam. and i am all for those. anyway, before i keep rambling off into lala land. i, clearly, was very happy at the scent of someone's little bonfire somewhere off in "the dash" the other night. it signaled the start of....sigh. plus i really freaking just enjoy that smell.

Posted in: on Sunday, October 22, 2006 at at 1:49 AM 2 comments  

monday i start training for my job. i get to live in charlotte for two weeks because thats where the headquarters are for the portrait studio. they're putting us up in a really sweet extended stay hotel that from the pictures looks a lot like my apartment. i'm kind of excited about that. i am also very excited about doing something. anything really. i have wasted the past week of my life sitting around here on the computer/watching movies, which sounds nice but after a while...you know that feeling in high school at the end of the summer when you're sitting there like "hmm, yep i've done everything i can think of to do...i really can't wait for school to start back so i can be on a schedule." that's where i am. it's been an amazing summer/beginning of fall but at this point i need to be on a schedule...oh yeah and making money because i don't have any (part of the reason i sit around the apt, because if i don't go out i won't have to pay for stuff). anyway, i am looking forward to some interesting times in the queen city.

let me just reiterate that the place we are staying is really awesome. not only does it look like my apt but we get lots of free meals, free internet(unheard of in todays hotels), free laundry, there's a freaking kitchen in the suites. i'm sure there's more, oh and don't have to pay for any of it. i'm so amused by the small things.

Posted in: on Friday, October 20, 2006 at at 3:54 PM 0 comments  

i guess maybe i'm tired of my colors and background and stuff...which is evident in the fact that i keep changing things up on the blog. so if it looks different every time you happen by don't worry. i'll stick with something soon. maybe.

ps:thanks for visiting!

Posted in: on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at at 2:30 AM 1 comments  

sorry if i jumped the gun with the candy corn background...maybe i'll wait till its actually halloween and then try it again. also: juengel's cd is on itunes

Posted in: on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at at 12:34 PM 0 comments  

lets not lie...that title makes this sound like the most directionless post ever...but its not. it really is a post about stuff. like things. like i was reading the Lewis blog and noticed a verse from the bible directing us not to store up treasure on earth where they can be destroyed and stolen. i'm wondering about the verse and what it is telling me. is it telling me not to have stuff. to live without things or nice things anyway. or is it saying that the things i do have are not to be my treasure. and if i dont treat them as treasure, if i assign to them a proper value is it ok to have them? if my treasure is things that will not pass away, friends, family, relationships that one would assume carry into the life we live after this? if my treasures are things of real value and not the nice stuff here?

my thoughts: i have always felt that i should not try to have a lot of nice stuff...that my money could be helping other people instead. is there a line though? should you give and give till you have nothing or should you "take care of number 1" as well?

so that wasnt thoughts it was more questions. i do feel however that god created all of this for us to live joy filled lives. i know that this entails love and friendship and stuff like that, but recently i've been wondering if it doesnt include stuff as well. i mean what about modern conveniences...we can poop in a toilet and flush where-as they used to just dump it in the streets. we can take care of ourselves medically and with clean foods that wont give us random sicknesses. we can drive to see people daily instead of making the long trek to commune with friends only occasionally on our feet. whatever, you get the point. i think we all deserve this stuff. it definitely improves the quality of life, and probably helps us to interact more readily with things that we do treasure. what about not just useful stuff though. we can hear music on a pod or watch movies. well they make art, people's ideas, more readily accesible to us. thats good right? what about this computer? and the internet its connected to? is it good that you can read my thoughts? we can live in comfort more easily with stuff. granted it can get in the way and it can distract us from our true treasure but if we keep it in perspective are we ok? can i include having lots of nice things that make life easier into the list of possible good things god wants for us? will they aid us in having joy? maybe if we use them...not just have them and hoard them like treasure...but use them for what good they can be used for. it they help us understand those things which are our treasure more, help us get to know those things which are treasure more? maybe. maybe not. whatev.

Posted in: on Monday, October 09, 2006 at at 10:57 PM 1 comments  

hmm...well here's a little story for you all and lets not lie i've told it several times already today: i awoke this morning to a typical day. out of bed and to the shower. then as i started the journey downstairs for breakfast my hand burst into figurative flames with the most absurd itching craziness i've ever experienced. now...let me take you back...you need a bit of background. the story begins with me having poison ivy on my hand...and in various other spots (just kind of dots here and there). this has been around for about a week (since i ridded the parents yard of vines and weeds and such last week). the particular bit of PI (poison ivy) that resides on the back of my hand was the first outbreak. not that i have much, but it started there and therefore it is the place where the itching had subsided. having lost its itch a few days back that particular patch of skin seemed to be returning to normal non-PI affectedness. you know how PI moves on to torment newer areas and leaves behind a portion of dry skin that will return to normal over the next week or so. so, clearly i was surprised to find this particular area of skin on the back of my hand once again agitated. so i turn my hand to see if there is a new outbreak or something to cause such a ruckus. what do i find? oh yeah a freaking mosquito bit me in the freaking middle of my freaking PI. are you freaking kidding me? since when were there FMO's(freaking mosquito's) in my freaking house and when did they begin targeting raised reddish patches of skin on the back of hands instead of legs and necks? needless to say the result was one of the most horrendous displays of itchery ever concocted. if you get the chance sometime in life NEVEr mix FMO's with FPI...all you get is a couple hours of PI itch times MO itch which somehow in the calculation is raised to the 5th or so...give or take two degrees of itchiness.

oh yeah the pic....not too exciting and a little blurred but it gives you the general location on the hand...its the lower bump...not the bit of PI above that.

Posted in: on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 at at 7:30 PM 0 comments  

sorry i've been so slow on the posting. my brain has not been on thought mode. does that make sense? i guess when i have stuff to get done, ie get a job or figure out where rent is coming from, my mind is not quite at ease enough to think of any profound comments to make. this is a sad state to be in because i love thinking about life and stuff and it means i havent had my eyes open to much of anything. for that i'm sorry because not only does it mean i've dropped the ball but it also means that i have nothing to share with you... other than the fact that i struggle. its funny. we say that we believe certain things. like i would say that i believe god provides. and yet i am to worried about rent to even think about the world he has put at my fingertips. i find it interesting how many of the things that we "believe", when push comes to shove.....well you know....we dont. what if. what if we believed what we said we did. can you imagine? what if i really believed through and through that my god would provide, that my god had my greatest joy in mind when he allowed trials to enter into life, that only a life of love would give the full life he wants us to live, and so on...you get the picture. what if we really believed? i'll be working on it, let me know if you figure it out.

ps if i could see one thing...it would be to see what the church becomes when we really do believe these things with all of our being. it would be amazing. i get giddy and excited just thinking about how powerfull that belief would be. how liberating, freeing, energizing, etc, etc, etc. wow. i cant even imagine.

Posted in: on at at 2:20 AM 0 comments  

So i have a job now. I will be working at a photo studio doing basically everything involved. The name is Portrait Innovations, it's a portrait place thats all over the country and is opening up a store in winston. I'll let you know how its going when i get started which wont be for a couple of weeks yet.

Posted in: on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 at at 11:28 AM 3 comments  

stress = me. apparently, despite my best efforts, my dad has been able to convince something within me subconsciously to stress out. i hate it. the scenario is that i have to find a job and a place to live, and quickly would be nice. the thing is that i have about a month to figure it out but somehow my dad has convinced me that its just not going to happen. not that i agree at all. i will tell you verbally and knowingly that he is wrong. i will find a job, i will find an appartment, and it will be ok. but somewhere inside something believed him and sent a stress out signal to the rest of my body. here's exactly what that random place within me bought into:
my dad believes, i think genuinely, that the world is hard. we do not get handouts. hard work and struggle is the only thing that gets us anywhere and even that doesn't get us far. you will not be given a second chance. people look out for themselves and could really care less about your well being. something like that i think with all the et cetera's that go along. and the sooner you learn it the better.
example: a teacher of mine in college assigned a paper when i was not in class and then when everyone else turned it in and i had nothing, since i had known nothing about it, he gave me a 0. no grace, no second chance, no late paper docked a letter grade, just a 0. (the class was my class on catholocism by the way... and i still find irony in the fact that to brother__ the idea of grace seemed foreign.) anyway, upon relating the story to my father he did not join in my irate cry for justice but instead said something to the effect of "thats life" and i couldnt help but feel that he was whole heartedly on the side of my professor.
i on the other hand could not disagree more strongly than i do. certainly there are those in life who act like my prof did that day but they are by no means the majority, nor right in acting so. i recently read a book entitled velvet elvis, written by rob bell, which i have already recommended to you in a previous blog. in it he speaks of heaven on earth. this sunday at church bo brookby spoke in a similar manner when he refered back to the garden of eden. each claimed that god desires this earth to be free of sin, of evil, of death, like heaven on earth, or a return to the state of the garden. this i buy. bell claims that as christians we are called to be a part of the change. we are to bring heaven to earth and every time we love, every time we extend grace, every time we exibit the characteristics of christ, when we live according to the laws of heaven we make this earth a bit more like it was meant to be...like it is meant to be...like it will become...like it is becoming.
example: i happened to be taking another class at the same time as the aforementioned one on the catholic tradition on faith and imagination. the same week as the paper that was due in that other class i had a major paper due in this class as well. having been overwhelmed with other work i had really not prepared a paper worth anything at all for the class and passed the professor the day the paper was due. i told him that i really had nothing for him that was worth his time and asked to be granted a day more to improve upon it. he gave me a week. i want to go back and say that again. he gave me a week. can you feel it. i can. the same rush of relief, the same gratitude, the same grateful happy loved encouraged every good exciting feeling i can think of joy came over me. it felt right. this is how we were meant to live. his response did not shelter me from the real world. it was the real world. the good part of it anyway. the part that i think has always been there.
anyway i believe that we are to exhibit this. grace, love, encouragement, that which is good in the world. i dont expect the bad because i know what side will win in the end and what side is breaking through all over the place. and i dont care if i run into the graceless because i know somewhere right around the corner is the other side. when my prof decided to give me a grade that he know would virtually make it impossible to pass his class i wanted to cry... but not for me. i wanted to cry for him. he thought he was teaching me a lesson about life. never mess up. but i know that we cannot avoid it. in this broken world we fall. we cannot be taught not to fall anymore than your computer can be taught never to freeze, the parts of your car to never break, the earth to stop spinning round the sun. i wanted to cry for him because i knew something that he become blind to. this world was like heaven. it exibited god. it was heaven. perfect. not because it was taught to be but because it was made to be...as god is making it, as god is making us to be perfect. god does not teach us our way to heaven...he changes us, makes us new and will keep at it till we get there.

you may say that the fight is close or that the "too bad life sucks" side is winning, but i will disagree. always. most of me anyway. till i can get rid of that little hidden part that bought the lie.

Posted in: on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at at 12:15 AM 2 comments  

apparently the cease fire has held so far, though both sides seem a bit untrusting. here's the most recent news. article

Posted in: on Thursday, August 31, 2006 at at 11:42 AM 1 comments  

for those of you who know about the "invisible children" hopefully you've seen the news from uganda by now. if you dont know about them then check out the link (up and to the right). for nearly 20 years the Lords Resistance Army has been kidnapping children in northern uganda and brutally forcing them into their service (check out invisiblechildren.com or wikapedia it for a more thorough run down on their methods). After an agreement between LRA and government leaders the rebels have been given 3 weeks to gather at safe areas in southern sudan. i will be following the outcome of this closely but for the sake of the kids and everyone else involved please pray that this is truly the conclusion of a horrific war. article

Posted in: on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at at 12:29 PM 0 comments  

once upon a time, a few years back, there were two roomates. they were inseprable. we combined there names into one. lerin, or erilie if you'd like. they lived in the kitchen dormitory of wake forest university and late one night in their room an idea formed between them and friends. it was mad genius, and filled with the spirit of friendship. it came to be known as the stabilla, or 'billa. it was the vehicle for the spread of friendship. it would carry on through the ages...etc.,etc.,etc. if you want the rest of the story let me know. if not merely witness the first 'billa beach weekend of hopefully many 'billa events to come:


seriously one of the most amazing weekends ever. surfing, music, stars, kayaks, bocce ball, 2.5 tons of cookies, a majority of the world's most amazing people(not exaggerating), and pawley's island(who's motto is arrogantly shabby in case you were wondering). in a nutshell: pure friendship. words really can't describe it. stabilla.

Posted in: on Sunday, August 27, 2006 at at 10:29 PM 0 comments  

pluto's not a planet anymore? check out the story on cnn. apparntly everyone on the former planet cried when it was demoted to dwarf planet status, along with school science teachers who already had lesson plans set to go with the regular 9 planet scenario.

Posted in: on Friday, August 25, 2006 at at 10:17 AM 1 comments  

i've yet to see the movie itself but snakesonaplane.com is amazing. samuel l. himself will make a phone call for you. give the site a friends number and you can personalize a message that a recorded sam will deliver. it's phenomenal. and hilarious. samuel l. i know you're reading this and i just want to let you know that you are a big timer. twice.

Posted in: on Thursday, August 24, 2006 at at 4:17 PM 0 comments  

so i have finally made it home to the 'ville and am spending a few days with my parents and my grandfather, who is flying in today. last night i sat down with the parents to watch the BBC version of jane austin's persuasion. it was interesting. i love jane austin, and i enjoy persuasion, but for some reason i wasnt too excited about whatching the movie. then i realized that it was because it wasnt pretty. now i say this as an overall blanket statement with regards to the camera work, the sets, and the cast. not that they were poor, but just not top quality. i think the part that threw me off the most was the cast. lets be honest, and i will quote andrea here, i dont want to watch ugly people on tv. we're so used to pretty people on television. and i guess it makes sense. we all have a little bit of ADD in us and so our attentions will be captured by whatever its the most pretty attractive thing around. and when that is the cast of the movie we are going to be watching the movie, and if, like i did last night, you realize that when you read the book you had pictured much different and prettier characters then you may have to stop watching the movie and go back to a book because it has a stronger draw. yes its sad, but i tried to stay interested and in the end my parents and i decided we would have to wade through the rest of the movie another night. so, you can say that i'm a terrible person or you can just agree with me that you're probably the same way and that we're all just a bit desensitized by tv and are a little more shallow because of it.

Posted in: on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 at at 11:13 AM 0 comments  

so i just realized the other day as i was on my way from hamilton, just north of boston, to a little airport just over into new hampshire that this summer has been, as far as i can remember, the most travel filled of my life. really thats all i want to say in this post. that and to drop a fun number out there. 28. twenty eight. as we were driving to that airport i pulled out an atlas and began counting. 28. thats a few over half of 50. so based on that i have been in over half of the states of our country this summer. yep, 28 states. for some reason i really enjoy that. (i promise a less silly post soon.)

kg

Posted in: on Friday, August 18, 2006 at at 2:35 AM 1 comments  

READ VELVET ELVIS!!!1


It's kind of phenominal

Posted in: on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at at 2:36 AM 2 comments  

i had a couple of songs that i started. one is a typical "i like god" song and the other is a "its really hard to follow him sometimes" song. i liked them both and recorded them at the same time...and didnt ever get the chance to finish them yet. maybe i'll have a random stroke of creativity and finish at some point. till then they are recorded together on the myspace music site. probably a couple more new ones on the way too as soon as i get the chance to record them.

peace,
kg

Posted in: on at at 2:08 AM 0 comments  

i am sorry. i know that there are hundreds of you out there thinking "why did kevin stop posting?" i will now end your suspense. i have been at camp for the past month or so and away from the convenience of internet use. as it has been a month i cannot begin to catch you up in one posting on the happenings here and the ways that god has been moving at camp oak hill. god is a big timer though and i like him a lot. i just looked back on my blog from before my western road trip and read where i wrote that i wanted to be reawakened to the joy's of life. i think this summer may have done it. the trip having been amazing and me still trying to capture it in one journaled summary, here at camp hanging out with an amazing staff and kids, looking forward to a trip to boston next week, a visit with my grandfather, a wonderful group of friends at the beach, and maybe a job in boulder colorado next year, and yet even with all of this i am enjoying each day more and more; living life more in the moment that in a long while and not trying to escape it. god is good, and as paul tells titus god does not lie. i dont know if that really means anything...other than that he just doesnt. its random and you should read it. its in his greeting to titus...and its a little out of place...hes just writing along saying hi and then throws in god doesnt lie. i love it. its just "oh by the way, god doesnt lie". try it sometime...just throw it out there...random facts about god to whoever you happen to be talking to.

thats all for now, peace,
kg

Posted in: on Thursday, August 10, 2006 at at 12:28 PM 1 comments  

this is almost a follow up to the last blog. once again speaking on NC. i have never felt that nc would be a place to live in my adulthood but i have apparently been selling my state short. i'll probably give a longer more thought out explanation of things later....but as far as cool things go we have a lot there. maybe the mountains arent quite as big, and the lakes are a little smaller, the rivers and beaches elsewhere are just as nice, buuuut you dont have to drive 5-7 hours to get from one to the other in nc. ocean, lake, mountain, etc. are all within at most a couple hour drive. i love it. i now really like my state. just so you know.

Posted in: on Thursday, June 22, 2006 at at 2:21 AM 2 comments  

james and i found our theme song for the return stretch of the trip in seatle, the farthest point on the trip (other than the late night trip to vancouver). apparently the sidewalk in front of the original starbucks in seatle is prime sidewalk singing real estate. a four tops-ish group of guys were belting out when we arrived to see this particularly fragrant piece of american history. the next band was waiting a few stores down the street and we remained skeptical until they took up their guitars and started to jam out. 3 indie looking white guys, you can understand why we didnt think we were in for much, but we were wrong. among the few songs we stayed to hear was "wagon wheel". a song from a newish band, old crow medicine show. check it out if you havent heard of them. kk informed us that the band our guys were covering was in fact covering it from bob dylan, but bob never actually recorded it so kk just knows rediculous things. we listen to it every morning to remember our destination...or mine anyway.

Posted in: on at at 1:29 AM 0 comments  

welp its been a while since the last update....which apparently was in la. we've hiked in big sur, spent a few days with a camp buddy and her roomates in san fran, stayed on a houseboat there too, camped in redwoods park(you know the big trees), hung out in portland for a day, camped on the washington coast with a few friends from wake who happened to be biking from vancouver to portland, and now we are in seatle. james' parents put us up in a hotel for two nights due to his birthday on thursday(today). its been fun and we've had an amusing time trying to find places along the way to watch all the world cup we can (ie this morning we went to a british pub in seatle to watch the england game...it was amazing. this place is rated top ten places in the country to watch soccer on the "tele"...so lots of cheering and celebrating at the win) . we're off to lunch now, so until next time,
cheers from the road trippers

ps new pics as soon as i get the cord out of the car to put them on the computer

Posted in: on Thursday, June 15, 2006 at at 2:41 PM 2 comments  

a better link to pictures!

ps: yeos! = oh + yes!....a mixed up crazy accidental combination from a guy in OC named adam. just doing my part to spread the word. (pronounced y as in yellow, oh as in oh, s as in spoon, ! as in only use it when youre excited)

Posted in: on Thursday, June 08, 2006 at at 9:35 PM 3 comments  

i'll run you through a quick list of places since the welcome center update. instead of heading straight to santa fe, james and i stopped in at white sands. a sweet national park in nm. giant white sand dunes to jump off of. then on to santa fe. an artsy little town in the middle of the desert. cheched out some galleries and then moved toward the canyon. lucky us we got camping spots for the next two nights, rationed up, and headed in. two days later we were on our way up. after hiking from 6am till 2pm we exited and decided that la (ethan's place with a shower and a roof) was the next stop. had a cookout, had a beach trip, hung out with lee norris, smoked the gars and pipes on the beach, etc. so here we have been for 3 days and are headed out tomorrow. up the coast to who knows where...but i'll let you know whenever we hit our next computer or wireless.

Posted in: on Monday, June 05, 2006 at at 5:13 AM 3 comments  

here's a thought from a while back. we, americans i suppose, dont ever really leave the paths of our society. driving across the country i feet that the roadways are the veins of the country carrying us from one city to the next. from one place where we will buy, consume, attempt to purchase happiness from the variety of of stores at our disposal along to the next place where we will have every possible item within reach yet again. billboards line the way as if to keep us focused on what we are to desire from life. it seems that to escape beyond the reach of these signs would be to break from the world in which we have lived for the whole of our lives. i long to be outside of these veins as we drive. figuratively only mind you, as to be outside of them literally would put me in some of the most desolate landscapes imaginable. no one really wants to escape the veins into the desert anywhere between central texas and the mountains just before LA. but really, we came close the other day. james and i spent 3 days in the canyon. we hiked to the bottom of the grand canyon. the first night was spent on the more level area about 2/3 of the way to the bottom and it was one of the most amazing places ive ever been. we camped in a use area reserved for only a few people each night. it being a large area we saw no one all evening, and it being past the time of day when others would be hiking by en route to the bottom of the canyon we knew that we would not see another human although we were surrounded by the vast expanse of the canyon. so for our few hours of light we had dinner, we read, james journaled, i did tai chi. in the canyon silence is silence. no bugs, no animals scurrying, no cars, just quiet. so we had a glimpse of what it is like to leave behind the call of all the stuff we create. i'm hoping we get outside of the veins again here before too long. i would like to find more of what is there.

Posted in: on at at 4:18 AM 0 comments  

Road Trip pictures!...well kind of...apparently mac's dont work with blogger...and thats what i'm on...sooo i cant put a link in here...but i can give you the adress...ugh this is obnoxious for you but if you want to look at the pics cut and paste away:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96585014@N00/sets/72157594156056081/

Posted in: on at at 4:06 AM 0 comments  

well i'm writing from just outside of el paso texas...basically its mexico. i've only got a few minutes on a welcome center computer so this'll be a quick update. pictures will have to wait for another. we started this roadtrip thing out with a 24 fourth season marathon in monroe. 8am till 3am the next morning. then off to dallas to visit with wake folks. good times. then to hueco tanks (the biggest bouldering area in the us) which is just outside of el paso. now we're on our way to santa fe. that city just makes me think jack kelly. newsies reference there if you missed it. from there to the canyon. woohoo. cant wait for that. sorry to be rushed but i promise pictures are on the way along with a photo novel. ok maybe not. peace out, k&j

ps: west tex should be the landfill of the united states

Posted in: on Sunday, May 28, 2006 at at 3:18 PM 3 comments  

tomorrow (5-22-06) i will drive what should be the longest day drive of the summer. starting in winston i will be meeting james at his house in monroe LA and we will proceed west within the week. looking forward to crawfish, the norris fam, and this thing really getting started. the link is the mapquest of my route...maybe i'll keep those coming so you can follow along with us visually.
also fyi, ideally posts will come once a week-ish throughout. one post with our path and event details and such, along with any typical posts that would have ocurred from my usual meandering thoughts. (for those tuning in late...see the "bip" post to be enlightened as to what i'm rambling on about.)

in todays post you get the map of the first leg (above). also, you get my thoughts on road trip budgets. they are interesting. a week ago i finished working for the year. my budget imediately switched to road trip mode. i try not to buy anything anymore. food has come to me from various families, wedding festivities(of which i was a part), and friends. every tank of gas is precious to me. it's amusing but until we really get things underway i feel like every purchase is detrimental to the tail end of this adventure. were there a job waiting at the tail i might not feel so...but as there is not at present i cannot help but feel that what we are doing is a bit rediculous. so, yes mom and dad i know what youre probably thinking, but it' s happening and i'm going to be ok. dont worry about us. this is not wasting our lives or anything like that. its being stretched. seeing something new. receiving a new perspective on things. a larger one. finding out a little more that its not all about us. that the world is in fact apparently large. it's about a lot of other things too i think. but it's mostly about god teaching us something if we're willing to put ourselves in his hands. i dont think i'm usually willing to...but with something like this i'm hoping he can get through my fear. as "bip" sugests i feel that my senses have become dulled. i brush against time not recognizing the beauty around me. occasional brushes with the painful side of life have taught me to avoid contact with the world. but that is not gods way. he suggests that we seek out beauty and truth. in the past i lived for these things. i want to get back to that.

two comments to close:
a good friend once noted that i was putting myself into situations that were necesarily going to cause pain. that i should avoid those and seek out ones that would produce joy instead. david gray sings, "It takes a lotta love/ It takes a lotta love my friend/ To keep your heart from freezing/ To push on till the end". without too much detail i feel that those situations were mostly unavoidable but have indeed cooled my heart and passion for life to some degree. i want to put myself in a long thaw. surround myself with life and beauty so that i cannot avoid it. granted that can be done anywhere but what the hey might as well be on a road trip.

ps: i keep speaking of "we", james and myself...so far these have been all my thoughts...so i promise to include his idea of what this trip is soon. or anything else he has to say to the two of you out there reading this.

Posted in: on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at at 7:03 PM 4 comments  

i had a good conversation with my mom the other day about worldviews. christians, it seems, tend to fall into incredibly....poor...worldviews. we speak of winning souls, converting peoples, reaching the lost, of "them" and "us". is it just me or do these ideas seem offensive, insensitive, and incredibly not inviting to anyone who would be labeled as a "them". as if they are a game to be won, a soul we are changing, a heathen that we are taming. who wants that kind of help from a religion responsible, historically, for massacres, hypocrisy, infecting governments, abusing women, molesting children, and various other miserable actions. granted thats just the bad side, but if we, as christ followers, expect people to believe we have all the answers, then we are missing something. we arent supposed to have all the answers. we dont have all the answers. i guess thats where i'm going with this. no one has all the answers. it is not "us" and "them". it is "we". i believe we are all on the same journey. all at a different point on the path. some further in understanding what its "all about" and others just starting or not even knowing that the faint unrest within is a god whispering their name gently across the cosmos. "we" are on a journey. we interact with people who are all over the spectrum on this journey but we can all learn from each other. everyone understands something better than i, and i'll have more insight into some random thing than every person i run across. that is the point in sharing our lives. we help each other. if, as a christian, i think that people with other religious beliefs or lifestyles or worldviews have nothing to offer then i have missed it. we are not winning anything over the "others", we are sharing a journey with all people. we are all on the same side deep down. that faint whisper through the cosmos calls each name. he loves us all. he is relentless. he will not weary of our turning from him...all of us. so, i say we speak to this whole worldwide comunity when we speak. the truth is for us all and loves us all and will stop at nothing to prove this to each one of us. the truth does not seek out "us" and not "them". the truth will speak into every heart words of love, reminding us that love is what we were made for. "we" are on a journey and i for one aint gonna act like i have it any more figured out than some heathen who lives in the jungle somewhere and prays to his mud hut. just because i think i know Who its all about doesnt mean i get to change people. Truth works in his own time. Love is not on my schedule...and He knows how to love better than we can begin to try to. it is His purpose and pleasure to do all of the changing, wooing, winning. and it is not to "them", it is to all of us. haha...little bit of a rant...sorry.

Posted in: on Thursday, May 18, 2006 at at 11:48 PM 4 comments  

i've been out of college for a year and yet i still for some reason have a summer. therefore i, along with james norris, am embarking on an adventure. most of you reading this are aware of our planned cross country journey. for all who are interested in following our trip i will be posting as much as our meandering path allows me access to the internet. we are headed west for over a month to see the highlights and such. grand canyon, friends in la, and only a couple of other definite stops. that leaves a lot of room for who knows what. which is what we want. in the words of donald miller (he wrote blue like jazz, read it if you havent) who also took a similar trip, "we are shaped by our experiences. our perception of joy, fear, pain, and beauty are sharpened or dulled by the way we rub against time. my senses have become dull and this trip is an effort to sharpen them." james and i have had a couple of overarching themes over the past year of our friendship. at the end of last year we were inspired by an old song, Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen, performed by Baz Luhrmann using the words of Mary Schmich. a line in it recommends that we do something each day that frightens us. we also took a trip to athens ga earlier this year as a sort of preview to long car rides. 4 hours down, 2 hours there for a friends birthday party, 4 hours back. it was amazing. over half way there we looked at one another and summed up, "this was a stupid decision, but clearly the right one." so we leave in a week and a half to sharpen our senses, aiming to conquer fears and make the right dumb choices (in the safest and best sense possible). i'm sure that this will provide for some interesting blogging if nothing else but i'm willing to wager it will be a summer not soon forgotten. (and we have both elizabethtown soundtracks so we're set for road trip music to fit any mood)

Posted in: on Sunday, May 14, 2006 at at 12:01 AM 3 comments  

for those who dont know, the blue screen of death refers to the blue screen your computer makes when its about to die. it may be four or five blue screens after this restart, but its coming so get ready. my computer died nearly two months ago. two short weeks later my ipod died. neither has come back to life yet. a week ago my cd player died and i realized my camera's battery was in fayetteville and i wouldnt get it back till this weekend. i have been struck with an electronic plague but i am actually surviving. it is much less painful then when i returned from guatemala last year with montezuma's revenge and lived on the couch for three days. after my fever broke my temperature was 104. (quick shout out to quail, my one friend who actually took care of me durring that quagmire of misery.) anyway, electronic failure is not as painful as montezuma. i dont get to watch dvd's to put me to sleep. i dont get to have background music everywhere i go. i dont get to snap pictures of every random moment. i sometimes have to listen to the radio in the car or nothing at all. it hasnt caused any rashes or painful welts. i'm surprised. i, like most amreicans i know under the age of thirty, would have claimed that these were actually parts of my body. that their removal could have been likened to an amputation. false. fortunately, it wasnt like amputation. it was like pulling out earplugs. everything in the actual world seemed to come in a little more clearly. no static to people talking to me. nothing to drown out the perfect blue sky. no picture to steal the soul of my gelato. just life before the invention of whatever all this stuff is. i enjoy it. most of the time. i still miss the stuff. but i think its good to remember the quiet of things when it is simple. to remember that none of the comercials are telling the truth. we dont really need to buy any of it. god gives us what we need. it doesnt matter what "they" say. we have all we need. we are enough just as we are. you are amazing without the stuff. life in the stillness is good. we're just not used to it. try it. just stop. put down your stuff. just be. love your family, love your friends, love your neighbor, love the nature god has given us, love silence, love honesty, love courage, love truth, love challenges, love art, love simplicity, love not having all the answers, love empty hands, love god, love creation and love creating, love cool mornings, love warm evenings, love rain in the summer when it comes down so hard you can swim in the little streams on the side of streets in your neighborhood, or when the hills turn into mudslides, love being barefoot in a field with a blanket and a guitar and a book and a frisbee and a friend or two and knowing that any of these options is a good option and that the field will still be there tomorrow and that you can come back with the book and the crazy creek if you choose the frisbee, love sneezing, love learning, love that you have people willing to teach you, love asking questions, love laughing at yourself, love storms, love the smell before the rain, love the smell of fires, love apple juice, love life, love life.

Posted in: on Saturday, May 13, 2006 at at 1:44 AM 0 comments  

cho (note the link on right) blogged about this like 2 weeks ago and i completely missed it. so, i'm slow on my pop culture. anyway, went to MI:3 a couple nights ago. it was good so check it out. but this is about the pre-movie commercials. usually i hate them. love previews, hate commercials. but, Wes Anderson made a hilarious AMEX commercial and its on the tube. check it out.

Posted in: on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 at at 4:13 PM 0 comments  

check out lily allen. she's fun. or interesting at least. i really like knock 'em out. you can download some here!

“I’d like to do 3 albums, get married and f** off to the countryside...” -lily

Posted in: on at at 12:03 PM 0 comments  

sunsets are beautiful. if that were it i would thank god for them. but not for that reason, nor for the beauty of anything in nature will i claim a god exists. i do not know him from his creation. i know him merely because he makes himself known to me. having said that, he does make pretty things. and we can see in them something about god if we are aware of him already. nature's beauty, without a knowledge of god, will only bring worship upon itself. i love the illustration that sunsets can be. the sun itself is too bright to be really seen. it hurts us to look directly at it. i watched a sunset from pilot mtn this semester. as the sun sank toward the horizon it began to drench the hills below it in a golden light. ups and downs, small hills and valleys were illuminated where before it seemed was only a jaggen horizon. as the light from the sun came to earth it brought out more and more beauty in whatever it touched. things became clearer and visible as the light from the sun reflected from them. they could be seen for what they truly were, shadow and darkness did not cover anything from sight. i got a few things (and bear with me, my connections may differ from yours...you may see equally valid things in a sunset...but on this occasion this is what i saw). god is too bright for our mortal eyes to look on. there's even something about that in the old testament. we can see his beauty most in the way his light/love enters our world. it makes whatever it touches light up more beautifully than it could ever hope to be on its own. if this is people then they become filled with love, they reflect what he is and become more beautiful themselves in the process. their hills and valleys, ups and downs are iluminated like a human horizon bathed in gods golden light.

Posted in: on Friday, May 05, 2006 at at 5:11 PM 0 comments  

phil wickam's divine romance...check him out at www.philwickham.com
you can listen to a few of his songs on myspace, unfortunately not the song of the week pick. it is on itunes though.

Posted in: on at at 11:54 AM 0 comments  

Sarah Lisson's dog, tony, is on the web!

Posted in: on Monday, May 01, 2006 at at 1:39 PM 0 comments  

ok, so my friend has a clothing company called east coast wear. dont laugh we think they tried to pick out the worst pictures they took.

Posted in: on at at 11:11 AM 0 comments  

apparently when you get engaged on facebook people still sometimes take it seriously. oops, but amusing nonetheless. several people in the past week noticed my faux-engagement and congratulated me on the impending attachment. i found this amusing as the stated faux-engagement has been in existence for several months now. why last week did it come to the forefront of attention on my profile? why did it sit all winter, when cold kept people inside at their computers, idly collectiong virtual dust only to be windexed for display on screen durring one of the warmest, sunniest, you should be outside not looking at facebook weeks of the year? i dont know and i dont care. in fact i could probably get some wedding gifts out of it if i play my cards right.

Posted in: on at at 11:02 AM 0 comments  

the tragedy that is whole foods renovation continues. the salad bar, home to girls from various wfu sororities, hippies, and myself remains veiled behind plastic sheets for renovation. as there is nothing at all behind the sheets (other than the ground) i'd say we have at least another week to wait before the mouthwatering happy maker that is the whole foods salad bar returns.

Posted in: on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 at at 3:14 PM 0 comments  

i wrote a song about hangin out with the big guy. whenever i really get away and spend time in prayer i end up with this picture in my head of a place where the hanging out is taking place. its big green field surrounded by snowcapped mountains. its really huge and just rediculously pretty. i never can quite catch his face. he's behind me or i'm looking down...but he's there and we just chill. its really sweet. the song is about that place. here's a link to the song...the recording is a bit rough so if you click on the lyrics link they're there.

Posted in: on Saturday, April 22, 2006 at at 4:16 PM 0 comments  

it's national high five day!!!
(i only know this because i read cho's
blog...so really i'm just stealing this
post from him and passing it along)

Posted in: on Thursday, April 20, 2006 at at 11:09 AM 0 comments  

i was writing a song...realized i couldnt really sing it...its a poem now:

the hearts like seeds fell down
and roots grew down from ground
and wound around and round
till farmer came and found
they could not be unwound

a bitter seed, a dying reed
give birth to one with need
whose fill will come from one alone
with passion yearning still

to be the sun, to be the rain
the plow is not yet tame
this fertile ground would sing again
could it but speak his name

her needs are met in time
the fruit is on the vine
when ripe for pressing wine
love's crushed and in we find
the scheme of the divine

to be the sun, to be the rain
the plow is not yet tame
this fertile ground will sing again
it cannot hold his name

a man of thieves, from shoulder heaves
the weight of all of these
whose fill will come from one alone
with passion yearning still

thats all i got right now...i wrote it this morning so if you laugh at me i wont be offended. i think i put about as much thought into it as a paper in college.

Posted in: on at at 1:52 AM 0 comments  

i was bored today and started playing with pictures on my computer. here's one i took at a fashion show a couple of weeks ago. kind weird. whatev. (the idea was to make it look like the girl was painted in...take that for what you will)

Posted in: on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 at at 2:19 PM 0 comments  

ok...you know the southern accent that people slip into whenever they're trying to sound proper and respectful? i think its hilarious. because most of the time its completely unconscious. marissa did it today. she was on the phone in our office and was talking to an older lady. i just started to laugh. because she has about as much of an accent as i do. which is not much of one. but being from the south there is in fact an accent burried under all the linguistical habbits we have adopted over the years. and it comes out every once in a while. when we talk on the phone with old people. when we meet our friends parents. when we're in a job interview. basically whenever you want to present yourself as respectful and start picking words carefully you slow down to southern speaking speed and it just slips out. i love it.

Posted in: on at at 1:03 PM 1 comments  

check out the Juengel link on the side...i've been listening to it on a loop for nearly a week...esp suround me...i think it's probably the catchiest guitar ever...probably.

Posted in: on Saturday, April 15, 2006 at at 11:47 AM 0 comments  

(this comes from a post i had on the "interns" blog...i was going to re-write it for this one but i cant seem to say it in another way...so here's background...we have devotions as a staff at church. this was written to the interns after this mornings devo. sorry for it being really long, i wont do it again...ps some of them are from colorado...ok....enjoy)

as the majority of the bloggers on this blog are not from the south i will give some background to the hat rule. in the south (i dont know how things go elsewhere, colorado for example) it is customary to remove one's hat durring prayer, among other things. the list includes the bowing of heads, closing of eyes, removing of said hats, etc. and it is customary to remind everyone to do these things before entering the prayer portion of time. i have always found it to be a bit....a lot of rules. rules annoy me. especially when they get in the way of me being with god. today at staff devos we prayed. not unusual. but i woke up late this morning. i didnt shower, so i wore a hat. autin did too (it made me feel less uncomfortable to see that i wasnt the only one...the south has planted a fear of wearing hats in doors deep in my bones). anyway, we prayed and i started to feel self conscious about the hat because of the rules i hate. perhaps let me back up and say that i think the hat rule is ridiculous. god doesnt ask that i remove my hat. he enjoys it when i come respectfully to him, but for my generation removing a hat is no more a sign of respect than eating a popsicle. he is excited not by the outward but by the inward. if i'm going to make an outward sign of reverence it wont be taking off a hat it'll be something like lying facedown on the ground in awe and wonder...i dont really want to do it half-assedly. having said that, we began to pray. i looked around the room expecting the usual glances that say "please remove the hat or god wont listen to you...or the rest of us because we're in your heathen presence". but i didnt get any. this is one of the strongest moments of not being judged i have ever felt. probably because i was really expecting it from somewhere but it came from no one. i love the way that the staff really responds christlikely a lot. i know that i've worn the hat in other circles out of spite of its removals lack of importance to me. and i was probably in the wrong there...but as i just happened to be wearing it today and no one reminded me to take it off, i left it on. and i just want to say thank you. i love you all for not saying, "the only way to speak to god is by bowing a head, closing some eyes, removing all head coverings, and clasping your hands together." in fact you said to me, in a really refreshing way, "come to god however you are" period. so thanks...even those of you that werent there today....because you have more important thing in your life than god...or you were in a car wreck.

Posted in: on Thursday, April 13, 2006 at at 12:08 AM 0 comments  

if you're living in "the dash" and you've been missing gelato since the last time you were in italy because blue ridge is only open 1 1/2 hours a week then your problem may be solved. i happened to be in west end today and wandered into a little shop. mom(owner) was reading at a table and 10(ish) year old daughter was running the counter. it's been there two weeks and all the customers(2) i spoke with seemed satisfied. open tuesday till 7, wed-sat till 8, and closed sun-mon. i think i shall frequent it mucho. oh, its by all the little antique shops in west end near the park and stuff.

edit: having now actually tasted the product i still support the new place. take cash though they dont take cards yet (i'm promised they will at some point). prices range from 2.50 to 4 dollars and if you do go with the large you might want to fast for a day or so before hand as it is a formidable gelatinous opponent.

Posted in: on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 at at 6:04 PM 0 comments  

should they just change the name to north carolina idol?...i mean not that i liked clay or fantasia but he did get second and she did win and now we've got 3 of the final 8. chris daughtry, kellie pickler, and bucky covington.

(just had to throw that out there before they cut one of them...because i'm pretty sure it'll happen soon...dont want one state monopolizing on things)

Posted in: on Monday, April 10, 2006 at at 10:40 AM 0 comments  

this pup was parked 1/2 block from the mellow mushroom...

coincidence...doubtful.

(especially since its registered to Hippie McHipperson)

Posted in: on Saturday, April 08, 2006 at at 12:52 PM 0 comments  

when i was a kid, small, wee little person, child, youth, knee-high to a grasshopper, i heard about the bible. my mom read it to me. there were crazy stories about people with these weird and amazing and ridiculous lives, and they had a crazy god. at some point it turned into something else. teachers at church started trying to prove the bible to us. it seemed like if they could prove it to be the ultimate authority on all things then their goal as teachers would be met (i dont think that if they ever really did have undisputable proof...like god standing in the room to verify it...i would have necessarily read the bible any more often than i did). i think they just wanted us to be good christians, but turning the bible into a boring authoritative textbook was not the answer.

molly and i are reading this book about how we tend to miss the point as a church. brian mclauren says that, "in the future we'll present the bible less like evidence in a court case and more like works of art in an art gallery. the bible will become valuable not for what it proves, but for what it reveals."

the bible is not a textbook. and i will keep telling myself this until i believe it. its art, poetry, a masterpiece, god's story, our story. there's joy and pain and love and life. not a textbook. i miss the stories. i remember back before we started trying to prove every last verse of it. i remember the crazy god in it. he's still the same. and i am a part of his story. we are part of his story. this life he's writing for us is crazy and amazing and ridiculous.

Posted in: on Thursday, April 06, 2006 at at 11:59 PM 4 comments  

to make up for that gross pic...check out the ridiculous april fools videos from the folks at the office:

Posted in: on Tuesday, April 04, 2006 at at 8:27 PM 0 comments  

i have a magic toenail...

lets just say i kicked a wall, split my big toenail, and leave it at that.

unless you want more...but there isnt more...other than a bloody sock.

Posted in: on at at 8:19 PM 0 comments  

my co-worker sent this to all the staff today:

"Useless, but entertaining! This Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. That won't ever happen again. You may now return to your (normal?) life."

my initial thought is "cool". but then quite quickly after that i thought: "what about those of us who live outside of military time? wont there be a 01:02:03 in the afternoon. so maybe it will happen again...and not way in the future like when it happens in 3006 but like 12 hours later."
and then i thought, "not ever gonna happen again my a%$. it happens twice every thousand years...whats so cool about that?"

then james said, "kevin, you're an idiot. it happens every hundred years." and i thought, "damn, now its not cool at all. why is my co-worker filling my inbox with stupid junk mail. she is such a b(sorry to use offensive letters, but it carries my sarcasm best)."

Posted in: on at at 9:58 AM 1 comments  

i was recently leaving winston-salem on I-40 headed east toward raleigh. there happens to be, as you head out of town, a stretch of that magnificent highway that is a bit dreary. a section of just gray; the road, the buildings, and on this overcast day even the sky, they were all gray. i began to sink into the bleakness of the scene and then something caught my eye. something seemed out of place somewhere but i wasnt sure. and then i saw them. a crate of oranges had fallen from a delivery truck and shattered on the median spilling its contents on the ground around it. they were glorious, bright, joyful. their fate was not to be eaten, to be enjoyed as oranges are typically destined to be. these oranges would only serve to brighten this dreary desolate road.

some of you may be tracking with me, if so good job getting into my head...but if not here you go:
i saw this road...this dreary strip of I-40 as life. haha yes pessimistic, and i know life isnt always like that but bear with me (there are ups and downs. but we all hit the gray stretch every once in a while. not all of I-40 is gross). but there were the oranges. i threw up a quick prayer that i would be like them. that my life would explode with joyful color on the side of this dreary road that others in passing might see something out of the corner of their eye that seemed out of the ordinary. something that stole their focus off of the dreary cold grayness and reminded them that that is not the only color in our world.

all of us oranges are destined to be peeled and eaten some day, all the juices and goodness inside let out. but until then lets endeavor not to be a part of the gray. be a splash of color on the "road of life".

Posted in: on Monday, April 03, 2006 at at 10:31 AM 0 comments  

you know when you're on the highway and one lane is being cleared from some sort of accident...traffic merges into the other one right? well, you know those #$%@-heads who drive down the closed empty lane and cut over right before the cones cut them off? i cant stand them. they drive me f-ing crazy.

but help comes from the mack truck. on several occasions i have seen the big rig come to the rescue of those of us following the code of driving etiquette which stipulates that everyone must wait in the line. they pull up next to a fellow rig and drive slowly(at the pace of the line lane) down the closed lane...not allowing those speedy cutting @#$&%'s to cheat the system. oh how it warms my heart. joy wells up inside of my bosom and i choke back tears...finally someone looking out for those of us who long to block the empty lane...but whose cars are not wide enough to catch the really tricky bastards who still get around us using the median or shoulder.

this is my shout out to the mack's and peterbuilts of the world...i love you.

Posted in: on Sunday, April 02, 2006 at at 3:43 AM 0 comments  

have you ever been overwhelmed with life? so much so that you just cant handle it anymore? not in the "i'm going to end it" sense but in the "i cant wait to be Home" sense. one of my friends approached me with this feeling sometime last year saying that when she was in the world it made her want to cry and that she couldn't wait to be Home. i had never been to that point until sometime this year but i got there again last night. fortunately due to the wonders of IM i was able to talk with her and reminisce on the old conversation.

here's the feeling in a nutshell if it seems a little fuzzy...
we were so overwhelmed by how much we dont get it. we humans are selfish, self-centered, failing creatures...we dont know how to love or live or do much of anything right. sometimes you find yourself in a place that makes you acutely aware of this fact. maybe you are observing people pursuing all the wrong things and looking right past the hurt or struggles of those around them because they've convinced themselves its just not their problem...maybe its something else. and you begin to wonder why you even have hope of us ever getting it right. we always mess it up. we always get it wrong. hope starts to drain and then the picture hits you. you remember that at some point we will. there is a hope. it may not be in this life but its there. there is a place where we will all love each other. we will know how to and we will...and we will do it well. its Home. it will be amazing...i want to be there. i want to see it and i cant quite imagine it but i love it and i long for it. i almost miss it even though i dont think i've ever been.

Posted in: on Saturday, April 01, 2006 at at 10:21 AM 0 comments  

Alias is finally coming back...but not for long. The show will end its 5 year run after this season. I'm wondering if every character from the past 4 1/2 seasons will be able to make a return in the final episodes...including all the dead ones. Vaughn and Mom are already coming back along with Will who might as well have been dead. I've got my fingers crossed for the real Francie.

Posted in: on Saturday, March 25, 2006 at at 12:55 PM 0 comments  

A delivery of mail. A military base. The starting point at a racetrack. A position in basketball usually taken by the center, near either the basket or the foul line, serving as the focus of the team's offense. American manufacturer of breakfast cereals. An assigned position or station, as of a guard or sentry. The slender barlike part of a stud earring that passes through the ear and is secured at the back with a small cap or clip. A long piece of wood or other material set upright into the ground to serve as a marker or support. To put up signs on property warning against trespassing. To bob up and down in the saddle in rhythm with a horse's trotting gait. To travel with speed or in haste.

To display in a place of public view.

Posted in: on Thursday, March 23, 2006 at at 7:54 PM 1 comments