Do you ever just...feel like crap?

Of course you do! Don't we all...once in a while. I like to think I'm a pretty darn positive person, but I still have times that I feel terrible. Whether it's because of something I have said or done, someone else has said or done, or for some inexplicable reason. Pain is prevalent. There is no escaping it. We will all be in poor spirits from time to time. The good news is that those times do not last. There is always hope at the end of the tunnel. There are people who automatically make you happier by their presence and comforting words, activities that help to destress you, and let's not forget the all-important God that we serve who is beyond our feelings. Are you stressed today? I know I am. I also know that God is faithful and as difficult and stressful as this moment is...there is always hope.

Long Time No Clickety-Click

Greetings reader (or, more likely, lack thereof)! I have returned to do some mindless rambling. Please join me in my self-induced insanity and we may ponder the world's greatest conundrums...but probably not.

I have been looking up a lot about comics lately because I was offered a bunch of comics to sell. I have got to give the owner a percentage of the profit, but I am pretty excited about it (it even got me watching the Batman Animated Series all over again). There are a variety of comics, but the majority of them are Spider-man comics, which happen to be among the most popular of their era (perhaps when I finish watching Batman, I will have to begin watching Spider-man). I have read plenty about grading comics and when to get them professionally graded, since your cannot really sell them without at least giving an honest grading of them yourself. I have only seen a little of the comics that he has. I am not sure about all of the specifics, but that has not stopped me from doing research.

I think I could probably get into comic book collecting, but I would want to start from someone who is selling their entire collection fast. It would have to be from someone who is more concerned about getting money fast than getting what it is worth. Not to mention that it would have to be from someone who has taken very good care of their comics. Grading is so important to price and I would want to get the most for my money. I have seen some comic lots on ebay that claim to be random, but I am quite sure that they send you a bunch of cheap comics: unpopular, poor condition, etc. I would want my start-up to be from a collector and not from some business that is trying to make money off of fools who want to start collecting...I have been pretty obsessed with this lately.

Enough about comics for now. They have ruled my mind for the last two weeks or so. How about marriage? That is an intimidating thought. Marriage has always seemed so far off and now it seems so much nearer. Not that I have even got engaged yet. I have really got to find that ring though. That should be an obsession, especially if I plan on proposing in the same time frame I have had in mind. I feel like getting all poetic about love. Do you ever read or watch something for a while and you get into that mindset? I have read Shakespeare and felt that everything I said must sound so smooth and poetic...no matter how far that was from the truth. However, I do believe that emotions are great fuel for writing. As long as they are raw and straight from the fingertips instead of being dressed up too much. I am so excited for this love to blossom even more and to spend a lifetime with the object of my affections.

Now that I have gone the cheesy route I guess I had better go. I will probably make a fool of myself if I keep going on. There is plenty of time to make a fool of myself later. What is this blog for if not for that?

Later, fool!

Knock Knock

Thank you for answering! I am back!! I keep forgetting about this. I do not know how. But fortunately for you (mostly for me) I remembered.

I just started my internship at Swift Current Full Gospel Church in the children's ministry department. It is very good so far. I have had a lot of meal meetings and have met a bunch of new people. It is very exciting to be here and I look forward to doing work with the church and the children of this city. It has been fun working on Children's Church and finding puppets and costumes. I am working on calling up families with children involved in Children's Church so that I can meet the parents and their children, get to know them, and maybe ask for feedback.

The couple I am staying with is awesome. I have played some games with them, had good conversation, and good food. I have my own bathroom. I am currently looking for a part-time job here so that I can make some money on the side, fill time, and connect with the community. I have applied a few places already but not many. I have been going to the Church, College and Career, and the youth bible study (H2O).

What else? Well, I am doing a monologue for Children's Church on Sunday. I picked out a costume, and have written it up and practiced it. I have also looked for coloring pages related to the topic. I might be starting at a weird place but once I am more organized I will probably have a nice schedule for lessons. I would like to be able to cover the entire Bible every once in a while. I have seen some curriculum that says the cover the Bible every three years. Oh right, I have also been looking up some different curriculum. It is fun. Soon I will be starting on planning VBS and after the summer I think I want to start a mid-week program.

A big part of why I am here is to help with carry-over from VBS because it is well attended but Children's Church is not so much. The mid-week program may be part of that as well. Parents are often looking for somewhere for children to go whether they are Christian or not and there is much more openness to go in the middle of the week than on a Sunday. I suppose it is a less threatening atmosphere. Speaking of mid-week and Sunday, I want them to kind of interweave. The mid-week program will be about the same thing as Sunday but in a different way. A huge part of all of this is keeping it exciting for the kids. They need a reason to want to come back.

Camp and My Beard

Where to start with camp? There is so much to tell. I don't even know what order things happened in. Alright, so it rained a lot so we ended up doing a bunch indoors but made use of the outdoors as well. Rain or shine, we were rockin' it.

At one point we did skits. They did not have to follow any specific theme or anything. My boys and I re-enacted and modified two movies: Star Wars: Episode V and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In Star Wars, Darth Vader got kicked in the dick, I mean, groin (that was part of it). He was also wearing an Optimus Prime voice changing helmet. Snow White's Seven Dwarves diminished to Six because we were in need of a witch. I played Snow White and received an academy nomination for lead role. A few days later, the counsellors were sold as slaves and given to the campers to make look how they pleased. A group of girls purchased me and took my Snow White role to heart. They put mascara all through my beard and eyelashes and eye brows. They also made use of eye shadow and eye liner in creative ways. And for some reason my nose was blue. They tried to put me in a dress but I would not fit. They also tried to put a bra on me but I figured the female counsellor that it belonged to would not like me wearing her underwear. They also tried to give me breasts but it was outlawed (Thank the Lord). Movies, Deathball, Waterpark, etc. Camp was great. My boys stayed up late the first night and were out for the rest of the nights of the week. Awesome! There is far too much to explain in this itty bitty space of internet.

On to my beard. Sadly, he passed away this morning. He was outlived by his son who has inherited my face. I was going to take a picture of the carnage but a proper burial was not carried out and the whiskers were lost. Young beard is small and shy. He likes long walks in the rain as his father did but he is not as accomodating for fingers to run through. Older pictures of his father will be posted at a later date. As well as pictures of the newly reigning son.

P.S. Deep fried mars bars are delicious! They're like. . .a melted mars bar with a donut wrapped around.
P.P.S. A pair of threes?!!

A Trip Into the Wild

I returned just a couple of hours ago from my epic adventure. I went camping out by the river in the country near Aberdeen. Somehow I found a little area that was perfect for camping. Turns out, I was not the only one who knew. People visited once in a while but never stayed very long. Some just drove down and then back up once they saw me. I would tell you some stories but I need to tell you more about the trip first. Sets it up well.

Lets start where I started. I set up my tent almost immediately (not sure why because I got there near 12pm and I would not be sleeping soon). Unfortunately, a little later, while I was on a walk one of the tent poles snapped. It had been raining pretty hard and I was enjoying it but apparently the tent had not. I took down the tent and left it to dry (since the sun was out again full power). I decided to sleep in my car because there was little choice left. I could have slept out in the open but. . .well, I didn't. A while before I went to bed a vehicle drove in. It was a bunch of teenagers. They asked if I liked to party, offered me a beer, and told me that when they saw my shoes beside the car and the trunk open they thought I was having sex with a girl. . .odd. I explained to them that it was just me and I was reading. They asked if I was "getting away from it all" and I agreed.

Being beside the river, I figured it would be a waste not to jump in. It was pretty darn hot and I needed to cool off. I bathed in the river too. I left my shorts on though. The bathing part mostly came because I shampooed. No one came during those times. I was thinking of swimming across but the current seemed a tad stong.

I did a lot of reading while I was out there. Much of the time while I read I had my feet in the water. I love the feeling. Also the feeling of sand between my toes. When I was on a walk I found some sand bars and they were great.

I was getting a little annoyed with having to re-apply sunscreen after going in the water so I did not put any on after my last time in the water. It was only a little before I left so I figured it was not a big deal. I got sunburn on my back because of it (yes, I was shirtless). I also got sunburn on my feet. I cannot say I have experienced that before. I did not notice my feet were burnt until I had a shower (I do not know why I had a HOT shower).

I had found the website with a daily prayer schedule and I printed out the stuff for the time I was away. I enjoyed that very much. Though I did not like the fact that the wind was trying to take my papers away. Two pages got wet but the sun did well with drying them.

I made fires to cook my food and that went pretty well. I started the first witha lighter but the rest were just started with the remnants of the previous fire. I was surprised when it started smoking when I was putting stuff on it in the morning. I thought I would have to use the lighter again. There was plenty of wood around though. I spent some time gathering wood for the fire.

This is pretty long already so I think that is a pretty good explanation. Overall, most of my time was spent reading.

Two Weeks?

Apparently I have not posted anything in two weeks. How could I have let that happen? I suppose I have been rather distracted. Busy looking for work, Emily visited, more work searching. . .yes, thats right, Emily visited! I was so happy to finally see the real her. Internet is deceiving. I had an awesome time. She met my parents, my dog. . .alright, the dog part was not so big. Maya does not need attention she is self-sustaining. My parents on the other hand. . .hah. Emily and I did not do any team kills, baton-passing relays, or animal slaughtering but (ignore all that) we had a fantastic time. Only something like a month to go until I go over there to visit. Then I will meet HER parents and dog. And sisters. That was not meant to put the sisters after the dog. It was just the format I had begun using. Sorry.

I do not quite know how to start so. . .I just will. I was buying underwear (I know) at Wal-Mart and I looked on one side where there were 4 pairs for $17. I was about to buy them when I turned around and saw they exact same kind of underwear but instead of 4 pairs for $17 they were 5 pairs for $16. Did you catch that? An extra pair for a dollar less. I mean, I guess I could use another pair of underwear if it is going to be cheaper. I also bought some socks. I was going to check if they had some sneaky deal with more pairs for less but I was tiring of Wal-Mart. I had spent a bunch of time in there already, struggling with the thought of buying a PS2. In the end I decided it was best that I not. I feel that the XBox 360 (they were not selling regular XBox) has better games. The X-Box 360 was about $400 though. The Playstation 3 was similar in price. I did not even look at Wii. I don't really think Wii is that great (though I do like Wii Smash Bros. Brawl). In the end I would rather buy and XBox 360 but would not want to pay that much. On the PS2 I wanted Shadow of the Colossus, Ratchet and Clank, Madden, and maybe NHL. *shakes head* Sorry, you lost me there for a bit. I was looking at a bunch of PS2 games. You didn't even notice, did you? Whatever. Oh, and PS2 has so many more games than were at Wal-mart (obviously). You had better convince me not to buy a PS2 before I actually do.

Ok. Too distracted. I guess that is all for today. I will tell you more later. And yes, I do realize the dangers of spending money while unemployed. That is why I asked you to convince me that I should not buy it.

Sincerely,
JB

Betty or Veronica: The Eternal Question

Many of us have grown up reading Archie comics. Indeed, maybe some still do. Since 1941 people have speculated as to whether Archie should be with Betty or Veronica. Personally, I have always found that Veronica was stuck up, manipulative, selfish, and that she seemed a better match with Reggie than with Archie. On the other hand, Betty is smart, sweet, humble, and she gives of herself to help others. Though some may see it another way, you can see from my observations which is the obvious choice. This is much more than a battle between blonde and brunette. Now, even though I have titled this "The Eternal Question" it seems that Archie comics would like to make Archie's answer final. Recent news tells that he is going to marry Veronica Lodge for her father's fortune because of tough economic times. To me this seems like it is showing men to be quite chauvenistic. In my opinion he should not be marrying either of them since he has obviously been dating both of them since 1941 (they have got to be pretty old now). It all started when Archie somehow invited both girls to a dance and had to go back and forth the whole night (classic theme by the way).

I had so much more but I am actually getting quite tired. Apparently on Archie Comics there are blogs of characters. You can read more there. I am sure Betty and Veronica have plenty to say about it. In fact, I am almost thinking of going to read what Archie is thinking. He is obviously out of his mind (I know I said neither but if one or the other then Betty). Also, read about it in the Star Phoenix.