Going through old boxes, finding old photos, old memories, etc. Today I found this letter from one of the kids at the Adolescent Center I worked at in 2003. I can't make out the signature, so I don't even know which kid wrote it, but it made me feel good today when I read it. That was the hardest job I've ever had, because I truly loved those kids, and hated having to try and help them in an environment that was run by a bunch of complete f*&%$ng morons that didn't know the first thing about truly making a difference in a child's life, let alone giving them the tools they needed to get better.
I especially like the P.S. of the letter though. :)
(I'm not editing spelling or grammar)
12-11-03
Ricky, you are the most awsome staff ever at Stars. Every client at Stars will miss you and your funny self. Sometimes just being a supportive friend to us kids makes all the difference in our lives. Thanx for the hat, and letting me A.W.O.L. last tuesday. I hope you get your new job on TV so I can tell everyone I know you and you gave me my hat. Oh, by the way my dad. likes the hat, more than my mohawk! It's really too bad that Stars is closing because I'm gonna miss waking up to your nonsense tuesday - saturday every week. Oh, well, I'll keep in touch. GOOD LUCK!
MacGyver places a stick through the trigger of an AK-47 and hangs it from a tree with a piece of string. He then attaches a paper match packet to the string and lights the matches, using them as a time delay. The AK-47 falls to the ground with the stick still attached to the trigger, causing the AK to fire and distract some guards.
He also makes a "Rocket Thruster" by hitting the end of a flare gun with a rock to make the nozzle thinner, launching him and a man he rescues from a mountain. Not only would the thrust produced from a gun of that size be unable to lift the weight of two human beings, flare guns fire projectiles. The more realistic result would be a jam at the end of the gun, much like if you bent the barrel of a normal gun.
When near a deadly laser grid, MacGyver lights a pack of cigarettes to make the lasers visible. He then smashes a pair of binoculars, removing a prism to deflect a laser beam back to the emitter, destroying it.
To help rescue a group of people trapped in a building, he ties a fire hose shut, places it under a girder in the way, and turns on the water. Using the water pressure to lift the girder, he pushes it out of the way.
MacGyver plugs a sulfuric acid leak with chocolate. He states that chocolate contains lactose and sucrose (chemically C12H22O11), which are disaccharides. The acid reacts with the sugars to form elemental carbon and a thick gummy residue. (This has been tested and confirmed by Mythbusters).
MacGyver creates a bomb to open a door using a gelatin cold capsule containing sodium metal, which he then places in a glass container filled with water. When the gelatin dissolves in the water, the sodium reacts violently with the water and causes an explosion which blows a hole in the wall. ("MythBusters" questioned the size of the explosion but verified that pure sodium does cause an exothermic reaction when mixed with water. However, the amount of sodium required to destroy a concrete wall would greatly exceed the size of a cold pill.)
MacGyver uses the main lighting power switch to transmit morse code to the surface.
Last night as I was falling asleep, taking in the results of the election, it occured to me that I didn't recall Barack Obama mentioning God in his thank you speech. (apart from the VERY end when he said "God Bless America") Turns out I was right. Turns out this "man of faith" forgot to acknowledge God. OOOOOPS. So I went online this morning, and found this great article that I'm posting here for you to read. But before I paste that article, I just want to say that no matter who's in office in any given setting, God is in charge. Not the man or woman in the seat. So as Christians, worrying about the next 4 years with Obama is in a sense saying that you don't think God is bigger than any of this. So don't worry. God is sovereign, and is the ultimate authority. And if you really are that worried, go ahead and read Psalm 2. It should comfort you. Anyway, here's the article: (i didn't write it)
what i say next may not strike a chord with you. i would first like to admit that i am neither perfect, nor know-it-all. i give my views as a young Christian, non-American citizen, but as one who is concerned about the faith of the next US president.
i thought whoever wrote obama's victory speech was brilliant. hopefully it was him who did it himself. he made the speech very well, with the charisma that a rightful US president should have. george bush wouldn't have pulled that off.
however, as a Christian, i am surprised that he never thanked or mentioned God at all, in his victory speech. i would have at least acknowledged God for sustaining me throughout the long campaign, giving me strength, thanked God for protection, answered prayers, etc. the only mention of God in his speech was in the final line, a cursory "Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America."
when King David was king of Israel, he displayed rightly that he was indeed a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22).
As has happened with so many of the great, David's success was focused too heavily on material gains, and it corrupted him. His committing of adultery with Bathsheba, and the murder of her husband Uriah in an attempt to cover it up was perhaps the darkest event of his life. David truly repented of it, and God did forgive him.
He also penned 73 psalms, according to wiki answers.
my greatest concern is his theology. When Franklin Graham asked Obama recently how, as a Christian, he could reconcile New Testament claims that salvation was attainable only through Christ with a campaign that embraces pluralism and diversity, Obama tells NEWSWEEK he said:
"It is a precept of my Christian faith that my redemption comes through Christ, but I am also a big believer in the Golden Rule, which I think is an essential pillar not only of my faith but of my values and my ideals and my experience here on Earth. I've said this before, and I know this raises questions in the minds of some evangelicals. I do not believe that my mother, who never formally embraced Christianity as far as I know … I do not believe she went to hell."
Graham, he said, was very gracious in reply. Should Obama beat John McCain, he has history on his side. Presidents such as Lincoln and Jefferson were unorthodox Christians; and, according to a Pew Forum survey, 70 percent of Americans agree with the statement that "many religions can lead to eternal life." "My particular set of beliefs," Obama says, "may not be perfectly consistent with the beliefs of other Christians." (source: newsweek)
i think it will take a man of courage and absolute faith and conviction to run as a presidential candidate, and to say things like "only Christ leads to heaven". he is not acting as an evangelical. he has to be the president of USA for christians, muslims, buddhists, atheists etc, and it isn't entirely heartening to know your Christian president thinks you're going to hell, even if that might be true. he has to be diplomatic. yea i know, the fundamental will say, would you rather offend God or offend men? pastors and evangelicals can criticize national leaders for all they want, but they are not in the kind of spotlight and position of power and responsibility that God places them in. they have to be clear about their personal religion and convictions, and not imposing them on the people they are serving.
how about obama's personal walk with Christ. from what is reported, it seems pretty good.
Nevertheless, his spiritual life on the campaign trail survives. He says he prays every day, typically for "forgiveness for my sins and flaws, which are many, the protection of my family, and that I'm carrying out God's will, not in a grandiose way, but simply that there is an alignment between my actions and what he would want." He sometimes reads his Bible in the evenings, a ritual that "takes me out of the immediacy of my day and gives me a point of reflection." Thanks to the efforts of his religious outreach team, he has an army of clerics and friends praying for him and e-mailing him snippets of Scripture or Midrash to think about during the day.
i think all American christians and christians around the world should pray for their leaders in power. they do so at our church during the pastoral/family prayer time when the pastor leads an often long but detailed prayer. pray that God will guide them and help them stay on the straight and narrow path. pray that God will grant them wisdom to deal with the affairs of this dying world. pray that they be used by God for His glory and His glory alone.
That at one point on this website, I had a little comic going called "Clonetrooper Bob". My friend Mike Ward and I created it, and did 5 comics. It was pretty funny. You should click the link at the top to check them out.
So anyway tonight I googled "Clontetrooper Bob" and to my amazement, found a Wikipedia entry (here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Clone_trooper_bob) for him, and two youtube videos starring Bob. (here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZMTIIM-4A and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyVWXOMcXN4)
Apparently some kid named Danny Mendoza liked CTB so much that he decided to keep it going. Good job Danny. I'm honored. And I'm sure Mike is too.
I love my sister Cydney. I think she's smart, funny and pretty. She has the same birthday as me, December 6th, and will be 9 this year. She lives in Reno, and likes going to Circus Circus. When she grows up I think she's going to be a Veterinarian. If I had a picture of her that was recent, I'd put it here. :) Well, now I do.
That picture isn't part of the story, I just wanted to put a pic up from Halloween. As you can see, Nicki went as a 1920's hottie, Kayla was Ariel, Brielle was Danger Baby (you can't see the Danger Baby emblem under my hand) and I went as Ricky Borba.
Anyway, back to my little story right now. Usually Brielle goes to bed with absolutely no problem. We take her up there, put her down, give her a sippy cup, pray, and then leave the room. Boom. She's asleep in like 5 minutes. But for the second time today, I put her down and she started screaming bloody murder. And since the first time she screamed bloody murder was around 4pm, nap time, I just decided to let her get back up and play until she just couldn't keep herself awake anymore.
That time happened to be right around 6:30. She was beat. So again, I took her up, went through the routine, then left the room. And again, she started screaming bloody murder. So I let her cry for about 10 minutes until I couldn't take it anymore, and went back in her room. I picked her up, put her in my arms, and for the first time in about 9 or 10 months, I rocked her to sleep. I don't know why I was so moved by it this time, but when I laid her back down and saw that she was asleep and so peaceful, I just felt like her "dad". I wrote a similar story about 2 years ago on here, about how I felt like Kayla's "dad" for the first time when I rocker her to sleep. It's just something about them falling asleep on my chest, trusting me, feeling safe. It's beautiful.
Now she's up in her crib, out like a light. I am so blessed to have my beautiful healthy girls. I'm really going to miss them for 3 weeks when I go to Africa. I'm not even sure I'll have internet access out there, so it is forseeable that I am going to go 3 weeks without seeing my girls at all, in any way. I don't plan on bringing my phone or laptop, and even if Nicki wrote me a letter or somehting, it'd probably take 3 weeks to get there. I guess I'll just have to make a little picture book to take with me.
Anyway, in conclusion, I think I'm going to rock my girls to sleep more often. The blessing in disguise was that Brielle was not herself today, and I had to go in there and rock her to sleep, in case you were wondering why I titled this post "Blessing in disguise".
Application for what, you ask? My application to go on a mission trip to Africa this summer. I know I know. I never thought I'd go on a mission either, but when I heard and saw the presentation a few weeks ago, I was so moved by it, that it literally brought me to tears. It's a 3 week mission, and I'm going to need to raise about $3000 in order to be able to go, but I really feel called to do this and know that it won't be a problem.
Now I have to go find my passport, get about 2356 shots, start working out, eating right, mastering martial arts, vote on Tuesday, shampoo my carpets, finish that novel I started, learn how to spontaneously combust, find an alternative to oxygen and learn the calypso.
Nicki was gone all day to help our friends setup for a wedding, so I had Kayla all day because Brielle was at grandma and grandpa's. (I take no responsibility for my grammar or sentence structure right now, it's 12:30 and I'm really tired) Anyway, after Kayla got up from her nap, she was hungry. And since it was around 5pm, I figured it'd be ok to act like a senior citizen, and have dinner before 5. So we went to a pizza/pasta place and had dinner together. I'd been waiting for that my whole life, to have my child and I have dinner alone together. And it was every bit as special as I thought it would be.
I felt really blessed to be sitting next to Kayla, watching her color, then eat. I just held her little hand and told her how much daddy loved her and that I was proud to be her father. I know she doesn't understand all of that, but I think she could probably grasp that what I said was loving. It was a special moment for me. I wish I could put it into words better right now, but like I said, I'm tired. I will tell you that true to form, my girl ate like a bird on our first date. She hardly touched her dinner.
After we ate, we walked a few stores down and had some ice cream together. It was fun. She's a lot like me in that she has a very outgoing personality and will just start telling people random things. Tonight she started telling the ice cream lady what her favorite flavors were. The lady thought it was funny, and so did the other guy that worked there.
Then as we were walking back to the car I spotted the biggest Praying Mantis I've ever seen. It was on the concrete in the parking lot next to my car. Kayla noticed it too and bent down to examine it. She ALMOST touched it, but she wouldn't bring herself fully. She said "Daddy that's a mean one". I didn't disagree, even though I honestly know nothing about them. It did look pretty rough and tough. So we just left it.
Once we got home all she wanted to do was eat. Go figure.
Hi everyone. From what I gather, there are about 60 of you that read this website daily. That makes me happy. Like a kid in a candy store with an empty bag. I'm also just happy in general lately. I told a friend of mine a few weeks ago that I don't think I've ever been happier than I am right now. Things are good.
School is such an incredible gift. I'm learning a ton, every day. I appreciate school this time around. When I had just graduated high school and went to junior college, I felt like I just went to high school 2.0. I just did it because everyone else did. And then when I went to art school about 5 years ago, it was apparent that I was not going to have a successful career in that field. Now that I'm 30, with two kids and a little more mature, (I said a little) I think I'm more appreciative of school. I don't sit in class and play on the internet like 85% of the other people do, I don't bitch and moan when I get a test back and It's a "B" instead of an "A", and I don't get complain about homework and classwork. I'm trying to look at school as a way to learn, not just a bunch of work to hurry and get through so I can graduate.
Brielle's 1st birthday was Sunday. We had the party Saturday. It's crazy to think that that little baby was born a year ago with Jaundice, making Nicki and I worried and upset for 5 days. Now, she's earned the nickname "Danger Baby". She climbs on EVERYTHING, gets into EVERYTHING, puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, and generally does an excellent job at doing the exact opposite of what you would consider safe for a 1 year old. For Halloween Kayla is going to be Ariel, and Nicki is making Brielle a superhero costume. DANGER BABY.
Despite having Thursday and Friday off from school last week, I feel like I had an extremely busy and unrelaxing time. I wrote two 7 page term papers, took a take-home midterm test, and helped put together Brielle's party on Saturday. Sunday we all woke up early at my moms, went to a gigantic pumpkin patch/theme park for 3 hours, then I went and had Carls Jr. with my dear/close/dare I say amazing/wonderful friend Dana Clemens. It was nice to see her. She lives in Long Beach, so we only see each other about twice a year, if that. I had a Western Bacon burger, she had a Famous Star. It was nice. The three of us. Oh what? You didn't realize that Bonnie the cashier was totally infatuated with us? It took us twice as long to answer all of her questions than it did to order. Here's a snippet:
Bonnie: Will this be for here or to go?
Me(looking at Dana): Um, here? (Dana nods) Here please.
Bonnie: That's weird.
Me: ......
Bonnie: Where are you guys from?(I then explain that Dana is from down south, and I'm from Sacramento. In retrospect, this probably really confused Bonnie)
Bonnie: So are you driving down there today? (To the both of us)
Me: No, she's leaving for Long Beach right after we're done eating, and I'll be heading back to Sacramento.
Bonnie then gave us a look of bewilderment/disapproval. After about 7 seconds of that, she just turned around and walked away. Seriously.
My flag football team ended up going 0-7. We played with a lot of heart though. (Ok, not all the time, and not everyone at all times.) I was going to sign up for the new season, but a few key guys called and said they weren't going to be able to play this time out. So I decided to wait until the next season starts, sometime in January I believe. I had a lot of fun. It was well worth the $45 and the frustration that followed.
I'm marrying some good friends of ours in two weeks. I'm excited. Should be fun. I've been given their blessing to "be myself" and "make it fun". I just might show up to marry them in full on scuba gear.
GREAT BEND, Kan. - A Kansas man whose girlfriend was physically stuck to the toilet in their home has won $20,000 in the state Lottery, for the second time this year.
Kory McFarren cashed in his winning $2 Bonus Crossword ticket in Great Bend Monday. On July 29, the 37-year-old received six months of probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor mistreatment of a dependent adult.
McFarren called deputies in February to report that his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, had refused to come out of the bathroom for two years. Authorities found her stuck to the toilet.
when King David was king of Israel, he displayed rightly that he was indeed a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22).
