Update

I'm just updating to say what's going on. I have a midterm and an English paper both due this Wednesday. I should be looking over my research and getting head-start on my English paper. Which I will do after this...I'll make myself. Midterm shouldn't be too bad. Just need to study. As I have found out, "Dude, this is College!" Cool beans.

After I got home I took out the garbage and washed some dishes because there was a bad smell in the house. It turned out to be the Garbage, but after I cleaned a bit, it smelled better. I think God has decided to put bad smells where I live to be like, "Um Scott...you know you should probably clean up." You can't spray oust every time. Sometimes you have to get rid of the source. One of life's lessons learned in College. Not History or Math, but how to get rid of bad smells. I learned how to produce bad smells from birth. Ask my parents! :-)

That may have been a little disgusting to some of you. I apologize if I offended anyone...well...I'm kinda sorry. I thought it was funny! I don't really have anything to say right now, so I guess I will be going. Oh...I've been reading the book The Kite Runner. It's starting to depress me a little bit, but I can't put it down. It's really honest and it makes you question yourself and human nature. I'll tell more about it as time goes on. For now, I am out!

Tuna

I am listening to one of my favorite songs right now. It's one of those songs that you can just close your eyes and feel the soul of it. It's called, "The Nearness of You" and it is sung by the wonderful Ms. Norah Jones. It's jazzy and it's the way a song should be. A story as told by Vocals and a Piano. Pure, simple, and elegant. Very nice!

As the music changes, so does the blog. I had the chance to be eating steak tonight. I could have thawed it out, served it with corn and mashed potatoes, and made a night of it. I decided not to do that though. Instead, I had a Tuna Sandwich with some Fritos! But I must say, that this was very good! I make a good Tuna Sandwich! Although this bread is like Superman Bread. I have had it for like over a month and there is no mold on it and it is as white and soft as when I first got it. Thank you Bunny Bread! I'm trying to eat a little more healthy. Although that doesn't help if you're snacking on Girl Scout Cookies and Peanuts. Oh well. I'll be fine. If nothing else, I'll start dancing in my room again. I can get a good workout doing that!

I wrote one of the most random essays today on my test. I had so much to say, little time to say it, and a very roundabout way to do it. Scott's not going to get the same grades he got last semester. :-( I just gotta sit down and get serious about it. No need to worry, I will. It's like that great Facebook Group everyone is a part of "Procrastinators Unite.........Tomorrow!"

On a serious note, I had a little bit of an awakening yesterday. I found out that the things you say and the way you act has a profound influence on how people view you. You may say things or do things you don't mean to do. For all of you reading this out there...if I am guilty of this, I would like to apologize.

Well, that's about all I need to say for now. I need to take care of some personal matters. Have a great rest of the day and remember to tie your shoes. If you're like me and are really lazy, tie them in Double Knots and then just slide them on and off! I don't think I have tied my shoes in over a year! :-)

Changes and Boats

I could use this blog right now to vent my little head off. I could talk about the tests I have coming up, the big projects in the future, the homework, and even the fact that I feel very overloaded. Yet, I won't talk about that...Despite the little sentence I just said describing what I could talk about. In that case, I did use it for venting. However, that is not what this whole blog will be centered around!

This will sound kind of weird, but I felt taller today. I'm not trying to make a short joke here or exclaim that I am physically growing, but I felt psychologically taller. It seems like since college my focus is starting to shift. Even take for example the College Ministry at church opposed to when I was in the High School Ministry. I feel God leading in both of those, however I had a great conversation with a couple guys last night that opened my eyes. When you are a youth being part of a youth ministry, often you do not look at yourself as supporting this ministry or even seeing the leaders as someone who needs support. A lot of times Youth Ministry is to help you the student to grow spiritually and grow as a community. It is like that in the College Ministry too, but there is also this responsibility that because God blessed this group, you must do what you can to help this ministry grow. I wish I could say with all honesty that my main focus was to see the Youth Ministry grow and see High School Students come to Christ but during that time on my life, I was focused on myself and the friends surrounding me. Don't get me wrong. The Youth Ministry has helped me grow spiritually, and I would not be where I am today without the leaders and mentors letting God speak through them to me. For those reading this that are family and friends, don't think that I am leaving you out. I am just trying to relate this to two specific genres of ministry...God has used every person and family member in some way or another to influence my faith. I have just found lately that this whole, "It's not about me" attitude takes a lot of work. This coming from the guy who named two cars, his glasses, his screen name, two email addresses, and his blog after himself! Gotta love it! :-)

I know this blog is getting long, but you are probably wondering about the boat reference. I bought a picture that hangs above my computer of a boat sitting on top of a swampy-land facing toward the lake. This lake is reflecting the glow of the sunrise. When I look at this boat, I imagine myself getting ready to get inside of it. I see myself begin to row. As I row, I go over the calm, smooth waters to a chartered destination that does not appear within the picture. There is no one around. Just me and the calm waters reflective of the pink and yellow sky. I start rowing hearing the sounds of silence. I don't know what lies ahead, I don't hear any distractions around me, just the invitation of the open waters. I am rowing to a destination. I don't know what will happen along my path or the strange lure of what is beyond what I can see. Yet I know that I must keep rowing for what lies ahead is something greater. Something that I would not find letting my boat rest on the swamp.

Case of the Mondays

Today was just A...bleh kind of day. It actually started off pretty good though. My English professor brought us some candy, my other classes went pretty well, and Praise Band Practice went pretty well. I was even sporting some harmonies on a couple of them! Not too bad for a little short man that needs to cut his fingernails! If that didn't make sense to you, don't worry. I really didn't understand that either.

I'm listening to music right now, trying to decide whether I should do homework now or tomorrow morning. I know that worrying about school and then not doing anything is kind of weird in itself. Enough about that though. I watched, "Fiddler on the Roof" last night. Good movie. I found myself singing along with it. It was rather amusing because I was doing grammar exercises while listening/watching it. Which might explain why my paper was like, "You don't have to use commas because of all God's miracles large and small the most miraculous one of all is out of a worthless lump of clay, God has made a man today!" Just imagine if I was doing math! I would be like, "4 + 5x = TRADITION!"

Well, I should be going pretty soon. I need to take care of some personal business and procrastinate some more. In the words of Tevye, "God be with you."

Life, stuff, and Tootsie Roll Mini Chews

I had one of the busiest weekends I have ever had. I had a paper to write for World History and English and a test in Physical Science. Isn't that nutty? I finished my English paper Sunday night, my History paper has been a progress in the past couple of days, and I had my Physical Science test today. Let's just pray right now that baby gets curved a little bit...I swear it was nuts! I spent these past couple of days memorizing how to convert from cm to inches, km to miles, meters to feet, liters to gallons, the radius of the earth, equations for speed, velocity, and everything else having to do with Physics! My head really hurt after I got done with the test. I think smoke literally started coming out of my head...Remember in the cartoons when they would get fried and you would just see smoke coming off of their bodies? I kind of felt like that. But I'm good now.

I went to the store today. I have a new favorite candy. Tootsie Roll Mini Chews. I thought this was really stupid at first. On the package it says they are chocolate covered. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't tootsie rolls made out of chocolate? Then I thought to myself, "This is a box with little tootsie rolls in them. They aren't just chocolate, but they are chocolate covered in chocolate!" It's like pouring Caramel syrup over a Caramel...Or strawberry syrup over a strawberry...IT'S GENIUS! So I am currently eating them. Gotta love the fact that they are like 15% fat! Although they have 4% Calcium and 4% Iron...Pretty interesting.

I could have posted on how stressed papers make me feel or how I really don't like tests and classes, but I have just been informed that pessimism really makes one of my friends upset, so therefore I will try to be optimistic. "Yeah for Papers that help to expand my thinking! I love tests because it challenges me and lets me know how I'm doing! Grades? They don't have to be perfect! As long as I try my best!" Excuse me while I get some crackers to absorb all this cheesiness.

Well that's it for today. I hope that you all are having a great day. Check out the new Tootsie Roll Mini Chews. Oddly enough, they are found in the card aisle at Kroger...Don't as me why, they just are. Have a good one!

Debating

We had a debate today in our Physical Science lab. Yes you heard me right....In our Physical Science Lab. He divided us into two groups. The question asked if the scientific process is defined by those in power. It was divided into two main groups. The other group basically talked about how the Government is hindering scientific progress and how basically the administration gives more of a hoot about oil and the military than science. My group was suppose to disagree with that. Let me just say a couple of things. I consider myself passive and I don't like to debate because frankly I don't like stupid people. If the stupid people come up with something that makes sense and that I can't argue myself out of, I get defensive and start to think things like, "Yeah?!? Well....Your feet smell!" If there is a statement made that I feel is way out there and no one else addresses it properly, I will take the responsibility on myself. When it was our turn to speak, I brought up the Preamble of the Constitution and said that America has to promote the general welfare. The government has done many things to help scientific progress. It has set up national parks, wildlife refugees, Government programs such as the FDA, and I said that it is important to think of the future, but you have to be realistic. Our budget needs to encompass a lot of things. We need to concentrate also on construction, welfare, veterans benefits, the military, and human needs. You know what they did when I said this? They made smart Alec comments to everything I said! Then everything I said was basically ignored! It's like, "Let's let the short man say what he has to say, and get on with our debate!" AH!!!!!! I left kind of angry, but a guy in my class said I did a good job. :-)

If anyone does comment to this, please don't argue with what I said. I'm to the point where I don't care about facts anymore and I will just go onto name-calling! That's why I couldn't debate in High School. In the middle of the round I would be like, "What is wrong with you? Do you have any feelings at all? Are you just dumb or are you trying to make me mad! How dare you have an opinion that is not mine! Jerk!" *breathes* Do you want to know what's funny? In order to calm myself down, I came home and started singing about David mourning for his son Absolom! Then after that I washed dishes! You hear about these guys exercising, hitting bags, lifting weights, etc. to calm themselves down....I sing and wash things! At least my hands smell nice.

Check this out...

I don't know what it is about today, but I had some major flashbacks to drama/choir. I was driving to school and do you know what I heard? "Luck be a Lady Tonight." For those of you who didn't know, that is from the musical "Guys and Dolls" which happened to be our spring musical at BHS. So as I was going to class, I was thinking of my awesome dance moves and practices for that. Then when I was driving back from school, I heard songs I did in Jazz Choir. The songs were "Thank You," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Flight of the Bumblebee," "Yesterday," and "Java Jive." We sang all of these and they came one right after the other! WHAT ON EARTH?!? I do kind of miss singing in a Jazz group and performing on stage. I guess if I wanted to I could get back into it...but maybe in a little while. I don't think now is the right time.

In other news, today wasn't as bad as it could have been. Luckily I remembered the geographic features of the United States and all 50 of them for the test today. There were only like 25 or so questions, but I think I did pretty well. I spelled some things wrong.....stupid POTOMAC river! Now I am just going to eat dinner and do homework later on. After I procrastinate of course! But if you plan to procrastinate, you're not really procrastinating. Are you? Then it would just mean that you are planning to do homework in a different amount of time than you're original idea. Therefore you are not putting it off, you are simply moving it up. Think about that! YES! Look at Mr. Smartypants Scott figuring out things in College! I guess I'll go now. Have a great day everybody!

P.S. I found a funny joke. Enjoy!

" A peanut walks into a police station to make a complaint claiming he was a salted."

What's going on?

First of all, I would like to say that I am pretty happy today. One really cool thing that happened was that I completed my collection today of those tiny green aliens you get out of those quarter machines! I have been trying to get all five since I put my quarter in and got one of those cool little dudes playing basketball. Now I have one doing gymnastics, one doing Karate, one lifting weights, and one that is rowing...Either that or he's planning on doing that one event on American Gladiator where they hit each other with bowstaffs...Either way, I am pretty psyched about my alien dudes.

The next question I have is, what's with all the animals in my neighborhood flocking toward me? First it was that cute little puppy who I got to attached to. It mysteriously disappeared...I'd like to think he found a nice family and is doing fine. Now there is this little cat who is desperate for attention that keeps visiting me when I get home, come out of the house, etc. The cat just keeps rubbing himself against me, climbing on me, and meowing at me. It's a cute cat, but frankly I am not ready for that kind of relationship. I tried to explain to the cat that it should go off and find someone else. It can be happy elsewhere. It just meowed at me and started to climb onto my leg and rub it's head against my hand. *sigh* Next thing you know birds will be starting to hang around my window and whistling at me.

As far as School goes, I would like to quote a friend of mine this week. "I am at that point where it's like, 'Crap, college is hard!' " Indeed it is. There's papers, tests, reading, and all that fun stuff I have to do. I am hitting myself in the head because I chose my schedule, and I really should have thought better. The problem is because of the scholarship, I can't drop anything AND if I do, I won't be a sophomore next year. I guess if these are the best years of my life, I should get used to this.

Other than that, I got some D-Con....A little present for those furry creatures in my house. I read what it does to them on the back. It's really cruel and sick...And I hope that it works and they all die! Sorry, that was kind of morbid of me. Anyway, I hope you all are having a great day. Be safe!

Food

I don't understand why I am hungry after I just ate something. I had supper and I ate a Chicken/Mushroom Pot Pie. I could only eat half of it because I was, "so full." I may have been full because I was eating peanuts and cheetos before hand.... but that's not the point. I finished that, and then Michael decided he was going to cook pizza. I told him that I may have a piece if he made some. When it was ready, I took my piece...which turned out to be two. I was doing homework at the time, so I ate my pieces while trying to figure out the average of these silly numbers. You know what? I was still hungry! Did I take that as a sign that I may be eating out of stress or comfort?!? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I went and got some Pop Tarts. Then while having Pop Tarts, I decided that I need something salty to counter-balance it. Therefore I am here now eating pop tarts, and cheese its. At least I decided to lay off the Cherry Coke for right now and am drinking sugar-free cherry Kool-Aid. Thanks mom!

I also broke two of my drinking glasses today and ran out of paper plates :-( I can get more, I just felt like announcing this to the blog-reading world. While I'm announcing things, I'm singing along with "My Favorite Things." Does anyone have a problem with that?!? As Julie says, "When I'm feeling sad....I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad!"

Procrastination!

I am Procrastinating! I have thought it over, and I think that I can go over my English before class, and I can do my History Homework between the time of lunch and class. This whole weekend I was trying to get myself to do it. Then I got distracted by the TV, internet, going places, and my doggies. I think Binks and I are starting to bond again. We have been talking, and I think he understands where I am coming from. I offered my apologies and truce to him by scratching his really itchy places. I know where at least 3-4 of them are. He was very grateful, often thumbing his foot or making expressions with his doggie face.

You want to know what I do when I procrastinate? Well, first off let me tell you that I collect tiny aliens. They are these little alien figurines that you get out of the quarter machine at Wal-Mart or Kroger. Michael has a Darth Tater. It's basically a Mr. Potato Head that looks like Darth Vader from Star Wars. What I did was put these little aliens all over his head and make it look like he is being attacked by a bunch of little aliens. Then I got my picture phone out and took pictures. Michael joined in the fun, and we also put a little umbrella in his hat and at various times took pictures of him with an MTSU shotglass, levitating various objects, and of course Michael listening to me put on a play with it.

Given the choice of History or playing with Mr. Potato head that looks like Darth Vader....I pick the later. God speed to you all!

P.S. While Michael and I were watching TV, a mouse ran across the floor. I don't mice or rats or little furry things that run around the house.

Welcome back, Scotter! (Part Two)

Feeling very stressed on my first day of school, it seemed like there was only one way to go. Actually, it was more like praying that it wouldn't get any worse! The next day I had three classes. I had Research and Argumentative Writing, College Algebra, and Survey of World Civilization II. In the words of the famous announcer Dierks McPunitar, "Let the Games Begin!" (I made up that name because I have no idea who first said it)

My first class was Argumentative Writing. I didn't feel that it would be too bad, because I enjoy writing. Something weird and unusual happened. I picked the same time for this class that I had picked for Expositry Writing last semester. I was looking for my room number and it turned out that I am in the exact same room I was in last semester! Interesting, isn't it? My professor for that class was very jovial. He was obsessed with someone's laptop that was brought in, but overall I can see that this will be a good class.

With that feeling resonating inside of me, I went out to go to College Algebra. I didn't know what to expect of this, because I haven't taken Algebra by itself since 8th grade! Don't get me wrong. The last course I took in math was Calculus, so it's not like I haven't used it! It was in the nursing building which took me forever to find. It turned out to be an interesting class. The women that is teaching it is a little hard to understand because of her accent. Despite all of that, I understood what we were talking about! Looking on my day, everything was good. Now it's on to History.

I got into class, and was worried that it would be really difficult. It will be a lot of work, but the professor is really cool. He seems like a funny guy, and he is willing to help. Right when I got home, I opened all of my books that were still pre-packaged. I am not dropping any classes!

Things seem to be going well. I'm pretty happy with how everything is going. Michael and I even got to play some darts last night. It kind of bummed me out that he beat me 3 out of 4 games.....oh well. You can't win them all!

Welcome back, Scotter!

I was worried about today because it's the whole, "Calm before the Storm" theory. To start off with, it stared raining last night and continued throughout the day. My first class wasn't until 1:00 this afternoon, so I did have some time to sleep in and relax. However, there was also a lot of time to worry about where to find the classes, what the professors would be like, and so on. Finally the time came to go to school.

I had two classes today. Topics in Physical Science and Survey of United States History II. A friend of mine is in Physical Science with me, so that is pretty cool. I don't really know what to make of that class. The professor seems really nice. He is very passionate about learning, science, his family, and he told us that we will leave the course learning not only physical science, but also philosophy and asking and answering the really tough questions of life. He was a football coach, an athlete, and an actual research scientist. He means business! It's the class that you are afraid to sleep in our give the wrong answer...at least so far. As he put it he is either, "All wet" or "a lot of fun." Either way it will be interesting.

After that class, I walked in the rain to history, with my broke umbrella. History class is REALLY big. Roll itself took more than 5 minutes. I got in there and this women professor is....well....let's say that she is very enthusiastic about what she does. We went over expectations and all the homework we have to do. A certain amount of chapter(s), a book outside of class, then exams and paper(s) coming up. In the midst of this, I was feeling very overwhelmed. Then I just laughed. I wrote in big capital letters, "BRING IT ON!" Ha! TAKE THAT STRESS!!! The professor seems really nice and is willing to help. I just have to take a deep breath and say, "It's college."

I have three more classes to go...hopefully in those classes I will find something that a little lighter. If it's all nuts this semester, then I may be gaining the freshman 15 in the next 4-5 months! I will just say this....BRING IT ON!

I think the best thing to do is to just write on here until I figure out what it is that I want to say. You would be amazed at the type of things that suddenly come to mind once you just let go and start writing, or rather typing in this case. I once started writing about how I was really bored and then it got into a question of what the purpose of life was. It makes you wonder about the Purpose of life and then the purpose of your own life. Do both coincide with each other, or does everyone have a specific purpose that will ultimately fit in with the absolute purpose in life? I think the second is more true. After all, it's not all about us. Is it? That's not to make light of life to think that no one person can make a difference. I believe that if we are to make a difference, we should realize that the difference will not be reflected for the better of the person. Rather it will be reflected for the better of the ultimate purpose. The reason why we are all here to begin with.

See what I mean? Stuff just comes out...Rather it makes sense or not is beyond the point. Let's try to talk about something different, shall we? I love my dogs. They are very weird, but also very loving. Lindy will just stare into my eyes for a long period of time, and Binks' whole personality will come alive when I just through a blue ball across a lawn. If I am gone for a couple of days, they will cry and bark like they haven't seen me in years! They are very spirited it's true, but they also are very aware of what's going on. They know the right times to beg, the right times to sleep, and they know when to come near a member of the family. For instance if I am bored or dad is just sitting there, Lindy will come and try to climb on a lap, or Binks will start speaking to you asking if you want to go outside and play fetch. Yes, Binks speaks. I just wish he would stop correcting my grammar...

Well, I hope you all had fun reading my blog! That is if there are people out there reading it. I hope there are. :-) I wish you all the very best and I hope you have a great rest of the day!

Passion 2006

Here comes the big post. I would like to tell you Passion '06. Just try to imagine about 18,000 college students from all over the world coming together for one purpose. As the conference put it, the purpose is described by Isaiah 26:8 which says, "Lord, we love to obey your laws; our hearts desire is to glorify your name." There were students from all denominations, states, countries, and personal backgrounds that came to this conference. It was held in Nashville, and there are many different ways to describe how big it was. There were FLOODS of people coming up and down the streets. Every single seat at the GEC (Gaylord Entertainment Center) was filled. As Louis put it, "I'm glad to see so many college students in one place who are sober!"

Despite all the people there, we also had some time to get into small groups and also to hear various speakers. I will not talk about all of them, I will just mention what I got out of it. The most practical and applicable part that I took out of this conference, was when I went to the Breakout called, "Habitudes." The session was described as, "It will focus on truths regarding how to best lead yourself, connect with others, and lead your team." It did that through giving images that help to give you a clear picture of different types of leadership and organization techniques. The six images are the mirror effect, rivers and floods, Paul Revere Principle, Bit Market, Big Rocks First, and Life Sentence. I loved this workshop because I learn through pictures and this helped me a lot. All of these I loved, but the one image I liked best was Rivers and Floods. They are both bodies of water, but floods damage and rivers are useful in many ways. Rivers are flowing in one direction, with a single purpose. Floods go everywhere and cause unspeakable damage. Just think of Katrina or the tsunami's around the world. This image also gives the impression that in our ministry we start off as rivers. We have clear focus and great clarity. Then we try to take on thing after thing, it ends up flooding. The questions are, "What is your River?" and "Are you starting to flood?"

If you want to learn any more about this, go to www.growingleaders.com. Habitudes was by Dr. Tim Elmore. I personally do not have the books, but this has helped me out. There is so much more to say about the conference. We talked about how BIG God is and how SMALL we are. It just blows your mind. There was a lot of focus on suffering and the fact that we have the potential to change history. Personally that kind of freaked me out. Although you have to remember that God is bigger than you think. I know I'm guilty of putting him in a box. If you have any more questions, feel free to comment. I hope you all have a great rest of the day.

A big post is soon to come....I just need to collect my thoughts so that I can give a full, and detailed description of what happened with Passion '06.