ABC

Things that are my favourite things lately:
- Pictures for Sad Children (http://picturesforsadchildren.com)
- "Slowly" - M83
- Lightroom 2.5
- "Your friends are gone" - Circa Survive
- Chats with Rhett and Colin
- Quinn (tetris)
- "Sometime Around Midnight" - The Airborne Toxic Event
- Doodling on the back of this pringles ad.
- http://youwillfeellessalone.tumblr.com
- American Apparel
- More pictures for sad children
- More youwillfeellessalone.
- Light leaks

Well

I would like to say that my summer was like a movie and that in working at Seaworld I not only learned the value of hard work and diligence but I also learned valuable life lessons and made friends that would last me the rest of my life.
I really would.
But I didn't.


Wait no.
I learned how to tell people what they want to hear.
Really really valuable life lesson.

So I don't really know where this came from

This started like...
3rd real day of OGN.
At PB. With Melissa Millman.
And I don't really know exactly what I'm supposed to do with it.
But I keep thinking about Ireland.
Like I'm being tugged there.
I don't know if missions trip
Or just vacation
Or what
But Ireland, you guys.
Ireland.

I don't know what to title this.

Thing I learned at OGN:
The best conversations in life will happen inside of a bathroom at 8:15 in the morning with one person sitting on the sink and the other on the floor sitting against a bathroom stall and the window is open so there's a slight draft coming in and you're a bit cold but you don't want to leave to get more clothes because that would break the spell of the moment that isn't really magical but is at the time same just because it's so good.

RUN ON SENTENCES ARE MY FAVORITE.

Also I've decided the location of my wedding.
Because the person I marry is most likely going to be this kind of person.
It's going to be in New Jersey.
On the Kingda Ka ride.
My wife and I will get married in the front seat.
And the best man and whoever else will be behind us.
And then right as the preacher finishes and says "You may now kiss the bride" the ride will begin and I will kiss my wife as we accelerate to more than 115mph and go over 400 feet up and it will be romantic.
That's what I look like as romantic, anyway.

OGN

I'm disappearing off the internets for a week. If you're the praying sort, I'd really appreciate it while I'm gone because it's going to be a really intense spiritual sort of funfun camp.

1) Pray that God gives me some sort of supernatural energy because I won't be getting enough sleep.
2) Pray that everyone at the camp is kept safe.
3) Courage. I really really need courage this week.
4) Pray that no drama happens
5) Pray that I would forge some really close (or closer) bonds with some of my friends
6) Ask that no one gets sick
7) Pray that God will talk to me very clearly.
8) Pray that the worship music would be so incredibly powerful it would make people cry out of joy. Myself included.

There's more, but I don't want to overwhelm you with a list. Oh, but one more thing, please pray that I'll have like, "a servant's heart" and just put other people and their interests before me. I don't want to be selfish this week.

I've got it all worked out

Okay so this is what I need to take the most awesome pictures in the world and what I would probably use my wishes on if I ever found a genie lamp or something. They're all superpowers but whatever.
1) TELEPORTATION: Probably the most important. "Hmm, I think I'll go shoot at the Eiffel Tower today. No wait, downtown Tokyo.... Actually I'm thinking maybe just Yosemite. *POOF*" And you're there. It would be amazing.
2) INVISIBILITY: Well, you can't really just appear out of nowhere, or people start asking questions. And so invisibility is amazing. And you could like, sneak around places too. You could trespass and no one'd know you're there.
3) TELEKINESIS: Beats any tripod. Ever. Assuming you could hold your camera perfectly still.

Yep. I win. Genie lamp please.

God says stuff sometimes

So today, I was taking my daily self portrait in mission trails. They'd finally opened up (at least part of) my favorite trail. There was a lot of construction going on, they were doing all this stuff, a LARGE section was blocked off and it was crazy...
ANYWAY.
So I'm on the trail and it's really steep.
But I get up and it levels out and I'm in this sort of triangle area where three paths intersect.

And I chill out, basically just enjoying the scenery (I love mountain views) and the slight breeze and taking a few pictures when there's no fellow hikers nearby (I = self-conscious when picture taking).

I seriously sat on this one rock and didn't move for a good 5 minutes, aside from my eyes, breathing, etc.

And I'm half-zoned out while I do this, I'm not directing my thoughts at all and I'm not really able to remember where my train of thought was five minutes ago. I'm listening in case God wants to say something but not like... SUPER ACTIVE I'M NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO ANYTHING ELSE BUT GOD.

But there were like at least five times during my hike that I just kind of stopped and stood still for a moment, and made as little noise as I could so I could hear the wind and the birds and the slight traffic noise, just everything. I really enjoy just... silence. No, not silence that's scary. But quiet. Nobody TALKING. No words being exchanged that keeps me from focusing on that instead of letting my thoughts be free to drift.

There was this one part, where I noticed this part that lead off the trail. It was obvious people went through it semi-often. So I went on it too.

I went through like two curves and some brush and then I came out in this rectangular clearing. There was this giant thing of cement. I don't know. It was like a mini-field I guess. I can't tell you how big, not for sure because I'm bad at measurements and estimating them, but I'm gonna guess... Five yards long and 20 yards wide? Maybe.

And there were these rusted metal poles sticking out every yard or so. Kind of like a fence except nothing was linking them.

One of them looked like it had been bent or melted over in the sun.

And at this one end, the right end from where the trail emerged, there were these other concrete slabs, but way smaller all broken up and lying around and kind of on top each other.

There was this stupid bush in the very middle of it all. I really hated it. Because, the field looked like this place where some epic final showdown between two people would happen.
And then there's this stupid bush in the middle of it. Like what the heck. Why would that happen?

Well anyway.

So I'm going back down the trail and there's this one part where you can go off to the side, and then (if you're going up the trail) back track a bit (but still going up) on a ridge and then you come up upon this mini field on top where there's these like, water pipes or towers or I don't know.

I climbed up on one of them to place my tripod, took a 365 picture by climbing off the water tower and looking back up at the camera, and then climbed up to see how it went. I almost took another, but I think there were some people on the trail or something and I was too embarrassed so I just kind of sat on the water tower with the camera and looked around.

And then I started thinking about wind and stuff, because there are few things I love more than being on a mountainside, or at the very least a high-up place, with a breeze or slightly stronger wind going. I just like the situation, in general. Especially if it's quiet enough around me (as mission trails was) for me to think entirely freely.

And so ANYWAY, I'm looking west into the wind, and I kind of just start asking God if He could increase the breeze a bit. Like make it stronger. Partly because I just love strong wind, partly to see if He'll do it.

And well, it goes up and down. Sometimes it starts getting stronger but then it calms down before it becomes sort of what I was imagining it to be. But it never completely dies. So I sit there, just kind of waiting, listening, not quite talking to God but trying to get closer, and letting my thoughts drift.

Eventually I just kind of laid back on the cement tower thing (my camera was still on its tripod so it might've looked kind of weird to be laying down beneath it but anyway) and closed my eyes because the sun was really bright.

It was waaaaaay to hard to fall asleep on but it was kind of nice.

And God, I believe, was just saying like, "I did make you with free will. I'm not always going to be this huge presence in your life. You ARE going to have to do work, it's not going to be this easy thing. But I'm never going to be completely gone, just quiet sometimes."

And at first I was kind of bummed, because I was like "But God, I WANT you to be stronger in my life, I want this strong wind that I can totally feel is there, I want you like that right now.." But the wind kept doing the same thing and my thoughts kept drifting to Star Trek (oh yeah I saw that movie today) and wherever else and so I guess God had said all he was going to say.

And so I just kind of lay there and eventually became content with the whole experience.

And then I walked down the mountain which kind of sucked because I was going down this steep trail and it was kind of difficult and not blissful at all, and at this one point I was hiking pretty fast because I didn't want this dad and his son to catch up with me because I dislike being near other people when I'm solo hiking.

Actually the whole rest of the stuff and by stuff I mean trip going home was kind of a bummer after the previous part. But whatever.

And apparently I start all of my paragraphs with and, I just noticed that I was doing that. Hooey.

Also I give Star Trek a 9/10. The end.