Blue Skies Are On Their Way

Hopefully that is.

As most people know, I hope, there have many fires blazing in California. The area where I live wasn't on fire anywhere but fires were all around me. This made the air awful for about a week. Things were cancelled and such. But today, yes today, there was hope. The sky was very cloudy, but I love clouds. In between the clouds though, I saw blue. Seeing how I had my camera with me [which is very handy, by the way], I snapped a couple pictures of the glory. I think it might rain soon. That would be amazing also.



I uploaded this one and another one to flickr also.

It Was The Best Of Times,

It was the worst of times.

I picked up "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens today.

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Lately I've thought blinds are pretty cool. But not actually blinds. Mainly the way light comes through the blinds.

Psalm 63

I read this yesterday:

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my
hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the
richest foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise
you.

On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of
the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the
earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.

But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be
silenced.

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This verse stuck with me yesterday. I thought I would share it. I long to get to a place in my life where food won't satisfy me like God will. I pray you will journey to that place also.

More Reasons To Hate Driving

You may, or may not, know that I dislike driving A LOT. However, I am a huge fan of all other things transportation. Buses. Planes. Trains. Bikes. Vespas. Auto rickshaws. As you can tell from my list, I am a fan of transportation... just not cars. I find it no fun to drive. It is a little better to drive at night, but I would also rather not be driving. Road trips are a little different however. I can't totally hate cars on road trips.

On to revealing why I hate driving more. I wouldn't say I love my truck, but it is enjoyable. Its a good truck. But after it got broken into last January, I got an alarm on it to try to prevent it happening again. When the alarm was installed, I also got an automatic lock installed on my door. It was gonna be awesome because my truck is manual. I mean everything is. I could press the disarm button on the controller and my door unlocked. Awesome, right? Wrong.

Every once in awhile the lock wouldn't fire when I would unlocked it. It wasn't a huge deal because I could normally just unlock it with my key. But it has now evolved into a monster. It very rarely unlocks now and it won't even let me open the door from the inside or unlock it with the key from the outside. I have now resorted to crawling into my truck through the passenger door. It has quickly become very frustrating. Its not that hard to do, but its not that convenient either.

Needless to say, hopefully I will be taking off the automatic lock soon and returning my truck into the machine it was created to be... manual.

Urban Plunge[r]

I put an 'r' on the end of that because I accidently typed it the first time, but I thought it was funny so I typed it again.

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Saturday, I participated in Urban Plunge. Its a way to get involved with work going on in L.A. I'm not sure what I thought about it yet, and when I do figure it out... I'm not gonna tell you on here. I did take my camera though. I didn't shoot much, but I think I got some good stuff. Maybe. Eh, probably not.








[there are other pictures on my flickr site that I didn't post here]

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Also, if anybody knows any sites where I can sell photos online [besides istockphoto.com], that would be awesome.

Polaroid Wall

This is the polaroid wall.



Hopefully, by the end of the year, it will be very full. I just decided that I'm going to take the polaroids when I leave and put them up wherever I end up next. I'll occasionally keep you updated on how the wall is progressing.

Fresh

I've been looking at a lot of photography lately. Its been making me want to shoot more. Try new things and the like. I took my camera in my backyard today to see what I could find that was interesting. This fence has been there the whole time but I've never seen its uniqueness. Each plank has a different texture. Its amazing how something that wasn't alive to me before jumped out at me today.

Exciting Times For This Place

Maybe some of you noticed a while ago I added a "Cluster Map" to my blog. What it does is count how many people view my page a day and where they are located in the world. I recently looked and noticed I was approaching 1,000 views since when I first added it. I got really excited about that. I didn't know people spend time here. At least someone does. I was actually hoping to have 1,000 views by my birthday. Today I want to show you something.



My goal will be accomplished.

Authenticity/Honesty

The tough thing about writing 'Life Rules" down is that I'm supposed to follow them. If I don't, I'm a fake. A fraud.

Today, I was authentic and honest. It wasn't easy. In fact, it sucked. I've never really been that authentic or really that honest about stuff in my life. As I continue this journey trying to glorify God, I am beginning to understand more and more that life is meant to be lived transparently, in community with other believers. You have to get dirty with other people's junk and let them get dirty with yours. For a long time, I only lived out certain parts of community, but other parts I kept for myself. I thought it would be okay if I didn't open up. I'm learning I was only hurting myself.

It was really hard, being authentic and honest. I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I'm not a fake.

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Note: This isn't a picture of the perfect world we've created for ourselves in Southern California.

Life

Some may remember when I was sitting outside, in the same spot, last Friday for two hours (maybe longer). I know you thought I was doing nothing, but I beg to differ. I was listening to my newly bought copy of Sufjan Stevens album 'Illinoise' and doing a little writing. I began to compile a list of rules for my life. I thought I might share my first round of rules.

-Live simply
-Go outside, whenever possible
-Love people, genuinely
-Its not about you
-Be friendly
-Be honest
-Live a life of authenticity
-Live today
-Don't take life too seriously, but take it serious
-Live a life worthy
-Read
-Write, even if you don't feel like it
-Pray, and pray again
-Get messy with people
-Get your feet dirty
-This isn't your home
-Remember, you're blessed beyond belief
-Travel! Travel! Travel!
-Look for what God sees in someone
-Don't drive that much
-Thank God in the morning

Thats the first compilation. I will add more as I journey.

Look What I Found

I was working on a project for a class late last night. I went to IC's website to check some stuff out. I saw a link. Entered the appropriate information. And Ta Da.

Class?

This is class for me.

I figured I'd post this because the majority of you don't think I do anything anyways. This proves it. As you can see, I'm checking blogs, on iChat talking to Carson, sending him a couple files, and doing a little bit of designing. I guess I don't do much after all. And yes, I'm in class right now blogging.

Oh well. I'm still getting a degree next year.

Repetition Is A Beautiful Thing

This past week we had the ISP Review. I don't want to talk about that though.

I've realized that of late, I haven't posted pictures of much aesthetic value. I apologize for that. I come before you to make up for that. I captured a few images at the review that I've really come to like a lot. Please just simply enjoy these.