A Boring Update

Well, I haven't blogged for twenty days. What's with that? Am I being a lazy slacker? Well, yeah, pretty much. Here are some boring, uninteresting, why-would-you-want-to-know tidbits about life and stuff.

My friends and I have starting playing the Star Wars: Customizable Card Game that we played more before playing Lord of the Rings. I am going through all the cards and compiling a list of cards that I need, and I hope to go online and do some massive trading (both for Wars and for Rings). I have several Wars decks planned. I now have 15 - yes, fifteen - Lord of the Rings decks. They are wonderfully great fun. I am still losing though to my friend Tom, who has, get this... 28. Twenty-eight Rings decks. Holy cow.

I am finally starting to read the Purpose Driven Life, and I am somewhere around day 10. It is quite good. Our Bible study recently wrapped up the book Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli, which was also good. Before that we read a book titled The Marketing of Evil. In other book news, I have started reading The Lord of the Rings books again. A few years ago, I had read Fellowship and half of Two Towers (and, of course, The Hobbit). But I never completed the trilogy. It's about dang time, eh? I am starting over with Fellowship. After this, I plan to either read the Left Behind prequels, or continue with the Harry Potter books (I have read the first two). Megan and I also may read The Five Love Languages together.

On the flip side of reading, I have done more story writing recently. I wrote a 2,000 word short story called Superhero, and I have just completed the rough draft on what is, by far, my longest story to date. It is called The Cage, and is currently over 16,000 words - 32 1/2 single-spaced pages in Microsoft Word. I'm hoping to expand it to at least 50 pages. The other stories I've written are The Crumbling, The Parachute, and The Great Day. I also wrote a few chapters in a story called The Storm of War, and little tidbits here and there of others. I'm not sure what will be done with them, but it is at least a fun hobby.

We are starting to try and eat a little healthier and exercise some, which is probably a good thing. I wouldn't mind losing some more weight. I am still about 25 pounds less than when I moved back to Minnesota, but I could probably stand to lose a bit more.

We have watched a few movies lately, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Never Been Kissed, and Fried Green Tomatoes. I'll let you guess who chose what. We alternate choices of movies, and I believe that viewings of Braveheart and Gladiator are soon on the horizon. On the flip side, I feel it is likely that I will be soon watching Titanic. Ah, the things we do for our wives.

I sent in a BBlooper that was posted to BBspot:
http://www.bbspot.com/News/BBloopers/2006/09/2297.php
Excited huh? Not really, but you know.

I can't believe you've read this far. Are you bored? Well worry not, I am done. :)

Why Elections Suck

Well, elections don't suck, but at my company, this time of year does. We'll basically be giving up our entire month of October (and the first week of November), due to the higher level of work created by the upcoming election. A lot of 16 hour days. At work on weekends. That in itself isn't the main reason why elections suck this year. Earlier, I had applied to work a TEC weekend - Teens Encounter Christ. I found out that I was accepted to work it. And my good friend Tim is on it as well, both on the Support team. Which would be great fun. However, that weekend is in October, and evidently it is impossible for me to go to it. FLS (my company) has a vacation lock on this time period, so no one can go anywhere. Fortunately, TEC weekends happen every 3 months, so there will be another in January, but I was really excited for this one. But alas, thus is life I suppose.

However much I like my company and my job, I do look forward to working for a company that I don't have to sacrifice a month of my life each year. That's really obnoxious and evil. :)

Honeymoon Pictures

I will soon be posting some honeymoon pictures from our digital camera to the blog, and eventually to the website. This is not a honeymoon picture, but is me and Megan being big losers (as we are very good at). There aren't all that many pictures and they aren't very exciting, but that's okay.

Today is Megan's first day at her new job. Hopefully all goes well, I will find out tonight when she gets home. On Friday, her car broke down, and we had to replace the alternator and the battery. Good thing she's getting a job, that'll help us afford it. :)

Toy Story 2

Yesterday, Megan and I watched Toy Story 2. Both of us have always enjoyed this movie (we both gave it a score of 9/10). Ever since I saw this movie for the first time (in the theatre when it first came out), I thought that this is one of those rare exceptions when a sequel is better than the predecessor. Toy Story is also excellent entertainment, but I find its sequel to be just a bit more entertaining. Besides, anything that spoofs Star Wars gets some extra points from me.

Bringing Home the Bacon

Well, my wife got a job yesterday. It's at a place called The Therapy Place, which is a therapy center for children with special needs. Her job will be about half doing office / front desk work, and the other half will be working with these special needs kids. This should be a good starting place for her; she'll be able to get some experience working with kids, which will be useful for getting a job in the future where she can work with the children more full time.

She was hired yesterday, and last night we celebrated by a wonderful meal at the Old Country Buffet. I stuffed myself silly. It was flipping fantastic.

Ten Things I Hate About You

On Saturday, we watched the chick flick Ten Things I Hate About You. Megan loves this movie and gave it a 9.5/10; I gave it a 4.5, and have compiled my list of Ten Things I Hate About Ten Things I Hate About You:

1. It was dumb
2. It was dumb
3. It was dumb
4. It was dumb
5. It was dumb
6. It was dumb
7. It was dumb
8. It was dumb
9. It was dumb
10. It was dumb

But, alas, I love my wife. The first half of the movie actually wasn't that bad, but then it kind of fell into stupidity, which was a hole that it could not pull itself out of. And there it shall forever remain.

War of the Worlds

Yesterday, we watched Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, which I've been excited to see since it came out. That being said, I found it to be disappointing, not nearly as good as it should have been. I gave it a 6/10, putting it right at about average for movies. Megan gave it a 5/10. It did have some good action, but I thought the storyline was weak.

TEC

Well, here we go. I am applying to work as an adult at the next TEC weekend (Teens Encounter Christ - www.southerntec.org). It is a very powerful experience for teens (and adults as well). I have worked 4 TECs previously, when I was in high school, and they were awesome experiences. I will hopefully be able to work on the Support team, which is a behind-the-scenes type of team, and fits me well (all four times I worked in high school were on Support). But, who knows. Maybe God has other plans.

Dead Man's Chest

Yesterday, me and my wife went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I enjoyed the film a lot. Not as good as the first one, but that was expected, it was still entertaining, and should lead to an even more entertaining third movie. One of the things I like more about the first movie is its comedy - Pirates 2 is more of an action movie, but still has some good laughs. Both Megan and I gave it a score of 8/10. Not too shabby. I recommend it.

Relocation Mania

Well, today at work, the 3 of us on the Data Requests team are moving. For the third time in about three weeks. My company (FLS) has a main suite in this office building, which is where we had been for the last year and some, but then we moved to FLS' secondary suite, just down the hall. We were there for about a week, until we moved to where I am now, which is a conference room table. The 3 of us have been around this table for about a week. It is a little cramped, but alas, not all too bad. A little later today, we will be moving to a cubicles in FLS' new suite, which is right next door. They put a door in between the two suites, creating one uber-suite. Very exciting.

On another work-related note, the elections in November will mean much longer hours for us. Since FLS deals with politics, it is a very heavy time of year. We will probably be pulling near-16 hours days for a couple weeks, and will probably be here on weekends as well. It will be crazy. But, alas, they will provide us with food, I think, so it can't be that bad, can it? :)

Cinematic Happiness

Here is my newly (well, a month or 2 ago) updated list of favorite movies. This has not been put on my website yet. I have also updated a few other lists, which I'll probably post here before they end up on the website. Here are the top 50 movies, which is too much, but I figured, maybe you're really bored and have no life. Otherwise, the top 15 or so may be of slight interest, but after that, it probably doesn't matter. Enjoy, or something. :)

1 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
4 Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
5 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
6 Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
7 The Matrix
8 Star Wars: A New Hope
9 Gladiator
10 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
11 Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
12 Signs
13 Braveheart
14 King Kong (2005)
15 Minority Report
16 Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
17 X-Men
18 The Matrix: Reloaded
19 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
20 Serenity
21 Shrek
22 Fight Club
23 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
24 I, Robot
25 The Shawshank Redemption
26 Saving Private Ryan
27 X-Men: The Last Stand
28 Troy
29 Batman Begins
30 Monty Python & The Holy Grail
31 The Princess Bride
32 The Passion of the Christ
33 Terminator II: Judgment Day
34 Se7en
35 Raiders of the Lost Ark
36 Terminator III: Rise of the Machines
37 Toy Story II
38 X2: X-Men United
39 Spider-Man 2
40 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
41 Kill Bill Vol. 1
42 Terminator
43 Toy Story
44 Schindler’s List
45 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
46 The Sixth Sense
47 The Village
48 Office Space
49 The Mummy
50 The Patriot

Lady in the Water

On Sunday, my wife, my wife's cousin and I went to see The Lady in the Water, the latest film by my favorite director, M. Night Shyamalan. I enjoyed it, giving it a score of 7/10 (same score as Megan's cousin; Megan gave it an 8).

I enjoy Shyamalan's other films more (at least, those I have seen). Those other films are The Sixth Sense, Signs, and The Village. I am, sadly, yet to see Unbreakable, but I plan to soon, as my wife owns it.

The Great Day

I wrote this short story sometime in 2005. Its not too long (about 1300 words: 2 pages in Word, single-spaced).

-------------------------------

The Great Day

-------------------------------

“Have a great day at school, sweetie. We love you.”

His mom’s voice rang in his ears as Jamie walked to the bus stop on the first day of school. She would never understand that great days at school don’t happen. They’re something that comes along one day a year: the last day of school. This was true in first through fourth grades. Jamie knew fifth grade would be no different.

“Hey, dweeb!” Brett’s bullying voice cramped up Jamie’s stomach as he went to the back of the line at the bus stop. Jamie stood there quietly, staring at the backpack of the child in front of him.

“I said Hey, Dweeb!”

He continued to ignore the bully. He closed his eyes and started daydreaming about being back home, playing with what he felt was the only living thing in the world that understood him: the cat.

“Aren’t you coming, dweeb?”

Jamie opened his eyes and saw the school bus. Everyone else had gotten on board. Brett’s fat face was glaring at him through an open window. Jamie slowly walked onto the bus amid laughter and pointing. Holding back tears, he walked down the aisle, looking for an open seat, but none were available. Brett’s leg shot into the aisle, tripping Jamie and causing his small frame to tumble to the floor, tossing his thickly framed eyeglasses in the air.

“Hey look, four-eyes is two-eyes again!”

On all fours, Jamie crawled forward with his arms stretched into his blurred area of vision, searching for his glasses. He found them, underneath Brett’s large shoes, split in two pieces. He picked them up, crawled to the back of the bus, and sat on the floor with his back against the emergency exit.

He made it to the school office by holding up half of his glasses to his face, drawing mocking glances and laughter.

“Here, we’ll get that fixed for you,” the secretary in the office said. She pulled out a roll of packing tape and reattached the two halves, placing the repaired spectacles on Jamie’s face. The thick wad of tape pressed against his nose.

“Brett stepped on them on the bus. He’s always making fun of me.”

“Oh, well, never pay that mind, deary. Bullies do things like that to make themselves feel better.”

To make themselves feel better, eh? Jamie needed to feel better. As he walked down the hallway, he spotted Mickey putting books in his locker. Mickey was a smaller boy than Jamie, with thicker glasses. Jamie bumped into him, knocking him into the wall of lockers.

“Hey punk, you’re a loser, you know that?”

Mickey stared at him.

“Yeah, that’s right. Umm, and you’re a freak. Yeah, a big freak. Ugly freak.”

A tear started to roll down Mickey’s cheek. Jamie walked to his next class with a big smile on his face.

The bell rang, and the last class of the day was over. Maybe there are great days, he thought to himself. He was still feeling good from making fun of little Mickey. Jamie ran to the school bus and was one of the first onboard, picking a seat in the middle. He stared out the window watching cars drive away, smiling and humming a happy song to himself.

“Whatcha humming, dweeb?”

Jamie’s smile turned downward. Brett’s large body shook the seat as he landed on it, cramping Jamie against the window. Two of Brett’s friends were there, one in the seat ahead of him, one behind. All were laughing at him.

“Was that a pretty song? A pretty song for a girly boy? Makes sense, since Jamie is a girly name!”

Brett grabbed the backpack from Jamie’s lap and tossed it to the seat across the aisle.

“Hey, give that back!” Jamie yelped in a high-pitched tone, his voice cracking.

“Awww…. poor Jamie wants his bag back! Well you’re gonna have to get through me, dweeb! Or should I say, dweebette!”

Jamie pushed against Brett, but the bully’s large frame wouldn’t budge. Brett’s arms pushed against Jamie, slamming his small body against the wall. The three of them laughed, as did some others sitting near him.

“Nice glasses there, dweebette. Did you use a whole roll of tape?”

The tears started rolling down Jamie’s reddened face.

“Awww… poor Jamie’s crying, like a girl! Ha Ha! Do you want your mommy, little girl? Would a Barbie make you happy? I bet you’d look so pretty in pink!”

Brett pulled a can of pink party string from his pocket, squirting Jamie in the face.

“Now you’re so pretty!”

The tears now poured down Jamie’s face, mixing with the party string. His fists clenched up, and he turned to the side and, with all his might, punched Brett in the shoulder.

“Is that all you got, little girl?”

Laughter seemed to be coming from every direction. Jamie curled up in a ball in his seat, drenching his shirt with tears.

Finally, his stop came. Jamie grabbed his backpack, which was now also covered in pink party string. He ran into the house, crying.

“Hi honey! What’s wrong?”

His mother’s voice seemed to join the others in mocking him.

“Nothing! I just want to be left alone!”

Jamie ran to his room and slammed the door. He sat on the edge of his bed, still crying. After several minutes, the tear ducts calmed, and Jamie stared at an empty space on his wall.

I can’t take it any longer, he thought to himself. For years I’ve let this all slide. People always telling me it’ll get better. That they don’t mean it when they make fun of me. That I should ignore it. Well I can’t anymore.

“I’m going, Mom,” Jamie said the next morning.

“Oh, okay dear. Have a great day,” she said.

“Uh-huh. Gotta go, bye.”

“Oh, okay hon--“

He slammed the door and ran to the bus stop. While the bus ride did not result in broken glasses, Jamie was once again laughed at and mocked. He arrived at school and went to his locker but didn’t open it. He stood there waiting.

Around the corner came Brett. It is time, he thought to himself. He deserves what he has coming to him.

Brett was still a good distance down the hallway when Jamie bunched his hands into fists. I’m going to stand up to him finally, he thought, and show him he can’t treat me like this anymore.

His held his clenched fists in front of him as Jamie tried to look tough enough to punch Brett in the stomach. His face morphed into that of a madman, waiting to strike his target and prove his manliness. He started hearing laughter around him as other children noticed the strange pose he had struck.

Brett was near, yet so far oblivious to Jamie’s stance. Soon Brett will be on the floor, his brain reeled, looking up at me. He won’t even know what hit him. I’ll prove my worth and maybe then he’ll leave me alone.

Jamie planned to charge forward and push Brett to the floor. However, the push came from behind, knocking Jamie to the floor instead. For a moment, he lay there on his stomach, not understanding how this had happened. Had he missed Brett passing by?

He flipped himself over and sat up. In front of him stood Mickey.

“You were the only one I thought understood me. But you’re no better than the rest.” With that, he ran down the hallway, crying.

Laughter erupted around him as Jamie sat there, staring at the floor. No better than the rest? He thought to himself. No better than Brett? Have I really become the exact thing I’ve grown to hate? Have I become the bully?

The Parachute

Here is one of the short stories I have written, if you're bored and have some time to kill (well, not that much time - it is 2332 words, about 5 pages). I wrote this one in 2005.

------------------

I’ve never liked to fly. I’ve always felt like my vulnerabilities were exposed when I was so high in the air. My weaknesses are laid out plain as day, and there’s nothing I can do to cover them or strengthen them. Looking out the windows, I often see miles and miles of land below, and it makes me feel insignificant. The massive piece of land I see is only a microscopic fraction of what this Earth holds, and this Earth is an even smaller fraction of the universe. All of these things become increasingly obvious to me as I get closer to the stars. Because of this, I always sit in an aisle seat.

“This plane is going down,” the passenger sitting next to me blurts out.

“Huh?”

“This plane is going down.”

I didn’t respond. The guy was crazy. He was sitting there with a thick book on his lap and a steaming cup of coffee in his tray’s cup holder. He had a sly smile on his face, and he spoke slowly and confidently and appeared to know what I was going to say before I even started to speak.

“The end is coming soon,” he said.

I turned my head toward him and gave a weak yet annoyed smile.

“The end is coming soon,” he repeated.

“Are you trying to cause trouble?”

“The trouble has already been caused, my friend. I am only here to save those who understand.”

“Understand what?”

“That you are causing the plane to crash.”

“Excuse me?”

“You are causing the pla—“

“That’s enough for me,” I said, as I stood up and made my way to an empty seat near the back of the plane.

“I had to move, the guy next to me was driving me crazy,” I explained to the woman in the seat to my left. She smiled and went back to reading her magazine. Unfortunately, my new seat was a window seat. I glanced out the window. Far below was a column of smoke hovering above a burning house. I shuddered and pulled down the window shade. I closed my eyes and breathed in, calming my roused heart.

My nose took in the scent of coffee. I turned to my left, and there was the man who had talked to me earlier.

“This plane is going down,” he said once more.

“How…?”

“This plane is go—“

“I got that. What’s your problem?” I snapped, getting irritated.

“I have no problem. I am neither causing the plane to crash nor will I be on it when it does.”

“What, are you special or something?”

“I have taken the necessary steps to avoid being on this plane when it does crash.”

“Oh yeah?” I said sarcastically.

“Yes,” he replied. “Do you want to know what they are?”

“Do you really think I believe you?”

“Do you?”

“Of course not.”

I turned my head back to the closed window. I wanted to punch this guy. I was at least going to tell him off.

“You know what?” I said, turning back to him. However, he was no longer there. The woman was back, and she was now peering at me like I was some kind of idiot. I sighed.

“Never mind.” I pushed my fists together, cracking all ten knuckles in one swift stroke.

It was nearly an hour into the flight when the skies started to darken. I turned on the overhead light and reached forward for a magazine. I pulled out a copy of Entertainment Weekly. I turned to the first page, and I nearly fell off my seat. There, on the inside cover, was the same strange man I had talked to earlier. His picture took up the whole left page, and he seemed to be glaring at me with the same sly smile I had seen before. On the right page, printed on a black background were large fiery red letters, spelling out “This plane is going down.”

I quickly flipped to the next page. On the left page was the same picture of the same guy, and on the right side were the same type of letters, but this time it spelled out “The end is coming soon.”

I continued to flip through the pages of the magazine. Each left page had the same picture, and each right page had a similar message, including “You are causing the plane to crash.” I screamed.

“Stewardess! Stewardess! STEWARDESS!”

I heard feet running and a woman’s voice saying “What is it, sir?”

“Look at this!”

I showed her the inside of the magazine. She blinked and scratched her head. I glanced at the magazine. There was an advertisement for a coffee company.

“But… but…”

People were staring at me. I felt my face turning red.

“Ummm… coffee. Please.”

“Sir, we don’t serve coffee.”

“What?”

“Company policy.”

“I see.”

“Would you like something else?”

“Just a cola, then.”

I sat back down, and leafed through the magazine. Sure enough, the pages appeared to be the inside of a regular magazine.

“Here you are, sir,” the stewardess said as she handed me a can of cola and a glass of ice.

I smelled the aroma of coffee.

“This plane is going down.” The man had reappeared next to me.

“Back off. I don’t know who you are or what you are or what you want. Go bother someone else.”

“I have already talked to other people and—“

“Shut up and leave me alone.”

“You want to be alone?”

“Yes.”

“That is exactly what I try to prevent.”

“Uh-huh.”

The man snapped his fingers, and in his hand appeared a very small plastic airplane. He leaned over and dropped it in my cola.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

He snapped his fingers again, and a small flame appeared at the bottom of the glass. It spread like the carbonated liquid was its fuel, engulfing the entire glass, and the small plastic plane, in a matter of seconds. I screamed.

“Oh, that’s alright,” the woman who was once again sitting next to me said. She reached up and hit the stewardess button. “Things like this happen all the time on airplanes.” I looked down, and the cola had been spilled all over my lap, with no remains of the flame in sight.

The stewardess arrived and rolled her eyes when she looked at me. She brought me some paper towels, and I dried myself off as much as I could.

I excused myself to go to the restroom. I stood in front of the mirror for a few minutes, talking to myself.

“Get yourself together, man. You’ve been hallucinating or something. This flight will be over soon and you’ll get to sleep in your own bed again, and all this will be over.”

I stepped out of the restroom and noticed the woman who had been sitting next to me. She had moved a few seats back and to the other side. I sighed. Can’t blame her, I thought to myself. I walked back to my seat. My side of the row had emptied.

I sat down in the aisle seat of the empty row. I closed my eyes, and in a matter of minutes, was asleep.

I looked out the window expecting to see nothing. What I actually saw was war. There were soldiers running around, tanks, and other such types of weaponry. Military planes and helicopters were flying in every direction, some crashing to the ground. A fierce firefight was happening right below us. Bullets could be heard ricocheting off the sides of the aircraft.

A missile smashed into the tail of the airplane. We started spinning, and all I could hear was screaming. We landed with a jolt, but I knew I was doomed. The plan was on fire, and the flames were spreading quickly. I had no chance to escape.

From somewhere above the plane, a liquid fell upon us and began extinguishing the fire. It was not ordinary water, but I knew the aroma. It was coffee.

I jumped out of my sleep with a gasp.

“This plane is going down.”

I stared at him for several seconds, breathing heavily.

“I know what you saw.”

“What I saw where?”

“In your sleep.”

“You know what I dream?”

“I do. This plane will suffer a similar fate.”

“How would you know all this?”

“Worry not about how I know, only what I know. And I know this plane—“

“—this plane is going down, I know.”

“Do you know? Do you know that is what I was going to say or do you know that is what is going to happen?”

“I … I don’t know.”

“So I see.”

He leaned in close to me, and started to whisper.

“The pilot is dead.”’

“What?”

“The pilot is dead.”

“What?” I repeated, this time louder.

“Speak softly. Do not create an uproar, especially because you would be the target.”

I stared at him.

“Before he died, he locked the door to the cabin. No one else was in there. Now no one can get through the door. The plane is descending, and mountains are ahead. We have thirty-eight minutes.”

“We’ve got to do something.”

“We can do nothing to stop the descent. We do not have the tools to get through the door.”

“I don’t understand how this all happened.”

“Remember I told you that you are causing the plane to crash?”

I nodded.

“That is still true.”

“But how?

“Because you cheated on your wife.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Last night, you met a woman at a bar. You took her to your hotel room and you slept with her. You decided that since you were on a business trip, no one would be hurt by what you did.”

“How…?”

“Remember, it is the what I know, not the how I know.”

“You’re right. I did do that. But how could that have anything to do with this?”

“You contracted a disease last night from your one-night lover. This rare skin disease spread throughout your body overnight. It is incredibly contagious and can be spread by contact. Including— “

“—shaking his hand.”

“Exactly.”

“But why is he dead?”

“Many different things may have been at work.”

“So I did do it… through my mistake, I caused the plane to go down.”

“Exactly.”

I started to cry. “How could I have been so selfish? So stupid! Why must I be the way I am? Why must the mistake of one condemn the rest?”

“There is still hope.”

“How?”

He cupped his hands together, and slowly a parachute appeared between them. “Wear this.”

He picked up the large thick book, and opened it to a page in the middle. He appeared to write something down, then closed the book and looked at me. Smiling, he said, “You will be saved. Just never forget about the parachute. Never take it off. For if you do, that may be the moment the plane crashes.”

“What will happen to the others?”

“Everyone on this plane was given the same choice you were. Not all of them chose the same.” With that, he disappeared.

I quickly strapped the parachute on, and sat back in my seat. A feeling of safety fell over me. I no longer had worries.

“What are you doing?” A woman from behind me blurted. “Why are you wearing a parachute? What an idiot!” She started laughing, as did the other passengers in her row. I sighed. I glanced to the side, and noticed a woman in her early twenties sitting in the seat across from me. She had her legs bent up in front of her with her arms around them. On her back was a parachute. I slowly made my way over to her.

She had a tear rolling down her face. She looked at me, and smiled.

“I did it. I stole the pilot’s wallet. Pick-pocketed him in the airport not two hours before the flight. Kept the money and tossed everything else. I guess there was medicine in there. Turns out he had some major skin allergy that he needed that medicine for. Normally he’s okay without it for a couple days. Something else really bad must have happened too.”

“It wasn’t only you though,” a thick voice from behind us said. The large bearded man stood and turned to the side, revealing the parachute strapped to his back.

“It was all of us,” the elderly woman beside him said. “We all played a part in it. Some of us are being saved because we accepted what we had done, and we believed we could be saved.”

I started to cry, and so did the other three.

I heard a voice in my head say “It is time.” The expressions on the faces of the three others showed they also had heard it. We all stood up, as did several other parachute-bearing passengers, and instinctively formed a line to the exit row with me at the front. Suddenly the exit row door ripped itself off the hinges, flinging itself down to the rocky ground below.

A woman sitting in the exit row yelled out, “What’s going on?”

“We believed.”

“Believed what?”

“That we were causing the plane to crash.”

Her eyes and mouth widened, and she stepped backwards and fell into her chair.

“The crazy man was right?!”

I nodded. “It is time,” I said, and I jumped out of the plane. After pulling the ripcord and releasing the parachute, I looked up to see several other parachutes gliding through the air. Higher above, the woman peered her head out of the exit row door, looking towards the front of the plane. She screamed.

I looked up when I heard the explosion. The plane smashed into the side of the mountain, emitting a ball of fire high into the sky. Two miles away, I landed safely on the ground, with the parachute falling behind me.

Everdork

Due to the excessive dorkiness of my sister-in-law (and, I suppose, myself), I have created a top-ten list of my favorite Everquest 2 zones:

1 Lavastorm
2 Everfrost
3 Nektulos Forest
4 Feerrott
5 Ruins of Varsoon
6 Fallen Gate
7 Temple of Cazic-Thule
8 Enchanted Lands
9 Thundering Steppes
10 Commonlands

So Yeah, I Have a Wife Now

I was nervous, but the ceremony went well, as did the reception. The honeymoon was good fun. A few notes:

- The Rehearsal

The rehearsal itself was fine, and went quickly and smoothly. We then went to the Wok-N-Roll Chinese Buffet in Albert Lea, which was good stuff. I hope everyone who was there liked Chinese.

For my groomsmen gifts, I increased my overall dork ratio by giving each of the groomsmen and ushers a black T-shirt that had their first name in Lord of the Rings tengwar Elvish. I thought it was kinda neato, and unique. The Lord of the Rings card players in the group also each got 4 packs of the Mount Doom set (this would be Tom, Tim, and Troy).

- The Pre-Wedding Bash

The seven of us (Tom, Tim, Erik, David, Troy, Dan, and myself) went bowling. I bowled four games and did neither terribly or wonderfully in any of them, scoring between 103 - 120 each game. It was great fun. We then went back to Tom's parents' house, and played 3 seven player games of Starcraft. Which, lucky me was on the winning team each time. Whooahh. It was most excellent fun, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We stayed up until about 3:30, and I got 3 hours of sleep at most.

- The Wedding Morning

So, I was nervous. I stayed at Ray and Bunny Jepson's house, and I guess I was pacing around and being quite nervous throughout the morning. My stomach was butterfly-filled and I didn't eat anything. I went and picked up the flowers before heading to the church around 10:30 or so. I set up the laptop on the sanctuary, then Erik and I had some time to waste. We were in the kindergarten room, and we decided to try and build a tower of Legos from the table up to the ceiling. After several attempts, and several failures, we got it to stand up without being held. We then through Legos at it to try and knock in down. It was good fun, and was a good wedding-morning diversion.

We dressed in our tuxedos, and then I got to see Megan in her dress, right before the pictures. She was so beautiful, of course I always think she is. For some strange reason, seeing her in her dress actually made me less nervous. Weird huh? I dunno.

- The Ceremony

What a weird feeling. Standing there waiting for your own wedding. Watching your bride walk up the aisle. Holy cow. It went well. The only small problems were quite inconsequential and overall unimportant - the aisle runner slipped, the candles weren't lit when they were supposed to be, and I couldn't quite get Megan's ring on her finger. But if those are the worst things that happened, it went well.

- The Receiving Line and the Reception

I felt a big sense of relief come over me as we were walking out of the sanctuary. All the wedding planning, done. Don't have to think about it anymore. It was wonderful. I'll spare you details about this part, cause, well, you know, you should stay awake.

- The Gift Opening

Now we get to sit around and open presents. What fun! We got lots of nice stuff. My personal favorites being the digital camera (from my brother David) and the TV (from some of our friends... not exactly sure who contributed, but they're wonderful people). And lots of other nice and useful stuff.

- Going Home

We drove home in our balloon-filled and markered-up car, littering the entire city of Clarks Grove. Oops. This may be very un-wedding-day-like, but we stopped by McDonald's on the way home for supper. We decided that we wanted to just make supper quick and get home, because we were both tired. So that's what we did.

- The Wedding Night

Oh, you dirty minded people. I love my wife very much, and I am very thankful that she was sent into my life. I am also very thankful that we both saved ourselves for our wedding night. We were both virgins on that night, and I can think of no better gift to give to your spouse than that.

- The Honeymoon

I'm a little surprised that you're still reading this. I mean, this really isn't very entertaining. But alas, you must be bored. Anyway, the honeymoon was quite fun as well. We flew to Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday, then got on the Carnival Celebration cruise ship on Monday afternoon. It was a five night cruise, and we had stops in Key West, Florida, and Nassau, Bahamas. Good fun. We both got sick with a cold about halfway through, so we ended up missing some things because we were resting and relaxing a lot in our stateroom. Which is okay. We had a nice oceanview from there. It was good fun.

- The Rest of My Life

It may take a little while to get used to being married. I'm sure we will have fights (which we haven't had any through our dating, engagement, and first 10 days of marriage). Most of those fights will probably start because I did something stupid. But I love my wife more than she could ever know, and more than I ever thought I could love someone. I don't want to think about life without her. I am so thankful her and who she is. God is truly good to me.

Nerves

Well, here we are. Three days before the wedding. I've been a little more nervous the last few days. Not because I'm getting cold feet, but because it's such a big change. But I love my fiancee, so it'll be all good. I just hope the wedding goes quickly and relatively smoothly, so we can get to the honeymoon and then get back to life as "normal."

On an unrelated and geekified note, I'm redoing my list of favorite songs. It will be a long process. Here are the top 17, as far as I've gotten thus far:

1 dc Talk: Jesus Freak
2 Project 86: The Spy Hunter
3 Blindside: Pitiful
4 Demon Hunter: Infected
5 Demon Hunter: Undying
6 Skillet: Savior
7 P.O.D.: Will You
8 Showbread: Mouth Like a Magazine
9 P.O.D.: Alive
10 Flyleaf: I'm So Sick
11 P.O.D.: Rock the Party (Off the Hook)
12 Project 86: All of Me
13 Project 86: Me Against Me
14 P.O.D.: Boom
15 Demon Hunter: Not Ready to Die
16 Project 86: Hollow Again
17 Blindside: Sleepwalking

Jesus Freak has been my favorite song for a long time, but its grip on the #1 spot has become a good bit weaker. Maybe at some point it will fall, what a sad day that will be.

Bands

My full list of bands:

1 P.O.D.
2 Demon Hunter
3 Project 86
4 Blindside
5 Kutless
6 Skillet
7 Pillar
8 dc Talk
9 12 Stones
10 Falling Up
11 Flyleaf
12 Relient K
13 Third Day
14 Switchfoot
15 TobyMac
16 Subseven
17 Jeremy Camp
18 Superchic(k)
19 Family Force 5
20 Newsboys
21 Steven Curtis Chapman
22 Audio Adrenaline
23 Rebecca St. James
24 Jars of Clay
25 Showbread
26 Lifehouse
27 Thousand Foot Krutch
28 The Benjamin Gate
29 PFR
30 Dizmas
31 All Star United
32 Spoken
33 MxPx
34 Deleriou5?
35 Krystal Meyers
36 Disciple
37 Kids in the Way
38 Chris Tomlin
39 Supertones
40 Tait
41 John Reuben
42 Bleach
43 Hawk Nelson
44 Casting Crowns
45 Emery
46 Mat Kearney
47 House of Heroes
48 Still Remains
49 Grammatrain
50 Anberlin
51 Sanctus Real
52 Pete Stewart
53 Day of Fire
54 Sonic Flood
55 FM Static
56 Petra
57 KJ52
58 Reality Check
59 Michael W. Smith
60 Seventh Day Slumber
61 Further Seems Forever
62 Pigeon John
63 MewithoutYou
64 The Rocket Summer
65 The Elms
66 BarlowGirl

My list of songs will include of hundreds of songs. That just might take a while.

The Upper Echelons of Dorkdom

Yeah, I'm a dork. But it is all my sister-in-law's fault. I'm going through and changing some of my top ten lists. The Cooproductions site has them all there. I recently redid my movies list, and now I'm working on my bands list. And I need to actually do my Bible verses list. Top ten lists are quite dorky, but I like them, they're fun to make and maintain.

Some of my other dorky qualities include, but are not limited to:

Card playing (Lord of the Rings and Star Wars collectible card games)
Everquest II (Online role-playing games)
Computer geek
Web design
Blogging (No, seriously)
Dorky sense of humor (fan of movies such as Napoleon Dynamite, Dodgeball)
Big Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fan in general
The fact that I am making this list

When writing this, I am making a conscious assumption that I am the only one that will ever read it, which is fine and was expected. If someone happens to be reading this, feel free to drop me a line. Ask a question and I'll (probably) answer it in a blog entry. Not that that's very exciting, but who knows, you may be bored.

The Shell

Yeah, I know. I'm sarcastic. Overly sarcastic. I bet that's my most noticeable personality trait. After questioning why I am this way, I came up with a theory. The Shell Theory.

When I was younger, in grade school, I was made fun of. A lot. Many different days, I came home crying, not wanting to return to school the next day. It was constant and quite harsh, and my feelings were attacked and hurt on a daily basis. Sometimes this included being punched and pushed around. This went on for many years. In 1996, in the middle of my eighth grade year, my family moved from Ironton, Ohio, to Clarks Grove, Minnesota. Personally, I was quite excited about this move - a chance to start over. A clean slate. I wanted to leave my past behind. I wanted to go somewhere where I wasn't the butt of constant jokes.

The move went well, and I started life at the new school. Within the first week, someone made fun of me for some reason. I remember getting quite mad at this - thinking that things are just going to go back to the way they were, and that I was going to me made fun of at this school too. That's when I made a decision - the decision not to care about what other people said. I was then able to brush off any put downs. Soon enough, I wasn't made fun of at all. One of the ways I was able to do this is that I became able to make fun of myself, which I did (and still do) quite often. This grew to being sarcastic towards other people, as well. I've never meant it in a mean way. I do like to make people laugh, but I think I try too hard sometimes, and I push the sarcasm too far.

Looking back at that now, however, I realize what I may have done. I think I created an emotional shell around myself. My emotions were invulnerable to attack - nothing people said could hurt my feelings. However, I also became less emotionally available to my friends when they needed it. Looking back, there are times when I wasn't able to be the type of friend I should have been. I went several years without ever crying about anything.

That shell has been getting cracked over the last few years. This is mainly due to my fiancee, Megan. Being apart from her was hard for me, and a few of the times, I cried when I had to leave her. It was odd; it was a part of me I hadn't seen in years. Just being in love with her as also cracked the shell more. I've noticed the difference in my life. Movies have started affecting me in different ways than they have before (not that I've cried at a movie, however :)).

So here I am today. I am sorry if I come across as a jerk sometimes, but please know that I never mean to. I am tried to become less sarcastic, to not say every clever (to me, at least) statement that pops in my head.

In closing, I love my fiancee. And she is the one that will have to put up with the weird ways of me for the rest of her life. Ha Ha!

Fifty-eight days and counting....