Taking the Brain for a Spin

New design! I needed something different to stare at while I'm trying to figure out what to write.

My brain feels fried. Truthfully, it's felt that way for a long time. Sometimes I don't know what I'm still doing here. I've never been this person - I don't take leaps of faith; I don't like not knowing what happens next; I like feeling safe and comfortable; I don't set myself up for failure.

Does anyone here watch NCIS? It's a great show. My favorite character is Tony DiNozzo, probably because I identify most with him - or at least my version of him. He puts on a big show for everyone of a confident, resourceful person, but inside, he's very insecure and has low self-esteem. Before he found Leroy Jethro Gibbs, he moved from job to job whenever he felt like someone was getting too close.

His life could be a metaphor for my Christian walk. (Not sure where the plague fits in, but I'll find a way to make it work.) I actually see this in a lot of TV shows. Every character feels a void, and they are looking for something to fill it. The shows try to tell you that fame, fortune and family are what you need to make life complete. Yet time and time again, it's clear that even these fictional characters aren't satisfied.

I have tried so hard to be content with where I am, to accept it, to grow, to stretch myself...

It feels like I'm breaking.

I've taken time off, I've reprioritized, I've become more involved at church - still, it feels like I'm holding on by a thread.


This isn't where I intended to end up, but it's where my thoughts took me.

The mind is a dangerous place to dwell.

Idaho and PA-town and randommmmm!

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Flew over it, drove over it, now want to canoe down it.

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This guy was fighting with some geese. And then presumably making fun of them for having to fly in a V formation.

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Would you really be able to climb down that in the event of a fire? Really?

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PA has some pretty awesome trees.

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This fireplace used to sit in the White House. Who moves a fireplace?

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Sweet lighting in the Eisenhower home.

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It would be far too embarrassing to admit how many photos I had to take before the wind actually blew both flags in the right direction.

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It's a mini-Gettysburg! It's also a nice substitute for my beloved electric map.

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Can you tell what part of the battlefield this is depicting? Here's a hint - there was a charge, and it had nothing to do with Pickett.

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This is the last photo I took at my parent's old house. I didn't know it at the time, but I think it's okay.

Fare thee well...

Join me in saying a fond farewell to my lovely friend Emily. Emily is moving to LA to work with YWAM, and while I wish her the best in this endeavor, I shall miss her dearly.

Emily made my life that much brighter.

Wow, it sounds like she died. She didn't. I'm just sad I won't see her very often or get to comment on the way she eats food when she introduces me to a new restaurant.

The OneFives

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There are some freaking awesome trees in Idaho. Like, truly epic.
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Seen outside one of the many churches in Boise. Beautiful.
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I love the color on this, and the closed bud next to the open one.
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I love orange flowers. Does anyone know what kind of plant this is?
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Tiny flowers always amaze me with the amount of detail that is in them.
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I took this at a fish hatchery. Definitely an interesting place to visit.
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What's not to love about this view?

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The road to get up here was wicked.

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Emily asked me how anyone made it across New Mexico because it was so flat and hot. I'm asking how anyone made it across Idaho because of the mountains. (Donner party, anyone?)

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Not sure I want to know where that leads.

June 2012 Radio

In case that isn't working...

This is probably one of my favorite ads we've done. I came up with the idea and wrote the majority of it, plus I got to have an accent (albeit a strange one).

Can you guess the movie we're parodying?

(I haven't actually seen it yet. Is that bad?)

Stuff from my apartment

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I have a cactus! Isn't it cute? It was a gift from my lovely friend Arika.

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I may have a slight obsession with Coca-Cola. I'm working on it.

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Bought these little guys in Sierra Leone. Sums up most of my interactions with people.

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I may also have a slight obsession with Star Wars. Just a tiny bit.

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I needed a better backdrop for these guys, maybe something jungly.

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Nearly started a fire with this candle. Maybe I shouldn't talk about that.

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I think this lamp is my favorite. You can't see the whole thing, but it's pretty awesome.

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I never knew birds laid rocks instead of eggs. But whatever.

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It's embarrassing how many tries it took me to get the tornado going and pick up the camera in time to take the photo. I'm sure I looked ridiculous.

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I find the neatest stuff at Hobby Lobby.

Obstructively Cynical

"One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you alright? At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behaviour. If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months' consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favour of a new one. If they don't keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working. After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical."


Chapter 5, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams