Chili Verde

Tonight Maggs and I dropped by my parent's for dinner. We had chili verde, which is probably my second most favorite dinner of my mom's cooking after German beer roast and spetzla. I always enjoy it and it has been far too long since I had it last. It was interesting tonight though, because it turned out red instead of green, which kind of defeats the name, but it still held true to its taste. I won't disclose to you just how much I ate, but I will say that I enjoyed every last bit of it.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to go shooting, but I was planning on going with somebody and Matt isn't online and Mike isn't anywhere to be found. I just picked up my new SKS and cleaned it today, so I'm all fired up and ready to shoot it. I can go alone, but I'd much rather go with Matt or Mike. Oh well, I'll just try to get a hold of them tomorrow I suppose.

It's getting late and I'm beat after today. I dug a trench for five hours and the resulting soreness is starting to set in right now. I really need to hit the sack and sleep till eleven tomorrow. So, with that, I'm off to bed. G'night.

John Kerry

Well, I watched the debate last night and I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. I think that Bush met his expectations and established himself once again as the truth teller. His sincerity was as it always is and his words were well thought out.
Kerry, however, performed above the expectations of the people and forged some respectability and effectively presented himself as a potential Commander in Chief. He may be insincere, but he hid it a little too well for my comfort. I think that Kerry made the most progress in the debate because he gained, while Bush simply reestablished himself, remaining consistent, but not meeting Kerry with the supreme authority we all thought he'd have.
The major draw back for Bush was that Kerry was expected to come out and be his normal self (putting his foot into his mouth), but he instead presented an extremely reserved Kerry, who was polite and well mannered. He wasn't himself.
Anyway, I think we’re going to see a much closer race now than I thought, which is not encouraging.

Happy Birthday Leah!

I went shooting again yesterday, but this time Maggie went. It was her first time shooting a gun. She did pretty well. I think she'd do better if we had a .22 though, so I'm going to look into one for her. Right now I'm looking at possibly getting what's called a 9x18 Makarov, which is much like a 9mm, but takes a different ammo. The ammo's cheaper than 9mm ammo, so I wouldn't mind getting it.

We spent the whole day with Matt and Lorra, which was an excellent time. We enjoyed an early dinner at Claim Jumper and then went back to our house and talked until 8:30. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy the company of those two.

It's My sister's birthday today! So, I just wanted to say to you Leah, Happy Birthday!

The Blogmaster has returned

Well, I planned my lesson tonight and have been chatting at Crosswalk, which is a great place for Christian fellowship. I go there and answer questions or even ask them. It's a lot of fun there and I'd recommend that anyone reading about this take the time to sign up with it and check it out.

I'm just about ready to go to bed, but I'm staying up just long enough to post, because it's important to me.

Before Apologetics

Well, it's 6:15 and nobody's arrived just yet. I had a great day today. I worked hard and got to talk with the new guy all about the differences between Catholosism and Christianity. He disagrees a great deal with a lot of the things the Catholic church believes. I tried to give him clarification on the things he wasn't sure about and he seemed to see the Christian point of view.

I just bought him a Bible to study. He said he has a Bible, but he has no idea where it is and doesn't like the fact that it's in Spanish. He speaks Spanish and his family is Spanish, but he comprehends written English better. I told him I'd buy him a Bible, so I just ordered an NIV. That's an excellent version in my personal opinion. He's not going all scholarly yet ( in which case I'd go for NASB), so the NIV is a better translation. The reason I think that is because it translates in such a way that the sentence structure and wordage is more aligned with the way we speak it and read it today, whereas the NASB is word for word with the Greek, which sometimes leads to a little confusion when not made aware of its method of translation. An example is as follows:

Luke 21:25-28 (NIV)
25"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

Luke 21:25-28 (NASB)
25 "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 "(22) Then they will see (23) THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. 28 "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because (24) your redemption is drawing near."

Not a huge problem, but it could create a little confusion without the sentence breaks and so forth. I studied the Greek in this small exerpt and presented it to my Greek class. In my findings, the NIV translated it very well, whereas the NASB translated it very well, but the order of the words was left intact. This creates a little bit of a challenge. Anyway, I need to go pick up Mike now. Talk to you all later.

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Butterfly Effect & 13 Going On 30

Butterfly Effect


This movie was incredible for its premise, but terrible for its vulgarity and sexual crudeness. I'm glad to have seen it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. Leah recommended seeing it, but she did so without memory of the reasons for the R rating. I don't blame her and I'm not upset by it because the movie was very impressive in many aspects.

The idea goes like this: The main character is plagued by inexplicable black outs during his life. They occur during the most traumatic moments in his life, so he's deprived of the emotional damage that his friends experience around him.
As the story begins he begins writing from day to day into his journal. When the story becomes interesting instead of confusing, you are shown his amazing curse. Upon reading his past journal entries, a thing he'd never done before, the world around him begins to shake and change. Suddenly he finds himself experiencing that moment in time over again, which happened to be during what he remembered as a black out, but now he had the complete ability to do as he pleased. I thought that it would certainly be some sort of dream at first, but when the memory ends, his life has changed significantly. This leads to an ever worsening alternate reality each time he tries to change his future.
It's a radical ride, but I was unimpressed by the overusage of harsh language and sexual references. It really subtracted from the movie in a way that finally reduced its ability to redeem itself. I've taken from it what I enjoyed and prefer to remember it that way, but, as I've already said, I could never recommend it in good conscience.


13 Going On 30


13 Going On 30 was actually a very enjoyable movie. There wasn't much about it other than some language and a few innuendos. I don't condone those things, but the movie redeemed itself overall. It was very funny in a great many ways and actually reached a real level of emotion instead of a completely cheesy movie. In other words, the movie had some good meaning to it. I'd recommend it, so I don't want to give too much away.

Shots Fired

Winchester 1300 Defender

Well, I've recently been out shooting lately. Until two weeks ago, I'd never shot a gun, but thanks be to Scott, he took me out. I've now decided that I need to buy a gun of my own, so after looking around a lot and learning about the different guns, I think I'll probably be buying the one you see here.

I've wanted to go shooting since I was young, but things never worked out. Time passed and I told different people I'd never shot a gun and finally Scott set up a time and a place. I was there. My first shot I hit my target, which was a clay pigeon (they look like mini frisbees and are thrown into the air as moving targets), but, after stunning everybody with my beginner's luck, I didn't hit my next five. It was one of the coolest experiences I've had in a while.

Now that I've gotten a taste for it, I'm very excited to purchase my first gun. I'm still considering a hand gun as a first, but the shotgun is the less expensive of the two and I found one I liked right away. We'll see what becomes of it.

In case you hadn't noticed, I haven't been updating a lot lately and others, which I badgered to post in the beginning, have. Out of guilt and a desire to come back to the blogger world, I've returned with a new and improved style and a kick butt return post. (It's kick butt because it has a picture)

Look forward to more frequent posting. L8z.