66 and Windy

My heart is flowing up to my lips.
Give me a song.

The wind blows
[What else does it do?]

It blows away the curse
Reveals my heart for spring

Thanking God that I am driving back to the hilltop with my windows down and soul up,
-Sam

Start the March

Back to the march here.

Back at home? Yes, I sniffed the air. Particularly I blew my breath into it. And I hugged my puppy. And I ate awesome food.

Nice holiday it was.

I dislike past tense.

-Sam

Warning:

A metaphor is a code book. A simile is like a pillow.

In reference to television in one his sermons: "People use it as a babysitter - keeps 'em quiet. Damns their soul, but keeps 'em quiet." -Dr. Brown

One the way home my college friend asked me what I thought the two biggest issues are today in working with youth. It didn't take me long to think of them. I paused and thought. "Relationships and sex." I replied. With my passion for youth, and current work and study in youth ministry I cannot deny this or not be aware of it either. With our messed up dating system, young people are more and more confused and misled by sociey on what healthy relationships are. Whether healthy same sex or opposite sex relationships, but especially the latter. Secondly, the chemicals are being ignited and unfortunately bad choices lead to consequences. Sex ranks in my opinion as one of the leading problems as well, if not the top problem. To my surprise and confirmation, she told me her youth leader back at home, concurred with my opinion.

Then out of the blue she just commented, "And your car smells like herbal essences." I laughed wholeheartedly to this. "Ummm...thanks." I said. I then explained that my Mom gave me Green Apple car fresheners for Christmas. I still laugh about this. Not only that but as we were traveling along the highway, she looks out over the fields, and snow, and farms, and perhaps a few horses, and describes the country as "classy and romantic". I laughed again and told her, "Yea, thanks. You're describing the area where I live as classy and romantic. Wow."

Tony invited me to play volleyball with our cousins and himself on Monday. I came over. It's a brilliant idea really. All the girls were at his sister-in-law's baby shower, so all the guys get together for pizza and fierce volleyball. So glad I got to hang out with him. Also told Dwayne about the computer monitor I brought home to shoot. He's like, "No. Bring it over. We'll blow it up." We both laughed. I agreed.

You may have the permission to look at me strange following this news: I have disciplined myself while home on break to complete lots of homework. Yes, yes. Okay, honestly, stop shaking your head. And I've done lots. It's a good feeling.

Tuesdays itinerary was not replete with friends. Went out to eat with Denver, Amber, Dani, RuthAnn, Angela, Keith and myself. Following, we went to [please don't laugh] Pet's Pajamas, and petted some of the puppies there. I took a casual, masculine approach to this intoxication of cuteness. Following, we graced the presence of B&N, complete with stand up relationship discussion and sit down theological discussion. Edifying is the adjective.

I went downtown today and met Netania at CC Coffee Shop. [Learned something new - Hers is a Hebrew name, like mine.] I had coffee and we talked of being adults and the old high school days. Refreshing.

I donned t-shirt and flip-flops and gave Toby a bath today since it was moderately warm. Then I played with Callie and got her all excited, but not without mud on my toes and arms. After supper Mom and I talked while I made chocolatechipcookies. Something I appreciated and made me feel home.

"I'm hoping. Spring - maybe - soon." -my brother Josh

Random.

-Sam

Somnambulism

I found an interesting article online about emailing people in your sleep. Supposedly it's a side effect of prescription medication. There's one you don't see! Side effects: Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Chest Pain, Dizziness, and Somnambulism. If I happen to send you any weird party invitations, disregard them.

"According to a case described in the medical journal Sleep Medicine, a 44-year-old sleepwalker logged onto her computer and emailed out party invitations to friends. Fortean Times magazine looks at this case and several other bizarre episodes of somnambulism.

From Fortean Times:
The mails themselves were perhaps not up to the woman’s waking standard; each was in a random mix of upper and lower case characters, badly formatted and containing odd expressions.

The writers of the report have dubbed this new variation of sleepwalking ‘zzz-mailing’. They say: “We believe writing an email after turning the computer on, connecting to the Internet and remembering the password displayed by our patient is novel. To our knowledge this type of complex behaviour requiring coordinated movements has not been reported before in sleepwalking. She was shocked when she saw these emails, as she did not recall writing them. She did not have any history of night terr­ors or sleepwalking as a child.”

Unlike simple sleepwalking, they argue, the activities the woman engaged in required complex behaviour and coordinated movement, as well being able to remember her login details. She had no memory of the events next day. It’s thought that the somnambulistic episode may have been triggered by prescript­ion medication."

The Thrilling

.
Greek IB Test complete
.
Going home for a week of break.
.
Job interview next week

-Sam

I'm Not Givin Up

ασπαζομαι συ πολυς, πολυς, πλειων κρονοι

My List of Priorities:
1.) Be more materialistic
2.) Screw up work ethic
3.) Take drugs
4.) Eliminate sleeping out of my schedule
5.) Procrastinate
6.) Drink no milk
7.) Include more violence in my daily relations

"The most thoroughly wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed" -Nicolas de Chamfort

I'm tired
And I'm resting in the grace
Of my king
I'm not giving up
Even though I've given up
Everything
[&]
I surrender
To the One
Who asks for my surrender
To my God
Who created me
I'm not ashamed
Of who I am in Christ
I'm not ashamed
Of who I am because of Him
My Abba and Adonai

I Feel...

Stupid highschoolers...It's not that we don't want them here...it's just, well yea, we don't want them here. Brent and I lucked out and we sleep well tonight without intruding guests in our room. However, as I write this I can hear feet running down the hall, and walls being banged. It amuses me how so far removed we college students are from highschool, like that was forever ago. We are so mature now. *laughs* Reminds me of Keith last year. I helped him place duct tape on the floor of his room in 3x3 squares for the kids who were staying in his room - kindly labeled "Person #1" and "Person #2". We also layed a line of duct tape in the middle of the room with "DO NOT CROSS" labeled on it. Ah, memories.

-Sam

Toast

The toaster popped. I jumped up from my seat with the same intensity. I strolled to the toaster thinking about why toaster's popped, and perhaps that the world's great mystery had been solved. So that's why they call them pop-tarts. Then I think of the quote "You can eat pop tarts, TM anytime of the day." I laugh to myself. However, the matter at hand is my toast. Burnt to a crisp as expected. I wave my hand about trying to get the smoke detector to be quiet. Next my attention turns to the toast at hand. Skill is a matter of importance here. Now you musn't get burnt. I could simply pull the tongs out of the drawer and remove the toast, but that would be cheating. Dainty fingers are skillful, but I don't have the fingers, just the skill. I pull my piece of toast with much precision from the hot toaster like pulling a diamond ring from a fire. With much success I let my prize slap on the countertop. Jelly is next on my agenda. Strike that, jam. I lean over and search the refrigerator door for marmalade. Blast! Jam will have to do, but jam is essential for a prize like this. And with delicious spread in hand, I begin the art of applying strawberry jam to burnt toast. Extra heavy to compensate for the taste of charcoal of course, and as I do, a "tra-la-la" comes to mind. Then suddenly, my day has started right.

-Sam

How Many Days are in January?

Pshaw. It's not enough. I mean, I can still see my car! I can still open the door at the bottom of the dorm. People are driving on roads, what is this!? They lifted the snow emergency? More snow! More ice! I have charcoal and lighter fluid! Or maybe let me take back the little heater I gave to Rochelle last week, but then I'll be all set. I mean, c'mon, the professors can still escape from their homes! We're back to having classes! This is not right. I must protest. I am not satisfied. Blizzard conditions! National weather records! I want more! Last semester we had the hurricane, this semester we had a snow storm, but it's really wimpy. Level 3 Snow Emergency for Cincinnati? Level 5 please! I want to go sledding off the roof of my dormitory! Daugh.

*breaks into laughter*

-Sam

(Tree Encased in Ice. 01/28/09)

I've Never Checked the Forecast So Much

If I were at home, I might take a ruler or yardstick out onto the front yard and measure the frozen precipitation. Random. Just to give you a semi-accurate account of the amount of snow received. Since I'm on the 4th floor of a dorm in Cincinnati, I shall not do that this time. However, we've gotten pounded with snow and ice in the last two days here.


This makes me happy. We've had two days off school as a benefit as well. Once again, the adventuresome group of Tattoo, Oreo, Trapper, Osprey, Falcon and Black Owl decided to be adventurous and trekked 1.2 miles through the snow to Panera. We did homework, ate, attempted to stay warm, dried our boots by the fire, and played a game. Much kudos (or as they say in the Greek "κυδος") to Black Owl for his muggable trek back to pick us up.

Due to Day 2's level 3 Snow Emergency issued in Cincinnati, we created our own Coffee Emporium in the Student Center. We did homework and played Scrabble. Crude. Rains. Pixies. Squire. Proven. Leaden. Jot. Gold. Bath. Bins. Stakes. Wider. Yews. Qua.





And I've enjoyed it all. Thank you God for the "bad" weather.

Conversations

Conversation in dorm hallway:

Brennan: (upon exiting from dorm room and encountering Phil & Sam in hallway) "Hey, how are the Greek students?"

Sam: (answers for himself) "Good!"

Phil: (comments about difficulty of Greek IB)

Brennan: (who is no longer in Greek after completing one semester) "I feel like the loser and the rebel, and it feels good."

Sam: (who is in Greek IB) "I feel like the man who persevered, and it feels better."

Brennan and Sam both laugh.

Brennan and Phil exit hallway right.

Sam exits hallway left, and blogs.

The Beauty of Koine Greek

How well do you know English? That's the key. If you don't you will certainly have a hard time understanding hortatory subjunctives, deliberative subjunctives, and prohibitory subjunctives. The latter is what gets me.

First an excerpt, shall we? "The subjunctive mood presents the action of the verb as probable. It expresses an action viewed as potential. Translate with auxiliaries may, might, or should." Next lesson, "Prohibitory subjunctive: The aorist subjunctive with μη prohibits an action and should be translated as a simple command." How can it be a command and be subjunctive? Oxymoronic? Maybe.

Greek also has emphatic negation. Double negatives don't cancel each other out, they increase the negation. However, since we can't use two negatives in English, we translate double negatives in Greek as increased negatives in English. Auxiliaries: never, not at all, by no means.

Indefinite Relative Clauses and....yea.

In other news, eating peanut butter from the jar helps with the confusion.


-Sam

Random

1. I like to change the subject
2. My middle name is Lee
3. I love loud music
4. I love the smell of citrus
5. I bought gum today
6. I can speak short phrases in 9 languages. English. Spanish. French. German. Swahili. Greek. Russian. Hebrew. Arabic.
7. My wall calendar is missing February, March, August and September. I don't know why.
8. My house number is 3839.
9. 218 is my dorm room number.
10. My mailbox number is 313
11. On my bookshelf there are 102 books
12. My favorite shoes are converse
13. I have a deep love of scarves. Just bought a plaid one.
14. Scars fascinate me
15. I eat peanut butter straight from the jar
16. I name everything dear to me. Car: Toby. Computer: Adriana. Guitar: Oscar. Microwave: Dave. Pillow: Carlisa. Ipod: Neo. Cell phone: Sully. Rubber duckie: Chino
17. I just learned to snowboard
18. I preach on Philippians 2:12-18 soon
19. I love dreaming.
20. My Christmas tree is decorated with CD's and DVD's. It's still up.
21. My wall clock is square.
22. I write in my Bible
23. My favorite coffee shop is Coffee Emporium
24. I love punctuation
25. I am paradoxical
26. My chapstick has beeswax in it.
28. My shopping list has hydrogen peroxide and miracle whip on it - among other things.
29. My comforter is plaid. Plaid is dope.
30. I have a cartoon on my door.
31. My abilities include cooking, cleaning and laundering.
32. I have had my hair diffused.
33. I like dill pickles and green olives.
34. I've made chip dip with cottage cheese and spices. It gave my life meaning and purpose.
35. I thrive on randomness, unorginality, and eclecticism.
36. I have a plant. His name is Narcissus.
37. Allergies bother me.
38. I collect lamps
39. I've had 4 ear surgeries
40. I've flown in an airplane with Nate.
41. I've never had 2 sets of dentures.

-Σαμ ΜχΚονκη

Give Me Help

Jogged at 6:00 AM. 17 degrees. I need psychological help.

Am behind on sleep. Homework is literally never-ending.

Smacked my head on the concrete floor while diving playing volleyball. Details are fuzzy. I didn't go unconscious but witnesses said I laid there for a while. I felt woozy the rest of the night, but didn't pass out. My eyes weren't dilated and I had no blurry vision. I'm fine today for which I thank God. One thing bugs me: I never had a headache.

Toby came home from the hospital today with a transplant. He's doing much better.

Sjorring, Denmark's weather calls for rain tomorrow.

And thank you, Tattoo, Black Owl, Osprey & Vulture for the many laughs at supper.

Signing off.
Sincerely and simply,
Sam

011609 - Mission: C6389 (Codename: Random Adventure)

In the spirit of spirits, whose spirits linger in the spirit of friendship, we rendezvoused @ 18:30 for an evening anticipated by much excitement. (This emotion was no shock to us) First on the fun itinerary was a trip to (Classified) Park. There the urge to chase deer was resisted by me, and after said resistance instructed everyone to get out of the car. Tattoo thought surely I was going to line them all up and shoot them, but no, never fear, I, in an even more mysterious manner pulled a box from the trunk and again told them to follow. Once to park grill, I pulled charcoal bag out, doused said charcoal in happy fluid and Tattoo with much excitement (and this excitement leading to failure in correctly lighting phosphorus tipped stick) eventually was able to light the fire, and with a little more happy fluid, and short screams from female agents, we stood warming ourselves in the freezing cold by this fire. It is then that Oreo lamented the lack of marshmallows.

After pictures to document said mission, we left this place and traversed in gold sedan to Location 2: CE/HP. Credit Oreo for mission idea and Falcon for reconnaissance of this locale. CE/DT is our normal pick-up, however, we have found CE/HP to be quite satisfact'ry. (Sat'sfac'try is said in Brit'sh accent) There we merried ourselves with photography, laughter and stories. Added to this merriment was my beverage of Costa Rican coffee. We also pondered giving Untitled the title of Trapper. (She has a lovely green scarf, fit for Ireland.) "Here, lit'l leprachaun...No! Bring the pot'o'gold with ye." She does not agree to this correspondent name, will suit name later. My deepest apologies to the ladies and gents of whom we disrupted their lives by our merriment at this CE location. Also, our deepest apologies to Fluffy and Ginger: may the lives of a thousand coyotes be slain in your honor! Apparently (according to the sign, which happened to strike fear in my heart) there's a coyote problem at Location 2.

While forgetting to vote upon the next stop in our 3 stop adventure, we agreed (in a friendly manner, with no violence) that rendezvous point BN should be our destination, since we were content with coffee breath and not famished of heart nor stomach. Enjoyment was had of picture books, pop-ups, and a book on Ireland for dummies, (which I wonder why there's never any books for smart people!) of which I found the only enjoyment in learning Irish slang. Ask for a lift, not a ride! And I'm not taking the leak out of ya! Convos were pleasant, engaging, thoughtful, and delightful there. Once grouped, we viewed a little sarcasm and we, (Untitled, Falcon, Oreo, Tattoo and Osprey) with smiles on lips, warm hearts, and cold bodies, blew smoke into the air as we ended the evening.

As Bill Harris as so eloquently said: "There are worse things in life than having fun."