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I had an eventful, long, and well-deserved winter break. Of course it's time to hit the books once again in my neverending battle to get a college education. I'll share with you what I did over my winter break if you don't mind. Do you?

Just like last year I did some scrambling to get my Christmas shopping done when I got home. My family had a very relaxing Christmas at home. I completed my FIF collection (finally), and got some high-larious movies. I also got a hacky sack, so now I won't hit Jon's printer with the soccer ball anymore. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life now.

I ate so well over break. It was deeply saddening to start eating diner food again. I am so spoiled. I went to the Outback over the break and got the cheapest steak I could find. It was so good, cooked perfectly. Just before I came back to MD, my parents took me out to a spectacular Chinese buffet. It was really a step up from most other Chinese buffets. Everything was made the right way.

From January 13-23 I went on an RUF missions trip to Peru through MTW (Mission to the World). I must say that it has been the most meaningful missions trip I've ever been on. I'm pretty sure that the people down there have affected me more than I could have affected them. The examples set by several individuals has made me reevaluate my faith and what it means for me to be a Christian. Their desire for God is stronger than mine. If you compliment them on something, they credit it to God, since He has given us our gifts, and because Jesus Christ is our only perfect example of humility and love. This attitude should be in me. If you want to hear more about the trip, ask me.

The work that we did while we were in Lima was to stain and finish benches for the churches, paint rooms and doors, and prepare materials for their Vacation Bible School this summer (our winter is their summer). In the afternoons we played with the local kids in the park. We taught them Ultimate Frisbee among other things. This time in the afternoons really helped MTW make new contacts with the kids in the community. It was awesome to see the kingdom of God spreading in the city.

Classes have started up, and I'm in for another rough semester (Maybe you are too?). I'll keep you updated on how it goes in my usual sporadic style. Ten cuidado, saltamontes.

11/14/02

What's the deal with this year? Is it supposed to be twice as hard as last year? I think I'm struggling in every class I'm taking. No A's as far as I know.

I guess a lot has happened since my last update well over a month ago. It looks like I'm going to be going on a missions trip to Peru with RUF this January. I'm getting pretty excited about the opportunity. We will be staying in Lima, the largest city in the country. We'll be helping do construction with Mission to the World (MTW), as well as help run an Ultimate Frisbee Camp for the local kids. The general idea is to build good relations between the city and MTW, and to attract more local kids to their Sunday School program. It might not seem like a lot, but it really is an important step towards helping MTW to share God's word with the people. It's said that actions speak louder than words.

I went to see Reel Big Fish at the 9:30 club back in October I think. That was fun, Lainey went to the show too. There was a group of kids there, probably like 12 years old or something. Lainey mentioned something about it being past their bedtime to me, and they heard her. I thought that was funny:) I think they hate Lainey now!

Thanksgiving break was quality. I saw family and friends. We had the Hurvitz family over for Thanksgiving dinner, and let me say the food was exquisite. I can't really point out everything about the meal that was great; there were just too many dishes, baby. You can ask me about it if you want. On Saturday morning some friends from CHS and I got some breakfast at Skip's Diner. Quality time was had. Oh boy, here's the clincher of the day: my family and I went out for dim sum at China Pearl in Woburn. We went to another China Pearl several years ago in Boston, and they're actually connected to the one in Woburn. The atmosphere at this place was fantastic. The restaurant was big, had a good theme going, and had some sweet artwork on the ceiling. When it comes to the food, this place meant business. As you may know, the employees come around with carts full of food and you pick what you want from the cart. That's how dim sum works. They had a lot of variety, and there was nothing bad to say about any dish. Lots of shrimp. That meal made my day. After that I got some basketball shoes, so I can compete. Hardcore, of course.

Our loss to Indiana tonight broke my heart. It was ours for the taking at the end of the game and we blew it. Man I got angry. I have to chill out.

Some words of wisdom (I didn't make it up):

Do not say "Why is it that the former days were better than these?" For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this. --Ecclesiastes 7:10 So I guess if schoolwork is really hard, don't wonder why things aren't the way they used to be, 'cause everything goes according to God's plan.

Don't worry not too much longer. I got a feeling I won't be updating this page til after finals. Peace, we outta here! I outta here, I mean.

Check out the milk drinking contest in Misc. Images!!! You better have a good internet connection, there's a lot of pictures!

9/28/02 Been back on campus for a while

Wow, it's been more than a month since my last boring update. I'm just kidding, turkeys are exciting.

It's been good living in LaPlata hall. Adam's my roommate, Brandon and Jon are next door, Jess is down the hall, and Justin, J-Dawg as some call him, is in Ellicott hall. It's a whole lot of fun, but very difficult to get work done:)

A couple random thoughts first:

I rule at Unreal Tournament.

It's hard to face things naked.

I have a ton of Simpsons episodes.

Jon's day is one long nap.

CA's rule.

Safety.

In case you haven't heard, Justin and I pooled our money and bought a box of 200 cd's for $7.00. Yes that's right. The college radio station was sent cd's by tons of artists, and they were trying to get rid of them. Justin and I found a couple of diamonds in the rough, and we're very pleased, him with his jazz infused funk, and me with my rock music. A wicked sweet deal.

On the 17th, Jane, Lainey, a couple other people, and I went to see Ace Troubleshooter at the Ottobar in Baltimore. It was lots of fun, kind of a last minute decision to go. It seemed like no one could go, because it was on the night of an RUF meeting, and also because of homework. I'm glad some people are dedicated enough to go anyways, heh heh. Rock on, you know who you are. So anyways, Two Thiry-eight, Farewell Hope, MeWithoutYou, and of course, Ace Troubleshooter were there. There was one other band there too, I forget who they are. It was a sweet show in my opinion, not that I go to many shows. Coming back from the show was a very interesting ride. Don't worry, after getting lost on the one way streets and almost running through several stop lights, it was smooth sailing.

RUF is really starting to "blossom." A big handful of new people are going, the meetings have been well- organized, and Bible studies are starting up. Nice job you crazy, crazy leaders. Meeting new RUF people has been great. We've had one tailgate party at Steve's house before the FSU game and that was loads of fun. A bunch of us guys covered ourselves in body paint for the game. I was the 'S' in TERPS. I was skeptical at first, but once I started putting on the paint, I really got into it. Unfortunately it rained at the game, and the paint poured off of us in waterfalls of red. But it didn't matter, we were too stoked be cold. I have pink shoelaces now, you should check 'em out. Did we win the game? I'm not going to lie to you. See ya later!

8/22/02

We have wild turkeys living around our house for some reason. Chelmsford doesn't seem like wild turkey territory, does it? I took this picture from my room, about 20 feet away (now under misc. images). Is it Thanksgiving yet?

So what's new around here... only one more day of UPS, and that's tomorrow. If you ever get the chance to work at UPS, don't, unless you're desperate like me. Oh yeah, an interesting story of customer stupidity. I was working overtime last Friday repackaging damaged packages, which I had never done before. I came across this one package that was really wet for some reason, a package from New Mexico on its way to Maine. When I opened it up, I couldn't believe it. It was a regular cardboard box that someone had simply filled with loose peppers. Now, who on earth would think to ship peppers with no insulation, no padding, and no other form of protection, from one end of this country to the other, inside the 100 degree trucks of UPS? Did they honestly believe that they would be fine? Not one of those peppers wasn't rancid, or halfway liquified. Common sense would make the jobs of UPS employees much more bearable.

I just got Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring on DVD. It's my first DVD I've ever gotten. I'm not falling behind the times, am I? Video cassettes are still cool, right? Anyways, I remembered how much I loved that movie, and I can't wait to see the next one. It immerses me into a world of fantasy. Good stuff.

Can't wait to get back to school. Gonna have a good year at 4114 LaPlata hall.

7/31/02

It's been a while since I've updated the page, so I'll put up some useless information.

I ordered some new cd's in the mail, and they're great. I hadn't gotten any new cd's since Christmas, so I was due. Besides I have a job to pay for it. A lousy job, in my opinion, but I'm thankful that I've been provided one. So anyways, I now have two cd's by Ace Troubleshooter: The Madness of the Crowds, and a self-titled. I also have the newest Slick Shoes cd, which is self-titled.

I saw Ace Troubleshooter play with Five Iron Frenzy in fall, 2001 (What a great concert!). They put on a cool show, so I got their 2 albums which are real good. "Phoenix" is a really good song with meaningful lyrics.

Slick Shoes is great, so I expected their latest album to be awesome. It is, so check it out.

UPS makes me want to go back to school. But I am really glad to see friends and my family in Chelmsford. My sister just turned 14 on the 25th. She'll be in the high school this year. Wait, is she really that old already? I missed the family reunion on my mom's side of the fam, but next weekend in NY I'll see my dad's side at the first family reunion in years.

I think the chipmunk that was in my house is gone now. Seriously, it was seen running around the house for like a week. It ran across my chest while I was still in bed one morning.

I just got a new baseball glove for some reason, let's play catch!

7/8/02

Well, life has returned back to normal. With the church missions trip to Mississippi done, my dad, Kevin, and Michelle are back home safe and sound. I was glad to see them and hear the stories from the trip. It feels weird hearing everything secondhand; I'm so used to going myself. I've gone on the four previous trips, and this is the first one I haven't been on. However, I'm really happy for everyone that went this year, and I hope that they've grown in some way. Maybe next year...

The new computer is finished, and I'm very pleased with it. Check out the Misc. Images page. Much thanks to my pal Josh for the video card! It's a 1.5 ghz pentium 4, with 256 MB SDRAM, a geforce 2 mx video card, 20 GB 7200 rpm hard disk drive, and windows xp installed. It's got 2 USB ports hooked up in the front too. A part of me wants to keep it, but my family is due for a new computer. Besides, I didn't pay for it:)

I've decided that after several weeks at UPS that I hate the job. It's so hot and tiring, and frustrating. The only reason I'm doing it is for the money. Here is a list of the top complaints:

• Poor Packaging. Why doesn't anyone tape up their packages properly? It feels like every two seconds I have to put aside a torn open package, or pick up its contents off the floor.
• Hot, hot, hot! When the weather is hot outside, I can assure you, it's at least 10 degrees hotter in the trucks.
• The rollers. The rollers are so bad. It seems like they've never been lubricated, everything gets stuck in them because they're missing some rollers, and everything falls off!

The Perfect Storm is shaping up to be a very interesting read. Thanks Steve. I have to admit, it has some sweeeet action in it.

6/20/02 Down with the DC Talk, yo.

My friend bought me a Philmore shirt for my birthday in March, and I just got it now. The picture is to the left. I was quite excited, seriously. This band is so good, in case you've never heard of them. They are kind of a punk rock band from Oklahoma. By the way, just for fun, you should dig through any of your old cd's or tapes and listen to them. I've rediscovered the wonderful music of DC Talk, Free at Last, their album from 1992. You'll be surprised that you remember the lyrics to like every song from your old tapes/cd's.

I've been working at UPS unloading trucks for three weeks now. The pay is kind of bad at first, since you have to pay union dues. That's right, I'm joining the union, the brotherhood (at least for a while). Although the job is physical labor, it seems like everyone there smokes. Very interesting. Supposedly the trucks can be up to 130 degrees during the summer, but it hasn't been that hot yet. Many people have asked me whether I "get to" wear the brown uniform that UPS has. The sad truth is that those are for the delivery people, the people who drive trucks. Someday though, someday.

I'm working on a project this summer. I'm building a computer for my family, instead of them buying it from Dell or something. I've gotten a case, a fan, a floppy drive, a cd-rw drive, RAM, a sound card, and a power supply. The motherboard, processor, and hard drive are on the way. I'm quite excited. I'll have pictures soon, don't you worry.

About a Boy wasn't really a chick flick, I thought it was hilarious.

Send me an email before I send you one, because I'm seriously considering it.

5/28/02 Been back a while

Well, I've been done with school for more than a week now. It was great to see my family, eat some good food, and do stuff with friends. Everyone seems to be doing ok. I know now that it's going to start to get a little boring around here. My family is either working or in school, and I still have yet to find a job. The choices right now are UPS and Costco. Still haven't heard from UPS.

It sure was a relief to finish all my finals. Especially for a class like ENEE114, a programming class. Hawkins was an insane teacher, thank goodness the book was pretty good. Next semester there is going to be a new teacher to teach that class. I wonder if that teacher will be easier than mine. Sometimes it seems unfair what some people have to go through that others don't. I know that the difficulty level in some classes in college differ drastically depending on which teacher you have. Sometimes you luck out, and other times you get nailed.

I thought Star Wars, episode 2 was good. We're finally getting some history of what leads up to the other episodes.

5/19/02 Ready to go home

I added a new section called Misc. images. I'll probably be updating that page more frequently than others, and I'll let you know. I'll probably end up putting old pictures in there too.

Well, I just finished my second to last final today, which was in programming. You might say it's all downhill from here, nice and easy. I can't wait to go home, to see my all my high school friends and of course the youth group. I'm also going to miss all my friends at UMD, it'll be a long summer. I hope all you ladies keep in touch. Heh heh. Dill, it's time to find a job, before all the high schoolers gobble them up. Eh, they probably already have. As long as I'm not at Shop 'n Save again. I swear, no matter what, at the end of the day your hands smell like cold cuts and plastic bags.

5/13/02 Some thoughts on freshman year:

This year has been quite different from what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a huge change from High School, that the classes would be more formal, and that the people would be much more serious about schoolwork.

It turns out that college is a lot like high school. There are those people that spend every blessed moment of the day studying, and then there are still the people that don't care about their grades. The mix of students is very similar to high school in my opinion. As for the classes, most of them are also the same as in high school. It's true that in some classes all the professors do is lecture at you, but for most of them you can freely ask questions at any point, and you can also ask a lot of questions in the discussions of course.

College may be pretty difficult at times, but not impossible. Anyways, that's what I think, but maybe college is just what you expected. Oh well. I think I'm going to like it here.