Ok, so I gave it some thought, and I realized, with current gas prices, $20 bearly covers the trip to the post office. Much less, driving back home afterwards! So I'm going to increase the prizes. I haven't decided what yet, but it's going to be an item from one of the gift stores over here. There's another word I want to use to discribe this item, but I can't spell the French word that begins with an S that sums it up. I figure why try?
I will inform all of the winner, and give the winner some choice in the matter. I know that my idea of cool is not always someone elses idea of cool.
Anywho, it's been getting really hot over here. Average 110-115 in the shade. When you hear on the weather report, heat index of 110, that's what it feels like here. The humidity is rather low, so it's not super bad yet. I hear rumors of 140s in July!
I've successfully put together my guitar amplifier! I've been waiting on the mail for my speaker to arrive. In the mean time, I'm using it as an acoustic amplifer using my stereo speakers.
Shooot, times up. Gotta go!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Contest! Winner Receives $$$!!!
Ok y'all. Time for a little fun. I'm calling on all of my readers to participate! I'm in need of supplies and I figured I'd have some fun requesting it. Thus, I will hold a contest. Make that two contests!
Contest 1: Chocolate covered coffee beans
When the days get long, I need a little boost of caffine to keep me going. I'm not a fan of most energy drinks, soda dehydrates you, and coffee takes to long to make in the middle of the day. Thus, chocolate covered coffee beans is a perfect alternative. Some possibilities, spread coffee beans out on a cookie sheet and pour melted chocolate over it. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, bold coffee, flavored coffee, blended coffee, ground coffee. Creativity is encouraged.
Contest 2: Brownies
Everybody knows how to make brownies, but only a few make brownies so good, you swear God himself made them! Creativity is encouraged! Just please leave the nuts out of em. This will lower your score in the first catigory.
The rules:
Both items will be judged in five equal catigories, each worth 20 points:
Taste (Personal opinion)
Order of arrival (First one to arrive gets the maximum 25 points in this catigory.)
Popularity (I will conduct a survey with a small panel of judges carefully selected from my peers.)
Packaging (How well preserved they are. Please note, excessive packaging can cause a loss of points. If it requires a knife and a welding torch to open, you will receive a 0 in this catigory. Use judgement here)
Amount (Too small of amount will make the popularity test invalid. Too large of amount will cause decay before they can be consumed. I don't want to have to bring any of these brownies home with me! Again, use judgement here)
The winner of each contest will receive a check in the mail for $20.
If there are more than 5 participants, 2nd place will recieve $10.
Please note, store bought, pre-packaged items are only eligible for $10 ($5 if 2nd place).
This contest begins on May 22nd and lasts until June 21st. Including one week for shipping time, that gives you just over 3 weeks to prepare some thing and send it in the mail.
Winners will be announced on June 25th.
This contest is open to all readers of this blog, that have my address. If you know me in real life, then you know how to contact my church or my parents for my address. All others are ineligible to participate.
May the best cook win!
Contest 1: Chocolate covered coffee beans
When the days get long, I need a little boost of caffine to keep me going. I'm not a fan of most energy drinks, soda dehydrates you, and coffee takes to long to make in the middle of the day. Thus, chocolate covered coffee beans is a perfect alternative. Some possibilities, spread coffee beans out on a cookie sheet and pour melted chocolate over it. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, bold coffee, flavored coffee, blended coffee, ground coffee. Creativity is encouraged.
Contest 2: Brownies
Everybody knows how to make brownies, but only a few make brownies so good, you swear God himself made them! Creativity is encouraged! Just please leave the nuts out of em. This will lower your score in the first catigory.
The rules:
Both items will be judged in five equal catigories, each worth 20 points:
Taste (Personal opinion)
Order of arrival (First one to arrive gets the maximum 25 points in this catigory.)
Popularity (I will conduct a survey with a small panel of judges carefully selected from my peers.)
Packaging (How well preserved they are. Please note, excessive packaging can cause a loss of points. If it requires a knife and a welding torch to open, you will receive a 0 in this catigory. Use judgement here)
Amount (Too small of amount will make the popularity test invalid. Too large of amount will cause decay before they can be consumed. I don't want to have to bring any of these brownies home with me! Again, use judgement here)
The winner of each contest will receive a check in the mail for $20.
If there are more than 5 participants, 2nd place will recieve $10.
Please note, store bought, pre-packaged items are only eligible for $10 ($5 if 2nd place).
This contest begins on May 22nd and lasts until June 21st. Including one week for shipping time, that gives you just over 3 weeks to prepare some thing and send it in the mail.
Winners will be announced on June 25th.
This contest is open to all readers of this blog, that have my address. If you know me in real life, then you know how to contact my church or my parents for my address. All others are ineligible to participate.
May the best cook win!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
It's Been Awhile...
What's up, my readers? I've been quite busy the past several days and so I haven't had a chance to post. I didn't really come prepared either, so this post is going to be off the top of my head. Beware!
First off, I want to give a shout out to all mothers out there! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! None of us would be here, literally, if it weren't for you!
In other news, my former boss is being very passive agressive and just trying to make life difficult. Although it's been less overall stress, it's still a large source of unneeded stress in my life. The temptation to retaliate is growing ever stronger. Oddly enough, I've been reading Hubakkuk lately and my summary of the book is Hubakkuk saying, "Why is there so much injustice?" and God replies, "Just wait, they'll get what's coming to them!". I take hope in this. :)
Moving on.....my shedule changed again, moved forward by 2 hours. I've yet to reestablish a reutine, I'm still working on that. I'm going to sit down in about an hour and write out a schedule. I've found that when working 12hrs a day and sleeping 8, the remaining 4hrs goes by quick! Those that know me know that I enjoy spontanuity, but with the amount of things that must get done in those 4 hours, I don't have such a luxary. I've even scheduled out the tv shows I watch (which are all on my computer). Each night, there's a different show "on". Thus, I make sure to watch all I've wanted to without keeping myself up watching 4 or 5 in a row.
So far here, the weather hasn't gotten much hotter. It's pretty consistant 100s now. It reached 113 before I left so if anything, it's slightly cooler. The other day, a sandstorm moved in. I had the pleasure of watching it roll in. It was like a storm cloud, but brownish orange. It engulfed the nearby landscape and cast a dark shadow. It looked like a giant hand or maybe a 3000ft wave of sand moving in. I got pictures, but unfortunately, it's quite difficult to post them on my blog anymore. Also, I've started taking pictures with my film camera again. There's no where around here to develope the film, so I'll just keep it in the frig and develope it all when I get back. I bought several different types of film, from slide film, to 25 speed B/W to 3200 speed B/W to 160 speed natural color film and 1600 speed color film. Just a wide range of film to try out. I can't wait to use it all up!
Well, gotta go for now. Quick item of prayer, I've had some struggle getting into the word on a daily basis. It's been draining, and I need to get back to it. Well, I suppose that's all!
Laters!
JP OUT!
First off, I want to give a shout out to all mothers out there! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! None of us would be here, literally, if it weren't for you!
In other news, my former boss is being very passive agressive and just trying to make life difficult. Although it's been less overall stress, it's still a large source of unneeded stress in my life. The temptation to retaliate is growing ever stronger. Oddly enough, I've been reading Hubakkuk lately and my summary of the book is Hubakkuk saying, "Why is there so much injustice?" and God replies, "Just wait, they'll get what's coming to them!". I take hope in this. :)
Moving on.....my shedule changed again, moved forward by 2 hours. I've yet to reestablish a reutine, I'm still working on that. I'm going to sit down in about an hour and write out a schedule. I've found that when working 12hrs a day and sleeping 8, the remaining 4hrs goes by quick! Those that know me know that I enjoy spontanuity, but with the amount of things that must get done in those 4 hours, I don't have such a luxary. I've even scheduled out the tv shows I watch (which are all on my computer). Each night, there's a different show "on". Thus, I make sure to watch all I've wanted to without keeping myself up watching 4 or 5 in a row.
So far here, the weather hasn't gotten much hotter. It's pretty consistant 100s now. It reached 113 before I left so if anything, it's slightly cooler. The other day, a sandstorm moved in. I had the pleasure of watching it roll in. It was like a storm cloud, but brownish orange. It engulfed the nearby landscape and cast a dark shadow. It looked like a giant hand or maybe a 3000ft wave of sand moving in. I got pictures, but unfortunately, it's quite difficult to post them on my blog anymore. Also, I've started taking pictures with my film camera again. There's no where around here to develope the film, so I'll just keep it in the frig and develope it all when I get back. I bought several different types of film, from slide film, to 25 speed B/W to 3200 speed B/W to 160 speed natural color film and 1600 speed color film. Just a wide range of film to try out. I can't wait to use it all up!
Well, gotta go for now. Quick item of prayer, I've had some struggle getting into the word on a daily basis. It's been draining, and I need to get back to it. Well, I suppose that's all!
Laters!
JP OUT!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Quick Post
For a quick audience!
In case you missed it, I am now a biological uncle! I say biological because I "inherited" a nephew in March, but a niece was born in May!
In other news, I have overthrown my "evil" boss. Ok, not evil, but very hard to work with boss. It was determined by his higher ups that we would work more effeciently if we didn't report to him. HAHA! That's a HUGE stress relief! Thank God!
JP OUT!
In case you missed it, I am now a biological uncle! I say biological because I "inherited" a nephew in March, but a niece was born in May!
In other news, I have overthrown my "evil" boss. Ok, not evil, but very hard to work with boss. It was determined by his higher ups that we would work more effeciently if we didn't report to him. HAHA! That's a HUGE stress relief! Thank God!
JP OUT!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
A Double Post! O My!!!
Quick note. I have made it to my base! It's business as usual. My boss is still his, "I wanna strangle this guy" self. I'm really limited on internet access right now so posts will be kinda sparse for now.
JP Out!
Now here's the post you've been waiting for!!!
New connection: 17:59:48
localBlog Entry: 0065
Date: 04252008
Time: 18:01:39
LocalTopic: Summary of leave
Author: JP
I just spent 15 days in my home town. It was, perhaps, the longest 15 days I've ever had. Not that the days dragged on. Not at all! It was more a factor of how much I was able to get done in that amount of time. I went through between 5 and 6 tanks of gas (at 300-400 miles each tank), I took a trip to Chicago, Kankakee, Eidenburgh IN, Bloomington, and countless trips to Eureka. I saw the Art Museum with my best friend, saw one of my favorite bands in concert, ate sushi (yum!) with my pastor, celebrated 4 birthdays including my own, got to see my other best
friend who's in training for deployment, went to my small group bible study (which is full of awesome people), got ALMOST drunk (notice the almost) at beerfest, constructed a guitar amp that I'm shipping to myself, played guitar at church, visted my uncle at his job (his office is really cool!), spent a few hours with my cusin, introduced my lil brother to Calvin and Hobbes (best comic ever) and I now have a girlfriend! Sometimes, I just have to stop and thank God for what I have! A military briefing about leave warned us that leave may actually be a depressing time because either we'll be completely overwhelmed, super busy, and stressed out (which did happen in the first few days), or feel ignored because while we're on break, everyone else is still in normal life. God has definatly blessed me with great friends and family! I think I paid for only 3 or 4 lunches the whole time I was back! (THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!)
It's all too easy to look at the negative sometimes. But I've found that if you can't see the glass half full, at least for a nanosecond from time to time, then life quickly becomes meaningless.In some ways, I feel like I'm still in training. This time however, I'm not learning military stuff, but life stuff. As good as homeschooling has been, there's been some things that it fails to teach. (Anyone considering homeschooling should consider the pros AND cons). I don't regret my up-bringing. However, the military was a culture shock that brought new (to me) circumstances before me that are old news for most people. I've learned a lot, but I feel my "training" is not over yet. This period of leave was like a test to see what I've learned. I'm not there
yet, but definately closer to where I want to be. I've taken mental notes and I'm looking for learning oppertunities. God's not through with me yet!
yet, but definately closer to where I want to be. I've taken mental notes and I'm looking for learning oppertunities. God's not through with me yet!
Now I suppose there are some of you that saw "dating" and freaked, wanting to know more. Then there's some that are reading this and going, "He said dating? Where?". Yes, it's true! Dating is not really the correct term, but I say it so you're not completely lost. I have a significant other. I don't like putting names on the blog so you'll have to find out who through other means. :) I gotta warn you all, she's just as sarcastic as me, if not more so! I think really awesome! We get along very well! Well (ya I know, a hole in the ground :) ), I don't want to put her whole life out here. That's all I'll say for now. Except that she's really cool. Ok, done.
So ya, I just gotta shout out a great big THANKS to all y'all back home! Thank you for your prayers and support as well! You've given me the moral boost I need to go back and face another month of this. Too bad I've more than that left! j/k on the first part. I know I've got support which is enough to keep me going! Support and cookies! *hint hint* lol.
I'll see ya all when I'm done over here!
I'll see ya all when I'm done over here!
JP out
Transmission status: Received
Spell check: Hopeful
Transmission: Complete
Connection Terminated: 18:47:38 local
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