applebees

Today I played basketball. I paused for a moment while writing "Basketball" because I was trying to find a play on words to make it sound like the sport sucks... but I thought of nothing creative, and now i'm rambling.

I am pretty natural when it comes to sports. I can pick up quickly on most sports, and I love being active, working out, doing martial arts, ping pong (yes, it IS a sport!), soccer, football, ultimate frisbee, broomball, biking, jogging, kickboxing, boxing, and anything else you can imagine.

But... I have two exceptions. I hate baseball because it's boring and waayyy too slow moving. The founders of baseball were like: "I am slow and fat and unathletic, what sport can we create to look cool while being lazy at the same time?" And hence the creation of baseball. And so I hate the sport with everything in me.

Secondly, I hate basketball. A few reasons have fueled my intense un-desire for the popular sport... but a few of them are:

I have glasses, so I am afraid that they'll be destroyed during a game, so I don't play as intense as I would without them

I don't know all the rules. I was defending a guy from shooting, and I extended my arm to hold him back, and then everyone agreed that it was a foul, then they got the ball at the top of the 3 point line.

A few minutes later, everyone else starts doing the same stiff-arm move that I previously got called out on, but no one says anything, and they are all very obvious. I think they change the rules in the middle of the game so it's easier for them to win.

Also, I have no game. I am usually good at any sport, even if I just start it. But, this is not the case with this cursed game. You are supposed to lob a rotund object ten feet in the air and pray to god that it falls within a tiny metal ring that is not much bigger than the orb itself. It is nearly impossible, and I swear that the guys I play with have magic powers or use high powered magnets to score.

I'm that awkward guy on the court that no one wants to pass to that when he gets the ball he kind of starts to freak out because he never gets the ball, so he ahs no idea what to do with it.

It's weird, I have never been in that position in my entire life aside from on the basketball court. I hate that feeling.

Ooh, so me and Matt, my friend visiting over the weekend from Indiana for my birthday, went to visit one of our friends that was in Minnesota for a college visit. We were going to meet at Applebees, because they are famous for being open late, and we were going to meet at about 10:00pm. So, we Google Applebees to see what comes up, and we find their main website.

I was happy that I found it so quickly, so I went on it, but I couldn't for the life of me find the store hours. So, I went of their "FAQS" page. They had every question (I kid you not) from "Can I open my own Applebees store?" to "What animal welfare standards does Applebees have?"

And, what do you know, no closing times were listed. Haha.
I finally found it on Dexknows.com and called the store directly. It was quit humorous.

Okay, i have to go. My resolution for today is to set up a system in which I can organize my life and be less stressed and get more things accomplished as a result of it. I will write more about it later.

welcome to geek-dome; we've been expecting you

The splits are going pretty well. Is it normal to hurt all the time when stretching so often? My legs hurt kinda all the time now. Not a bad pain, it's a good pain... but it is kind of sucky to walk and wince. But, I am determined to achieve it in one month.

My friends notified me that it is ten times easier for females to do the splits than males. So, comparing myself to an athletic 19 yar old girl who could do it in one month is unrealistic.

But, you know what? If my life was based on normal and sub-par things, what fun would that be? I can do it in one month. And when I get it, I will go further than the splits. I will set books under my feet when I do the splits so I stretch past the splits.

That's right, I'm hardcore.

Okay, if you've started to think: "Wow, Ben is so cool." Then what I am about to tell you next will completely destroy that presumption of my character. Which, I don't really care what you think, because what I am about to tell you is freaking awesome.

I hung out with Josh Gates for like 8 hours the other day. He is awesome. That was sooo fun! No, that was not the thing that makes you think I am uncool, because anyone friends with Josh is automatically awesome.
Josh got a new awesome hobby. It's called SpeedStacking. It is a series of plastic cups in which you have to stack the cups on top of each other in pyramids in various amounts... it is so addicting!! Josh and I did doubles, where we each used one arm, so it's basically two different people only using one arm. It is sooo fun!
We pwned.

And, we played Batle for Middle Earth on PC. For those of you who have been saving your soul from geek-dome and nerdiness, I may have to define what "BFME" is. (Battle for Middle Earth)

It is a computer game in which you command the armies of Lord of the Rings against the forces of Mordor and Isengard. Josh and I took on 6 armies on hard and we only used two people to do so. We didn;t use our armies, we only used 2 heroes and we destroyed 6 hard armies.

That may sounds impressive even if you don't know what it's like, but for those of you who have played BFME, you will be sweating jealousy at our mad skillz.

Right now I am at school and I am here with no classes until 6:00pm... if you glance at the time of this post it is 12:40pm. Yeah, my life sucks.

So, I will now go to Caribou Coffee to be productive with writing my book and I might actually start on an assignment that's due tonight.

new look

I changed the look of my blog as you can tell. I love it and I hope you do too.

I'm about to go to bed, it's really late... but before I do, I would like to express my happiness at how spring-ish it's been the past few days. So, I will share a poem with you about spring that I wrote a while ago.


The rain falls ever down,
The grass likes the shower,
The mice chatter and frown,
The bugs hide and cower.

The birds caw and coo,
The fawns leap and prance,
The cows chew and moo,
The frogs croak and dance.

The rain goes pitter-patter,
The animals prance and dance.

When spring time is here,
Rain is always near.



Let's just hope the rain stays away for now. But, I hope you're all enjoying the weather as much as I am!

hello world

My resolution for yesterday was the start daily stretching, my ultimate goal is to be able to do the sideways splits by April 22nd.

Okay, to set this resolution, I had two sources for the inspiration. One of them being a co-worker. Her name is Catalina. We work together at least once a week; she's really nice. Anyways, she was just telling me of how she could now do the splits. She said that a month ago, she could barely do anything, but now she could easily do the complete splits. She then explained the stretches that she does so she got to this point. The whole time I was thinking to myself: "If she can do it, then I can do it."

Then the last straw for me to get me off of my lazy butt was the new blog I found. I mentioned it in my last blog update. Anyways, the writer is around 40 years old and can do the splits. Wow. I desperately hope I am that limber when I am 40.

So, after having a 19 year old girl and a 40 year old woman both able to do the splits while me, an athletic 18 year old male is still restricted makes me want to break down my physical barriers. I have always wanted to do the splits, but I've never dedicated time to stretching.
After realizing that I do Jiu Jitsu, soccer, running, kickboxing, and frequently daydream about being a ninja then it hit me: I have not attempted to increase my level of skill. I have been practicing some pretty cool kicks on my bag in the basement, but I have not gone for aerial moves yet. I know I can do it, but I have not dedicated time to it. After I can do the splits, I think I'll be able to do a lot more than I can do now.


Anyways, yes, I had a mini pity party for myself before deciding that I need to set higher goals for myself and keep myself accountable to those goals... hence this blog.

I still cannot find my checkbook. Yes, it's been about 2 months now. This is really scary. In my most recent bank statement, all the purchases have been my own... so, it still has to be in the house somewhere, it's just that I have turned the house inside out and it is still hidden somewhere in the dark corners of my lacking peripheral vision.

Speaking of peripheral vision... I have decided that I will continue going to Target until I can put in contacts. This is something I have to conquer. I am not scared of many things in this world. I can think of three off the top of my head: Clowns, peanut butter sticking to the roof of my mouth, and putting in contacts.

Maybe not in that specific order, but the point is, that I am seriously scared to touch my eye.

My book is coming along well. I have not blogged about it in a while, have I? Have I even gone into detail of it before? I can't remember. Anyways, I just bought a book online about co-authoring business contracts. Yes, I need to write a contract now so that when I finish, my co-author won't suddenly say he gets 70% of royalties. (which would never happen, he's a very nice man) but, I need to be safe. And, our business agreement needs to be put on paper.

A producer in CA is looking at my story line as a possible movie idea. I don't think i've written on this before. But, the goal of the book is to get it published, then, Lord willing, turn it into a movie.

As I said, a producer in CA loves the idea. A directer in heaven knows where said that he and his entire family (all in the movie making business) love the story line and want the book to be done quickly so they can work on it.

To give you some perspective here... the directer is one of the three men George W. Bush consulted before he sent troops into Iraq. He was a consulter to the President. Dude. And, one os his sons is a movie critique, and another one of his sons is a freakishly talented special effects guy who was invited to do graphics for the new movie Avatar.

Yes, they want to make the book from an 18 year old author into a movie.

good and not so good

Today was a mixture of the great and the not-so-great.

Let's start with the not-so-great.
I had my near death experience scheduled for 2:00 today at Target. I was supposed to sit in a swivley chair until I could plant a contact lense onto my eyeball. I sat in that chair for one hour. One long hour I repeatedly touched a lense to my eye. After being irritated for 60 minutes, my eye started watering and was very bloodshot. I never actually got it in. For one hour I failed time and time again to get it in. I was right... I should have brought a sweat towel. It was hard work.

I had red pressure marks under my eyes from holding it to my cheekbone, and a red pressure mark on my forhead from pinning my eyelashes to the bone. Apparently it is pretty easy to put contacts in. Major emphasis on "apparently".

The good part(s) of the day were:

Church. We visited a church about four minutes from our house called Crossroads. It was seriously exactly what I wanted in the church, in every aspect. The people were young-ish, there were a lot of youth, the pastor was awesome, the worship was so kick-butt it's not even funny, and there is about 500 people (perfect number I think). Needless to say, I want to go there. It is the first church that we've visited, and I think our search is over.

Another great part of my day was finding an incredible blog online. I was searching for a ninja training summer camp... yes, I do do strange things in my free time... when Google directed me to a blog. It is a blog of a 40 year old woman who is an author and recently wrote a book with the main charecter being an athletic young woman who is an adventurer much like a female version of Indiana Jones. Anyways, she realized after writing the book that the charecter is exactly what she wanted to be, but she never dedicated the time or effort to do the extreme things that her character does. So, this blog is her journey to become like her character. She takes Freerunning classes, martial arts, learns how to pick locks... it is so cool. She is a single woman, never married, no children, so she wants to make the most of the extra money she has.

Here is the link. If you have extra time, read it. Start at the beginning though, it's totally worth it. http://www.becominglayla.com/

My resolution for tomorrow is to start my way to be able to do the splits. I will start with the sideways splits. I would like to eventually be able to do the splits both ways. I will start with the sideways one facing both ways. I want to be able to do it in one month. So, April 22nd it is. I'd better own!!

contacts

My birthday was yesterday. I am now 18 years of age. That makes me happy. I feel older already, actually. I believe that this is the first year in which I feel older the day after my actual birthday; it usually has to sink in for about a month or so. I think the ecxeption is this year is that i've been wanting to be 18 for a long time, and the past few months I feel like i'm 18 because I hang out with people older than me, and go to a Tech college, I drive myself places, I have a job, I floss my teeth, I am semi-responsible, my room is usually messy... the average 18 year old duties and responsabilities I am now doing = I feel like i'm 18
At least that is my humble theory.

So, for my birthday present I got contacts! Yes, like the ones you put in your eyes. I will no longer have glasses! I do like my glasses, and I will occasionally wear them to look smarter, or if my eyes are just hurting... but, contacts are the new age of... civilization? Maybe just Ben's life, I think contacts took over the "glassed" community a while ago.

Interesting story. Do you like stories? Good, because so do I. I like to tell them and you like to listen to them; wow, we make a good team! Hey, you'd love my blog! Oh, wait, you're on my blog!! I guess you DO love my stories!

That makes me happy.

Back to the story. So, this morning I went to Target(R) (In case you're wondering what that: (R) is doing there, it is because there is nowhere that I can see on my keyboard that has a circle... and I want to warn you that the name of Target(R) is reserved...)
Anyways, I was in the Vision section of Target(R) at 10:00am this morning. If you know me well enough you should be gasping: "Ben!! What are you doing in a public setting at 10:00am? Don't you become fully human around 11:30?"
To that I would say: I was not fully human.

So, the not fully human version of Ben was in the vision section of Target(R) when I had to wait for 30 minutes for my appointment... it was their fault, I started 30 minutes later than I was scheduled. But, I was kept company by farm animals laying on the table in front of me. They were very disproportional... the chicken was as tall as the horse. They either bred pigmy horses or monster chickens. It scares me either way.

After playing with the farm animals, the doctor finally came out I think his full title is something like: "Optical-doctor-put-my-finger-in-your-eye-took-10-years-of-classes-and-have-my-PHD-so-I-can-ask-people-what-letters-they-can-read-on-a-chart.

But, he had the shortened version of his title on his name-tag, because it would be one large name-tag to fit his whole title. So it said something like: Optometrist.

Anyways, the scary eye torture dude took me into his lair. I was nervous because I knew he would flash bright lights in my eyes and want to poke it. I don't like bright lights or poky thingies near my precious eye balls. I ask him not to dialate my eyes when I first walk in because I need to work a 5 hour shift and I need to have normal sized pupils in order to not freak people out... they might think i'm a follower of Voldemort with black eyes...

I think he was dissapointed that he couldn't dialate my eyes. He shone some bright lights in my eyes, which left blue spots all around the room. I hate that sensation with a firey passion. It feels like i'm going blind when that happens.

The worst part by far was when he had to put the contacts in my eyes. He had to measure my eyeballs and see how the contacts fit. Usually it takes about 3 times to put a lense in an eye but it took him about 30 times for the right eye, and over 40 for the left. It was... soooo bad.

Halfway through, my eyes were sore, watering, and I was weak from flexing (flexing while he does it makes me feel tough like I can endure the torture of him touching my eyeball). When I said: "I bet this is what hell will be like, someone contsantly trying to put a contact lense in your eye but it never going in." He laughed really hard.

When he got them both in it was amazing. I had better than 20/20 vision according to my eye test with the contacts, and I finally had peripheral vision for the first time ever. It was heaven.

I can put contacts in for the first time by myself tomorrow. I have another appointment tomorrow to have some vision ladies help me learn how to put it in. It will be soooo terrible. Seriously, it will take at least two hours to just put it in and then take them out. Wow... I should bring a sweat towel with me.

Wish me luck.

smiles

Today is the best day that I have had that I can remember. Honestly, I cannot describe with words how much it rocks.

Lets put this feeling into perspective. Today is awesomer than all these things:

Getting a girlfriend
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Roller Coasters
Writing
Women in general (Hard to beat this one for sure)
Caribou Coffee (Also difficult to beat)
And glasses that make you look smarter

Have you guessed it yet?! It's called JESUS!! Today my life is different. Do you know those times when you can point to and you say to yourself: "That was a monumental change in my life". I think today was one of them. I just decided to surrender everything I was to God, which I knew I was supposed to do since I was 5 years old, but lately I've noticed how big of a loser I am and how much I need God to live. The verse in 2nd Corinthians really stands out to me that says: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
That verse is one of my favorite. It reminds me that me as a human being does not have to be strong whatsoever. It reminds me that in order to survive, I NEED to acknowledge my weakness. And through some circumstances lately I cannot help but notice how weak I am. It is impossible to deny how lame I am without God, and I feel inredible now that i've re-come to that realization.

So, participate in my rejoicing with me! Get up off of your seat and dance! Groove like Jesus would!

So, yes, my day has been amazing.
I got up at 12:00 after dreaming about meeting he girl I was supposed to marry, then she told me that she was engaged and getting married in 30 days. Wow, talk about a deppressing dream.. right? After I woke up I took a wonderful shower, read my Bible, then started researching Revelation in detail. I read Revelation for a while, then talked with my dad about different views on the end times, then I read some Biblical Commentaries, then watched a pod-cast from a kick-butt preacher about it. And as I type this I am in Caribou after an hour of researching and taking notes.

I have spent at least 5 hours researching Revelaion today. I cannot think of a better way to spend my Spring Break than spending all day in the Bible, praying, and listening to preachers. I cannot describe in words how much I wish I could dance well, because right now I feel like dancing!!

So, if lately you've felt like a loser, like you are weak... maybe life at home with your siblings aren't honoring to God... maybe you've lost track of God in your day to day life... remember, that reading the Bible will re-set your heart to the desires of God. Spnd time with Him. He wants to be with you, all you need to do is let Him talk with you.

He will never dissapoint you.