I saw the new SpiderMan movie on Friday night. It was good, and really funny, but the ending was so sad. He had to say no, to protect her, because he really did care about her... it was the ultimate ironic twist.  But I still want them to be together.

If someone is smoking near you, and you kill them, it’s not illegal, it’s self-defense. They were trying to kill you first.

Fall semester begins.  So far it’s been pretty hectic and crazy, but fun.

The moving-back-to-school process began last Saturday.  Or at least, that was the plan.  But it turned out that the house wasn’t quite ready... which ended up being a good thing, because it stormed really bad all day Saturday.  It literally didn’t rain all summer in my area; we are in one of the worst droughts we’ve had.  But Saturday, the day I was scheduled to move to school, it rained 2 inches.  Isn’t it ironic?  Isn’t it?  But it felt so good to experience rain for the first time in months.

So, we ended up moving in on Sunday instead.  My friend Konstantin (well, his dad) bought a townhouse near school, and with his dad and his brother Dmitri, he re-carpeted and painted the whole house.  In a week or two the basement will be my bedroom -- it’s giant, it has a door to the giant backyard, and it’s going to have a full bathroom once the drywalling and painting is finished.  In the meantime I’m in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

Living with Konstantin and Dmitri is so fun.  They are very Russian -- they speak it all the time around the house -- and since they were born and raised in Ukraine, they have a rich culture about them that you don’t often see in America.  So hopefully I can learn some Russian so that I know what they’re saying when they talk about me.

Once again, Moms (and I guess Dads, too) all across the nation are experiencing seperation anxiety after helping to ’plant’ their precious kids at college and I’m no exception. I will never get used to saying goodbye and sending any of my children away, even if it is only for a short while.  I ’d better not get into too much emotional stuff or I’ll just embarrass you in front of the entire WWW (YIKES!!!)  I pray that God blesses you and your friends with much comfort, safety and fun, too, in your new dwelling place this year at PSU.  I’m so very proud of you and the effort and time you put into your education.  Keep working hard;  I know He is blessing all those efforts, too.  lvuNmsu

I’m hoping those monsters eventually catch that cat. Every once in a while it looks like they are gaining on him.

hey there...i kind of stumbled upon your site and was glad to read of a fellow Christian who is REALLY a Christian. i attend Messiah College here in PA, and it’s upsetting to see so many people here, at a Christian college, who claim to be Christian but don’t really live it, or don’t fully understand what it means to live it. i used to be the same way, i guess, but i’ve definitely seen the error of my ways. it’s also interesting that you go to Penn State. I have a cousin and a few friends who go there, and i only live about 45 minutes from there. well, i just wanted to let you know that i like your site and that you have great taste in music. and keep living the faith...the world needs more Christians like you! God Bless!

p.s. I absolutely L O V E your little kitty in the letterhead!  Sooo adorable!  I’ll have to send a picture of my "Toni".  She’s an adorable calico, but a HUGE, mancoon breed...just 1 yr. old :)

trying to understand their style. Drumming is dull & ho-hum.  But I like the sound @ the 2nd half of this piece a lot :)  Very cool.  I need an upgrade from my Benwin 18W to understand their lyrics though :(  Too far behind the accoustics.  Any suggestions for nice speakers?  Well,  back to DaveMatthewsBand for now  :)    Have a great day!

Today was a perfect day, surely the nicest day we’ve had all summer. It was cool and breezy instead of nauseatingly hot, and it reminded me that fall is soon here and the earth will be pretty again. That makes me happy, and yet there’s always a strong melancholy mood that falls over me when the weather changes sharply.  I can’t explain it exactly.  It’s not depressed or hopeless -- nothing like that.  It’s just strongly somber, sadly thoughtful... rather, thoughtfully sad.  Now I’m sure I’ve lost you.  The strange part is, it’s very comforting; I am quite content to be so melancholy.

Hi Anthony! It felt sad, not getting to spend any amount of real time w/you when I visited last.  Hopefully I’ll see you more next time  ...in September :)  Take care...  LVU

Woohoo, it’s new chair day at Unisys! These new chairs have adjustable-everything... height, back angle, rocking angle, lumbar support, throttle adjustment, water pressure, climate control... and on top of all that, Leigh brought in doughnuts today!

Back to work now, in my comfy new chair (after my doughnut, that is...).

To what end do we proceed so boldly,
If all we are is chemical reactions?
And what world have you so deftly sold me,
If you reduce me, if I have no soul to touch?

No heart to love, no evil to rise up above?
No angels and no ghosts, no real victories to toast?
If you believe that this is true then I must ask,
To what end do you proceed?

No fire in our eyes, no steel in our hearts?
No magic in our songs, are we just empty vessels?

Did I not feel your love, did I not feel your hate?
And did my heart just not leap, and did my heart not break?

And are these tears for naught, and are these words in vain?
If this is all we are then what have we to gain?

What of all the art and books, music and poetry?
What of all our memories, what of our hopes and dreams?

If they hold no value then we hold no faith but greed.
So I must ask you, to what end do we proceed?

- Thrice, "To What End"

Your new favorite website is HomeStarRunner. Check out strong bad’s email, it’s so funny. Extra special thanks to k diggity, good lookin’ out on this find.

We need to blow up every single government building in Palestine and set up martial law there. Our troops need to hunt down and kill the spineless cowards who run the groups responsible for the suicide bombings and other civilian murders. The "Palestinian Authority" is a joke, and Yasser Arafat is a joke.

These savages need to learn, indeed, must be forced to understand, that killing civilians is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.  Why isn’t anyone sending them that message?  Why are we letting them kill hundreds of women and children this way?

War is an engagment between armies.  Killing women, children and other civilians is not.  It is a selfish act of cowardice.  War involves willing participants.  Civilians by definition are not willing participants.

These people are killing civilians, and their government is allowing it.  It’s been going on for years, and they’ve made it clear that they have no intention of stopping it.  So someone needs to force them to stop it.

I’m so tired of hearing biased, feminist reporting on other cultures in our world. Reports on middle-east countries, or reports like the one I heard this morning about Egypt. The report talked about how Egypt wants to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of technology training.  The center of the problem allegedly was that Egypt needs to get women into the workplace performing the same roles as men do.

Regardless of anyone’s opinion on women in the workplace, the media is entirely one-sided on this aspect of the world.  No one ever praises the low divorce rates or strong family values of the peoples in these other cultures.  Instead they are criticized for being so "backward" and "outdated".  Our media, indeed most of our nation, is either too blind, arrogant, or dumb to put 2 and 2 together on these issues.  Maybe there’s a connection between broken families & loss of values and the fact that many women would rather get a job than raise their children & keep their households.  But it’s not "politically correct" to suggest that maybe there are benefits to having women stay in the home doing the full-time job of raising a family.  Despite the current trends in our groupthink-infected world, I praise God that my dad worked every day and my mom stayed home as much as possible while I was growing up.

One of my visitors found my site by searching google.yahoo.com for metal toy chicken that lays eggs. Now I’ve had some funny ones before, but this one takes the cake!  So I’ll be adding a new page to my fun section for these crazy searches   : ) 

If you’re reading this, I need your help. Please reply and let me know whether you think my site is fast, slow, or just OK as you’re surfing around it. Do the pages load at a decent speed, or do they take longer than pages on most other websites?  Please include your internet connection details too... whether you’re using dial-up, cable, DSL, company network, school network, etc.  Thanks.

Hi Anthony! Just wanted to say Hello.  "Hello"  :)

4th of July at the shore was like wo. It was awesome except for being 101 degrees the first 2 days, which if you don’t know, is so hot that it’s humanly impossible to sleep. And also except for the traffic, whereby the ~10 minute drive from the campground to Ocean City (NJ) took an hour every time.  That ridiculous bridge across the bay needs about 19 more lanes, as do all the streets on the peninsula for that matter.  Oh, and also except for the ~15 hispanic people on the site across from us, who smoked marijuana and blasted crazy Mexican music all day and all night.

On 2 consecutive nights, I ate at the worst and best restaurants in existence.  Obediah’s, in Ocean City NJ, is to be avoided at all costs.  We ate there in the "crabhouse" which is just a pseudonym (a filty lying one at that) for "the bar".  It was noisy and smoky so right off, you know it’s gonna be crappy.  So we wait for over an hour and finally get seated in the bar room.  Our waitress Barb clearly hates us and/or her job because in the middle of writing our appetizers down, she rudely says "I’m gonna give you a few minutes" and walks away.  Just because one of us needed a second to decide something.  For the next 15 minutes, she doesn’t return.  She passes by plenty of times, though.  She apparently doesn’t want to bring us the drinks and appetizers we ordered already.  When she passes and we ask, she gives a curt "Ok" and continues on her evil way.

That was the way of things for the whole of the evening.  We asked 3 times for horseradish sauce, and she told us that she needed to "go find some".  What does that mean??  Every table around us had it.  We finally got it not from the waitress, but by asking the people next to us if they were done with theirs.  To which they replied, "Sure, and take our soup crackers too, because you’re not going to get the waitress to refill them!"  So we weren’t the only angry patrons.  When we asked for a water, it took 3 times for one and then 2 more times for another.  It also took 3 requests for iced tea and 2 for lemonade before we got them.  I’m not saying 3 requests with 30 seconds in between.  We’re talking literally 10 and 15 minutes before she finally brings what you ask for.  And for the iced tea, it wasn’t Barb who brought it, it was the manager, who we saw walking around and asked for help.  The refills of water were warm and lacking ice.

There was no soap in the ladies’ bathroom.  So I told a waitress and she said she’d take care of it.  15 minutes later, still no soap.  Again, I had to get the manager, who finally personally refilled the soap.  In the tiny men’s room, some selfish old man was smoking, so I had to prop the door open with the trash can to avoid dying of cancer while I washed my hands.

It was easily the worst dining experience I’ve ever had.  I’m not exaggerating.  No contest, this was the worst.

Then, tonight on the way home from the shore, I ate dinner at Maggiano’s in King of Prussia.  I cannot overstate how wonderful this restaurant is.  It’s an Italian place with family-size portions, and it’s not much more expensive than, say, Outback Steakhouse or Olive Garden or Carrabba’s.  But the food... the only way to describe it is amazing.  I ordered Chicken Mushroom Cannelloni, and it was superb.  And the architecture of the building was beautiful.  It’s got high ceilings, and you can eat on a balcony on the upper level, or outside if you wish.  The staircases are wide solid wood with thick carpet down the middle.  There are giant rooms off to the sides that give the place a neat atmosphere.  Even the bathrooms are neat... the toilet paper holders, for instance, are silvery metal creatures that stand on the floor!  It’s a franchise, so you may have one near you... if you do, be sure to check it out.

Dope site, man. Nice music section too. God bless.

hey kid, what are you lookin’ at.
how’d you get so evil so fast.
where’s your mom, where’s your dad.
what did they teach you.
did they touch you.

I can’t believe this happened to you.
I promise it’s not supposed to be this way.
but you have no right to repeat the same.
she’s not yours this ain’t a game.

step back, watch where your hands go.
they might come back to haunt you.
it might do you good to cut ’em off.
better that than to rip her off.

you’re a thief, an abomination.
lucky for you I’m no assassin.
I love her, you distorted her view.
God help me not to distort you.

so let’s just say you’re blessed.
blessed that I never met you.

hey you, son of a preacher man.
I got some words for you.
repent.
for the kingdom of heaven is near.

you stole something that you can’t give back
from the one I love.
and now she’s forced to pray daily,
to fight against your flashbacks.

so let’s just say you’re blessed.
blessed that I never met you.

hey you, you better take your eyes off of her.
your eyes are evil so look away.
I’m warning you there’ll be hell to pay.
hell to pay.

little girl don’t you cry.
this boy can’t steal what’s inside.
let my Father hold you up
heal the thoughts that make you throw up.

I know this life has been hard on you.
but the next will never end.
only thing I know to do
is to ask my Father to heal you.

no soap will ever scrub away
the memories, the memories.

I’m sorry, sorry.
little girl don’t you cry.
you’re beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
I love you, I love you.

Father heal us.
won’t you hear us.
show us your mercy forever.
I love you, I love you.

- pax 217, "what is love?"

I’m ruunniiiinngg!!! I’M RUUUUNNNNNIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!!!!  WWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Hi.  Thanks for taking Tundra for his walk!  Was he good?  Did he behave in the car???  I am sure that he drooled all over your car windows. 
Talk to you soon.  Heidi.

This is simultaneously the dumbest and funniest and most annoying thing of all time.  (Turn your speakers on to hear it.)

I’ve always told my friends, "Don’t buy AMD processors, because they run hotter and die quicker than Intel processors.  They’re cheap for a reason."  THG recently confirmed this with a video that shows what happens to some processors when you remove the fan/heatsink (i.e., what would happen when the fan dies).  On the Intel system, the performance drops, or the current program might crash.  But on the AMD system, the OS crashes immediately and the processor burns up, destroying it and the motherboard.  Ha!  Call me crazy, but that’s why I still say Intel makes better products, and AMD chips are cheap for a reason.