What a week...

I'm sure most people reading this have had a more momentous week than I, but mines been pretty exciting too.
Monday was a grand day of seeing people again and rearranging the living room. Both were fun. I also went to see 'the show'. Made me wish I was sitting in there as a freshman and not knowing how awesome the next 4 years would be. But I'm not, I'm just the odd guy who sometimes hangs around campus and is older than everyone else.
I also brought my car into the shop this week cause it decided it would be fun to randomly die on me and turn on check engine lights and in general be dumb. The guy said it could be up to $600 bucks depending on the problem, so I was plannin on the worst. But, it was just a minor sensor or gizmo or something, and was way cheaper, hurray! That made me uber happy. And then I found out that my insurance was finally gonna pay for the doctors visit I had back in May. They decided that headaches and such were a preexisting condition and didn't want to pony up the money for it. So I had to give them lots of paperwork, etc proving that I was normal. In the mean time, the clinic wanted money from somewhere and decided that I would be a good source since insurance wasn't paying. So they kept sending me bills that were ignored by me cause I didn't want to pay them. And then the insurance company finally roled over and said 'fine, we'll do what we are supposed to'. So now they've only taken me for $750 this year instead of the $900 they wanted! Ha! The little guy wins for once! So between insurance actually workin for me for once, and my car not being as dumb as it coulda been, I still have like $700 dollars that I could have potentially not had. Which is good, cause I don't really have it anyway :).
And then there was the EC block party last night which was fun. We played, the crowd was into it and made lots of loudness, which is awesome. We also got requested an encore, which brings all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings. And tonight I get to go to Lifelight to see a coupla stellar bands.
Um, other news... um, oh, I hate paperwork. There, thats other news. I dunno.
______ of the day: I just rented 2 classic movies and came home to realize we no longer have a TV, my brain hurts.
The 'not braining today' Ogukuo

Where am I, where are you

I just looked at my checking account, I have $25. I just talked to my landlord, he wants us to reduce the amount of people in our house, meaning rent will go up for each of us. My car is being stupid, I need to bring it in next week to have it looked over, more money. They're cracking down on overtime at work, I've been counting on overtime to help pay the bills each month. I've been trying to think of a second job where I can work 10-15 hours a week on a basically completely random schedule. I don't think any job like this exists. Seeing my family over Thanksgiving means spending about $500 between airline tickets, gas, etc.
And money woes are just a minor part of my problems. I'm not where I want to be, or who I want to be with. I'm tired of the midwest. Theres nothing here. No mountains, awesome trees, ocean, beaches, mild weather, nothing. I want to drive to the snow, not live in it. I wanna drive 2 hours and be in the mountains. Or the ocean. Or a world famous port city. Or any place that doesn't look the same as it does outside my window. I want a beautiful landscape, I don't care about the people I'm around.
I want to live by a college campus. I want the simplicity of a small midwest town. I want cheap rent! I want to live by my friends. I don't car about the landscape, I wanna live around people I know.
I don't know what I want. I don't know how to get it. I don't know what to do.
______ of the day: Questions
The exhasperated Ogukuo

None of my busyness

I love my job, and I love the randomness of my work schedule to an extent. I mean, I hate set patterns, it drives me nuts to wake up to the exact same thing every day. But one thing I've noticed is that certain days are no longer special. I think this also has to do with college and life in general. Saturdays and Sundays used to be so special. I would always notice the weather on Saturdays. The rest of the week, sunny or raining didn't matter to me. But Saturdays was when we would do stuff. So it mattered if it was sunny and nice or not. So sunny Saturdays seemed all that much more sunny. And rainy Saturdays were that much more rainy. And Sundays were always very relaxed and I knew I didn't have to worry about doing anything. I could tell you how my day would go as soon as I woke up in the morning: church, relax at home, coffee time at Grandpa's, small lunch of leftovers at home, movie or (insert sports game here) on TV, nap, church, and after church was either visiting with friends or relaxing at home with a movie or board game. I loved Sundays. I know, people will rail on me because its old fashioned, and they hate any notion of being conservative or following tradition. Well, to those people I say find a new hobby, cause you are obviously bored. There were a few things we never did on Sundays, such as shop, eat out, work (unless absolutely necessary), or chores around the house. I've heard many people loudly and proudly claim that its ok to do all these things on Sunday just like any other day of the week. I don't want to get into a shouting match of whether or not its 'sinful' or wrong to do these things on a Sunday, cause people who argue against it love to yell, so it'd be nothing but inviting punishment on myself. But I just ask man for the sabboth, of sabboth for man? Anyone who knows anything knows its sabboth for man. Rest for man (I know, it'll piss off those people even more by saying 'man' instead of human or whatever, but they love being pissed off, so if they are looking for a pathetic reason, I'll take pity on them and throw them a bone). The thing I loved about Sundays was how relaxed they were. I had free time, but I wasn't worried about filling it with shopping or chores or whatever. Sadly, its too easy to run to the grocery store or eat out, or do other things on a Sunday. I don't like doing that. If my life is so busy that I don't have enough time during the rest of the week to get things done, theres something wrong with my life. Perhaps its not a sin to do those things on a Sunday, but if you are so busy the rest of the week that you need to do all those things on a Sunday, I think its a big red flag that there is something wrong with the way you are living your life. But, then again, this is coming from a guy who enjoys living life instead of making myself so busy I can't see straight. Perhaps its a character flaw on my part.
But, alas, I have fallen into soap-boxing myself, so I'll just quit now.
______ of the day: First free Sunday in weeks this weekend, yay!
The lacking rest Ogukuo

Very observant, now do something about it

This post is for Kenny, because he just "found" my blog. Welcome Kenny, you are one of 3 readers :)
I'm currently reading (!!) a few books. First is For The Beauty of the Earth by Steven Bouma-Prediger, a prof at Hope college. Its kinda meh, it hasn't offered me any real insight or new ideas. Basically its a manual for Christian living in regards to God's creation. Sadly, it really only offers the basic stuff that anyone who took a few minutes to think would figure out. But, it all fairness, its been a good springboard cause its referenced alot of other authors I'm planning to look into. The second book is A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. I'm only about 1/3 of the way thru this one, but so far its pretty good. The part I've read is Leopold describing his farm property in Wisconsin throughout the year. It more or less documents his actions taken to relate to and understand the land he dwells in. Its amazing the great observations he has made simply by taking the time to observe. Tree rings on a felled oak tree tell him of floods and fires of years past, bushes lacking berries and tracks in the snow tell him of a birds range during the winter months. Of course, anyone can look at tree rings or bird tracks in the snow, but how often do we actually take the time to think about what they mean? Take the time to look past the simple facts that they offer on the surface? Leopold laments that people no longer take the time to recognize their habitat. And that was in the late 40s! How much worse is it now? I can often go several days without spending any time outside save for short trips from the house to the car to work to the car and back to the house. We've let TV and computers and cell phones become what we do/who we are instead of getting to know the real world. I think Hobbes was right when he observed Calvin zoned in front of the TV and said that 'virtual reality is already here'. The world we know is so contrived.
But, once again, I'll let it rest for a while, I'd love to offer some deep, meaningful solution, but only the trite comes to mind.
______ of the day: Hurray cable doesn't exist in this house!!
The disconnected Ogukuo