gossip Girl

i've been so busy trying to boycott the CW lately that i've been missing out. i hate that they got rid of Veronica, i really do, and most of their new shows look ridiculously dumb, but gossip girl is a show that i'm hooked on. gotta love when the bad girl of high society falls for the good guy....mmm, now that's a tasty romance story. i might not be much of a critic, mostly because i'm not that cynical, i like to enjoy what i watch instead of pick apart everything bad about it, and gossip girl is a very enjoyable hour of television--well 45 minutes give or take with commercials, or you can watch it online. point--if you like me were boycotting the CW, give it up, they won't bring Veronica back (pray for a movie) but meanwhile you can enjoy a good show, narrated by our favorite private eye playing actress-Kristen Bell.

Xanga

i have a second blog now at http://www.xanga.com/SpamRichter

really it is one of many blogs technically, because on myspace i have a blog, but whatever, check it out, some stuff will end up there, some here, you'll just have to see...

grace chapel

so this morning at church these cute little girls did a dance to a new version of the song "this little light of mine." and i had one of those light bulb moments, i know Christians are supposed to be different...nice, caring, God fearing people, but we are all sinners and i tend to use the fact that i'm a sinner as an excuse why people don't see God's love in me, which is bogus...once i make the decision to follow Christ i should fully dedicate myself to that, just like if you are going to do something, why not do it right, don't half-ass anything, especially your walk with God...so this is a challenge to myself because i know i can do so much better with God's help.

jack my price up

i found someone else who likes SPAM! i'm loving it because SPAM is amazing and not nearly enough people enjoy it because it looks gross. yes, the trip to jack my price up with amanda and brenda was a lot of fun--good bonding time too. and now, someone might actually read my blog, so i might have to start putting interesting things on it.

feeling like crap, despite my joy from God

so i pretty much feel like crap because i got an e-mail from my mom and i made her feel like crap and i don't really know how to fix it, because i thought i was fixing it, but it seems like if i would have never told anyone then everything would be better, except of course with my spiritual struggle, but at least then i wouldn't have hurt my family, so would it have been better to withhold the truth from them forever? ugh...i just don't know, and nobody reads my blogs, so of course no one will help unless i actually talk to them, wonderful!

S.S.D.D.

Almost always, I think of the glass as being a half a glass. Not half empty, not half full, just half a glass. Lately, that glass has seemed very much half empty, if not more so. No bounce, no play my friend; no bounce, no play.

Lightning Bugs

So, where I come from we apparently do not have lightning bugs, or fireflies, whatever you wish to call them, and so tonight, my roommate and MC and Cara all went lightning bug hunting, and it very much reminded me of snipe hunting. To those of you who do not know what snipe hunting is, then you are in for a blast there, I should definitely take you sometime, just give me a call. Anyway, we didn't find any, which was really sad, but we are going to try again later because I have never seen them!

Amazing friends

Yesterday was my birthday. It was pretty sweet to turn 20 and my friends were all super awesome. I really did have a good time, better than last year at Hooter's for sure, but recently, I have been struggling a lot with my walk with God. I have the most amazing friends though, and they are doing their best to help me through it. Pointing me in the right direction, towards God, from whom lately I am seeming to run, and praying for me a lot, which is very, very good. You know who you are if you are reading this, thank you so much, I would be in a much worse place without you, because there is no way I would still be trying to trust God if it weren't for your trust and faith in Him.

Evangel

First day in my dorm at Evangel, way too humid. I'm not used to this, it is worse than being stuck in a wheat truck all day, well, maybe not that bad. So far I haven't met a person here that I didn't like right away. Things are going good, but who knows for how long cuz I'm running on not much sleep and I'm not gonna get much more.

New Bible study idea for tv and movie addicts

If you are like me and love your entertainment, but are bummed that you don't love Bible study quite as much, then try this new idea I have. Every time you watch a movie or tv show, explore the three main themes you saw in that particular episode or movie. For instance, if you were watching "Welcome to the Hellmouth" from the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer the themes you could explore include: friendship, new beginnings, evil, guidance, clothing, hairstyles, etc. Once you decide what three main themes you will explore, look them up with a Bible concordance and keep looking at verses until you find one that really makes sense with what you were just watching, then read more to find the context of that verse. Using the same show, but the episode "Prophecy Girl" instead, if you look up guide in your concordance you will come across John 16:13: "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not be telling you His own ideas, He will be telling you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future." This makes me think that just like Giles guides Buffy and tells her what lies ahead for her, the same is true for us. The Holy Spirit will be our guide in life, however, since the Holy Spirit is God, He will never misdirect us or tell us lies, human guides on the other hand can and will.

I hope this sounds like an interesting tool for you to use to improve your interest in Bible study. Best of luck, please let me know if it works out or if you have additional ideas.

Political Derby

Fred Thompson responds to a letter he received from Michael Moore criticizing his apparent breaking of the trade embargo with Cuba by having "box upon box of cigars" on his desk. These cigars were Cubans and in Fred Thompson's video response he sat in his desk chair with a Cuban between his lips. Now I think that is badass, not many people would not only not recant from what they do by lying, but also release a video showing them with the questionable act in development. If you would like to know more about this simple search in google, "michael moore" "fred thompson"

Are college campuses safer when they are gun-free zones?

I was reading an article written by Mark Alexander in The Patriot Post today, and learned some very interesting things that I intend to follow-up on when I'm not in the middle of getting ready to go to Saturday night church. According to Alexander, a Virginia Tech student asked permission of the school board for students who have a valid concealed weapon permit to be allowed to have their weapon on their person on campus. The request was denied as well as scoffed at, and shortly thereafter the tragedy we all now know of occurred. Alexander also included incidents of law-abiding citizens using their weapons for good to stall criminals until police arrived at the scene, some of these incidents were quite similar situation to the Virginia Tech shooting. The question I have to ask myself is, would they need to toll the bell as many times as they did had students been allowed to carry their weapon for protection on campus. Furthermore, should colleges stop stripping our American privileges from us for our "safety?" Please stay with me as I follow this interesting lead, and I encourage you to follow up on it as well. If you find any interesting information leave me a comment.

Update:
So, I never did a proper job of following up on this with research. However, I now see this from a different perspective. As a teacher, I wish for nothing more than to have every available resource to keep my students safe. If anything were to happen to them it would kill me. It is different because I feel like I am supposed to protect them, and it seems from recent events, that I do not have the means to protect them if someone has intent to harm them. I wish there were a way to change this, so that perhaps we could be like that school in Texas where staff with their CPL and additional gun training are allowed to carry for the safety of all, but I do not know if we will ever see the day for that in our very liberal (thanks to the west side) Washington State.

Crystal Geysur (with the S like in middle school)

Yesterday, Katie O'Grady decided we should start a band. We got together just this morning. After we played a song one of our band members, Andrea, wrote, we tried to play some Evanescence. It was a lot of fun, but we still have a lot of bumps to smooth out.

Global Warming-Al Gore speaks in Washington D.C.

As I was reading the culture page of The Patriot Post, I came across an article entitled, Mr. Gore goes to Washington. It caught my eye at once, of course. Despite those who disagree with me, I do not believe in global warming, you can agree or disagree, but I will most likely not change my mind. This however, is not the point. The interesting thing to me about the very limited article about Al Gore's trip to D.C. was not that he was speaking about global warming, because really, what would you expect, but the fact that he lives in a home that uses more energy in one month than the typical household uses in a year! Now, the reason I turn out my lights when I don't need them isn't because I think the earth is warming, or even in some cases because of the lack of renewable resources (though where I live we get our energy from dams), but because I want to save as much money as I can. That aside, wouldn't you think that if you thought global warming was real, and we, as a human race needed to counteract this terrible occurrence, that just maybe, you would do your part and not just ask others' to do theirs'?

Walla Walla U-B Editorial

As I was trying to discover interesting news to discuss, I came across what I believe to be a very interesting editorial. At the end, after discussing readers' wants at some length, the editor, Rick Doyle, came up with an interesting readership survey. He asked his readers to highlight what they read in the paper for a week, mark their gender, and bring the week's worth of papers down to their office. Intense, yes, but this could be extremely helpful. Could you imagine you could take that same idea and apply it to blogging. That would be sweet, not sure how that would work, but I thought it was a nice bit of idea to savor for at least a moment.

Why I started blogging

When it comes right down to it, basically the reason I started blogging is that I found a blog that actually interested me. Most blogs were boring to me or just people ranting and raving (usually about celebrities). But this blog was not just about Hollywood, it was about real life...her life, my life, your life. I thought it was interesting, and then I thought, "hey, why not." So basically that is how I came to blog.

If you would like to check out the blog that got me blogging then go to Paula Mooney's Blog.

Memories and Friendship

This past weekend was my last as a member of the PLU fastpitch softball team. The ending was rather bittersweet... Next year I will be living even further away from home, going to college in a state I have never been to, and leaving even more friends that I've made. In honor of the seniors on the softball team, everyone on the team is supposed to make something for them on a little note card that will put in a book that the coach's wife makes for each of them. I've been struggling to think of what I wanted to do for them, so I turned to poetry... In honor of this being the day of my first blog, I thought it only made sense for me to post a poem I wrote today...so here it is.

Memories and Friendship

the memories so tender,
fade away with time
unless put in a safe place,
so you can rewind

make sure that you remember,
just what you hold dear
it'll get you through the tough times,
and take you through the fear

now as your life moves on from here,
remember always this
i'd be there for you if you needed,
no matter what it took

I hope that you enjoyed that poem, and hopefully you will come back for more poems, songs, and my thoughts on what's going on in the world and my life.

God bless,
SammyJo