DASH Productions

O.K. Maybe not famous, but there is an article on Maranatha’s website that quotes me.

Last semester I was able to take a course online, and Maranatha is really trying to push their online education so they interviewed me and another person about our experiences. Here is the link to the article. http://www.mbbc.edu/page.aspx?m=3657

So this is what it’s like,
A true winter season.
I’ve had eighteen years without any snow,
Now it seems as if I’ve had nothing but, for eight straight months.

Sunshine used to mean that it was warm outside,
Now it only means that it isn’t snowing.
Weather reports become your best friends,
Especially when they predict a warming trend.

Before I go much further,
This poem was not written so that I could murmur.
But rather to say,
That I want spring to come and stay.

Until that day comes,
I will not twiddle my thumbs.
For to do that would mean,
That I would want to scream.

As I conclude this poem,
I want it to be known,
That a California city kid
Has almost survived his first real winter.

I was listening to some music today on my computer and came across the song “Home” from Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. While listening to it I began to think of where home was for me.

Now, anyone that knows me, should not have any trouble knowing that I am from San Francisco. This is one fact that I am never ashamed to tell anyone. Sometimes maybe I talk about San Francisco too much.

Everyone knows that “Home is where the heart is.” As I was thinking about where my heart was, I realized that it was not in San Francisco, not in California, not west of the Rockies, and not west of the Mississippi. Where does my heart lie right now?

My heart is in Watertown, Wisconsin!!

I could not think of anywhere else I would rather be right now. Whether or not the temperature is below freezing, I love it here. Sure there is not a whole lot of entertainment in Watertown. But this little has city has something that nowhere else in the world has. What is it that Watertown contains?

Watertown, Wisconsin for the the next fourish years, is home to me and my friends.

I have been blessed with some wonderful friends here at college. Sometimes I wonder how we all became friends, because we have eight VERY different personalities, yet we all get along amazingly well. Our personalities are as different as the places we came from: West Coast, East Coast, Midwest, South, etc.

Despite our difference in chunky or creamy peanut butter, soda or pop, or anything else, there is one thing that we all do have in common, we all desire to serve God. Any person that has been through any form of Christian education realizes that there are people that go through it without a genuine desire to serve God.

Every day I thank God for the friends he has given to me at college, and I can’t wait to see how He uses each one of us to fulfill his plan!!

Confusing blog title isn’t it, but it does represent the way I felt the last two days. But before I tell you about the last to days, I have to give you a bit of background information. On my night cleaning crew of seven people and sometimes and eight, I was the only one that was healthy last week. About half of the friends that I hang out with were sick last week…actually lets just say that almost everyone on campus has been sick except for me. I thought that I had weathered the storm because people were starting to get healthier and I was still healthy. Sunday afternoon I was really tired so I took a two hour nap and felt great after. I was pretty tired Sunday night so I went to bed earlier then I normally do and I even woke up later than I normally do on Mondays, but I was still really, really tired. At the time I didn’t think much of it. During chapel on Monday morning I was uncharacteristically cold. In fact, I kept my jacket on all day. I also was not very hungry, and had not finished most of my meals for the past couple of days. And to top it off, I felt a cough coming on. Although, I had all these symptoms I still felt pretty good, not 100% but still pretty good. I knew though that I had to do something so that I would not get any worse. On Tuesday when I woke up I felt worse than I did on Monday. I just felt myself slipping down the sickness slope, but then somehow by Tuesday afternoon I felt much better. Am I 100% right now? No, not quite, but hopefully I am able to stay healthy and not slip down the slope of sickness anymore.

Until next time,
-Dash

So on Friday, I had one of “those mornings.” It wasn’t bad, it was just very interesting. Let me preface the story by saying that I work every weeknight until 12:30ish, so I do not get a whole lot of sleep during the week especially when I have first hour on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I had my alarm set to go off at 6:30 which gives me plenty of time to get ready for the day, however, I do not remember my alarm going off on Friday. I remember waking up at 5:45ish and thinking that I had 45 more minutes of precious sleep, but the next thing I remember is my roommate’s alarm going off at 7:05. This is not a good time to be waking up at if you have a first hour class which starts at 7:14 (For some odd reason they have band start 6 minutes before any other first hour class). In the first few seconds I was awake I had some major decisions to make about the way my morning would go. I could have cut band and gotten ready for the day, or throw on some clothes and return to my room 2nd hour, which I have a break during. I figured that it would not be worth it use a cut during the 4th week of school so I quickly got dressed and went to band showing up at 7:13. During this time I was thinking that it would be a great time to microwave a Pop Tart because I would have only had about three seconds to waste. After band I ate breakfast then returned to my room and showered and got ready for the rest of the day. After chapel I have History of Civ 2 with Mr. Z (the best civ teacher ever) and there were a couple of times in class that he said something that made me and my friends think about Brian Regan. So Friday was just one of “those mornings” with a little Brian Regan thrown in to make it interesting.

Have a good week.
-Dash

Well, three weeks of school are over now. Everyone is settled into the routine and ready for the long haul. One of the things that can help lighten up the “boringness” of college life is comedy. Here at Maranatha there is an improv comedy team called Xcalibur. Last semester one of my friends joined the group and was bugging me to try out this semester. So two weeks ago XCal had some tryouts that I went to. I guess they thought I was funny enough or just funny looking because they wanted me to come back. So now I am training to be an official XCal member.

This last weekend there was also a high school music festival called the Great Lakes Music Festival. Because I am in the band here at MBBC, I had to go to an extra band rehearsal and the concert on Saturday. The concert went pretty well except for when the band director cued in the song different than he ever had before so no one started to play. Once we actually started the song went well.

Other than that not much is happening in my life. I am enjoying life here at college hanging out with friends. I love my classes this semester, especially my two computer classes. Tonight I am going to Dr. Brown’s house after church to watch the rest of the Super Bowl. Go Cardinals!!

Until next time,

Dash

So recently I have been seeing a lot of Facebook notes titled 25. Inside all of these notes were random facts about the author of the note. So here is my list of 25 random facts about me.

1. I do not like pinstripes.
2. I love wearing baseball caps.
3. I think that if the Pilgrims had settled the west coast first, our forefathers would have never crossed the Rocky Mountains.
4. I change my Facebook status too much.
5. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is my favorite flavor of ice cream.
6. I like my job working on the night custodial crew at Maranatha.
7. I worked at McDonald’s during the summer.
8. I think McDonald’s was a fun job except for the occasional bad customer.
9. I often went home during my dinner break at McDonald’s to avoid eating there.
10. I love listening to movie soundtracks.
11. I like many of the old-school musicals.
12. I have the cutest niece in the world.
13. I go to bed before midnight once (sometimes twice) a week.
14. I would like to be able to help local churches with their websites and all the fun stuff that goes with it.
15. I am a math education major with a new media communications minor.
16. I am the youngest in my family. Am I spoiled? I think not, contrary to older siblings opinion. (All you had to do was ask.)
17. I do not believe that Taco Bell serves Mexican food and can prove it if you visit me while I am in San Francisco.
18. I honestly wonder why people like the snow so much then complain about having to shovel it and how cold it is.
19. My idea of perfect Christmas (or year round actually) weather is 70 degrees.
20. I try to recruit anyone I can to come to Maranatha
21. I like to read. I just don’t do it very much.
22. Some of my favorite books are The Phantom of the Opera (which I read for fun, not school) and Frankenstein
23. I was really disappointed with the ending in Great Expectations.
24. I love Macs, and tolerate PC’s.
25. If the world was perfect, I think life would be boring.

This year I got to spend Christmas with all of my family. This is the first time we have been all together for Christmas since before Mary was married. We had a great time together. Here is a video I made with one of my presents – Final Cut Express.

To all of you who are wondering, I finally made it back home. I left Watertown at about 10 o’clock Thursday and headed for the airport. We left early to avoid the incoming storm. I got to the airport just after 11 and sat down and played on my computer and slept. At about 5 o’clock I woke up from one of my naps and heard an announcement about really bad weather. I got on my computer and checked the status of my flight–canceled. I went up to the ticket counter to get a new flight and the next one available was Saturday afternoon. After several calls to my parents, I got a room at the Super 8 close to the airport. I checked in, ate breakfast, and went back to my room. I spent the day calling people and just relaxing in my room. That night my friend, Sam, was able to stay with me because his flight was leaving on Saturday also and the front desk said that he could stay in my room for no extra charge. That night I started to watch White Christmas but got very frustrated because the network butchered the movie. Instead Sam and I watched Ironman. The next morning I woke up, checked out of the motel at 11 o’clock, and headed to the airport. I hung out at the airport for a couple hours, listening to music and watching I, Robot, until about an hour before my flight was supposed to leave. Unfortunately my flight was delayed about 20 minutes because of where it was coming from. After waiting the extra 20 minutes we boarded the plane, then it started to snow. We sat on the plane for almost two hours before we took off, which caused me to miss my connecting flight in Atlanta. When I got off the plain I went to the customer service desk and they said the next flight into San Francisco was Sunday evening at 6:40. Not wanting to wait that long I asked if there were any alternatives, like flying into Los Angeles so I could drive up with my brother. Because I was stranded again for almost a whole day, I called Pastor Shawn to see if I could crash at his house for the night. He came out and picked me up from the airport and headed back to his house. The next morning I woke up and went to church. After church we ate lunch and hung out for a while before heading to the airport. I got to the airport about an hour before my flight was scheduled to leave, but when I looked at the flight status on the TV screens, as usual, my flight was delayed. Thankfully it was only for an hour. After that extra hour, I boarded the plane and headed for home. My flight landed in San Francisco at about 11 o’clock and I got home at about 1 o’clock. When I was thinking about how long it took me to get home, I realized that it took part of five different days to get home, and from the time I left Watertown to when I landed in San Francisco was 75 Hours.

I have made it through my first semester of college and am on my way home for Christmas break. Sounds easy right? WRONG!! I finished my last final Thursday afternoon and finished packing right after dinner Thursday night. Because a storm was going to come through we left for the airport late Thursday night before all the snow came even though my flight was not scheduled to leave until 11 o’ clock Friday morning. I got to the airport shortly after 11 p.m. and sat down and did some stuff on my computer. While I was at my computer, I saw somebody that I recognized. My trumpet teacher was at the airport picking his son up. We chatted for a few minutes then he left while saying “Have a good flight,” to which I responded, “You Too!!” After that I spent more time on my computer watching Brian Regan and Victor Borge videos on youtube. At precisely 5 o’ clockish I woke up from one of my short naps and checked the status of my flight. To my dismay it had been canceled. I went to the counter where they adjusted my ticket so that I would fly out Saturday afternoon. I called my parents to let them know what was going on and to figure out what else I should do. Eventually we decided for me to get a room at a motel. So now I am at the Super 8 across the street from the airport hoping my flight tomorrow will not be canceled because there is supposed to be more snow coming. Because my trip home is not over yet, I am sure there is much more to this story, so I will do another post once I get home