It's hard for me imagining the flaws in this design.

I know debris, it covers everything...
And still I am in love with this life <3

Words of wisdom: The more hours you're awake, the more awesome you can fit into your day.

I've been up since 7AM, and though my eyes are at the burning stage of exhaustion, I'm pretty wired. Today was easily the best day I've had all semester. Actually I've had a good string of days this week, so good that I'm starting to wonder if I've moved to a higher plane of existence where every good thing is intensified. My sense of every good song, of every good meal, of every single little white flower blooming on the dogwood is heightened, and every bad thing is so simple to just let go....

7:00 AM: Woke up to eat and shower before attending my first Symposium event at 8. Symposium day is a big deal at Gordon. Classes are cancelled for the day and students have the opportunity to go to a dozen or more events that conform to a theme (this year's was Creation Care) and receive up to 6 chapel credits for their attendance at various events. Many choose to use the day for studies or fun, as I did last year, but I needed to get some chapel credits out of the way, hence the 7AM wake-up call.

8:00: The three "8AM-8PM" exhibits are not yet in existence. Bugger, I could've slept another hour at least!

8:20: Chapel credit #1 for "Materialism and Creation Care: Change or be Changed" art exhibit. Easiest chapel credit ever.

10:00: Chapel credit #2 for Alternative Medicine discussion panel. No one warned me they were going to talk about acupuncture. I was good with the herbal stuff and the dietary stuff and even some of the chi stuff; in fact, I may even look further into some of that. But not the needles.

11:30: Chapel credit #3 for "One Carbon Footprint" acre-wide display that was conveniently set up en route back to my dorm AND gave out free temporary tattoos when you signed the chapel credit sheet!

12:00: T-shirt tie dyeing with the floor. Jeez that stuff is hard to get out of your skin. I think my high school science teacher said it doesn't "eventually wash out;" if it fades, it means you've absorbed it into your blood stream. Well guys, if I get cut within the next few days, I'll probably bleed purple and green; consider yourselves warned.

1:00: Chapel credit #4 for "The Politics of Creation Care" forum - a friendly debate over whether global warming exists and the actual severity of the problem, which both sides can agree is a lot less than Gore made it out to be in "An Inconvenient Truth." The oceans are not going to swell 20 feet in the next century. Maybe 2. Our efforts are probably better directed toward other causes, but this is not to say we should be careless about our emissions, etc.

3:00: Chapel credit #5 for "Discovering Answers to the Ecological Crisis Around the World." If the event name sounds familiar... remember the sunflower/windmill poster I made a little while ago? This was what it was for. It was basically students recapping agriculture-based missions trips they'd taken in the past year, which made me want to live on a farm more than ever before because now I've seen that it's absolutely feasible to sustain oneself off the land.

3:20: Chapel credit #6 for "Single Stream" recycling video, looping in Lane all day. The thing was all of 1:30 in length. I take back what I said about the art exhibit being the easiest chapel credit ever; this one takes the cupcake.

3:30: Finally free, I went for a walk in the woods along a trail I found yesterday when it was pouring rain. It was prettier then; you've never seen greener greens than the woods when it's raining. I was listening to my rainy day soundtrack when "Where the Falls Begin" by Mae came on.

There's a line in that song that says, "you walk this spinning wheel, forgetting how to feel and how long since it took your breath away." I was thinking about that and I realized that the beauty of this world is enough to take my breath away each and every day, if only I pause for a second to notice it. A moss-covered stump could be an emerald throne. A red-winged blackbird could be the king. Sun glancing off wet blades of grass could be his diamond veil. Not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of these.

I must've been out for an hour and a half and walked 5 miles during that storm. But it was still a lovely walk in the sunshine, and a bit more strenuous than my usual route, which made me feel healthier. When I was almost home, I noticed a huge black bird sitting on a dead branch across Coy Pond, stretching his wings. And I mean HUGE. The way he spread his wings made me think of Death, spreading his arms to welcome all into his bosom. Morbid, I know, but I thought it anyhow. And then, wouldn't you know, along comes the massive white bird - call him Love or Purity or Jesus or whatever - and makes a splash landing at the other end of the pond. Gorgeous! and the poet in me was thrilled that Death was not simply waiting for me to cross the waters and embrace him, at least not without Life getting in the way.

5:00: Video editing demonstration from a prospective professor. He was pretty good I guess. He was Texan and called us "y'all," which reminded me of Rob's dad. Sometimes I miss that family. I should visit once school lets out.

6:25: I realized Lane would be closing soon and hurried over to get dinner. It was pouring when I got outside and I was mad that I'd left my rain coat in the computer lab, but my timing turned out to be PERFECT: the second I arrived on the dark side of Lane with my food, a rainbow appeared over Coy Pond! The huge windows offered an amazing view. The rainbow had its foot in Coy Pond. You always thought the end of the rainbow didn't exist, huh? Well I've seen it! Hah! Sorry, there were no little green men or pots of gold. It's a shame really. I could use a little gold right about now. But it's still got to be lucky or something - even if your good fortune is only being fortunate enough to see it!

7:00: Worked on rough cutting my video production project and it's essentially done. Everything is synced up. The titles look great and are actually on the screen long enough to be read, unlike the rougher rough cut from yesterday. Once again Anders was a great help, and great company besides. He hadn't slept much. Tee hee. Sleep deprived people are so entertaining. He was beat boxing....

8:45: Talked to Le Paul. We might not get to see each other this weekend because he's supposed to have the music video he's working on done this week. I'll miss him, but he's worked really hard on this thing and the little bit I've seen has been phenomenal, so I know it'll pay off. Yay Paul!

9:00: Hung posters for the writing center event coming up on Monday, at which I'll be reading a lil excerpt of Before the Empty Moon, so you should come! This poster is another masterpiece of mine. I would've preferred another full page picture like the one for today's event in spite of greater cost or ink consumption or whatever the heck the complaint would've been. Full page color is so eye-catching. But this was what they said they wanted, so I delivered.


11:00: Met Anders and crew at Lane to shoot another video, but this time, he was behind the camera and I was in front of it. Granted, I was only an extra, but so was everyone, really, and because I was the first one there I got the important job of shooting a guy on his way down the stairs. No no, I don't mean filming him walking down the stairs. I mean I whipped out a handgun and took him out while he was walking down the stairs. No no NO, I don't mean a GUN gun, I mean a HAND gun. Observe. Loads of people showed up. We got to shout "BANG BANG!" a lot, cower behind upturned tables, take some people out, get taken out by some people, hide in trash cans.... and slink out of an elevator to shoot the guy on the stairs.

1:20AM: And that's a wrap!