If you have a choice, one of the gas stations you should try to go to
is BP. Why? Because they are one of the few major gas companies that
does NOT accept ANY barrels of oil from the middle eastern countries.
By "boycotting" these oil giants we are helping to lower the price of
gas long term, and to send a message about their management of their
oil. Oil is expensive, yes... BP may or may not be a cheaper price, but
usually it is not much higher and sometimes is cheaper. So try your
best to get your oil ONLY from BP. There are a few other companies
(most I have not heard of) that sell only non-mid eastern oil too, and
I can post them if you like.

My course is clearer now for the next year! I will officially take
Theology 2 Spring semester, and a one credit hour of faculty directed
study (FDS) as well next semester. Once these two things are done, I am
ready to graduate. That's that. A unique and incredible thing my Mom
reminded me of tonight is that when I graduate, I will be holding my
baby son in my arms. What a wonderful thing!

-Patrick

Les- EFairy- is supposed to meet up with me tonight on Skype! Woo woo! I
forgot about it for a bit, and was a little bored and down. Then I
remembered, and I'm all cheery! I hope she doesn't forget! If we get to
chat and we end up trying to do a podcast tonight with some of our
conversation, I'll refer you to the podcast to listen in! Hopefully I
won't be too embarassed to tell ya!

-Patrick

There are 20,000 refugees coming to South Carolina. "Evacuees" is the
PC term that the Red Cross speaker told us he was clearly told to use.
However, a refugee is "one seeking refuge"- the evacuees coming here
are becoming refugees, even if we have associated other things with it.

20,000 to SC, and at least 5,000 to Columbia where I live. There will
be other hubs- Greenville, Florence, etc. These are people who need
medical aide, and their families who will come soon or shortly after.
The first plane will come either tomorrow, or within a week of
tomorrow. Immediately the Red Cross will be helping them here. They
must find support, families must come together, and they must find
shelter here- short term, and long term. They will remain at least
three months, at this point, is what it looks like. Some- maybe many-
will probably end up finding a new home HERE, and must find jobs and a
way to live. Red Cross is looking for at least 40,000 new volunteers. I
was in the first major new training class here in SC today- they gave
us several classes worth of introduction in a single day. Other
training will be more "take what you can as fast as you can" style
depending on what you do. It looks like I can never run far from my
computer experience- I ended up being paired with RTT, the technology
sector of Red Cross. Though if Katrina decides she supports (that is,
gets to a point where she feels God is behind it) me doing so, I will
jump at the chance to go right to the centre of the need.

Red Cross is a new door God has showed me. To go into missions, you
usually HAVE to raise your own support- even for a helping mission
trip. But with Red Cross, they send YOU. You don't get paid... but they
finance your trip, travel, etc. I cannot afford- nor do I yet feel I
can find the support- to go on a mission trip, with or without my wife.
Yet now, here is the opportunity right here. As it is, the opportunity
will be where I live. Yet perhaps in the future, there will be chances
to travel with the Red Cross too. A chance to reprepare for the kind of
work God will be having me do later in a Christian context. My sister,
Colleen, took the training with me today as well. I put my schedule as
"wife open" except for Sat and Sunday. My part-part-part-part time work
is second to this and the many other things God is putting in our path
right now.

Now how about you folks? Check out what the Red Cross is doing near
you- no matter what your skills, or background, YOU can help. You can
do a lot just by giving money if God has given you the means to make
it- if you can, for example, make six thousand dollars you can pay for
an entire truck of food to be sent including the workers. But God
hasn't given me that gift- else I would focus on my work. He's given me
the gift of serving directly. Maybe he has put you in that position
too. Maybe you're gifted more with animals, like my sister? Well,
there's ways to help there too with the ASPCA and humane society later
on. You can jump in and go, or stay local if there are relief efforts
for refugees where you live. I don't watch the news much... as for
myself, I'd rather do what I can than just be a bystander. If I see the
hurt going on there- I'll see it with my own two eyes while I hand out
food to help heal it, and allow God to use me as a way to minister to
the spiritual emptiness.

One last thing- to those in SC, think of the incredible chance this is
to minister! People are coming from a spiritually dark place HERE, to a
new climate and in need of direction and hope. Jesus has opened the
door, I hope we serve them well and take this opportunity to LOVE
others in Jesus name!

-Patrick

It is all Leslie's fault (eFairy)! She got me into my own preferred and
enjoyable way of thinking by talking about Einstein the other day! I
grew up loving to theorise and think about new concepts- an odd
sensation that would happen sometimes, that eventually stopped, would
be to begin to think about something beyond my understanding. For
example, to think about the fact that the universe was unlimitted in
size and begin to think about just how far it would go out- farther,
farther, then suddenly I would hit this point where my mind would be
overwhelmed at the idea. This state, this point, is a rare point I
still remember that I would reach when trying to understand concepts.
Perhaps part of it was the fact that our brains reach certain
developmental points in our growth and certain concepts are grasped
more easily once we pass these milestones even up to teenage years.
That might explain why I used to hit that "wall" of understanding, and
later on I did not. However, I loved it. I am very poor at math-
especially regular math- yet psychics and scientific ideas fascinate
me. Hearing that Einstein was poor at math as well is encouraging. I
know I will never go into science or physics, however I still love it
all. I used to contemplate upon things like the speed of light all the
time.

Stop a take a few moments to catch yourself up on science today. Do you
really know much about E = mc2 and its many implications? Do you know
what the aurora is and why it happens, and why it is actually dangerous
to the point that we have regular "space weather forcasts" given for it
like something out of science fiction? The aurora is actually the
result of a space 'storm', a powerful electrical and magnetic storm,
caused by huge solar flares that our earth shields us from and absorbs!
Have you followed the progression towards private space travel and the
X-Prize... the next step in space travel is no longer with public space
shuttles, but through privately owned companies sending up small ships
into space! Space will begin to be a public matter, not government
only, and the governments will simply have to begin giving it structure
and rules. What about the future of personal aircraft? Did you know
that NASA is designing a "virtual sky-highway" system so that in the
near future people can very easily fly from one place to another- and
the vehicles to do this are already in the works. You caught up on all
this and more? Maybe you'd better set aside an hour for some catch-up
work, because this is the future.

-Patrick

A new reason gas prices have started going up has been because of a
difficulty supplying to all the demand. The prices go up as a way of
lowering gas usage- the only problem is, it isn't lowering! People just
pay more, and keep on using. I've started changing my usage as best I
can to help our country out, especially in this time of gas shortage.
Here are some serious ideas to consider:
1) carpooling (something I cannot do, but is worth trying- hard work, but it is important work too and saves you money)
2) drive slower: yikes, today I went the speed limit... heck, BELOW it
even. Amazing! Never thought I'd do it, I always go five over at least.
Well, it's for God and country, right? Plan extra time before you go
places, if at all possible. Then, drive slower going there. You save
gas and you might even save yourself a speeding ticket sometimes. It's
the best, most efficient way to conserve fuel!
3) People I've spoken to in the states don't agree, but years ago in
England they were paying far more than we do on gas now. The BBC stated
a list of ways to save on gas- one of those ways was to not fill up
your tank all the way. Whether you agree or not, I do it, and it seems
to help- the weight of gas in your tank adds to the weight your car has
to push. So, clear out your car of excess weight AND fill up to 3/4's a
tank, or even 1/2 a tank if you feel up to it. Makes the fillup bills
smaller too, and makes you think twice about how much you DO drive.
4) Consolidate! Start planning your time out. If you are going out to
work, or to any location, try to plan groceries and such so that you
can do it at the same time- and do it all at once so you don't have to
go out and get more groceries only a few days later. Good planning can
save you gas, and maybe time too. If you feed a household, plan your
meals a week at a time and shop for all those food needs for the entire
upcoming week.

Remember, we're going through yet another national crisis of sorts
here- and the more gas we use now, the higher priced it will be in the
winter (my opinion, this time, but it WILL be high and we know it).
Take it easy on gas, and save yourself some money if nothing else.

-Patrick

Remember Jamie? She drew the pictures I put up earlier, such as this one...

Well,
let me summarise how I met her and the family. I was working my first
job at Mararoni grill and served their table. It was their Mom, her
boyfriend, Mappu (Matthew, high school age- beard, long hair, relaxed
and fun guy), Jamie (college age, blond hair), and Hopu (Hope- high
school age, but taking college classes as she is an absolute genius.
She is not a biological sibling of Jamie or Mapu, but she lives with
them since her parents are away overseas I think). I learned they were
into anime, clicked, and had a wonderful time serving them. We
exchanged information at the end, and later on we got together- Mapu
and I. I got to know Jamie and Hopu as well, and Mapu got me into a LOT
of anime.

Well, Jamie was dating Mapu's friend Jason for a long time... he is now
assistant manager of my favourite theatre in the area, Columbiana
Grande. I bumped into Jamie AGAIN while working at Circuit City- I
hadn't seen her a lot in a while. Well, she gave me her latest email,
and was going to the college of Charleston.

I emailed her lately, and whala, just heard back. She broke up with
Jason, sadly, but she has a new boyfriend who is trying to decide if
God is calling him to be single or not- but she really likes him. She
is majoring in English and minoring in Studio Art. It is great to renew
contact, and to hear from her!

I'm going to see Brother's Grimm a second time today with Colleen, the
Sister. I saw it already late Friday night and bumped into a ton of
various friends- most graduated, ironically- from CIU. What a great
suprise! Colleen did not get to see it, and it is definitely the sort
of movie she will love! It is a nice, refreshing change from the theme
of many "retelling" movies done of fantasy subjects of late. I was
rivetted up until the end, and had to force myself to use the restroom
because I was about to pop! Some found it a little strange- but that is
because it is a little more true to the rather unique style of REAL
fairytales (not the dumbed-down kind Disney gives us, for example).

The theme I liked the most about it was this- in many stories, take
Troy for instance, they take mythical stories and turn it into the
"real life" style that seems to be the trend in our culture these days.
They demystify it of all magic and fantasy and say "This is how it
REALLY happened." This could be seen as a very SMALL spoiler, so look
away if you want. This movie makes you think that it is doing the same
thing at first- ah, the REAL brothers Grimm. This is how it really
happened- they went around faking fairytales to get profit, and ended
up trying to stop others who were doing the same. Yet as the story goes
on, it reverses! You find out that maybe there is real magic at all,
and truth to the myths. It fits our culture now, and the change it is
making. Perhaps Lord of the Rings made such a hit because we are
downright TIRED of all these movies that try to take fantasy and
explain it into sci fi or "real terms". We want REAL FANTASY again, we
want movies that don't explain HOW it could happen- just that it does
happen! Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the up-coming Chronicles of
Narnia, up-coming The Last Unicorn, up-coming King Kong, The
Incredibles, Howl's Moving Castle, and more! We veered away from that,
but we want it back! Movies went down this Summer, and part of the
reason is this.

Let's see some more fantasy and less reality. We get enough reality
every day, and I think all that is going on in the world now is
encouraging more people to desire to turn to the fantasy. I encourage
you to support fantasy movies as they come out, like Brother's Grimm.
Give it a shot, whatever critics say, because it really is a good,
entertaining movie even if you wouldn't give it more than three stars.
If you've ever read the ORIGINAL version of Grimm's fairytales, then
you will find it very true to that style (the truth is, the original
versions had rather odd and sometimes horrific twists- children being
eaten alive, parents trying to ditch their children so they themselves
wouldn't starve, etc).

And for today, that's that.

-Patrick

I have not followed the news- I plan to check after this post. At this
point, I have absolutely NO IDEA what happened with the hurricane, or
if it even hit New Orleans. That said, I can share my thoughts
pre-hurricane without bias. Two days before, when I first heard about
it from my sister, my thought was rage. Sure, too bad they had not
planned on it... but TWO days! With lives in danger like that it is
potentially a bigger deal, with huge warning, than 911. Why not put the
money we put into 911 cleanup and tsunami aide into evacauating as many
people as possible- by all the jets and planes we have available. If we
kept flights going out as fast as we could, filling up every plane and
charging nothing, we could have gotten a ton of people out. How to do
it? Well, if the commercial air won't volunteer or help, the government
pays for it-  but no, apparently they'd rather pay in cleanup,
because that would cost more than human lives are worth. I don't know
if it hit or not- I don't know if people died or not. Either way, the
strong chance there coudl be such massive disaster should have
warranted a huge response from one of the richest, most advanced
cultures in the world.

That's me.

What do you think?

EDIT- The superdome thing was based on the fact I thought they were
putting people in there to protect them from the storm. After reading a
little news, I'm not sure what happened how. Either way, looks like it
was indeed a big mess.

 

The Hurricane

What do you feel should have been done two days prior to the hurricane coming, when they realised it was headed straight for New Orleans? Exactly what they did. Nothing could be done by then, they should have prepared better in advance for these situations. This was a serious disaster- in this circumstance, they should have begun utilizing the commercial planes to provide free evacuation of everyone they could in addition to ground travel! Lives outweigh the cost! What they did, except have a football game to distract them while they were in the superdome. "Is that the hurricane, or was there a touchdown?" Hurricane? There was a hurricane? WHERE?!   Current Results

Edit note- Skype is an online voice-to-voice phone thing. You can talk
to anyone, anywhere, who has the net and a computer with a mic, no
cost. I have something similar with vonage too, but that is a
net-to-phone thing. Skype is better for some folks, because they'd
rather not give out their home phone quite yet, and with skype you can
keep more anonymous. Also, you can talk to people outside the country
for free. I bought my mic just for it. One last thing- if any of you
have extra web space and want to host an occasional podcast from me,
just to make me your everlasting happy-friend and maybe even offer you
my firstborn son (on his way- maybe then I can pass him off and get a
daughter instead *evil grin*). I have some neato MP3's that my nephew
Michael recorded that might be fun to share, and I'm always creative. I
might try doing a podcast called "Smeagol's Views", and comment on
events with my Smeagol voice. I do a good one *grins* Okay... END EDIT

Some people get eight, maybe even thirty comments (depending on who)
and say "Wow... that's nice". I get one comment, particularly from one
of my favourite folksies, and I'm bouncing up and down saying "WOW! ONE
COMMENT, and so SOON! This is SO COOL! I'll post again another
picture!" So I do, then I get another comment. So now I am saying
"NEATO! I'll post more now! Life is SO happy!" I'm easy to please,
aren't I? If you want more anime, just comment and ask. I'll be so
happy by the comment I'll probably keep posting until I'm out of anime
to post. Then I'll start scribbling or finding my own just to post more
so you'll comment more. I guess that is what one friend meant by being
a "comment whore"- you comment, I put out. Ewww, not a thing to say,
but still... kind of true, in the sense of posting more things you
enjoy.

Obviously, I WUUUUV Efairy, she is so busy and has so much going on in
her life, and she made time to stop by ... TWICE. Hoo yah! Beat that
you pansies! Lemme see you comment. Drop an give me twenty, RIGHT NOW!
Twenty comments, that is, hee hee.

Of course, if a drill sargeant went "hee hee" I would think that he
would probably be even MORE scary, not less. If you had some boot camp
instructor who would punch you, scream at you, with intermittant
giggles... man, I'd fear for my life and sanity both. "Whatever he is
on, I don't think I want to know."

So, fear me, and comment me. Muahahaha.

I'm excited, because for one- I love meeting and talking to new people.
I got skype because a missionary from my past France internship wanted
to talk eventually about some things from several years ago. Of course,
I never used it, but it is still here- I even bought one of those
headset mics for it with one earphone. Then I hear EFairy has it! So
now I have a purpose for that cool 'lil mic besides making "Captain's
Log"s. (By the way, I don't remember dreams often, but the night before
last I dreamed I was in block-buster and met two men who seemed vaguely
familiar... then found out they were the actors Patrick Stewart and
"the guy" who plays Riker. Wow! I even got their picture, and told
Stewart how my Dad saw him in New York once, but never had anything
like this. Then I woke up. Waaaaah)

So now I have it set to start up when I start windows, and I'm acting
like a geek, constantly checking it and saying "is she on? is she on
now?  Okay, five minutes have passed, maybe she's on
now...".  She has a nifty-cool Ipod cast (go check it out, her
latest post has one). I think it is nifty just because it's like
sitting down and talking with a friend- but more transparent. One of
the reasons I enjoyed Kat (the wife, of course) when we first met was
because she opened up to me and I knew she was sharing things with me
most folks around her each day never heard. Yes, I did not see her like
they did, but I got a little part of her friendship they never got. To
me, that is what makes online friendships special. And friends online
like Efairy also share pieces of themselves.

Speaking of, I told my sister the other day about how said Efairy (I
guess my posting topic is Efairy today. See, you comment twice in a row
and you become a celeb here!) mentioned she was rather shy around new
folks but would bust out around folks she knew. Colleen agreed that she
was exactly the same way, especially now that she is a little older
(ie- over twenty). She would might have frozen in the same way, before
she began seeing a psychiatrist that- actually- had residency under my
Dad. Normally Dad avoids personal contact like that (if he knows
someone, we don't see them) but she was perfect for Colleen having been
painfully shy and socially restricted before, herself. Colleen has
really bloomed since. And she is a lot like Efairy when you talk to
her- fun, witty, lots on her mind and lots to share. She is also
wonderful with anecdotes.

I may have mentioned, maybe not, but we're going to try to write a
children's book together. Hairy Potter age-group'ish, but Narnia like
style (ie- kids go to other world) but with our own twists and likes.
We had a lot of things we liked growing up, and some things we did NOT
like. Well, now we can do it our way. Example- kids go to other world,
and waste all their time trying to get back. Not our kids. One of four
will want back- the cranky 16 year old boy, but the others will want to
explore. The other gripe is the fact that in the end, all the kids
always have to go home. Well, I won't give anything away, but not all
of our kids will. Muahahahaaa. We've already set up a bit of a world,
built the characters backgrounds a little, and the writing is just a
step away. Colleen has graduated college but not found a job- so we're
at a good point to begin writing together before my son is born.

Okay, enough writing for today. Oh, if I'm on Efairy's podcast and
become a celebrity, I'll still remember all you little folks out there.
Maybe sign a few autographs. Kiss your babies. Accept your roses with
humility... all that good stuff. *wiggles eyebrows*

Byeee!

-Patrick

I'm glad for the pleasant response to my first shared one, thought I'd
share one more of the uncoloured anime pictures with you- again,
adjusted so as to make clear it is not to be used without permission. I
hate images adjusted that way, but unless I have Jamie's "OK" I'm not
putting up anything non-editted for now.

I think I might try making up stories to go along with some of the
pictures. I'm still thinking of learning to draw anime myself, just so
I can make my own comics/manga with it.

-Patrick