If you don't believe the Bible is true, stop reading this right now.  My entire hypothesis is based on scripture I read today and on nothing else.  I didn't have any kind of apparition enter my room and tell me that ghosts are real, I just pursued my thoughts and reasoning and came to a conclusion.  A conclusion I think is very conceivable.

The passage I came to this conclusion from is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  Six verses and I'm writing up a thesis. Awesome.

In this passage, Paul (the author) refers to Christians who have died as "asleep".  Now, this has two implications.  The first, death is no longer anything to be feared.  Just as sleeping comes naturally to the body, so does death.  Those who are truly in Christ will pass away peacefully and quietly. 

The second implication is that they don't go anywhere.  Just as you fall asleep in your bed, you wake up in your bed.  I don't want to say that people's souls stay with their bodies and thus in their graves, but I don't want to say that they don't.  I don't know where their souls go, all I know, well, all I think is that their soul is neither in heaven nor hell.  Christian or non-Christian, I believe (until proven otherwise by either rhetoric or scripture) that when someone dies they are not "on the other side".

At the end of this passage Paul says that when Jesus Christ comes back to earth with the resounding shout and trumpet the dead in Christ shall rise.  Those sleepers will wake up.

Imagine when you sleep.  You have no cognitive way to tell the time, you can't describe to me how your bedroom looked while you were unconscious, and I doubt you could tell me who entered and exited your room during your slumber.  Just the same, when you wake up you feel that no time has passed.  All the time I close my eyes at 10:00 PM, only to open them at 6:30 AM and feel like I only blinked.

Surely this is what it is like for those who are dead in Christ.  They're not gone anywhere, they've just been removed from the action of the world so that they can be around when Christ returns, but not endure the ages playing the waiting game.  It really is a nice thing, maybe they'll have a dream or too to entertain them...what if they sleepwalk!?

So, what happens to people who die who aren't in Christ?  Well, they certainly don't sleep.  They aren't in any physical form but, just like the Christians, they're not in heaven or hell.   I think they're walking.  The "ghosts" that we hear about. Sightings and stuff, whatever.  All the people we've called ridiculous and stupid because they claim they see epic battles on old Civil War Battlefields in the middle of the night, are just being revealed what the spirits are doing.  I don't know why or how ghost sightings are as strange as they are, but I don't think these people are freaking out over nothing.

I think that it's a punishment.  The dead in Christ will rise, awaken from their slumber feeling no passage of time, but all heathen who have perished will have to endure the days between their death and the end times.  Doomed to walk the earth.  Then at the end of the age will be thrown, with Satan and all his minions, into the lake of fire to burn for the rest of eternity like the hell we've been taught so much about.

Don't take my word alone for it.  These are the conclusions I personally drew from a passage of scripture.  I'm not saying I'm right, I only think I could be wrong.  If anything I hope all this makes you think about how you view the spiritual realm.  It's real, do you really want to watch a few thousand years pass by?

Reference:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

18Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Soapbox anyone?

I'm just testing out this new plugin for Windows Live Writer, but here's my cousin chillin'.

Yeah, another video.  The Chili Peppers doin' their thing.  I still don't like Keites as a singer...I just don't. 

Red Hot - Can't Stop Live 2006

  
Video: Red Hot - Can't Stop Live 2006

Boy bands are still cool.  It's awesome!  Yeah! Well..in Japan anyway.

TVXQ-Step by step

  
Video: TVXQ-Step by step

This one's insane...I never knew Rage was so freaking riulously off the hook.  It's awesome. Kevin, love it.

Rage Against The Machine

  
Video: Rage Against The Machine

Quote

The Ghost Of You

 
Video: The Ghost Of You

Devin Mork

English 11

November 26, 2007

A Jump For Joy Brings Only Pain

In the early days, before homework, algebra, or Spanish were part of my vocabulary, there was only perfection, innocence, and a spirit of adventure that even the most traveled envy. I was a first grader in the 90’s. The 90’s, we remember, was littered with fads, fads for young children to buy into with their parents’ money. The best fad of all, as far as I was concerned, was the climb of portable moon-bounces. It was an inflatable item which resembled an inflatable pool that you’d buy for a child, though you didn’t put any water in it. One was just to jump around in it, which my brothers and I did, a lot.

We would play in that thing for hours. Find sticks and have sword fights, wrestle in it, roll it around and chase each other with it, as if it were a tire of a giant truck that would cause immediate death to whomever it should run over. Sometimes we would jump in, jump out the other side and onto something else. On a wet day it was a puddle. On a dry day, we found sprinklers. When we were faced with a boring day, we just jumped onto each other. Yes, we had much fun with our moon-bounce.

Eventually we got bored with it…we just had enough of the same old bouncing. We’d fought, wrestled, and played the thing to death. We needed fresh entertainment, but none of our ideas were under the umbrella of my mom’s approval. Then one day, we got a baby sitter. Mom’s umbrella was put away for the evening and a bigger, much more tolerant, umbrella was opened above our ideas, bringing them out of the rain of disapproval. Finally, we could have some real fun. We had a fort in our back yard, which we’d also played on to boredom, so we decided to innovate.

“Cooper, I’ve got an idea!”

“What is it Devin?”

“How about we jump off the roof of the fort, and land on the moon-bounce? It’ll be loads of fun!”

“I don’t know Devin, what if someone get’s hurt?”

“Are you kidding? We won’t get hurt! It’ll be awesome. You’ll feel like Superman or something!”

“Ok, ok, let’s do it.” I had gotten the approval of one of my younger brothers, so we proceeded to drag the moon-bounce out to our wooden fort that sat in our backyard. While we moved the thing we both felt a little nervous and devious about what we were about to do, but as soon as we arrived and beheld our jumping platform a sense of giddied sense of excitement rushed over us and we ran up to the top as quickly as we could. At the top however, Cooper seemed to chicken out.

“It sure looks a lot higher from up here.” He sort of whimpered.

“Dude, it’ll be awesome, watch.” I jumped off the top of our fort, nearly a 12-foot drop, landed on our moon-bounce, and jumped out onto the lawn.

“Go Cooper, go!” He jumped, though not with the finesse that I exhibited for out came our babysitter, Alley, with an apprehensive eye of disdain that would’ve shaken my core had she not been so fun-loving and carefree.

“What do you think you guys are doing!?” She demanded. I looked over to Cooper to check if he had anything to say, he just stared at her blankly, as if he were about to be driven to tears when I piped up.

“Our mom lets us do this all the time.” I spouted.

“Yeah,” Cooper replied, defensively, “all the time!”

“Ok, but if she finds out you were doing this, and I get in trouble, I’ll be mad.” Was all she said. We looked at each other with a big smile, and got back to jumping.

By this time our youngest brother Jamen had joined us, and all three of us were involved in the matter. I’m not sure where Alley, our babysitter, went, though if I were to guess I bet she was sitting on the back deck talking to a friend on the phone. Very unconcerned with all that we were doing, a very responsible young lady to say the least, wouldn’t you say?

As we kept jumping, our innovating minds kept on ticking, this time it was all about efficiency. I found that when you landed in the moon-bounce, unless you had an absolutely perfect jump, you had to sort of roll over the wall instead fly over it as should be the procedure. I took it upon myself to find a solution, and thus turned the moon-bounce upside down. Thus eliminating the walls, and elevating the bouncing surface up off of the ground. This provided for a much more enjoyable experience, now you could fly onto the grass every time, eliminating any sort of luck or skill.

Yes we all were having a wonderful time. For awhile the little (at that time) Jamen wasn’t game enough to jump from the roof of the fort, just from the top of the cargo net hanging from the side. Eventually, after a few jumps, he just had to see what it was like, I suppose Cooper’s and my laughter was just louder than his, and he wanted to join our chorus of childish joy. Soon, after more jumping and bouncing, we started to move our landing away from the fort. I figured that if we jump farther then we’ll have more forward momentum and bounce out onto the yard more sporadically and sometimes hysterically. How little did I know that this was to be to my downfall, literally, in a minute.

I remember Jamen was just climbing back up, and Cooper was getting up from his previous bounce. I’m not sure where Alley, the babysitter, had gone. It didn’t matter much. I asked Cooper to move it out from the fort just a little more, he was apprehensive, but moved it out anyway. I felt a little nervous, the distance was just enormous compared to that with which we started our play time. Yet I jumped. For the last time, I jumped. I would’ve bounced, that would’ve been the fun thing to do in this moment. But no, I was destined to miss this time. I’m not sure if Cooper moved it out just an inch more as I was jumping, or my own judgement was wrong, for as I fell, I saw I wasn’t landing in the center, but rather, towards the edge.

Before I go on I must tell you just how utterly disappointing “missing” was. The bottom of this mini moon-bounce (which was now the top) was made with inflatable compartments that were arranged in circles, progressively increasing in diameter. It looked like a target for darts, the center even looked like a bull’s eye, with it being just a dot. Imagine yourself getting bull’s eyes all night, and applauded for it, every one marvels at how wonderful you are and is cheering and laughing at others’ failure with you, and such. Then you hit the wall, right next to the board. One would be disappointed with themselves, and the crowd would try to console you, but you didn’t just miss the bull’s eye, you missed the board entirely and hit the wall, something only a blind man would do with the skill you previously exhibited. This was my situation, as I fell I saw the edge of the moon-bounce and the only thought that came to mind was, “I missed.”

I was about to think, “How can I miss?” but I hit the ground…hard. I screamed for a little bit, then told Cooper to go get Alley, that my wrist, which broke my fall rather unsuccessfully, really hurt. Alley came rushing from inside with an, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! What happened!? What did you do!?”

Cooper explained the whole thing as we all walked inside, our glorious moon-bounce left alone in the yard, with nobody to care for it, and nobody to put it away, as if my injury were its fault. It was as if it was the enemy in the situation, disdained and disapproved, left to whither in the dark.

Inside, however, there was light and there were bandages. Alley quickly wrapped up my arm and called my parents. After a short conversation she turned to me and said, “We’re going to the hospital.” I made no protest. My arm hurt, and I was just happy that I wasn’t in any kind of trouble. Alley hopped into my parents’ Ford Freestar and sped out of our driveway. In such a panic was she that she broke the right sideview mirror on the way out of the garage. As we drove away something was missing. I didn’t know what, the house was quiet, but not empty.

We arrived at the hospital just as the sky finished its transition from light to dark, and sat and waited. I contemplated my wrongdoing, sort of, I actually contemplated why I asked Cooper to move it out a li-…that’s it! We left Cooper at home! Jamen was with us in the waiting room, but poor Cooper was nowhere to be seen. Soon enough a nurse called my name, and my attention was back on myself.

The rest of the hospital experience was a rush, I remember seeing some x-rays of my arm, and going into a room with a bunch of casts that reeked of a stench that nearly made me throw up. I sat as they wrapped my arm with some cotton ball type cloth, and then dipped the actual cast part into some wateresque liquid and began wrapping my arm. For the next month I was completely immobile. Maybe not completely, I still went to the lake with my uncle, still ran around on the playground next-door to my house, still jumped around in that stupid moon-bounce, and still fought with my brothers as if I couldn’t be hurt.

Then, ironically, my little brother Cooper broke his right wrist. Well, actually sprained it or something, he only fell off of some monkey bars, but it was still worthy of a cast. With my left out of commission, and his right down and out, together we made a whole person. One time we went to the lake and took a picture while we were on a boat of both of us with our casts, never was I more proud of him, that he had a cast. Though telling people why was a little embarrassing, “How’d you break your arm?”

“I jumped off of a fort and missed my landing.”

“Oh my! And how did your little brother break his arm?”

“He fell off of some monkey bars.”

Usually it was met with laughter or a sigh, sometimes a bit of wise advice or something useful. I didn’t have to put up with it long though, about a week after Cooper got his cast, I got mine off. It was a horrifying experience. I would jump off that stupid fort a million times, and break a million bones, before I’d get another cast taken off. This elderly lady, in her 50’s I bet, sat me down in that same room with the nasty smell, and put my arm up on a special, wide-load, arm rest. She looked at it for a bit, then looked me in the eye and said, “Hold still now.” Out of nowhere she brings out a buzz saw. I don’t know how big it actually was, but I swear this thing was at least a foot in diameter. I was scared to death! She turned it on and it made the most horrific noise, I nearly soiled myself. Not only was this thing in my presence, but it was to cut off something on my arm (which I love and cherish) without any room for error.

I think there were sparks. I’m sure there were sparks. I know there was dust. I got some on my face, it was pretty gross, I remember it tasted like ashes, or at least what I imagined ashes to taste like. I could feel the blade touching the cotton-ball cloth stuff that was between the cast and my arm. I was sure she was going to cut straight through the cloth, skin, muscles, and break the bone again. If it would’ve happened I would’ve requested an amputation because I refuse to go through that experience again. After an eternity or two the sawing ended, and I was free, kind of. My arm was still incredibly stiff. When you don’t use a set of muscles for a month and a half you forget just how you got about in the first place. I wasn’t entirely free though, I still had the cotton-ball cloth on. Just as I realized this the nurse pulled out scissors the size of my head to cut it off. I held my breath, and then I was free.

I got home, still rubbing my arm and trying to sniff fresh air to rid myself of the smell of that dreadful room. I wandered about my house a bit, told my little brothers about the experience and showed them my arm. I had a nice tan line from the cast, I guess going through half a summer like that will have such an effect. After all the hubbub was over, I looked out the back window. We had some great windows in our living room, overlooking the back yard. There were at least six of them, each twenty feet high or something. I looked out to the spot that brought me so much pain and commotion a month earlier. Remembered all the laughter, the fun, the lies. Then I turned to my mom and said, “When’s the next time you guys are getting a babysitter for us?”

I ended my last entry with the sound-check, I think, on Saturday. Indeed I will continue.

The youth worship team went out to the stage at about 4 PM, set up all of our instruments, got our microphones, and then spent quite a bit of time sitting around. Being on the stage was exciting though. With all of the lights set up, a big backdrop behind me, and a big open field, I was ready to rock. Not the case though, for another three hours.

Think sitting around up there, on a stage, listening to people sing, play, and jam for a few hours, while the sun sets, and you haven't eaten, but you don't really want to because you're too excited, with 20-30 people randomly walking around in the distance or watching you warm up. That was my saturday afternoon. It was cool though, I enjoyed every minute of it. The back-drop thing gave us shade, it was awesome.

I'm kind of tired right, Nathanael and his friends are playing and stuff behind me, it's hard to concentrate. It's times like this I miss the stage, the only noise you hear is your own, and you like it. I had many solos that night. I might've melted a face or two, it was insane.

Alright, I'm just done here. I'm tired and stuff. I can't even type clearly. Good night.

It seems like an eternity since I last typed in here, so much has happened and I'm not sure I remember all of it well enough to recount it verbatim. I'll try though.

My weekend, so far, has been the busiest it's ever been. Alot has happened just yesterday, Saturday, and I think I may be mentally shell shocked from it all still. I know I was from my alarm this morning, but whatever.

Those of you who know me at least fairly well (well, if you speak english with me regurlarly) know I like to make fun of things that are ironic or just retarded. Those of you who know me from scouts will notice I'm not a sappy homesick traveler, but rather try to embrace where I may find myself. I've called home twice, the first was because Uncle Matt told me I should let my parents know I had arrived safely and all, the second was for my Dad on father's day. Other than that I've just been talking to either Cooper or my mom on MSN messenger.

Then this girl Johanna shows up, and wow, she's called on skype every other day (almost). When she's not using the web-based phone application she's upstairs in her room talking to people on AOL Instant Messenger. Quite a contrast we have going here. Other than that though she's sane and friendly, she's been talking to all the locals here and stuff, a little more freely than I did when I first arrived, but it seems she's not warming up to the Hendricksons very well. The kids, John, Luke, and Lydia, are cool, their second day here we were sitting around bus-7 and they said we should go climb the trees in the nearby park. I pretty much rubbed the top of my foot off on one, it's got a nasty red scab now, but it was cool.

Before that though, or sometime this week, the whole thing is jumbled together in my memory, we played softball. Johanna plays softball back home which made her the only girl game enough to be recruited for our team. We all just played catch for awhile. We were in a soccer-field looking place with a 200 meter track around it. Kristopher wanted practice somewhere else, but we had to have the church's official PE class that thursday.

Soon enough we gave up catch and practiced fielding. I took outfield while Zachory, Calvin, and Kevin were infield. Peter was a little behind them, where outfield stands when everybody moves in. Johanna was the person you throw back to and gives them to Kris, which was kind of funny to watch. There were three throws that she didn't catch. One hit her shoulder, that was an ouch. One hit her leg, I thought it was kind of funny, and one hit her rib. An old man walking the track almost joined her in the pain. Kris hit a long one to me, I ran back for it, didn't make it, but watched it bounce right in front of this guy. He was verging on blind! I was almost petrified, but it's softball, stuff happens.

I didn't really eat well yesterday. I didn't eat well at all, only two meals. The morning started off with a prayer meeting, which was great. Kristopher played his acoustic guitar and everybody got thoroughly involved. You would think that with so much prayer it would be rather quiet and peaceful. Not so! Everyone was singing, shouting, and praying aloud, it was glorious. Eventually I ran out of things to pray about and just started singing psalms. If anything like this happened in our church I think one of our pastors would try to have an excorsism or something, you just don't see it anywhere I've been, save Living Water.

Then there was some chillin'. There was a Men's breakfast that morning, it started a half-hour after the prayer meeting ended. The Hendrickson's showed for that, Luke and John sat with us, and the rest of the young men, outside while the more elder of us all sat inside. We talked, joked, it was a just whatever time. Kris taught John some Taiwanese, or Chinese, phrases to say at people going by. His favorite was translated, "What do you think you're doing!?", and, "Don't run!". He got some pretty funny responses, ranging from angry looks to people laughing. It was great.

The thing that's wrong with a christian guys breakfast is that everybody's too humble, even though they're extremely hungry. When the first plate of food came out, everyone passed it around the table knowing that it was a little improper to eat before others have been served, I didn't let that stop me. After two laps around the table, it came to rest at my spot. The first thing Luke said was, "Pray." I thought he wanted me to like pray aloud for everyone's food or something, you don't need to tell people in this group to pray in this circumstance. Kris interruped, "No Devin, out loud, in tongues, now!" We laughed, I blessed my food, silently, and I ate. Then Kris taught John more phrases.

After breakfast we had some chill time. We just sat around the table and talked. A stage set up in the parked was having a rehearsal, or sound check, or something. Curious, I said to Luke that we should go over there and watch. I thought at first there'd be a funny reaction, a bunch of white guys in the middle of an open grassy area, in front of a stage just watching while 30 or so social workers sat in the shade nearby. Winway said that the Mayor of Tainan was going to speak, I would've liked to meet him, but I had band practice soon, three band practices actually.

The first was at 10:30 AM, for Sunday Morning. I didn't enjoy it at all, it was just boring and critical. I decided I'm only going to play a little bit on the first song, and church starts in an hour (it's sunday morning right now). The second practice was just fun though. It was the youth band, led by Tracy, the youth leader, it was awesome. I did alot of jumping, I got a couple solos, and best of all, these songs were for tonight! My favorite was "Freedom". That song starts off nice and slow, just piano, drums, and vocals. In that slow time I raised up my hands, like you do when you worship, with a saxaphone in one. I knew it was going to be a crowd pleaser. Kevin and Rachael thought it was funny, Kevin wouldn't stop laughing at everything I did, I was just having fun.

Then, after those two practices I was ready for lunch, but guess what! I had another practice! Yeah, do you think I would actually eat on a concert day!? I did, after awhile, but not before the Hendricksons' practice. At about 3:30 PM I finally got some food. I just walked over to the rice place nearby and ordered soem fried rice with ham. It was yummy! Then more chillin' before a sound check. I'll tell you all about it in my next post though, I've got to go to church right now. TTYL world!

I'm sure you're all ready for my second day of my Hong Kong adventure. I would've posted it sooner had I found time that wasn't already occupied, or a computer of the same nature.

Before I do that however, I like music. I like music very much. I do believe my first order of business when I get home, is to jump onto my bed and just chill for about 20 minutes. At the 21st minute I'll see what do to about getting some good (& loud) speakers in there. Then I may see about having a life, I don't know though. I think my favorite song, today anyway, is 'PCH-82' by Authority Zero. It's very patriotic.

Anyway, onto Hong Kong! I woke up, yes, I did finally wake up about 20 minutes before 9:00 AM. I let Uncle Matt shower first, while I just sort of stared out the window or paced about. I saw some school kids, all dressed in burnt red and yellow uniforms, cycle in and out of a PE class. They appeared to be middle school aged, but I had better things to do. After a shower, a brush of the teeth, and a change of clothes, Uncle Matt and I left to find some breakfast.

The city was even busier than I had imagined based on the previous night. People were everywhere, and where people weren't taxis were. At each pedestrian crossing the signal beeped, once every second when you weren't to cross, and then just incessantly when you could cross.

We found a nice restaraunt that was serving breakfast. We were soon seated at a booth and were given a menu. Just as our midnight snack had gone, Uncle Matt didn't find anything he liked that was being served for breakfast. I'm not that picky so I ordered some eggs, german sausage, baked beans, and a roll. I also had some tea, but it really wasn't worth recognition. Soon we had finished and were back on the street. Our next order of business was finding a ferry to take us across the bay to the Hong Kong side of Hong Kong.

The walk was interesting to say the least. It seemed every store had a neon sign that read "SONY" and was just full of little electronic devices such as iPods, camcorders, and radios. Even more obnoxious than the Sony signs were the Indians. No, not native americans, people from India Indians. The were out in front of almost every other store. I only heard two things they were selling, either they could make you a suit in one day, or they were selling faux Rolex watches. Neither of which seem like very honest businesses, just tourist gimmicks.

Good news though. McDonalds is doing very well in Hong Kong, before we made it down Nathan Road to the Ferries we'd seen at least four.

I hope that one day I'll be required to visit a city as big as Hong Kong, one with a bay such as Hong Kong's, the ferry is a very peaceful way to get about. It's more enjoyable than walking, and more scenic than a taxi. It was interesting to look around at all the other boats. I saw at least four tug-boats going this way and that, a barge bringing in some shipping containers, and another ferry across the way. Nowhere did I see any miltiary craft though. There was a fishing rig docked near where the ferry launched, but otherwise, besides the ferry, every boat was of industrial purposes.

When you look at a city from across a bay, you notice that it's big. In this case, really big. When you look on a map, you notice that it's navigable. Logically so. When you actually arrive in that said city, for the first time, you realize it's daunting, though tourist friendly (at least in this case). Nearly everything was in english as well as chinese. Very convenient.

Our first order of business was to find this mountain tram thing. It was to take us on an eight minute ride to the top of the nearby mountain/hill/whatever and give us a great view. Which it did, splendidly, finding it however was a much more confusing endevour. We started walking. We had a map and figured we would get there soon enough. Though after nearly a half hour of this we decided to ask somebody the best way to get there. We talked to a policeman, he directed us to some underground tunnel thing, which only took us under a street where we walked some more. Finally we came to this bus stop type place and asked a lady as to how we should get to the tram. She started telling us something when a bus pulled up, she asked the driver something in chinese and told us that that bus would take us straight there. Uncle Matt and I didn't know what was going on we just got on the stupid bus, paid as best we could with the 'Hong Kong dollars' and seated ourselves. Looking rearward I saw the rest of the passengers were mostly foreign. A mountain tram was a sure tourist attarction, so I was assured we were going the right way.

After some insanely crazy driving for a bus (by my standards) we arrived at a place. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it was definently a building, almost looked like a bunker, and we were pointed inside. We walked down a short hallway and into another room with a ticket booth and a set of tracks. We paid, and queued for boarding. The trip up the mountain was only eight minutes, so we were in for a very short wait, and just as short of ride.

The ride up was lush. You would think that with all the factories around any kind of vegetation would be choked out, not the case. In Hong Kong, there are buildings. Where there aren't buildings there are roads. Where there aren't roads there are plants, everywhere. That's just how it was. Soon enough we were up the mountain and looking at a ton of gift shops. The building the tram landed in was six stories tall, with roof access, and at least three stores on each floor. On the fourth floor Electronic Arts (EA) had it's own dome! EA is a video game company, they make any kind of game you can imagine, and they had Wii's and Xbox 360's set up at kiosks and such that must've taked up three floors. If that doesn't count as branding, I don't know what marketing means anymore.

The view from the roof was amazing. On one side of the mountain, city. Lots of city. As far as the eye could see there were buildings, houses, and factories. Now that I could see the outside of the bay it was very busy. Mostly with shipping boats though. Oh, and on the other side of the mountain, a lush valley that led out to the ocean where there were many islands stretching out into the haze. Oh it would've made a great picture, but off to the right was a factory, a big one too. Out in the ocean were more boats, shipping things to foreign lands and richer countries. I took a picture of the city.

We mulled around the place, looking at gifts shops, surprised at prices, and doing things of that nature. I found something for my Mom there, though anything I would've bought for my Dad was much too expensive, I guess I'll have to find something here in Tainan. We ate lunch at Burger king and then caught a tram back down the mountain. In line for the trip down, Uncle Matt and I were in line behind some german family. Well, at least they spoke german, I think. The older sister was pretty, looked sort of like Kirsten Dunst, her younger sister however was just creepy. She had a pale face, high cheek bones, bleach-white hair, bakne, and empty blue-grey eyes. I wanted to take a picture because I've never seen anyone like her before, but my camera was empty. I still wonder if she even had a soul. Not once did she smile, one of them made a joke and the parents and older sister laughed while the younger one glanced at them and then continued to look out the window. I didn't let that ruin my trip though.

At the bottom of the mountain Uncle Matt and I just started wandering our way toward the airport express station, taking elevated walkways, normal sidewalks, and a walk through the park, which was just as lush as the tram ride. I don't remember if we had to ask anybody for directions. I imagine we did, but we got there just the same. It was nice to go into the airconditioned atmosphere of that building. That building which was probably the tallest in the city, we only saw the lobby and basement. The lobby was huge though, probably 6 stories high, just of lobby. Well, I only got a look at on my way down an escalator, so it could've been less I suppose.

I'll skip the train ride, all you need to know is that it was quick. Very quick. Very comfortable too. At the airport, we checked in with plenty of time to spare, our flight left at 7:30 or so and it was only 4:00 PM. After we successfully located the restroom Uncle Matt and I found we were feeling a bit peckish. We took an escalator up to the second floor where we sat at a nice Cantonese restaraunt. We ordered tea, and fried rice with shrimp, pork, and other such delicacies in it. It was a very formal restaraunt, the kind that you'd learn a foreign language just to order. Neither Uncle Matt nor I spoke chinese though, so english was appropriate on this occasion. The tea wasn't the friendly cheap tea you find at chinese restaraunt in America. This tea was serious business, it had little leaf looking things in it and everything, was of a burnt orange color and smelled of fresh spices, though it tasted of an equivalent of raw spinach. It grew on me though, and I began to enjoy it by the end of the meal.

Eventually our rice arrived, and it looked heavenly. It was a bannana yellow, with all types of meats and vegetables in it. After grace we dished it out and delved into it. It was probably the best meal I had ever had. Maybe because I'd been walking all over a foreign city that day, or there was something in the tea, but it was good. It was a little, I want to say greesy, but I'm not sure, it just slid down the throat. It was really a beautiful thing. We ate, and we talked, and we ate, and we talked, and before the end I was commissioned by Uncle Matt to write a review on Living Water, his church, and my thoughts on it compared to churches in the States, particularly my church. I don't think my church is a fair comparison, people get saved at Living Water, while our church is almost the nazis of christian faith. After this trip though I think I'm going to see things change in youth ministry. Uncle Matt was flaberghasted when I told him parents volunteered to do youth work, and we didn't have anybody on full time. We were understood when I told him that you couldn't really pour out your heart and soul into your friends' parents. It just wasn't comfortable.

Next, security and immigration. Which were both easily and successfully passed through. Then onto stores and shops and other such thing, we still had a few hours. I don't remember too much about the airport experience at this time, other than Uncle Matt spent the rest of his Hong Kong dollars at 'The Tie Rack' on a tie and some socks, and I spent some time in a Sony store while he looked at chocolates for Aunt Elizabeth. I do recall that one lady was trying to sell him some chocolate and said that it was from Taiwan where he replied, "Oh, Taiwan? Great product from a great country." I just laughed, then headed for that Sony store.

At about an hour and a half before boarding we decided to find our gate. Which was quite a walk from where we were, though an easy one. We soon found it, and had plenty of time to spare. Instead of sitting around we went to a restaraunt across from a place called 'Taiwan Noodles'. If ever you want to take pictures of diverse peoples, just book a flight at an international airport. If the laws there provide for photography, you'll probably get some very original shots just in the stores with all the different faces, couples, and doings. I think I'll bring a digital camera next time.

Finally we settled in at our gate to wait for our flight. If you want to know what happened from that point on, just read about the flight to Hong Kong in reverse order. Except, add a part where I look at the quarentine people funny, and think to myself, "I wonder what their job is." only to be flagged down and have my ears checked with some little device before I was cleared to continue to immigration.

When I arrived home the house was pretty much empty. Some people were at friends' houses, some where home, and then some went to taipei to pick up Johanna, the other American staying with the Chens. I was in bed before they came home, but we met the next morning, so it's cool...Turns out I'm flying home with her. huh...

This, to me, is a repost. What I'm going to say in this article has mostly been previously written, but I failed to save the draft so I am starting over. It's already past 10:48 PM here so forgive me if things seem hasty or unattentative.

Hong Kong, in three words it is 'Tall, Hot, and Busy'. It seems all of asia has simply run out of room. There aren't houses, as you find in America, nor are there conventional stores where you shop in. In a typical asian city, it seems, there is a shop on the bottom where you can buy some assortment of particulars, and above is housing. In such a place in any of the American States you would expect the floors above said store or shop to be rented out to local businesses. 'Tis simply not the case.

For those catching up I recently made a trip to Hong Kong, with my Uncle Matt, in order to prolong my stay in Taiwan. I entered Taiwan without a visa which only granted me 30 days stay, since I'm staying more than that I either needed to make a trip to some office in Taipei, or leave the country and come back in to get a new, temporary, visa. Uncle Matt scheduled a flight for the latter.

We were scheduled to depart at around 7:30 PM on Wensday, June 20, 2007. Ben, a member of Living Water Christian Church, Matt's Church, picked us up a little after 5:30 for an hour car ride. The car was clean and kept in immaculate condition. Indeed, even the seat belts were held out of the way with a paper clip and the floors had a rubber mat over them. I spent most of the time thinking. Thinking of former days, future days, and just why there were so many factories everywhere. If I had brought a camera to take pictures of the countryside it would've been rudely obstructed by a factory, warehouse, or water treatment facility. Again, Asia has just run out of room.

The airport was very quaint. We checked in fairly easier. It would've gone more smoothly had Uncle Matt brought his 'Asia Miles' card. He spent about 10 minutes on the phone with Jackie or Jessica trying to get the number of his account. Once that was through though, we made our way to immigration and security. Immigration was a very formal and quick process, and security was just as easy. When we found our gate the time was only about to reach 6:45 PM. We still had quite a wait before we departed. I listened to music on my Zune while Uncle Matt napped. Some elderly people fussed amongst themselves and soem american-looking guy was hauled off by someone in uniform. He returned about 10 minutes later.

Finally, the flight. Boarding was easy. Uncle Matt gave me the window seat which I thanked him for, I would've graciously thanked him for it hadn't things already been a bit awkward. The flight was uneventful, as it should be lest we be subject to tighter security and even more delay boarding an airplane. I mostly just listened to music on the headphones, and watched an episode of Frasier. At about 8:00 PM they served us dinner, which was nice. I had grown an appetite since Uncle Matt and I had eaten triangle rice before we left the house, note Uncle Matt also had a glass of wine before home departure, it seems Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Matt have an affinity for the drink from the vine, I would join them some evening if only I were of age...

Of personal note, however, I did find an interesting word picture. Perhaps it's only interesting to me, but in 10 years I'll be the only one who remembers it anyway. When you approach Hong Kong Airport, there are two runways for landing and take off, each is marked by a row of lights that blink in succession to designate the direction of the runway. I thought about perspectives when I saw that there was a road that lined the airfield. I thought, what if a maintenance worker, one who's worked at the airport many years but never could afford to actually travel, drove that road every night only to bee annoyed by that light. He would see these bright, almost strobing, lights were simply a nuisance and otherwise didn't think of them much. At times, they would eat away at his inner being so that he would wish to destroy them. Think now for a wounded aircraft. Imagine how he sees the lights. He sees the bigger picture, and without those lights might not make a successful landing. I guess it's like, one man's trash is another man's treasure, but I think it's original.

When you arrive in Hong Kong Airport as late as we did, at about 9:30 PM or so, you see just why it's number two ranked airport in the world. First, it's huge. Really huge. When you view it from the outside you'll agree that it's big, but it's when you have to walk all the way from your gate to immigration and such that you realize just how big it is.

As we waited in line for immigration/customs/or whatever it's called, I spent more time thinking. Averting my attention from my own head was a man, looking to be in his mid-40's turned to a rather elderly asian man and asked, "Excuse me, did you start in Lincoln, Nebraska this morning?" The man said that he had and they both enjoyed a laugh and a little chat. Again averting my attention was a tall black man talking to some woman about something or other. I noticed that he was meeting relatives for, what sounded like, a crazy party and that he'd never met any of these people before. He was to stay in Hong Kong only a few days, but he planned to get plenty trashed before he had to leave. To each his own I suppose.

The line went back and forth through ropes, much like an ammusement park ride. The only difference is the only ammusements are the faces around you. It was sort of like watching TV on thursday night, with each turn being a new thursday night. Each person, or TV show, was exactly the same. Same cloathes, same hair, same facial hair, same piercings, same baggage, same everything. Yet each time you saw them, they were doing something new, or occasionally you'd hear one speak and their voice wouldn't match your appearance which would take you by complete surprise and just add to the entertainment.

We finally made it through immigrations (in real life and in this post) and found our way to a customer service desk. From there we asked what was the best way to go to the...ready? YMCA. I know, all of my American brethren are laughing. Why on earth would you go to Hong Kong, to spend the night at the YMCA. Before I continue, it was quite comfortable. This was no conventional YMCA, this was the YMCA international house. It was much like what you would expect to find at a Holiday in, but not quite as nice as the Hilton. They had room service and all, and the lobby was grade A.

After relieving ourselves of our bags, Uncle Matt and I set out to find more food. We were located right on the busiest street in Hong Kong (it's name escapes me at the moment) and it seemed there were plenty of places to eat. We started walking on that street, and we hadn't passed three stores when Uncle Matt suggested we try a place. I guess he was in the mood for rice, but this place only had noodles. Rather than finding another place he just ordered a drink and I had a bowl of noodles with beef. It was good, the beef felt and looked like undercooked bacon. It was thoroughly cooked though, just a little cold and limp, but absolutely delicious to my late night stomach.

At about 11:30 PM we retired. Uncle Matt had a queen size bed while I had a twin. It was nice to take a break from sharing a mattress with Nathanael. Unlike Kristopher and Nathanael though, Uncle Matt snored something fierce. Now I know why God had me share a room with Cooper, it was conditioning for sharing a room with Uncle Matt.

It's late now, nearly 11:30, I've been typing for more than half an hour. Kris turned off the lights about 20 minutes ago, and my back is getting rather uncomfortable, I think I'll make my Hong Kong adventure a two part post. Stay tuned for tomorrow's edition, I think you're really going to like it. I know I did.

Popanic & beef. What do these have in common? I honestly have no idea but both were on a t-Shirt I got racing on a Dragon boat. It all started the night before, monday night, which started as an average day, monday, which was preceded by an average Sunday, which was accompanied by an average Saturday. So basically my week was just like the rest, until monday, cool?

I lost my train of thought, Rose Marie just brought me a banana...with a nasty bruise. It tastes alright though, but I suspect it's poisoned.

Ok, so Sunday. I didn't have a mic, again, but at least I know I sounded good, and the front rows nearest me didn't react negatively, so I was pleased. That afternoon was rather interesting though. Instead of just throwing the football back & forth while everybody else played basketball, we actually played football. There has been arranged a highschool girls vs. middle school boys game, so Kris & I ended up teaching these little guys some football, real football. Contact & everything. There's one kid, Yun-Yun is how his name is pronounced, that can through one beautiful pass (as can his older brother, Peter). Kris told him to go sit down, I asked him to give me the ball he was carrying. The spiral was glorious. It was smooth enough to watch the laces full circle, but fast and accurate enough to see a white circle all the way to my hands. He's the middle school quarterback now.

That same time, while we taught the boys, Jessica tought the girls. I'm not sure if they were even playing football, but a scrimage later showed that the middle school boys needed help.

Monday only brought more football. It's amazing how much everybody likes football around here. The dominant sport is basketball. You can find kids around here who don't like soccer, golf, baseball, or a few that don't like basketball, but nobody has said they don't like football. Poor Zachary, I was the center & he was the only guy on defensive line. He juked me, almost got by, but my elbow caught in right in the nose. It sounded like it was broken, yet it looked fine & didn't even bleed. That's why we where face masks back in the States...

After another scrimage, that the boys would've won had they known you can't throw the ball forward past the line of scrimage, we headed home. Dirty & sweaty, we were also hungry. Kris went out w/ some friends, and I was to go w/ Jessica & Jackie for some pasta. At 8PM we finally left and met Tina, Coco, & Rudy for some spaghetti. Coco was tired, Tina almost only spoke chinese, and what she said in english was barely intelligable and very nonesensical. Also there was Andre, one of Coco & Rudy's classmates. He was cool, and from Costa Rica. Coco & Rudy are from Guatemala, so they all three spoke spanish. Whenever they did I understood some of what they were saying, sometimes they would crack a joke they all knew not to laugh at to not be rude, but I picked up a few words & laughed just the same. After dinner, it seemed ridiculous how long we stood at a street corner and just chatted. Coco eventually suggested we play Pool or go Bowling, but Jessica & Jackie didn't want to smell like smoke.

After more awkward conversation they spoke of their Dragon Boat race scheduled for the next day. They said they were down a few people and asked if I'd like to row with them, I agreed and called Kristopher who also agreed to row next to me, and we were all set. I was to participate in a televised Taiwanese event, yipee!

That outing eventually drew to a close, and we returned home, tired & stuffed w/ food. I thought I was going to bed, I thought I was going to be in bed by midnight (it was already 11:30pm), but no, not if LuLu had anything to say about it. She would see me awake. Apparently there was a cockroach in her drawer. It was probably the highlight of my trip so far. Lulu was absolutely terrified, hiding in a pillow in her chair near the door, scared half to death...I heartlessly laughed, and Jackie joined me.

The nasty little thing had abandoned Lulu's drawer and mostly took cover under their bed, which was pretty much on the ground with not even enough space to peek under there. Finally we took everything off their king size bed, slid off the mattress & stood it up to have LuLu hold it, while I lifted the bed and Jackie beat the roach to death with a slipper. We said our goodnights & I finally got to bed.

Tuesday. I slept 'til 8am. I had some breakfast then started scripting a video for the youth we're going to present this saturday. The filming went pretty well. We did it 10 o'clock news style I'll put it up on youtube when it's finished. The highlight was poor Calvin. We were going to dog pile on him, but he didn't have his glasses, he was just standing there saying, "Guys, I can't see, I can't see anything" and I tackled him. Then people piled up on top of us, and the video looks really funny.

After that we chilled at Bus-7 for awhile, until it was time to head for the Dragon boat races. The place was thoroughly packed. Finding a parking space was ridiculous. The traffic was insane. Eventually however we found a parking space. Then walked through crowds of people until we joined Coco & Rudy at the "Rower's Rest Place". We were given a 5-minute briefing before it was off to the boat. Kris and I had no idea of any propper etiquette for dragon boating, we just did what everybody else did. Our oponents' boats were filled with older people, and some women, while ours was just a bunch of hispanic guys, we were going to win for sure.

We lost. The entire team wasn't coordinated at all, while our oponents had perfect form. I heard from Rudy (or Coco) that they'd only practised twice, a total of two hours, so I didn't feel so bad. Oh well, I got a sweet T-Shirt, and how many people do you know that have raced in a national Dragon Boat tournament?

I'm home now, eating a banana, and I have to take out the trash. So I'll talk later. See ya.