Of Sausage and, well, sausage...

So I have decided something. If everyone in the world was given more testosterone, the world would be a much more violent, messy but better place. I mean seriously, things would be a lot more clear and effiecient. Here is a perfect example. Instead of trying to guess what you girlfriend/wife wanted for Valentine's day, she would tell you. Here are a couple examples of how things are now:

Wife/Girlfriend: You know what?
Guy: What
W/G: I really hate flowers.
Guy: ok
W/G: I mean, I really, really hate them.
Guy: ok
W/G: I mean, I know they smell really good and they look really pretty, but I just couldn't stand if you got me those for Valentine's day.
Guy: ok
W/G: So...You're not going to get me flowers right?
Guy: ok
....
Guy: I mean, no.
W/G: I just can't believe you! You never listen to me anymore! You think I'm not even worth flowers. (runs out of room)

Now that's the best case scenario. But here are other ways the the testosterone deprived gender works it's subtleties:

For I know you always remember
Love this strong isn't about gifts
Otherwise we would be shallow
We have a love that is deeper than this
Even though other couples will be giving gifts
Refuse the urge to get me anything
So we can prove true love

I give that an A+ in effort, B+ in creativity and A+ in stupidity.

All this could be solved by simply stating: "I want flowers." You see! This is what testosterone could do for our society. Please, let's help the flower business. Vote for me for president.

Does a time share mean you have to go out of state?

What is the opposite of infamy? Today will live in the memories of all the bloggers as a day of famy. And Luke looked at the Blog and he said, "It is ok". But I have titels now, "Can you believe it?" (saying in homestar voice). Well, stuff has happened in the past few days that I believe I must share with the world. And by world I mean all three of you who read this. And by must share I mean, really don't have to tell you but since I'm bored and in my naivity believe that more than three people actually read this I will.
Now that I have titles I will be looking to have guests of the day/week/month to write on this blog. Of course that is difficult to do seeing as Dan had a very hard time getting people to write for his but it shall be done. I just have to say this though, I don't require anybody to dign any type of agreement. Well, I guess Dan didn't really either seeing as Dan was the only person who signed anything.
On thurs. after college small group I was driving Allison home and I realized that I had no idea how to get back to the dorm from her house. I could call her I thought but no! I would be victorious in finding my way back. So I turned in the general direction I thought North Central was in and low and behold there was Maple ave! which for those of you who don't know runs right next to my dorm. So I turned left adn started happily on my way. Now let me tell you, I was pretty proud of myself. I got even more sure that I was the "finding my way home when I don't know where to go" go-to-guy when I went under 355. Oh boy, who would have ever thought that driving under a bridge would give you such a great feeling. So I continued on my way and about 5-10 minutes later, still reveling in my own smrtness I thought back to good ol' 355 and how the sign on my right had been "Joliet South". And I thought to myself, "Yeah, good ol' Joilet South sign being on my right." And then I thought a little bit more about how if South was to my right then I would be going east. Which of course was not the way I wanted to go. Then I dismissed that thought by thinking I must be remembering wrong. But I got worried so I found a little compass that I have in my car (for emergencies such as this of course) and I tried looking at it but it was too dark and then I looked up and saw that maple was turning into 55. Pah! It took me an extra 20 minutes to get home because of my stupidity.

But at least i can be called by a superhero name. You see I was in English and if you must know my English class is about racism mostly and how blacks have it worse than whites. So the guy next to me leans over and says,"That would suck to be discriminated on like that, I bet that's how gays feel." And I said, "Yeah it would suck, except gays probably feel that way because they are ashamed." And with that he said, "Why would they feel ashamed?" And I said, "Because homosexuality is wrong." So we wispered about this for a good three minutes more and it ended up him calling me "Super-homophobe man". Now, its ok if I get persecuted for my beleifs but don't bring in super hero names. That's just crossing the line. So I went on to call him The Ignorance Crusader. Well, he didn't like that very much but by that time the teachers had noticed something was amiss and asked us what we were talking about. Before I could say anything he goes, "We were just discussing how homosexuality is the new racism, and he says it's ok to discriminate against gays." I was taken aback, because not only did he compare me to racists, but he also said that I said that it was ok to make fun of gays. Pah! So the teachers just looked at us and shook their heads and went back to saying how the white man was and is the worst thing that has happened to Chineese/Mexican/African-American/women/homosexuals/(enter any different kind of minority or diversity group here) America since the common cold. Me being a white man (although I am a 1/4 Mexican, so I wonder if that helps me out at all) just sat there. But other than that, oh yeah and writing at least 20 pages worth of pages and reading app. 150 pages per week, my English class isn't so bad. But just don't mess with super heroes.

Other than that, I think I'm done, I mean how much more can there be, who do I think I am, Dan? I mean come on people, my counterstrike works. (and I don't suck) whoa where did that come from? Well, I hope that after reading this you can feel like your time was well spent reading Dan's Blog and the original blogspot before this and that you want the last three minutes of your life back now. Seriously though, I do think that there are more than 3 people that read this.

Okay, so in honor of my roomate I give you his story, based off the picture books that 2nd graders read. Without further ado I give you...


The Story of Little Pat (recovered by the Gringo Squad)

Pat is little.
Big men cannot stop little Pat.

Little Pat can wiggle past.
Big purple men cannot tackle little Pat.

Little Pat can scramble over big purple men.
Big purple men cannot tackle little Pat.

Big purple men tumble.
Big purple men stumble.

Big purple men cannot tackle little Pat.

Big purple men did not stop little Pat.
Little Pat is a big star.


*Recovered by the cleaning crew aptly called the "Gringo Squad" of Buck Services' Summer cleaning crew when cleaning out binders at St. Mike's church in Wheaton. They were the "Gringo Squad" because they spoke English.

So there I was typing away and I saw the word draft. Now, for most of us, well, maybe not most, actually probably just me and that guy from China, well when we see the word draft we think, "Oh well, if I'm sick of typing this moment and I want to save it and come back I'll just hit the draft button and all will be right with the world and bunnies will hop around and love, hapiness and peace will spread like some highly infective virus and I will be able to come back and keep typing where I left off." But of course Ping and I would be wrong. Actually, I really don't think that I know anyone named Ping. (fun fact = Li is the most common name among humans.) Anyway, the short version of the incredably long beginning is I have to type what I wanted over again. So here it is.

Well, if I could get the titles to work I would say this is titled, "Of Toliets and chewing gum." But of course I can't. But such is life. Just to tell you guys, today has been one extraordinary day for a variety of reasons that I will not go into now. But hey, lets just say God is good and get on with it.

So I have started a trend, or since I'm the only one doing it I guess it should be called a habit, but I want to call it trend, so trend it is. Actually, forget that I'll get back to that but first I must say that Starbucks after coffee gum is the most annoying thing ever. Well, at first it's not but the more you eat the more annoying it gets. You see, it's in a metal tin. Quaint huh, aw that's cute...EXCEPT FOR THE EXTREME RATTLE IT MAKES! Seriously now, I'm walking to class one day I grab my gum, pop a couple in my mouth, put the gum in metal container back in my backpack and continue walking. I hear, click, click, click with everystep I take. Now if it were only clicks, I could take that. And since the sound I remember has no word like click, I will say it sounded like chinkey. So I have somemore gum and I hear chinkey, chinkey, chinkey. Oh boy and it goes on and on all the way from chinkey to clank. Never get that gum.

Anyway, back to toliets, ah yes my trend. I was walking to class one day talking to my friend Nick and for some reason in the middle of winter we we're talking about mowing the lawn. He said that the best places to think were in the shower and mowing the lawn. I agreed, except I added one. The toliet. You see, you don't have anything better to do when you sit there than think. Anywho, the trend, last term, whenever I went to the bathroom I would use stall 1. I felt comfortable there. The first day back, someone was in the scared stall so I was forced to use stall 2. But then I got to thinking, that maybe it was a sign. You see the trend is this, there are three stalls, and coincidentally three terms in the school year. You do the math. Which brings me to another very pressing issue in America today.

Racial tensions. You see in my English class we discuss why prejudice is still a problem in America today. So we had to read a short story for the class and go discuss it and there was part about how English toliets don't flush. So Prof Guzmann said how he had been to Europe and American toliets were definately superior. He went onto say that those who made superior toliets had to be a superior race. So that leaves us and the Australians. He said it's all about the swirl. There needs to be less whoosh and more swirl. And then the other day I say the remains of an eaten piece of chocolate cake on a plate along side a fork sitting on the counter in the bathroom. Does that disturb anyone but me? I hope so, cake is definately not needed in there. Later.

Um, I just posted this huge long post, I think it's important so if you want to read it, you might need two sittings. But a prize* awaits those who finish in one. Later








*prize is completely fictional and does not exist.

"We rarely ever think on what's eternal, those are the only things that matter at all."
- Ross King

Like I said in the previous blog this one has some type of order and seriousness to it. Since this is a type of online journal I thought it only fitting to say what's on my mind and how God has been working things out in my head. if anything, this would be titled "eternal significance". Recently I was talking to people at small group and I said that God has been calling me to be radically different. Actually I think He calls not just me but every true follower of Him to be radically different. But since I can only control myself I took this as a personal conviction. Now being radically different has a lot to do with eternal significance because in order to apprciate eternal significance you have to not only be different from the world but radically different. James 4:4 says, "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." The word friend (yes everybody I looked up the word friend) in Greek means, oh my gosh, friend but it also means he who associates familiarly with one. I found that to be particularly convicting in my life where I associate myself a lot with the world. Also look up Rom. 12:2 and Phil. 4:8 for more insight on what it means to live different from the world. What's so cool about the Bible is there isn't a lot of room for error. I mean either your an enemy of God or not. Of course God's grace is there and He has already forgiven us for our sins. Take a look at Phil. 3:7-8. If everything is crap save Christ then what the heck are we doing? So what? What's my big deal? Going back to school for me is going back "in to the world". So in order to live like God wants me to I have to be on gaurd. Satan, I think, doesn't care if you sin blatantly as long as your focus is off of what's important. This is where eternal significance comes into play. By thinking on heavenly things that means not thinking or listening to, or watching or wearing or saying or joking what this world listens, watches, wears, says or jokes about. Of course I fail on this almost certainly everyday. There are some obvious things (like swearing, watching porno movies, etc.) that everybody knows are wrong and I don't have a big problem with those. But it's humor, gossip, music, complacency (yes I think that stems from focusing on the world not God), etc. that pervade the church today. This is from my experience to anyone thinking that I don't struggle with these things you can get that out of your mind right now. Oh, I forgot one (at least one), stealing, i.e. pirating music, video games. Of course I'm not perfect in this either, I have priated software on my computer right now, and of course I rationalize it. The church in America is in a little bit of trouble. Of course I'm not Bible scholar or professor in socialogy in the American Evanglical church but 1st Tim. says that us young'ns have the right to speak up. Of course what makes up the church is indviduals. We have to turn things around. Now don't get me wrong, the church (specifically local churches) are doing a lot of things right. I love Harvest and I think that we as a body truly are searching for the will of God in our lives and church. But as individuals we have to distinguish ourselves as completlely and utterly unattracted to the things of this world compared to the Cross of Christ and what it means for us. (at this point I would like to interject a suggestion to read Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper) We not only need to be different than the world (what I like to call, "I don't really sin!" syndrome) to being radically different. What I'm not doing is saying that we shouldn't have any non-christian friends, watch no tv and only listen to Christian music but we (especially myself) need to take an introspective look at ourselves and then do something about it. We need to stop trying to live mere excellence and strive for obdience. Excellence is a term that is a relative term but obedience to God is something that is absolute, once again, either we don't obey or we do. Of course somethings are harder to know if we are doing the right thing but most everyday issues we know whether they glorify God or not. For me, I know what I'm doing, I just choose to rationalize it or put it out of my mind. We need to change our lives sometimes dramatically, in order to be different. That may mean not watching or listening to somethings, perhaps we should even delete those pirated songs (egads did I just say that, but i don't want too!) but are we trying to please ourselves or the Lord, are we striving for excellence (which it may be perfectly fine by other standards to pirate software or cds) or obedience? John 14:23 says that to show God that we love Him we must obey Him. Just take a look at 1 Pt. 1:14 that says "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance." Just think! What would happen if I deleted my software, or we deleted all but the songs that we had bought, or that we said we wouldn't watch that, or didn't laugh when a friend told a nasty joke or left when gossip was being told! What an extreem way of living! Of course, I'm not saying that it will be easy or that more people will like us (we should do these things with love and not in a judgemental or haughty way, but that's another post). I think that sometimes we think that the Christian life is made to be easy, to have a good time and to have lots of friends but I just can't see that either Biblically or historically. Christians have always had it hard. Like I said at the beginning, since I can only control myself, this is a personal conviciton and that it's my thoughts. It's not my intention to make people upset, mad or guilty but eternal things are significant because they are the only things that last! I hope that this has in someway encouraged you, and/or challanged you. If anyone wants to alk about how we can live radically different lives talk to me, I don't got it all figured out. If you made it through this entirely too long, completely preachy blog, I salute thee. And give you ten points. And a cookie. If not, you suck, just kidding! But you would have never read that anyway so I'm not kidding you suck! And with that I'm out, later.

So here I am again, sitting on my computer when I should be reading or sleeping. But I'm blogging. You see kids, this is the life of Luke. Anyway, I'll update the masses on my day to day life. So since it's still Allison's birthday I have to say happy birthday. Hooray for birthdays! Or maybe just Allison but that's up for dispute. Actually it's not, maybe birthdays are up for dispute. Yes that's what I meant. Birthday's cause dissension. And speaking of the Reniasance... but seriously I was at Allison's birthday party on Saturday night (a rockin good time I must say, where team two was headed to a sure victory at 4 on a couch had it not been cut short) and we played Apples to Apples. Now if some of you don't know the premise of this game it has the potential to be a very boring game but with Lindsay Duman thrown into the mix, oh boy, that's sure to be a good time, almost as sure as team two's imminent victory uh hem. Anyway, Apples to Apples is a game where each person playing get's five red cards. The "judge" rotates in a clockwise manner each round. Now a round consists of a green card being read by the judge and then all the other non-judge players pick a red card out of their hand that most closely resembles the defintion of the green card. Now the red cards are an assembly of very different words. For instance my hand at one point consisted of Marylin Monroe, the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Confucius, quicksand and bodysurfing. So there's the example and when everyone throws in their cards the judge picks the one he or she thinks is the best and the person's card whom the judge picks gets a green card. That is then end of a round. When one person accumulates 5 green cards the game is over. So now that you have an in depth evaluation of the game I can proceed with my story. So we were playing this game and the word I believe was "dissension". So we all put our cards down and are arguing about which one the judge should pick and Lindsay puts down, "Reniasance". She goes on to explain that it's because some people liked art some people didn't and so there was dissension. However the highlight of the night goes again to Lindsay when she disgraced the whole Mexican population, and discredited the Mexican government by saying that Cinco De Mayo was "the worst and most disgraceful war in history". Oh boy, that had me rolling, well not really but it had me laughing really hard. So if you want to hear a funnier account of this go to Riane and Allison's site. Anyway, So I read for four hours straight today. I went to Starbucks and read, let me tell you, that actually helped a lot because I wasn't tempted to play computer games. I have something serious to type but not tonight. I need to sleep I guess. Oh remember to go to Surrendered Soul Worship, I just got my bio up!

Ok, so I had something to type before but now I can't remember what it was. I know I should be reading but hey, there's always time. Actually I think that everybody should take Dan's advice and go to his website about our upcoming cd. It's called Surrendered Sould Worship. I guess that brings up the point that Dan is in the process of making his own studio and he is almost there as far as money goes. A couple months ago me and Dan were writing a song and Dan asked me if I would like to make a cd. I said sure ao we have been writing songs that go witht the theme returning to God. Dan has written several already and along with No More I am in the process of writing three more songs for the cd. Along with those we will probably get together and write a song or to more as a collaborative effort. What we want to convey to everybody is that before true worship can occur we must return to God and "rend our hearts" as is says in Joel 2. We would appreciate your prayers in this because it is something that we feel is very important and we want to be able not only lead others to worhsip through this cd but also lead others to repentence and to a merciful God.

So it's Weds. morning and I have to go to class in like 15 minutes so this will be short. As far as comments go, load em up. The more the better. Seeing as it took me forever to figure out how to do it. I was listening to the radio the other day and a commercial came on about Staple Hummer and Cadilac. Here's how the commercial goes, "What's new at Staple Hummer and Cadilac? It's got to be Hummers and Cadilacs." Um, pardon me but wouldn't one expect hummer and cadilac's to be new at a hummer and cadilac dealer? For shame says me for shame. I have to do a lot of reading but it's not too bad because I could be Chris in History of Ideas. He had to read a couple hundred pages in two days. I onlt had to read 150 pages in two days. So it's not so bad. How about this weather? I remember last week when it iwas like 50 degree almost. The day before I go back it gets really cold and snows a whole bunch. Yeah it's only now when I have to walk a couple blocks to class. Pah! I really have nothing to say. Sorry guys, I'm just not into it this early in the morning. Oh yes, one point of interest is that Pat has declared this year the year of Pat. Meaning he will have a girlfriend this year. I'm not sure how I feel about that for me because if I say I'm going to have a girlfriend this year then that means I most definately won't. So I won't declare this the year of Luke because I'm not that determined. And plus, if you read my story about the girl hitting on me, I'm completely clueless. And add coward onto that and you have me. A guy who's probably not going to get a girlfriend ever because I am a clueless coward when it comes to girls. Basically if a girl likes me I will never know, unless there is a 20 lb cinder block involved and when she "hits" on me she crushed me over the head with that. Then I'll be, "Owww." Then I'll think about it and be like, "Sweet!". But I probably won't do anything about, ergo the coward part. Oh well, such is life, that's why I'm counting on God all the way to bring me someone. Actually you might want to add lazy to that list. Oh well, such is life, I'm off to class.

Um, i don't know about everybody else but I'm glad Alie is not in a position of power. And besides, um, nevermind I don't want hate emails from all girls everywhere, and I do want to get maried some day. Anyway, I'm feeling much better. I know all of you were extremely worried. That's why no soup came because everyone was frozen with worry, so no one was able to make me chicken soup. But hey, the offer is always open.
So I'm back at college right. It's cool sort of. More classes suck. I just watched "A Mighty Wind" and I just have to say, "Wha happened?" I just got back from the guys room across the hall. One of them has the class "Listening to Music". Now that's some high level education right there. And I just saw Pat going down the hall on Coons' back. That was entertaining. Bad news from the front, no counterstrike as of yet. My RA Stump is not back yet and he has the dedicated server. Pah! This will probably be my last regular post on here. This is for a couple of reasons. One, Alie posts so many that I could never keep up with her and two, I have a lack of time coming up soon with class starting tomorrow. Oh boy, that'll be fun. Well, so long and adios. For those of you who don't know that's Latin for "clowns scare me". Later.

Oh boy, here I am sick as a dog (whatever that means) and I have to listen to Alie apologize for something that was not in any way her fault. Ahem, parden me for being judgemental here but when was the last time Raine felt compelled to link us to her site. I think I gave her mad props, that's right those props were mad style, when I linked her site to my buddy profile. Which, I never got thanked for! Plus, Alison's awesome poems are also linked to my blogsite. I don't know where Riane get's off! But it's not the... oh wait, someone already used that line before. Um, thinking of appropriate response, thinking, thinking, ok got it I don't know where Riane get's off but it's not the Luke and Alie and Dan station anymore!

But in the spirit of being a cool guy and rising above, I will add Riane and Allison's page to this link. Seeing as Riane must complain and for the sake of DG I will add it. As far as being bad friends go, full fledged war is on Alie's agenda so take it up with her. Boo yah!

Okay here I go again with a post. I really think that this is getting out of hand but in order to keep up the the amount of posts that Alie puts on here I have to go into hyper post mode. Oh and just to tell you I don't just sit on my computer and type these things. Ok I do, not like in a row like it says. The two posts below are new so read them if you have time but the long one was wrote two days ago but I forgot to actually publish or something. Anyway. The new year is a upon us. I'm glad the post below say its the wrong day, year and time. That makes me feel like I am not the only one who is incompetent. Anyway, now I will tell you all to get a new cd. It is by Ross King and is called, "... And all the Decorations, Too". This cd is amazing. Go get it now. That is if you like say uh, truth, and aren't say to wussy to handle the truth. Which reminds me go read your Bible. I'll give you a glimpse of this man's wit. In his thank you's at the end of the cd cover he writes, "Of course I thank my wife, a truly hot mama who could launch a thousand ships with her eyes." Oh man that line is gold. Especially if you know that he is referring to Helen of Troy, the woman who started the Trojan war that "launched a thousand ships with her eyes." The best line I've been able to say to a hot girl is this "...um..." yeah that's abou it. But anywho, that line is about up there with, "Are you a packet of suger cause you are sweet!" Oh boy! Well, maybe his line is better than mine. But that's why you should by his cd! So enough is enough. Ok so, go tell your mom you love her because it's Friday and that's a pretty cool thing to do on Fridays. Later.

Um this is just a disclaimer about the next post. It is very long, and probably pretty boring. If you are determined enough to read it you might want to do it in two sittings. Later!

As things go it was my idea to do this post and me being a dumb told her about it. Oh well, this just means that my post will be on top and seeing as it is going to be more interesting (or not) then I will begin.
As far as the year of 2003 went, it was a year of change, excitment, sadness and smiles. The end. But I'm just joking anyway, every year is a year of change excitement, sadness and smiles. But I'll give you a play by play of all I can remember anyway. So January came and went. Let's see a year ago I was still in high school. I think the main thing that happened in January was school still being going. I remember sitting in front of my locker everyday with Karen, Jacen, Sarah, Chris, Becki, Derek, another Chris, this time with a Jakubic at the end. Some other people that aren't as important cause I don't remember them. We had some good times. Then about halfway through January I switched to the library to go sit with Kristina, Jeff, Kirsten, Pat and Melissa. Thoughs were also good times. I remember sneaking into the library with food. If the librarians would have cought me it could have been a capital offense. Yeah we got told to be quite a couple of times. February rolled around after January as usual. The main thing about February that I remember is Winterfest. That was really LOA. (Read Riane's comments on her blogspot to find out what LOA means) That was a blast. I was really stressed out because that was when we had to do worship without music for the band. Dan got upset because he banged his guitar in a corner. I don't care what he says I would be really mad too. Broomball was good, Lissy fell a lot and I laughed a lot. She had some major bruises that day. Worship turned out really good, give God the glory on that one. I went down the hill, I think with Alie on a tube, and we went down the wrong side. We hit a bump like halfway down and flew... until we landed and then rolled the rest of the way down. Giles spoke from Jeremiah on how we can't hold in what we know. We should be brave because we are not just children and God will protect us. That was good. I really got to know Dan on that trip which is awesome because that was the weekend that God started to show me that Dan was the guy to replace me. March, what's to say about March? I think things were starting to wrap up with school. I did the marketing project that month at the baseball stadium. That's it about March. April. April was a big month for me. That month started the first, latest and only chapter in the Luke's Book of Girlfriends. Yeah, Mandy and me started non-date dating. It was a good time let me tell ya. Um, May was kind of a blur for me because that was the last month of High School ever. We had our government full sessions in which my bill was last and didn't get debated because Brian Adams is a jerk and he told my fellow Republicans to be stupid and trust his judgement. The biggest mistake that the Republican party made was make him our Majority leader. Pah! Hey it could have been worse, it could have been Paul. But I kid. The last month of school went by so fast it was crazy. Seeing people for the last time, saying goodbyes and getting lots of money happened that month. June was pretty boring, I worked, did some other stuff. July, Mandy and I broke up, Alie went to Spain and I went to my first Jr. High event. August was awesome except I had to choose between going to Highpoint and Jam Camp. That was one of the hardest decisions I had to make that summer. Jam camp was really cool except for the fact that I was scared every night of kids half my size. They liked to pull pranks and let me tell ya. Sept. I started college and had a grand ol' time with Pat. I found one of the loves of my life, that's right Counterstrike. Oct was my birthday which was fun, if I could remember it. But I know it was fun. Um, Nov. and Dec. I won't go into because they are chronicled in my sub-profile. Some more honorable mentions were the trip to Kentucky over spring break (getting up close and personal with a dear at 60 mph is fun), the compost spill, leaving the Rock, the new college group (you guys are awesome) and starting this blog. Oh boy it was definately a year to remember. Sorry this was so long. If you made it through in one sitting you get 10 points.