I Like Junior Highers

Whenever I tell people what I do I get 2 responses- always one or the other and usually both. 1. "Is that full-time?" and 2. "Wow, I could never work with junior highers." I just don't get why so many people don't seem to like the junior high age. I think junior highers are awesome! They still like to have fun and do crazy things, physically their brains have developed to a place where they can reason and start to question and discover on their own (a truly fascinating transformation), and they still think I am cool. What is there not to like?!

Plus they do awesome things like this:




More about the mental state of junior high students: I don't know if you realize what a cool place you are at developmentally. Did you know that before this stage your brain wasn't capable of higher level thinking? Now you have all the connections and neurons in place that actually changes the process of how you think. This is where all the training and guidance your parents and others have given you until this point comes into question: you now are capable of looking at what they have told you, what you have learned and deciding for yourself if it is true. You are smack dab in the middle of changing from a child to an adult. This is the age where you set your moral compass that you will follow and base your decisions on in your high school years. Trust me, it makes you very fun, exciting and important age to work with!

Jazzy gaming fun!

I like online games- I find them super fun:) This weekend I played this game called "Little Wheel" and it is so cute that I thought I would share it with all of you! Aren't you excited!?! This is a point and click adventure- don't worry it isn't too difficult. There are little grey circles that help you figure out what to click on. The story is so cute- you have to help a world of robots whose power supply has gone out. The graphics are sweet as is the soundtrack. First- graphics- it is all black silhouettes on a sepia background- really cool looking. Then the soundtrack is a chill, jazzy beat- love it! Anyway, it is a fairly short adventure and plenty of fun. Check it out and let me know what you think! Also if you happen to get stuck there is an in-game walkthrough that will help you out.

Enjoy!

Click here to play!!!

And yet again. . .

I heard about a cool illusion (sort of illusion). Apparently there is a magazine ad for the Navy Seals that is pretty sweet. It looks just like a swamp but if you look closer there are 8 Seals camouflaged somewhere in there. I didn't really see anything. I found the largest copy I could online to look at but even so I could examine it much better if I had the actual magazine. It is possible that they are there and I just can't find them. A lot of people have theorized that since they don't see any they must be lying and it is a trick. I like to try to think on the brighter side and believe that most people are truthful- however I do realize this is an ad and therefore already kinda questionable since it seems like a lot of advertisers lie in their ads. But, that aside, I like to believe that people are telling me the truth unless I have evidence to prove otherwise, so I believe there are really people hidden in this picture.

When I was visiting Jim's fam in Pittsburgh, we saw a doe cross the road right in front of us and jump into the tress. Then it stopped moving. It was next to impossible to take a picture of it because it was so hard to see. I looked away for one moment to check my camera to make sure I got the shot- there was a bit of a glare so I look up to take another picture and I don't see it anymore. It hadn't moved, I just looked away. It was probably about 20 feet away from us- so not far at all but it seriously disappeared. Jim had to kinda try to point it out to me and I tried to remember how I was facing when I took the previous picture and I snapped a second shot. After we got the pic printed it took a bit to find the deer, but I did manage to capture it in the shot. Now if you think about it, we were in the woods in December so not a lot of leaves. A deer is brown but a big animal, and I saw it moving to its "hiding spot." Even so I had a difficult time picking it out in the picture. In conclusion, I think it is very well possible that there really are 8 Seals hiding in this ad.

What do you think? See any Seals? Do you see the deer?

Illusions

Face painting- I really like to paint people's faces. Don't know why just soemthing fun to do I guess. When I was a kid we had a facepainting book- still have it actually, that shows you how to do all this cool illusions to make people look like soemthing else. We painted faces in the neighborhood- so fun to have princesses, vampires, tigers running around, people with dragons or rainbows, stars painted on their cheeks.

Well I love optical illusions and I know a lot of you do too! So I saw these super cool pictures of this face painter. To truly appreciate how crazy his work it you have to really look at it. Try to see if you can figure out where his lips are- then you'll realize he is painting his neck, or different facial features, even upside-down!

Travis Series

It has been a long time since I have had any new pictures for my "silly pictures of Travis" series (2 years almost!!!) but our fearless leader did not disappoint. Last week for Cinco de Mustache he looked crazy! So enjoy the insanity!!

Click on the labels to see previous editions of silly pictures with trav:)

I am a nerd

I have a confession to make: I have probably watched Star Wars at least 100 times. Now I am talking about the original series- episodes 4, 5 & 6. Don't even get me started on 1, 2 & 3 because they completely goofed them up although I have to admit the lightsabre battle in Episode 1 between Darth Maul, Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon is one of the best movie sword fights I have ever seen. The final battle between Obi Wan and Annakin in Episode 3 wasn't bad either but really those were the only redeemining parts of those movies.

No- it is the original series that is so incredible. Everything about them is cool- the special effects are sweet even though they are old, you can't help but love the characters, the music is outstanding and the story itself is that classic motif of good versus evil- they are just great!!! I have to say that Episode 5 is my favorite, it has the best character development asd some of the best lines, for example: "Laugh it up Fuzzball", "I'd sooner kiss a wookie." and who can forget "I love you" "I know" and "Luke, I am your father." Sweet stuff. I am a little disappointed that only the special editions are available on DVD- I have been waiting and waitng for them to come out on DVD and when they did I was a little bummed they were the original original. I am of with upgrading the sound and fixing up some of the special effects. I don't like all the unneccessary extra scences and they really blew it in Episode 4 when they have the storm troppers searching Tattooine on those lizard beast- the Empire is not organic and would never use an animal when a machine could do it- didn't they ever watch the movies! Also I don't really care for how they added the super young Annakin at the end of 6, it doesn't really make sense because Obi Wan doesn't look like Ewan McGregor. I know the argument is that he reverted back to his "true" self, before he became Darth Vader and I think that is a somewhat valid arguement, I might be biased because I didn't like the acting job of Christian whatever his name is in 2 & 3.

So if you have never seen the original movies they really are worth it- it is quite an experience:) I remeber the first time I saw them. For me it was on TV because I was too young or not alive yet to see them in the theaters. But for their 30th anniversary they rereleased them in the theater- I was so excited to go experience them there and it was incredible. I still have my movie stubs. And I was a midnight show goer for the release of Episode 1- didn't for 2 & 3, just because I was so excited that we would get the back story to some of my all time favorite movies. Now I know they messed that up but the originals still stand the test of time:)

Give Thanks

Sometimes life feels so empty and hopeless, or we are hurting so bad that we feel there is nothing we can be thankful for. This is simply not true. God wants us to give thanks not because He needs to hear it but for us- that we take a moment to step back and look at where we are. Yeah bad things happen and are no fun- but there is still something in your life or around you to be thankful for. How much better is it to look for the positive instead of dwelling in the negative? We need to remember to give thanks.

We also need to give thanks when things are going well. At these times it is so easy to look to ourselves as the instigator of the good things that are happening- that because we are so great, we got this life figured out, we are smarter, quicker, better- that is why things are good. When we give thanks in this case, we are remembering that it is really all from God- in this case, giving thanks can keep us humble.

I don't know which category you fall into right now but it is important that we remember to give thanks in all situations. Take a few minutes to watch this video. After it is over- spend some time really thanking God for what He has given you.