That's Right... more pics!

What can I say? Yeah, I've got another little set of pics for you!

To get here, take SR 503 North past Battle Ground, turn right on Rock Creek Road (there'll be a big brown sign to Lucia Falls and Moulton Falls right before the turn). Follow this road to two free county parks and marvel at the handy work of the Creator.

October Evenings...

Have I ever told you that October is my favorite month? Really. It's the month that I find I always seem to "wake up." The beauty of the leaves turning color, the air becoming crisp and fresh after the long, stuffy summer, the first snow on Mt. St Helens, fog masking the familiar and making it foreign all wake up the artist in me. I'm an amateur photographer interested in the outdoors. I can take still-life photos. As nice as spring is, it just isn't autumn. Instead of being the pastel colors of "newness" autumn brings something bold. I know, you're probably tired of hearing me ramble on and on about this, but it's just part of me. I'll try to post more photos as I take them of some different areas within a reasonable drive of my home in Vancouver. Please enjoy, and feel free to comment!

When life is boring

Have you ever been in one of those strange reflective moods, but not know what to say? That's where I'm at right now. I've had an average week. Not good. Not bad. Nothing unexpected. It's almost... boring. You know what I'm talking about. Some of you are right there too. It always seems that when we lose that continuing drive to surrender to God that this happens. I know that's where I'm at. How about you? What is it that you need surrender? How do the people in your life need to challenge you, how do they need to push you so you can experience real life again?

Let me try and put this a different way if that's not tugging on your heartstrings. What season would you say is your favorite? Spring? Summer? Fall? Winter? Why? Now look at yourself. What characteristics of yours match your favorite season? For me, I'm a Fall guy. I like the wild unsettledness of the air. I love the trees bursting into color. I like the crisp, cold mornings with frost lightly lying over everything. That also describes how my life is when I let God take control. It's unsettled. It's feeling your heart sing praise. It's truly being alive.

It seems that when we fall into that rut, that boring life, that Satan has won. Our hearts become hardened. We stop listening to God. We stop surrendering. We stop living.

So how about you?
What is it you need to surrender?

God didn't create us to be boring.
He created us to live in Him.

This weekend was one to remember...

If you could hear how I wrote that, it was sarcastic. Yeah, I spent most of my weekend in bed and drugged out of my brain with Theraflu. I'm thinking it all started on Friday, but definitely after I had gone fishing that morning. No, I'm not going to tell you where. For those of you who know me well, you already do know. I've taken you there. For the rest of you, it's somewhere in between 45 minutes and 2 hours away from Vancouver and it could be North or East. Have fun! It's like "Where in the Java" on Fish. With no video and no clues. Anyhow, I fished for about 2.5 hours and had to get back to town so I could film our latest episode of "Where in the Java" for the Fisher's Landing blog page. (To be posted tomorrow morning so that comments may be approved in the correct order)

After filming "Java" I went back home and did a little homework before running off to work to make some money for the bills I must pay. I made one comment before I left for work that would ruin the rest of my weekend. "I'm not feeling well." Boy, was that ever an understatement. I got home that night a little uneasy, like when I left. Over the course of about two hours I had developed a fever and headache. Oh fun. So I went to bed after taking some Theraflu thinking that it wouldn't get too much worse. I spent all day Saturday in bed asleep. I only woke up for my doses of Theraflu and and to call my work to get a shift covered.

Luckily I began to feel better by late Saturday night and decided that if I felt OK on Sunday morning that I'd go and help out at LHC Fisher's Landing. I could have slept in! We had more than enough of a set-up team and 4 sound engineers. Crazy. It's the first time in a very long time that I've been at a church that had any sort of a tech team like that. I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

How was your weekend?

Lasers are cool!

Writing Portfolio and Where in the Java

As I'm sure you all know, I've been back in classes for about two months now. This week marks the half-way point in the semester - with some unpleasant little surprises. I just found out this week that the writing portfolio required by WSU of all students is "due" before I can register for any of my classes for the upcoming spring semester. Here's the great part too, I can only use one of my papers from Clark and will need a total of two more papers that I've supposedly written for my classes this term. Problem: I have no papers due in any of my classes. I have lab reports. That's it. But enough about school...

If you've been following Pastor Seth's blog at all you know that I've been filming and editing the "Where in the Java" series. We've had a lot of fun so far, and found 4 good coffee places (I'd even go so far as to say two good and two excellent coffee places). The last two episodes have been filmed in downtown Vancouver at the Paradise Cafe on 13th and Main. Paradise Cafe has that niche coffee shop, hole-in-the-wall, downtown, brick feeling and the baristas there are absolutely amazing and very friendly. I believe that they use a local roaster, 49th Parallel, for their beans. The latest episode was filmed at Mon Ami cafe on 19th and Main, again, downtown Vancouver. They proudly serve Stumptown Roasters for their beans. Stumptown is a very local company and will not even ship their beans as far as central Oregon! But with Stumptown coffee you can actually taste the flavor of the coffee bean, unlike the so-called "Starbuck's experience," where all you taste is something burnt with some chocolate in it. The atmosphere at Mon Ami is very much a relaxing, living-room-with-your-friends, type of coffee shop. Go check out the video if you haven't already. Our new host and coffee critic, Scott Ulmen, described the coffee and the atmosphere best.

"Where in the Java" will we be next time?