Please Pray

Alina, the girl you have seen in a previous post (the two of us on a couch) just fell out of a second story window and is on the way to the ER with her parents. She ¨seems mostly okay.¨ Please pray that she is. Thank you.

Momma You'd Be Proud

I will do my best to see if I can post a video here.

A video of what you may ask Momma? My room.
Spick and span.
Clean.
NOTHING on the carpet save a backpack, a desk chair, a bed, a desk, and a bookshelf.

I am sorry momma, that this could not come sooner in life. But I know you will still be awfully proud.

It's cuz I love you.

May the Fourth Be With You

Star Wars!!!

Those two words cue an almost instantaneous thought of the creschendo of enthusiastic musicians as they blast the infamous opening title scene fanfare. It is quite amazing what music can do to remind you of memories of old. But this post definitely is not about music, although it very well could be.

Star Wars, every prepubescent teenager's favorite science fiction fantasy. At least when I was a teen. Or at least in the circle of friends that I had. To put it lightly, we were geeks. The very nerds that walked around wearing glasses and being afraid of changing in front of anyone in the locker room. That's right, we would run in from P.E. as fast as we could before anyone else showed up, only to change in front of, each other? I'm getting off-track though, let me regress.

It was 1997, and at fourteen years old I had been a Star Wars fan for a good two whole years. I was only introduced to the movies back in sixth grade by my good friends Mikey and Evan. But between '95 and '97 we had much to do, quite an assortment of time-wasting activities. Oh there were Sega Genesis video games and games of street hockey in the neighborhood, but our Hasbro Star Wars characters and our Micro Machine Death Star and Yavin IV base were the most thrilling. We would set Boba Fett up preparing Captain Solo for the cargo hold, mustering up the best voice we could find: "He's no good to me dead."

For a paper mache book report in sixth grade Evan made a Boba Fett mask and Mikey made a Darth Vader one. I think I made one out of the kid from The Hatchet or something (I wasn't as caught up in the SW lore as they were at this time). They were excellent, and Evan even used his two years later when we dressed up for the 20th Anniversary premier...but we'll get to that.

In seventh grade our friend Brian was pretty proficient with computers so he made us a geocities website for our small group of friends. I believe there were only five of us: Evan, Mikey, Brian, Neal and myself. Our webpage and group name? S.W.P. - The Star Wars Posse. I'd give you a link (I still know what it was) but the webpage expired long ago and all our info on the page was lost forever. We had audio clips and quotes, spinning emblems at the top of the page from the Republic and the Empire. We would spend hours perfecting the page to our liking.

We even attempted to make a movie once. We had gone over to our friend Nick's house a few times after school, as he lived less than a mile away, and we would act out fight scenes complete with dialogue and fake lightsabers made out of pvc and duct tape. There was even a point where we tried to record a few things, hoping our friend's dad would add laser effects, but that never came to fruition.

When we heard the movies were being re-released in the theaters in 1997 we were over-ecstatic. Plans were made for us to dress up, and storm the movie theater. No storming was done, but dressing up certainly was. I went as Luke Skywalker, Evan as Boba Fett, Mikey as Han Solo and Neal as a stormtropper (for some reason or another I don't think Brian was able to make the movie that night, something about curfew). We had a blast though, and we certainly got compliments about our outfits. I'm pretty sure Mikey didn't even pay, he just went right in and they didn't even try to stop him.

Our posse soon split up after that though. We all went to separate high schools and our times to get together quickly diminished. It was fun while it lasted, that's for sure. I kept up a little bit with the Star Wars Universe by reading books by authors such as Timothy Zahn and Kevin Anderson, at least to the extent of Han and Leia having twin Solo kids, and not to mention their son Anakin. When the names start repeating, you know it's time to start. Here son, be named after your dead grandfather who killed a lot of good people but turned good in the very end so he could be come a hologram only to be replaced by a pretty-faced boy who whined to much and didn't deserve even half his screen time. Even Luke, when complaining about not being able to go to the Toshee station to pick up some power convertors, wasn't half as bad.

So it died down after that, but before we knew it George Lucas decided he wanted better grass at his Skywalker Ranch in California so he decided to make three more movies. Mikey and I went to the midnight showings of the first two, with our friend Trooper during the latter. Aaaand come to find out he was at the first one as well but we just didn't know him at the time. Good times were had, I went in normal streetclothes though, but Mikey HAD to dress up so he made himself into young Obi-Wan Kenobi, complete with long braid as well.

It was a saga, and a period of life and time well worth remembering. Sure we were young and we were geeks and we didn't care less about what other people thought of us, but hey, that's what made it the awesome experience that it was. Something to reminisce about in the future, or even now if we so desired. Either way, we had fun. We spent our time on things we liked and were interested in, and that's all that truly mattered.

I suppose that's saying something.

So until next time my friends, may the force be with you.

Shuteye

sleep comes
slowly
thoughts race
over
under
across sheets
covering
skin
covering
flesh
covering
bones
protecting
heart
beating
restless
less

less


less



lest dreams
awaken
hope
courage
strength
for another
day
another hour
fully alive
live

live


live



love

Spring(?) Yes(!) Cleaning

I am supposed to be cleaning my room. There are still the neverending bits and pieces that always seem to find their way onto the floor of wherever I have lived, always thinking that they have some reason to be there. They are most definitely wrong though, for I have places for them in boxes to be stored away once again. Things like loose cds, papers from taxes and insurance, mechanical pencils without a home, birthday/going away cards, string, tiny boxes of matches! Goodness what am I ever to do with all of this.

I cannot be for certain, but I know sometime soon many of these things will have to find their home in the trash. La basura. El trasho compacto. Or something to that extent. I am awfully close to having a beautifully clean room, it is just the little things that always take the longest.

Sigh...someday soon.

In other news, well, I do not have much other news sadly. Ohhh yes I do!!! I bar-b-qued (okay so this is a WHOLE ´nother conversation that I will post about in the future [grilling vs. bar-b-queing], I just do not have the time nor the full knowledge of the facts) myself a piece of chicken today - mixed in a little bar-b-que sauce with some worcestershire sauce, mmmmm delicious! I cooked it perfectly, it was still tender and not dry, man I was impressed with myself.

A Makeshift Bookshelf

It'll do for now, and for now I'm amusedly satisfied.

I Call This Desk

I like craigslist. Always have, probably always will.

I like craigslist today because I searched for a free desk. I found one that had been posted this morning. I e-mailed them. Within five minutes my cell phone rang. We arranged pick-up. Andy drove me over with his truck and we had it quickly loaded. Within an hour from first search it was set up in my room.

It's not perfect.
It's not beautiful.
But it's free.

And I'm a fan of that.

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and ALL these things will be given to you as well.