the one-sixth update

so it has been a month since my last post. i have gotten a bit lazy and slack with the bloggage but, alas, i am back at it.

two months have gone by in this, the two thousand and eighth year of our Lord and i am here to give my one-sixth* update on my new years resolutions (which shall henceforth be referred to as goals for 2008 as they are no longer resolutions and the year is no longer new). without further ado, i shall think of G. Ceneviva (and therefore, D. Cook) when i say "come along with me."

goal 1: exercise

doing ok on this one. i am still a member of the gym and have not gone a week this year without going at least once. unfortunately once a week is not enough (i usually go more than once a week, for the record). i am beginning to see the littlest of results from the workings out. probably my biggest sub-goal of this parent goal is to increase my cardiovascular endurance, which is one of the areas where i am observing mild (and sporadic) improvement. i have learned that if i do not focus on the amount of time remaining in my treadmill jog or stationary bike cycle, i do not focus on the amount of breath that i am running out of during said exercise. the tv's in the cardio section help greatly with this.

goal 2: pray more

i was doing much better at this one in January and early February. during this time, there were many things that i feel like i needed to pray about and seek God's guidance on. most of those things have passed, and it was more than two weeks that i had not put an entry in my prayer journal until i put one in last night. i feel like i only turn to God when he slaps me in the face with something that i NEED to turn to him for. i don't like that i need that type of divine motivation. i guess we all need (and get, regardless of need or want) a kick in the pants from the man upstairs, but its a little disheartening to realize how complacent and lackadaisical we (i) get in my relationship with the Lord.

goal 3: read

ok i suck at this. i have read maybe three chapters (very short, easy-to-read chapters) in Wes Miller's book in 65 days this year.** since i joined the GAA, i now also have two issues of Endeavors, UNC's research and creative activity periodical and one issue of the Carolina Alumni Review with another one soon to come just waiting for me by my bedside; their covers are uncracked. i also have the other book i plan to read in the next 10 months, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren waiting on me as well. at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that i would rather go to sleep laying down rather than fight through a page or two of reading while falling asleep every other line and starting again at the beginning of the paragraph without knowing it. i think i just have to make a more deliberate effort on this front. bottom line, i suck at reading.

goal 4: camp

great success so far. Mr. J. Wiggins and I went camping at the New River Trail State Park in Virginia the last weekend in February. as you might remember, this is not where I had planned to go. when i was planning this trip, North Carolina did not have a statewide burning ban and decided to put one up a few weeks before the camping date. so we decided to travel a bit farther and sacrifice a quality hike with a great view (not to mention running water, very close proximity to our vehicles, and flush toilets) to Virginia where there was no burning ban. nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves cooking, cleaning, eating, sleeping and chillin' within sight and sound range of the New River at an old settlement named Foster Falls. Foster Falls sits between the New River and an old railroad bed which has been converted to a very leisurely hiking/biking/horseback riding trail (which they so appropriately named the New River Trail). it was a not-so-ideal weekend to go camping weather wise. it was cold and, at times windy but it was calling for rain on top of the cold and the wind, so I considered us to be lucky with the weather. to sum up: it was cold, yes but we had a fire, plenty of clothes, a sufficient dining fly, cooperative weather, a bit too much bacon grease in our scrambled eggs and possibly a little rum in our coke. cant wait to do it again!

quasi-resolutions: move out, serve, and maintain new found organizational skills

i applied for a job with the city of Raleigh a few weeks ago and have yet to hear anything. but because it is a government job, i am just now starting to expect to hear something. i am trying to not get my hopes up, but i do think i am sufficiently qualified for the position. if i were to get said position, it would obviously force me to move out. we'll see

i have not looked for a place to serve. i have settled into the day to day routine of going to and coming from work, and therefore my desires to serve and be behind the scenes have faded a bit. i will be going back to ASP this summer but this time only for a week as a volunteer with my church. maybe when it gets a bit warmer, my desire for service will be renewed. we'll see.

new found organizational skills are being maintained, but a bit more loosely. its really all about clutter control and getting into the habit of purging my room of clutter at least once a week. doing pretty good here.


so that's my one-sixth update y'all. no deep opinions or thoughts on life in this one.


Blag of the Day: Blargg

Mr. Wiggins reminded me during our camping trip of the name of this Mario World character. If you ever played Super Mario World for Super Nintendo, you know why this would be worthy of a Blag of the Day status.

I Want That (pronounced "Ah Wawnt Thayut") of the day: Renfrow Hardware

Located in downtown Matthews, NC, Renfrow's reminds me of a mix between a small town Appalachian hardware store and the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, NC. I have only been to Renfrow's once but i immediately fell in love with it. for being a small town hardware store with national chain hardware stores relatively close by, it was packed when i went in this past Saturday to buy a maul with a wooden handle (because Lowe's and Home Depot didn't have any with wooden handles, they had ones with fiberglass handles... whats the point in that?). this place, much like the mast general store, had original, squeaky wooden plank floors, low doorways which lead to another room you weren't expecting to be there, an old Coca-Cola cooler filled with bottled soft drinks and that down-home, old-school feel that makes you want to spend money. also, much like some small town Appalachian hardware stores, this place has a little bit of a lot of stuff. for example, i went back to the section where the shovels, rakes, hoes, axes, mattocks, etc are kept to look for a maul. this was in a corner of one of the connecting buildings (which, by the by, had two 48-star US flags hanging from the very old log rafters - neat-o gang) which had the right amount of organization and disorganization that i questioned whether or not i had wandered into the staff-only section on accident. they had only one or a few of a ton of wood splitting materials including mauls, axes, wedges and other weird looking stuff kind of strewn about an old work bench or two, sitting in 5-gallon buckets or standing in makeshift stands. upon second look, everything had a price tag on it. this is what you miss in going to Lowe's or Home Depot. sure you can get a maul for $7 cheaper at Lowe's but its about so much more than the maul. think outside the maul people. its about the atmosphere of a crowded, congested, dusty, squeaky, slightly disheveled, historic hometown hardware store. its the experience...


*if we wanna get technical here, a one-sixth update would have come on March 2nd, the 61st day of this leap year. this, therefore, is a 64/366th (or 32/183rd) update. that is if we want to get technical...

**i wont mention that i read some of it before the year began... oops...