Pastor Elgin’s Neighborhood

I started school this week for those of you that didn't know, actually yesterday to be exact. I'm driving up to Schaumburg two days a week from Ottawa to go to the Illinois Institute of Art in Schaumburg for Digital Film and Video Production. Yesterday was fun, but I think I'm in remedial drawing. We were working on one-point perspective yesterday and a lot of people were having trouble with it. Maybe I can just visualize things better than the other people in my class

So I'm home, and I'm going to try to update my blog more. I've said this before, but I'm going to try really hard this time. Things have been interesting in my life, and I don't care to recap my life for the readers right now. If you really care, I'll tell you, but I'm kind of sick of answering the question as to why I came home. Just know that I left Marshall on good terms, we talked about it in depth, and I did what I could to prepare them for my leaving. I didn't just leave without any warning, I almost did, but that didn't happen. I plan on going to school either in May or August at the Illinois Institue of Art in Schaumburg for Digital Film and Video Production. That major sounds so professional, it makes it seem like I'm going to be working for 20th Century Fox straight out of school. While that would be really cool, I don't think that's going to be happening.

It's interesting being back in Ottawa (where I said that I would never return, I need to stop saying never.) I realize why I hated it when I left, all of my friends are chumps and went off to college. There's a few people still in town, but I would still rather be somewhere else, preferably out West. Hopefully, going to school in Schaumburg, will help my social life. Or at least change it in some form. While I'm on topic, I wonder how adults go out and make new friends that aren't at work wtihout going to a bar. I am not a big fan of bars, the only one that I have found that I like is Don Vito's in Ottawa. So how am I, as an adult, supposed to make new friends. Sure I can go to church and meet new people, but what else is there?

I'm hitting on a lot of different things in this blog, but I got my Mac working. One of the major things I'm using it for is podcasts. If anybody knows of any good podcasts, I'm always open to new ideas. When I start going to school, I plan on commuting...believe it or not, it would be cheaper than livig up there. But I'll have a lot of time in the car or on a train.

For a while, I thought about switching to blogger. I was helping Elgin set his up, and I kind of liked it. But I've already got people hooked to my Vox account, so I'm going to stick with Vox.

That's all that I have for now, but I'll probably update soon.

So, I had a run-in with a cop tonight. I was driving around with my girlfriend tonight, she was in town, so we hung out for a while. If you know marshall, I took a right off of Quality Lime Road onto Sycamore St. There's a spot on Sycamore St where the speed limit drops from 55 to 35. I got pulled over about 30 seconds after entering the 35 mph zone. I thought nothing of it, sure it may look a little suspicious, two young people riding around country roads together, but I figured everything would be ok. The cop came up to my window, asked for my license, my girlfriend's license, and my proof of insurance. A typical stop so far. My girlfriend didn't have her state ID with her, so she had to give her name and birthdate, and apparently I have 2 insurance cards in my car, and one of them is expired. I went into my glove compartment for my other insurance card, praying that I actually had it, and I found it. At this point, the cop  had not yet told me why I had been pulled over. I politely asked him why I had been pulled over, he informed me that I was speeding in the 35 mph zone. I still say the sign was not there. The cop looked at it and asked me to step out of the car around to his passenger side, I found this kind of strange. As I was walking back to his car, he asked me if I had anything illegal on me, such as a pocket knife or a lighter. This is the first time, that I knew of that a lighter was illegal to carry. I told him that I had a pocket knife that I always have with me, and he asked me to put it in the car. What am I going to do with a 3 1/2" pocket knife? Whip it out, cut seven major blood vessels, and steal his gun? I sat in the passenger side of his car as he ran our stuff, that was awkward. Apparently police use Panasonic Toughbooks with the IP address labeled on the laptop, go figure. After the cop ran all of our information, he gave me my warning. He then said that he saw some little cigars in my glove compartment, they were old, and probably really dry. I used to smoke them on occasion. He asked me if I had any rolling paper or canabis in there. I told him no. He was more inquisitive after that, and he asked me if a drug dog would have any problem with walking around my car. I told him no, because he wouldn't. And then he asked me a third time if I had anything illegal in my car. I told him no at that point, starting to get kind of irritated. I think that part of it was that my girlfriend was black and I have a hemp bracelet on.

I learned a few very important lessons tonight, one, don't have cigarillos in your car, lest you get accused of carrying canabis. Two, don't drive around Marshall with a black girl in your car. Three, don't wear hemp bracelets. Fourth and final, don't speed in front of cops.

For those of you that care, it was a state cop that pulled me over, and his name was J Robinson, ID # 5752

So, I've been thinking about a blog that I read a while back, it's about our fractured online identities. I've noticed that as we all grow closer with our social networking, e-mail addresses, and Instant Messaging, we're growing farther away from ourselves. Right now, I have a crapload of accounts that each contain part of a description of me that I can't even keep track of. Here's the list of all of the online accounts that I can recollect off hand:

• E-mail
• Gmail
• Church e-mail
• Myspace
• Facebook
• Digg
• Twitter
• Vox
• last.fm
• Anywhere.fm
• About 20 different forums
• IM
• AIM
• MSN
• Yahoo! (I have 2 of these)
• Skype
• ICQ
• IRC
• Games
• Team Fortress 2
• Yahoo! Games

People can look at my myspace or facebook right now and tell that I have a girlfriend. How do they know, because she posts a lot. But the only thing they know about her is what she has on her page. She has a whole bunch of likes, we all do, or at least what we want people to think that we like. But that doesn't really tell someone who you are. It is physically impossible to keep all of those profiles up to date. We can never show everybody everything that we want to show them about ourselves.

I loved social networking when it first hit; I was one of the first people on myspace. But now, I'm wondering, is it really networking us, or are just trying to collect friends and interests like pokemon cards?

The seventh season of "American Idol" premieres tonight.  Will you be watching, or are you over it?

Seeing as I never was "in to" American Idol, I won't be watching it, but then again, I can't be over it if I was never not over it. What does that term mean, "over it." It doesn't make sense. Saying that you're over something mean should mean that you ahve overcome something or succeeded where others didn't think you could. So if somebody could explain what the term "over it" means and where it originated, it would be greatly appreciated.

What do you do with the cards and letters you receive?  Do you keep them all, just keep the photos, throw them away? 
Inspired by jacolily.

I usually keep mine until the ides of March, when I have a ceremonious burning of every card and gift that I received that year. Not really, but I could.

So life has been pretty not bad, not great, but I would use the term good. I'm still in Marshall, but that's going pretty good, for the most part. Things aren't too good at the church right now, so I need to get a real job, but I still love it down here. It's strange, because I knew that I wanted to come back after I was here on what was formerly called ACE Teams (it's now called A4, named after Acts 4, I think). I never really thought that I would like this place as much as I do. When I said that I fell in love with Marshall, I meant that I fell in love with what I do in Marshall; it would just be nice if I could get paid for it.

For those of you that care, I'm looking to leave sometime in May, so that I can move on with my life. It's great here; I get to hang out with teens almost everyday, I get to talk about what I believe and live out what I believe. But I think that it may be time for me to move on with my life soon. Sure I could stay in Marshall for the next 3 and a half years, but I would probably just become stagnant as a person. I would grow to a certain point, and then I would get bored with it, and I would grow to hate it. I don't want to hate this place, but if I'm here for 3 more years, I just might.

Things were so much simpler back in high school, no responsibility, I got to hang out with my friends every weekend, I didn't need to have a job, the only thing that I needed to pay for was gas and car insurance. I could still be at home, but I would hate it there, because the people that I love have all gone away to do grow-up stuff, like go off to college and get a "real" education. I'm getting an education exactly where I'm at. I probably know a lot more about what to do when the crap hits the fan than somebody my same age has been babied in a classroom. Not that there's anything wrong with college. There's a lot I don't know, because I didn't go to college, but I feel like I've made it up with experience. Ideally, I wouldn't need to go to college in the near future, but that may change, depending on circumstances and whatnot.

So I'm ending my rant about how I don't want to go to college now and whining about my life. I'm sorry, as usual, if I've broken your heart by telling you that I'm dating a girl...and she's black... That suprises people for some reason. Yes, my girlfriend is black, and yes, I'm white and I have red hair. But, no, I am not a neo-nazi, just because I shave my head. I am farthest from that. Although I may be apart of the IRA, you just never know.

So I'm really ending this blog now, I think, unless I don't, in which case, you don't have to read it

If you could create your own National Holiday, what would it be and when? 
Submitted by John M.

I think mine would be national let's recover from the holidays holiday held the first week of January, where nobody is allowed to work on anything constructive.

What are you saving up for? 
Submitted by Star. 

Saying the saving up for something means that I'm getting income, which I am not. If I was, I would probably be saving up to get an apartment or a CAI for my car.

What's the best gift you received this year?

Eith having a wonderful girlfriend, season 1 of Heroes, or the orange box. It's a bit of a toss up.