Stratford upon Your Face

Motivation
Originally uploaded by link5001.

Welcome fall!

Ah, the winds of change. I love it when I can feel the coming of fall in the air. It first greeted me at the park during the hurricane break, but then again this past weekend at the lake. Now, walking outside today, there is no doubt that fall is here and will only be getting stronger. Until, of course, it stops being fall and then it's winter. Which is annoying.

So why do I like the fall so much? I don't know, maybe it's the fact that the weather brings with it on it's cool, damp winds an air of all those sweet things that have come to pass in the months leading up to it. Maybe it's something simple, like the idea of the state fair and remnants of my childhood excitement for Halloween. There is the chance that it's the promises of family time together when we'll enjoy each other's company and reminisce on times spent with those long gone.

Yes, I think the reason I like fall the most is because it, unlike other seasons, doesn't bring with it a sense of some theme or personality. Instead it seems content at serving as but an enhancement to time already spent and memories already made. A time of quiet reflection in the twilight of another year. Indeed, fall is the punctuation to the sentences in the stories of our lives.

The lizard always gets his bug. Just like you always get tired and go to bed. DON’T ACT LIKE YOU DON’T!!!!

The Crunch is Where It's At

Lakeside
Originally uploaded by link5001.

Destination: Middle of Nowhere

This weekend was the weekend of CCF's (Campus Christian Fellowship) annual fall retreat. Luckily for me, I got my money in right on time and was able to go. Now, I'll be honest. As with all campy trips, I wasn't quite feeling up to it when I was getting ready to go. I had just finished a stressful test study/taking period. I have 2 big test things coming up this week, a lot of little side project garbage I keep putting off (like getting those stickers to the anniversary winners...sorry!) and so when the time actually came to pack up to go I definitely had on my Whiny McWhinerson shoes. I was, to put it more concisely, poop tired and shortsighted.
Friday I threw all my stuff in a big bag (or almost all as you'll see later) and headed to Cape Fear Christian Church where Joe and the whole "gang" was waiting in the token big hoopty church van. After tossing in my deluxe travel luggage (a laundry bag) and The Dino Pillow I had but to hop in the navigator's seat and enjoy the glorious 4 hour trip to Park Springs Christian Center.
The travel was brisk as Joe took great pleasure in exploiting the Dodge Van's engine. The conversation kept me distracted from the endless miles of road. Before I knew it I was in the middle of nowhere staring at goats on a road that went to the camp's muti-purpose room. The sun had set so there wasn't much to see but the slight gleam of light on water in the distance. The first nights service went well and was probably my favorite service of the weekend, but the other three were good too as they revolved around the theme of preparedness for evangelism.
Ok, so then I went to the cabin which I consider a magic cabin because it is basically a plywood box that blocks out all light. You could be in there at high noon and wake up and think it was 3 AM. Without an alarm you'd sleep all day, no problem. After stacking the two pee pee protected foam mattresses on my plywood bed, I was able to get some shuteye, and wake up the next morning surprisingly refreshed.
What an awesome surprise awaited me in the morning! A beautiful little camp with a high hiking trail over a nifty lake. I always love having quiet times in nature and that morning was very cool because of that. Then tragedy struck as the first in a line of "oops I forgot..." moments started to occur. Frist I realized I forgot shower shoes. Some people have no problem walking around on whatever. Call me a sissy girly boy but I feel all dirty walking barefoot in a public shower, but you know I got over it. Then I realized I forgot some bath supplies. Nothing too important, the main this was some shampoo, which someone graciously lent me. The third and biggest idiot mistake I realized, much later than realizing the others, was that I hadn't brought my towely. Now, I know at such a place someone, SOMEONE would have been kind enough to lend me an extra towel, or maybe give me some nice expensive brand paper towels, but I, at this point, was so exasperated with my own forgetfulness, that I decided to punish myself by not seeking a towel at all. After all, what if I'm in the jungle sometime and don't have a towel? I'll need to know how to take a shower then right? So what replacement did my brilliant mind come up with?

A pair or shorts.

The rest of the weekend went swell. God was defiantly in that place (and every place) and I got to know the kind folks in CCF much better. The music was quite sa-weet (nice job Glen and gang) and Kit made some interesting points in his speeches. I even was surprised to meet fellow Caswell '05 staffer, Courtnay Nixon down there. Everyone was, as all CCFers have been to me so far, very nice
...at least until a game of carpet ball breaks out, then there can be some bitter rivalry (I'll soon claim my rightful championship title back!!!) In fact, the only bad thing going out of it was a sore shoulder on my carpet balling arm due to my mad skillful technique. Though I was slow to jump on the bandwagon mentally, I'm now so VERY happy that I had the good experience with those folks that I did. So the moral of the story is always keep a good attitude...
...even when drying off with scratchy shorts.

So uh....what happens when your cassette adaptor runs out of tape?

Disco Clown, is Driving me Mad, He's Driving me Craaaazy!

Common Ground
Originally uploaded by link5001.

All the pretty pictures!

Just a quick not to say that I've got some cool black and white pictures up on Flickr that I took of campus last year and just got developed last week. Click the above photo to be taken to my album, or search through my links. If you feel the need, which is doubtful as apparently no one else ever really does, please feel free to leave comments on any of my pictures.

Wait, I lied. There is something else I want to write about. That is the apparent rise of what I call "retard handlebars." It seems that sometime in the last few years a large group of college students decided that vintage bikes with huge retarded handlebars were suddenly cool again. Of course they are all HORRIBLY mistaken.
Aside from looking utterly miserable and successfully transforming my personal image of the rider from Normal American to Failed Circus Artist they are remarkably annoying on the bike rack. I wish I had a dime...
nay a PENNY for every time someone chained their bozo mobile next to my bike and tangled their huge handlebars into my brake lines or my bike lock. While they're in class daydreaming about how hip they are I'm outside the building pitted in mortal battle with their bikes antlers.
Bottom line is, it's not necessary, just get a real bike. THANKS!

If stickers make you happy why doesn't super gluing you to the cable van?

Takashi: Gunships From the Motherland

Living water

Last week I gave up soft drinks, of all varieties, and yes, even the dearest of all to me, sweet tea. Why, you may ask? To save dear Caroline from the evils of diet sodas. I used to be so proud of her, drinking tons and tons of waa waa. Now, due to the influences she encountered during the summer, she drinks too much diet. Well, she did anyway.
So I told her to stop. Of course, as well she should have, she laughed at me and said no. Then we struck up a deal. She'd give up soft drinks of all kinds if I would. Actually give up ANY kind of drink, except for the following:
-100% juice
-Coffee (sweetened with sugar or Splenda ONLY)
-Milk
-and of course, Water.

For those of you that don't know, I detest water. The only time I comfortably drink water is when I'm REALLY thirsty, like at the gym or something (yes I actually go to the gym, STOP SNICKERING!!!) When we first started last Wednesday, I made this involuntary face of disgust with every swallow I took. It was interesting that while I would normally go though 2 glasses of sweet tea with my meal, I only drank half a glass of water. Since then, however, the taste of water has grown on me. It's strange. I chug the stuff already. Like dear old Stewart said, after a while of drinking water, soft drinks begin to lose their appeal. They won't taste as good because you know how bad they are for you.
Now, I've not even been on this stuff for a week, so I could probably go back to Coke with no problem, but the fact that I can already tell the difference is encouraging. I expect that if I do try this for long enough I will reach a point where I don't really want soft drinks at all anymore. What's hard isn't enjoying the water, it's just hard to break away from the bad habit.

That's the way I feel about seeking radical faith too. A lot of times I think that Christians look at other Christians who are, by most people's standards, radically into their faith, and they tend to put them in the crazy box of sorts. They do this as a natural defense for the way they are comfortable living. I know I do, all the time. The idea of jumping into "radical" devotion seems worrisome because it means giving up so many comforts of the day. Some things which are sinful and openly bad, others just comforts that seem innocent, but may really be keeping you from being the person you know you need to be. There is comfort in sameness, so if you are used to the bad stuff...moving to the good stuff is extremely difficult.
Like a bad caffeine headache when you start on water, doing what is right feels so wrong. The question keeps arising, will I find a joy in this that I once found in the other? Doubt can be a powerful persuader and before you know it your suckling at the Pepsi fountain again. Then you realize you've spent the majority of your life in a constant struggle between the Soda bottle and the water fountain. If only we had never been given the first sip of sweet Tea, we wouldn't have a problem, but by the same token, would we appreciate the benefits of the water as much? So many questions but regardless, we know...

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." ~John 7:38

So I Tried to Drink my Lip When it Went Numb.

River Overlook
Originally uploaded by link5001.

Hurricania!!!

As you all know, there was recently a little tempest that swirled on through here and, well, totally discombobulated us UNCWers. In light of the recent Katrina disaster, I think the shot callers at the school were a little hyper sensitive to the storm, since they knew parents probably would be. As a result, we were asked to leave Monday afternoon by 4:30, and campus was shut down, while Ophilia was still a tropical storm.
We all giggled at the lameness of the evacuation, but you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. I, as well as my two guests Caroline and her brother Stewart, assumed that the storm would breeze through Tuesday and we'd be back in class Wednesday afternoon at the latest. Unfortunately we underestimated this storm's mighty power to linger. What kind of self respecting hurricane slows down to 3 MPH and does a little froo-froo circle in the Atlantic before coming inland? Then it didn't even really make a good landfall, it just pooped up the coast.

You notice how we tend to talk crap to the storms that don't do anything? Strange isn't it? You'd think we'd be congratulating it. Then we get all mad at the ones that pile drive straight over the capitol. No one ever says "That Hurricane was the MAN!"
oh well, side note.

Well, the point of my telling you the hurricane information that you already knew was that you would get an idea of just how unprepared my guests and I were to spend three days in Four Oaks, randomly.
Day one, I perfected my cup drooling talent. Every bit of drool, fell in the cup. I got the feeling that Caroline and Stewart were restless, but with no gas and nothing to do even if I had gas, we were helpless. Tuesday I got smart and tried to be all fun and stuff. Under the assumption that el slo storm would make all of Wednesday crappy, thus eliminating the chance for outdoor fun then, I took them, and my sister Elizabeth to the wondrous beauty of Raven Rock State Park.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Raven Rock, I highly suggest you go there sometime. It's really a cool experience. It's like walking through the flat Piedmont and then, WHAMMO, you're in the mountains. They have camp grounds and picnic grounds but coolest of all is their walking trail system. We went on the Raven Rock trail which curved around through the woods and then took us down the surprisingly huge face of Raven Rock cliffs on some comically rinky dink looking stairs. After playing around down on the bottom we straight ROCKYed up the stairs and on to the overlook trail. Let me tell you, no finer place to rest after climbing 12 flights of uber steep stairs and walking a half mile than somewhere with as nice a view as that overlook. After resting, I dug up a big rock and we went back to the parking lot.
The rest of the "vacation" served as a reminder that 3 college kids in a house for hours on end is a bit stuffy, but we survived! And made the best of the situation on top of it, I might add.
After having a lovely lunch with my Grandma Sloan yesterday, we returned to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington at around 4:15. Now I sit in my room, awaiting class at 11 and dreading the lab with quiz I have after it.
From there its into Caroline's Clown car and ALL THE WAY TO CHARLOTTE for the weekend. Ok, not exactly Charlotte, Mt. Holly, which is near the Big Queasy. Her cousin is getting married and I get to watch it...and reportedly get cake...MUAH HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!!!

I think when the Golden Girls die they should dip them in solid gold and put them on display in Washington.

Does it Say Liver MUSH on the Package?

All Yellow
Originally uploaded by link5001.

"Under the surface trying to break through
Deciphering the codes in you"

Coldplay was, in a word, awesome. If you EVER and I mean EVER...even if you're a remote fan, get the chance to see them live for less than 60 or 70 dollars TAKE IT. I've not been to many concerts in my time but regardless of that fact I can't imagine any concert being much better than what my sisters Melissa and Elizabeth, girlfriend Caroline, roommate Devin, friend from the dorm Merri, and I, all saw together Saturday night. It's really easy, even as a fan of Coldplay, to forget they they are the creators of some of the best rock songs out there now. Going to one of their concerts stands as a sobering reminder, something along the lines of "Hey, these guys are dang good! I need to listen to all their stuff again!"
I was expecting to sing along with some of their bigger hits like "Yellow" and "Clocks", then enjoy all the other mess they played in-between. What I found was that almost every song played, I knew the words too, and reason being that I really enjoyed them. That's right...ALL of them. If you have only heard the singles off the albums and the popular ones from the radio, I suggest you do yourself a big favor and pick up one of their albums. If you’re having trouble deciding, go with A Rush of Blood to the Head.
From their awesome entrance to the stage with "Square One" and a huge white countdown screen behind them to the friendly yellow balloons of "Yellow", to the hilarious screw up of "The Scientist" (he coughed and restarted near the beginning) and the sad goodbye with "Fix You", the experience made itself well worth the $20 for our tickets and indeed, called for lights to guide us home...because if they hadn't left the stage, we wouldn't have budged.

For more detail and different perspectives on the concert visit my sister, Melissa's blog and my roommate, Devin's. I also must note that all the pictures from the concert in my flickr page were taken by Devin, that sneaky bastage snuck his camera in behind enemy lines for all of us. ENJOY!

Stay tuned as my next review will be of the Death Cab concert in October!

How Do You Like It? How Do You Like It?

I'm a SNEAKY little devil!

Now to announce the winner of the SLOANNEVERSARY COMMENT COMPETITION...
Ready for this?

EVERYONE THAT LEFT A COMMENT!!!!
That's right, if you left a comment, you get a sticker. So congrats to:
Yam
Stephen
Matt
Cousin Stephen
Amanda
Jacob(nice sucking up by the way!)
Melissa
and
Shay

If you fine folks would be so kind as to email link5001@gmail.com with subject heading "Sticker Winner" and put your mailing address in the email, I'll get it out to you asap. Now here is the thing! If you want the normal green sticker from my online store, but "Sticker Winner (normal)" in the subject heading. If you want the new First Sloanneversary sticker design, which will be available to ONLY YOU GUYS...then put "Sticker Winner (special)"
If you don't care, don't specify and I'll give you whatever I feel like.

Now as for everyone else, if you haven't yet gotten pouty and left my blog I have good news for you too! In order to stimulate posts I've decided that prize giving shall become a semi-regular occurrence. Every so often I'll write a post and decide before hand its going to be a prize post. If you comment on the special post you'll be notified and get a prize....YAY!
So start posting more comments!!!

I now leave you fine folks with the promise of a good post soon as I'll be leaving Wilmington this afternoon to head home for the Coldplay concert tomorrow. Rock, rock on! There is much excitement and thrilling adventures on the horizon!

Shadows from the Evening/Nighttime Border

Glad to see all the flurry of activity on my anniversary post. This is just a quick post to link you guys up with
FindShelter | Providing Assistance for Hurricane Katrina Victims
This site was pulled together by a group of people I know through my ties with Caswell and it works by matching victims up with churches and people willing to help get them back on their feet. If you've been looking for a way to help, check it out.

Being in my zone of newslessness I've been largely oblivious to the seriousness of this disaster, so if you're like me in that way I hope you'll at least join me in praying for them from now on.

The First Sloanniversary

Has it been that long?

I can still remember the scared, lonely, mildly depressed freshman I was when I sat, hold up in my room for the 20th night in a row, and I decided to join the blogging bandingwagon to provide an outlet for my pent up genius. Freestyle for Friends of the Wild West was my first post but no one would read it for a week because I decided I wanted to look at least slightly established before I let anyone see WilmingSloan. For that first week the postings piled up and by some miracle, I've managed to (somewhat) regularly update this thing for much longer than I would have originally expected to. It's been a lot of fun, even if though the times that I've been my # 1 reader and I hope along the way I've provided a chucked or two for some of my friends and family too.

To help celebrate this momentous occasion I am offering the first ever PRIZE contest. Everyone should participate. Leave a comment about WilmingSloan in the past year, on this post, by 9-6-05, and I'll pick the one I like the best to win a WilmingSloan sticker. Hey, it's a free dang sticker and surely you can come up with something! Do remember to leave some form of identification in your comment so I can get up with you to send you the prize. Have at it kiddos!