As usual, James has been under quite a bit of stress lately, and blogging has been very low on the list of priorities. I have gotten about 5 non-consecutive hours of sleep combined over the past two nights in order to finish a book and a paper for my English Lit. class. Yeah fun :) But I'm alive . . . barely. The caffine is numbing my true exhaustion now, but it's rubbing off. About an hour ago I fell asleep while "working" at my on-campus job. On top of all of this school stuff I'm also working on Bleacher Bums, my first play here at MTSU. I'm only onstage for maybe a 90 seconds, but it's a start. Since I know you guys care so much, and are clammouring to get tickets it is showing April 2, 3, and 4 at 7pm in the Studio Theatre @ the BDA. Anyway I need to get back to work/sleep.

-James

Okay so 2 weeks ago I went to Lexington to see the UK vs. Alabama meet. It's taken me forever to get this stuff up b/c my computer kind of died for a while. You guys may not give 2 craps about gymnastics, but I'm going to recount my trip anyway:

Me on the road. I'm sure doing this while driving is illegal (or it probably should be :)

More driving ... 4.5 hours worth.

The Memorial Collisem.

The UK Mascot & Team

And now some of my favorite athletes:

Terin Humphrey - 1st AA

Cassie Martin - 2nd UB

Ashley Miles - 1st VT & FX

Team Alabama - 1st Team

Next stop on James's 2006 SEC Tour: Athens, GA

Okay, so today was kind of nice. I watched Love Actually, ate a little Quiznos, spent some quality time with my Accounting book, hung out w/ Blake & co. and of course took pointless pictures. . .

Oh, and please pray for my computer. Umm it's kind of dead. One day about a week and a half ago it said "Hello hard drive, you've been great but it's time for you to bomb out, and erase your contents. James would really appreciate that, thanks in advance. Sincerely, Dell Inspiron 1150." I'm handling the loss well.Sometimes it so hard not having it around. But I have to be strong, in major times of grief like this. ;)

-James

I'm sick for the first week back from a semester break. Seriously, this has only NOT happened once. I guess this is just MTSU's creepy way of welcoming me back. I guess you could consider me sufficiently at home now : )

-James

This feeling has come over me a lot more than once over the past month or so. I'm really beginning to feel like I have absolutely nothing to offer my friends when they seriously talk to me about things in their lives that I can't relate to. I want to be there for them and encourage them, but sometimes that just doesn't feel like enough for me. Something else to pray about I guess.

-James

Okay, so today was the first day in, well a long time that I didn't have anything scheduled for me and I just slept in and got to be lazy. And you know what, I think I may have actually enjoyed it. I woke up around noon, and pretty much spent the day watching Friends and gymnastics, with a few breaks in between. I think that I'm going to dedicate the rest of my break to seeing as many good movies as I can. I don't want to be too out of the loop once Oscars roll around. Memoirs of a Geisha, The Producers, Munich, and King Kong are high on the priority list. That's it for now.

-James

James is totally unsure if a time of intense reflection mixes well with the weekend before finals. Whether they go together or not it's what I have now, and I spent nearly 3 hours writing about it last night. Just some of those personal things that go on in your mind, that you hardly ever give yourself the opportunity to fully think through. I guess you never know what can happen when you give yourself the chance to think about something that's hard, something that's challenging, something that scares the crap out of you.

-James

Anyone else having one of these weeks?

I just wanted to let you guys know that oranges attacked campus last night. Two were injured in the vicious onslaught, but their wounds were minor. The threat to the MTSU campus is very real, and our campus terror alert has been raised to code ORANGE. Be on high alert when walking through Walnut Grove.

I just wanted to say how awesome it was to see Sarita Maria Haun yesterday. She's still as lively as ever, and of course Maria hugs are the best. Anyway, I thought everyone should feel just a bit of the Maria love I'm feeling now. Everyone who knows her knows what I'm talking about.

-James

While I was supposed to be working on my History paper I noticed this brilliant sunlight shining through my window, and I thought I'd have some fun with my digital cam. About 1/2 an hours worth of fun! Seriously, I took like 51 pictures trying to take advandage of the sunlight! I only posted 8 though. Just thought I'd share my brief lapse of ADD.

-James

When you found out that Santa Claus wasn't real? I saw Elf for the first time last night, and like most decent movies it got me thinking. My parents were never big into the Santa Claus thing to being with, but I was kid and it was a fun story to believe. I was probably about six years old, and my parents used to hide my gifts in a closet in the garage. The closet was usually locked, but one day it wasn't and that happened to be the day I tried to open it. I found all sorts of toys still in their Toys R Us bags. I don't remember how, but my sister and I couldn't keep the lid on our find until Christmas and the parents found out. During this time I also ruined the Christmas fantasy for the kids across the street, and told them that Santa wasn't real. My parent's weren't so happy about that! Those were the days. . .

-James

I have this picture of me in my room from when I was 14, and today for some weird reason I wondered what I would tell myself, at this age about life. So here I go:

-Be yourself. God made you unique, and don't be afraid of that.

-The satisfaction of your desires isn't a mouseclick away.

-Don't be afraid to face the past, and forgive.

-"You have made known to me the path of life, in your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures forever." - Psalm 16:11

-Put yourself on the line, talk to someone, break down the walls

-You're not fat

-High School is not the end of the world.

-"Don't be afraid; just believe" - Mark 5:36

What would you guys say to your 14 year old selves to help you out later in life?

Ahh, Norah Jones is pretty much the perfect way to wind down after an eventful day like today. Spontaneity might be what's missing for me this week, and I got a good share of it today. After another invigorating accounting session, I go to my stats class which is meeting in the Business Lab today . . . or so I thought! Turns out that there was a scheduling conflict, and basically class was just going to be used for  people to finish the marathon test we had on Tuesday. Since I finished my test on Tuesday this meant no class! Coupled with my scholarship service assignment being cancelled, the day was looking up. There were a lot of other little things that happened to mix up my Thursday routine, but I also had one of my smellier brain farts this semester. For months now I've known that Leslie, Sean McConnell, and Ryan Horne would be playing Bonhoeffer's on Nov. 10, and today I didn't even think about it until I was walking back from my J-Group and saw a ton of cars outside of Bonhoeffer's. It was like a bad mini-epiphany of some sort. Everything began to make sense all at once, and I realized my grievous wrong. Oh well, one more thing that I didn't expect today.

Now this was an one odd little Saturday. Rob was out the door, bright @ like 7am which was just when I woke up. My usual Saturday morning library camp out went alright. I got a good amount of stuff done. Productivity is always nice. Now, I knew that a few of my friends weren't going to be here this weekend, but there was seriously nobody around today. Of course the weekend that nobody is here would be the time the football team scores its first home victory of the season. 45-7 over Arkansas State U. I know it's weird! I went over for like five minutes at around 4:45, and there we were severely lacking in the spectator department. I only saw one person I knew there, so I really had no reason to stay. Well on the bright side I got to spend a bit of time with a friend who's usually pretty busy, and I got to post the Homecoming @ Fall Retreat pictures I got back yesterday. Enjoy!

-James

What did James do with his day today?

     a. work on a comic scene

     b. eat awesome food at Bellbuckle Cafe

     c. stay awake in Accounting AND Statistics (w/o caffine)

     d. transcribe test questions from an insurance text book

     e. all of the above

#2 pencil only

OMG. It was so good. I mean highlight of my week good. Who would have thought the combination of chipotle mayo (yes I ate mayo :), chicken, tomatoes, and guacamole it all it's toasted glory would send me to sandwichtopia and back. I highly reccomend the Cabo Chicken sandwich the next time you come across a Quiznos. Though the week is still young, this honestly might have been the pick-me-up I've needed for 3 days now. Random happy moments rock! 

-James

I'm almost postive that between my frequent yet brief trips to dreamland in accouting my Statistics professor was saying actual words that might be useful on our quiz Thursday. As I struggle to decipher each strange utterance of "probability, distribution, standard deviation, and x-bar" and the day began to look more gray through the sizeable window to my left, my mind bounced from one stressful school related thought to another. 7.5 hours later my mind is still reeling and longs for release. Exhaustion, confusion, and digestion all mixed with a little caffine and a lot of reading make for one tedious Tuesday. Though I am now able to recline, breathe and phuse, the specter of my incomplete "To Do 11/1/05" list continues to haunt and remind me that I must read Blood Done Sign My Name and study for my Mass Media test. The plight of the perfectionist: priorities, priorities, priorities.

-James

I just wanted to let everyone know that today one of my favorite people celebrates his 21st birthday. Happy B-Day Jeff!

-James

Why on earth did I not skip this horrific bore of a class today? Something told me when I took a mini-nap about 30min after I woke up this morning just not to go, but I always go to class and I didn't want today to be an exception. So I've pretty much done most of my homework, even though he doesn't take it up, and I'm understanding all of the concepts too. So for the entire 85 minutes of class, while I'm forcing myself to stay awake by tapping feverishly and spinning my pen, he goes over homework problems I got correct and reviews concepts I already know. What a wonderful way to start the morning!

-James

It seems like for the last two weeks I have been really preoccupied with progression. Right now I kind of feel stagnant as far as responsibilites and relationships are concerned. It's like God has been giving me a big stop/wait sign with a few of my big personal concerns now, and being obedient in this way is not as easy as it sounds. Having a fairly time consuming class load keeps me distracted enough most of the time, but I've had quite a bit of introspection time lately. Allowing God to just scour and reveal all the dirty feelings I've harbored toward people I really like. Though they're not pretty, I really feel much better now that I know what they are and have given them to God. In addition to this, I just got back from the Belle Aire Men's Conference w/ Vance Pittman, and I've had a similar smack in the face/relief type of experience. In reference to John 15:16 he said that God's purpose is being accomplished in my life as I'm living it now, and he later asked "When was the last time we thanked God for putting us were we are?" At this time I honestly thought that the only way that the message could be more personal was for Vance to insert my name somewhere in it. I guess I'm just really thankful right now that I serve a God who is able to be so intimate with me.

On a lighter note, I sadly won't be participating in the costume contest at the post-homecoming party tomorrow (unless someone can magically supply me with a trip to Party City . . . J/K). I wasn't able to find what I needed at the Wal-Mart to become the Phantom.

But no worries! We're playing Lousiana-Lafayette tomorrow, who apparently is significantly worse (rankings wise) at football than we are. So GO RAIDERS!!!!!!

-James

Okay everyone, enjoy the pictures!

At their world premire performance these guys were known as Apprehensive Identity because they didn't have a name yet. I'm now referring to them as Damascus Road, b/c thats what I've been told is the name that's sticking right now. If all else fails I'll just call them the artists formerly known as Apprehensive Identity. J/k, but in all seriousness they did great for a first performance. We'll just have to see what the future holds for them.

-James

Hey Guys,

  I don't know about you guys, but fall break has been rolling by pretty quick for me. I've passed almost all of my time by sleeping and tagging along (my life story) with my sister wherever she goes. We went to the mall on Saturday where I browsed for clothes I have no cash for, and I saw the girl who lied to me about having a date for the Fall dance freshman year in High School. But I'm not bitter :) My family did have some bad news though. My uncle's (mother's sister's husband) mother died. She'd been in and out of the hospital for a couple of months with lung cancer, and a few other problems. The family seems to be dealing okay with it so far. We spent a few hours with them on Sunday. I guess that's it for now. I have to go pick up my pictures anyway, which will promptly be up on Phusebox as soon as I get back to my scanner. 

-James  

While I avoid my accounting homework, I thought that I'd blog a bit. I can breathe easy for a while now in most of my classes. No papers, tests, or major assignments for at least a week or so. And I'm enjoying this break from the stress. I'm getting used to life w/o my car again. My dad took it away on Saturday. After he attached it to his truck I just wanted to end our conversation as soon as possible so I wouldn't have to look at it anymore. He told me that I might not have this car the next time I come home. So I've prepared myself never to drive my 960 again. I'm asking for rides again So if I know you have a car you are fair game! J/k, but seriously I think I'm just learning to be dependent again. My nature I'm very independnet and a little recluse so asking for help, or rides in this case, presents a challenge for me. I can be this way with God as well sometimes too, and it's never good. I really do pray everyday to surrender my will to God's, even if it isn't fun. Since I'm a "glass 1/2 full" kind of guy I'm going to look at my immobility as a learning experience.

-James

photo from AWANA16
Dear 960,
We've been together for over 2 years now, but tomorrow we have to go our separate ways. It's okay. It's for the best. And it's only for a little while. You're not feeling well now, literally falling apart. We need some space for a while. I know a great place back home were they can make you all better. Please forgive me, but I have to do this. I hope to see you soon, when you're feeling better.

Love,
James