So I went to CCUC for church last week and after sunday school I decided to go home. So in all my Sunday

finery, I got on the 8 bus that goes down Halstead and I took it for 45 minutes...the wrong way. I was supposed

to take it North towards Broadway but oooops? Yep, I took it all the way to Halstead and 79th street which is

REALLY south. Like every-other-store-is-a fried-chicken-shop-and-I-was-only-non-black-person-for-an-

hour south. I guess should've realized that I was going the wrong way...but I didn't. So I spent an hour and a half

in the south side of Chicago and I lived to tell the tale. There were nice people who helped me out. It's not as bad

as people make it seem.

Anyways, over this weekend I watched the movie Dawn of the Dead. Pretty good movie actually even though its

a zombie movie and i'm generally a chicken. When I was in sixth grade I watched the Ring and I was so scared of

that movie that I couldn't use the bathroom with door closed. I was afraid if I closed the door, and faced the toilet

like a normal person does, then the Ring girl would either sneak up behind me and eat me OR would come out of

the toilet Moaning Myrtle style and drag me down and my parents wouldn't be able to hear my screams. In any

event, I had to go with the door open sideways so i could keep an eye on both the door AND the toilet.

Yeah...I'm a wuss. Don't judge.

So yeah, after watching that movie till 4:30 in the morning, I couldn't just go to sleep. No, I was too wired for that.

Instead I spent the next 2 hours carving myself an anti-zombie implement using a pair of scissors and other tools.

Then I slept with that implement under my pillow at 6:30 a.m. in the morning.

I haven't really been going to any fellowships recently. I went to 3 or 4 but I guess I kind of got disillusioned by

some of the things going on. But I will start going again. Actually though, one of the ways that God has been

working in my life has been through my math, science, and engineering classes. Everything in this world just works

too...perfectly. You know what i'm saying? Everything works so well and has definite relationships and it's just too

well-made for it to be random chance. Humans who can mess with genetics to accelerate thousands and

even millions of years of evolution still can't produce a machine with even close to the efficiency of the Human

Heart. They can't reproduce the eye, the nose, or even the year. A five million dollar bionic arm still is a sad

prosthetic replacement for an actual one. The human body is just too perfect for man to come close to replicating.

He has been showing His glory through math and science...imagine that.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes things pile up on you? That no matter how hard you work or how hard you

plan, those things just manage to grow and grow and grow until one day they fall on top of you and you feel lik

punching a clown in the face just to get rid of your frustration? No? Well it happens to most of us so if it doesn't

happen to you, then you're just a werido. Well if you feel it happening to you, use this time tested technique. Don't

punch a clown. Instead punch a nerd so he does all your work for you. Just kidding. Don't punch a nerd.

Well I guess I should take my campaign for Ben to name his child after me to Xanga. Tell Ben he should name his

kid after me because of all the times I helped you do something. For example: (please insert an example. and if

you can't think of one, make one up. And if you choose to make one up, make me sound good so that you feel

like you have to tell Ben to name his child after me. And if you don't, well, poo.)

Fantasy sports. Enough said.

I want to go down to U of I for Halloween. you know, for the..uh..."fellowship." And by fellowship i

mean...uh...SEEING ALL MY FRIENDS FOR CLEAN FUN!!!! YEAH!!!

so it's 1:30 AM right now. by the time i'm done writing this post, i have no idea what time it'll be...anyways, just

felt like writing a bit about what college has been like so far.

I was chilling with Sammi, Ryan, and Hilary before they left, and we were hanging out in Greek Town. Greek

Town is awesome by the way, although kind of shady at times. Anyway, there was a huge Greek festival going on

 and we were just chiling, walking through, enjoying the booths and stuff like that until i saw a booth that really

caught my eye. So here comes pretty much the most important thing that has happened to me at college so far: I

saw the booth was for ShamWOW. and I bought one. and it works. and i love it. OK, OK, i understand your 

judgemental stares and gasps. But I love it because it's a great conversation starter. like "hey what

have you done recently?" And i can be like, "I bought a ShamWOW." And they'll be like, "Cool!! does it

work?!!" etc. As I was walking back from the Greek festival, i was complimented on my ShamWOW by at least

7 different people and one lady even offered my her beer to see if the ShamWOW could soak it up. I felt so

appreciated because of the orange rolled up towel I was holding because its "the only true mark of your worth as

an individual." Just kidding.

So the big question. Does it work? Yes...in a way. Just think of it like having 15 paper towels stacked on each

other except it doesn't tear or break and it's re-usable. plus i bought it for $2.50 because i split it with Sammi. so

all in all, good buy.

College is fun i guess. I love the free time. People here are nice but you do get the occasional weirdo or smart

aleck or someone just too full of themselves. I take lots of naps, do my laundry, study occasionaly, watch football,

listen to new music, hang out, walk a lot, see the city, get lost sometimes, hit on chicks, get rejected instantly (just

kidding...i wish), wrestle, stay sober, and don't party. The last two things kind of make me different from a lot of

the other people on my floor and sometimes it's hard to find commonality with them when all their bonding is done

over alcohol but you know what? I think it's worth it to distance myself for the time being.

Classes aren't too bad although I have ditched a class. heeheehee! I feel like more of a man. The Rush!!! oh so

exhilarating!!! And I did fall asleep in a couple of classes. Actually my teacher threw chalk at me yesterday. ahhh,

getting me a bit nostalgic actually because i used to have teachers in high school who would do that. My history

teacher actually poured water down my sweatshirt once when i was sleeping so a piece of chalk is NOTHING.

But i probably should stop sleeping in class.

My dorm is nice. it's new and clean and even when there are wholes in the walls people put signs with arrows on

them pointing toward the whole that say "to Narnia." Anyways my room is huge and where the dorm is situated is

in prime location. There's a Jamba, Caribou, Tanning Salon, and Joy Yee's within a 4 minute walk of where i live.

But that's not good because i become tempted to spend money. But for some reason i always get random crime

alerts from UIC about how kids get mugged around where i live so i'm thinking of investing in some pepper spray.

you know, to season my food. and by "food" i mean mugger's eyes. and by "season" i mean begin an extremely

irritating and deblitating chemical reaction.

You know one of the nice things about UIC? you can walk through the quad and count 100 people and be really

surprised if you count more white people than minorities. I tried it once so i know. My floor is so "ethnically

diverse" that it actually detracts from it's diversity. Case in point, my cluster is two Indians, two Chinese, and a

Korean so basically all minorities and NO white people. Still though, yesterday, i had a Korean, Black, Indian,

and White person in my room at the same time and no i'm not counting myself as the black person. There are so

many different types of people where I live and yet it pleasantly doens't smell like anything overpoweringly ethnic.

So far though, i'm enjoying college and i think you should come visit me sometime. There's this really good cheap

fast food place by where i live called Jim's but apparently it's famously known as Maxwells because that's where it

was originally. And if you do, bring me some bottled water. I need some. and some money. i could do with some

of that. and some veggie straws.

On pictures, dreams, and Teen Camp

On women, bathrooms, and women in bathrooms

On women:

If you ask my sister (a woman by the way) what she did while we were in Singapore, she would tell you two

things: eating and shopping. If you asked me what I did, I would also tell you two things: eating and waiting. You

see, to me, the word "shopping" is synonomous with the word "waiting." That is to say, if you were to say to me,

"hey! you want to go shopping?" all I would here is, "hey! do you want to go waiting?" Most of my cousins and

aunts that take me around are female as well. Thus I have spent large amounts of time just...waiting. Of course,

there are certain types of waiting I enjoy more than others. I prefer to wait for shoes rather than wait for anything

else because when waiting for shoes, there are usually nice benches. I also like waiting in malls better than waiting

in street markets because its air conditioned.

I think the problem stems from the fact that I am not a shopper; I am a buyer. What do I mean by that? I mean

that if I ever go to a mall or a store or any place like that, I only go because I have a specific need to be met or a

certain object that requires purchasing. Of course I'll shop around looking for the cheapest price but unless i know

specifically what I want, I won't go to the store. In this way, I focus my attention, get in, get out, and spend the

least amount of time and money necessary. This attitude comes into direct conflict with the shopping mentality of

many females: they go not knowing what to buy, or with only a vague idea, so they end up buying anything and

everything that they happen to "need."

On bathrooms:

I was taking a tour of the city (Singapore) on the top of an open air bus when I overheard an Australian lady

talking on the phone. She said, "Hello, oh hi! Yes, I'm in Singapore. How is it? Oh it's nice. The bathrooms here

are very clean." Imagine having the most noticable thing about your city be its bathrooms.

Anyway, about 80% of the people in Singapore live in government-owned HDB flats. These flats have remarkable

bathrooms in which the sink and toilet are actually in the shower. There is absolutely no separation between these

three things. This means I can use the toilet, take a shower, and brush my teeth at the same time! Although...even

back home, when I'm in a rush on a school day, I've...never mind.

On women in bathrooms:

Of couse it's a well documented fact that girls like to go to bathrooms in packs and that they take way longer than

men do. Don't agree with me? Go to any busy mall and you'll see a line for the girls bathroom but you won't see

one for the guys. That's not to say guys don't have to wait sometimes, but the line rarely stretches outside of the

bathroom like the line for a girls bathroom. Anyways, that's not the point. Once, I went to the bathroom in some

place, I can't remember where, and there was a women inside. My initial thought was that I had mistakenly gone

into the wrong bathroom and I was about to apologize and get out when I noticed urinals. (My first instinct when

entering any unfamiliar bathroom is to first look around for urinals to make sure I am in the right place). Then I

noticed that she was cleaning that bathrooms. It was at that point in time that I felt really awkward because

although i checked if there were urinals to see if i was in the right place, I wasn't there to use the urinals if you get

what i mean. Let me just say this: it's really weird when there's a woman the next stall over and you know she's

going to have to clean your stall when you get out.

Anyways, I'm leaving soon, like on july 29-30 (its a long flight) so see you guys when I get back. I'm going to

TEEN CAMP!!!!