Writers Block

Sucks big time, especially when you need to write a minumum of 16 more pages for some papers due on Thursday. Why, tell me why do I procrastinate? Homelessness here I come.......... ok maybe I am being a little dramatic but honestly people, why?

New Quote

After a bad day at the office and the upcoming horrible week I am about to have due to an overload of school work, Nicole, a friend of mine at work is letting me steal her favorite Jack Handy quote:
"I wish I would have a real tragic love affair and get so bummed out that I'd just quit my job and become a bum for a few years, because I was thinking about doing that anyway."
Yeah, I kinda wanna be homeless for a while. Just to see what it is like. No work no school = no problems right? I won't be one of the lazy hobos. I will perform a special talent. I don't know what talent that will be yet, but just know that it will be amazing and that it won't be called a trick. I made the mistake when telling Nicole my plan of being homeless to say that I could perform tricks on the street for survival money. After researching why she was laughing so hard when I said that I found out that apparently a trick is what a prostitute calls what she/he does with a customer.

Picture Tag

I saw this on Kelly's blog and liked the idea and am lacking for ideas of what to blog about because my life has only consisted of school, work, and then school work and then after hours real work. Lame I know. Here are the rules. Open up the folder with all of your pictures. Open up the fourth folder and post the fourth picture and then tell an accompanying story. Tag you are it if you want to.



This is me of course on the mission. When I got my call to the Southside of Chicago everyone kept saying you better bring a bullet proof vest. Well my mish president was contracted by the gov't to go to Iraq and help teach the new gov't of Iraq how to run a country. This was his vest, and this is a pic I had taken after a zone leader council me and Whiting held. Awesome, I love it. Too bad I couldn't have had it with me all the time. Good thing my muscles could prevent me from getting shot. Ha ha. Tag you are it.

My life since the last post.

First of all I need to put pics up about the Thriving Ivory concert. It was amazing. Such a chill band to listen to and I am soooooo glad I went.


Then on the 24th I went and volunteered at the Mexican Civic Center which held the annual Halloween Party for the children at the Rhodes Home Family Homeless Shelter. This was amazing and really helped put things into prospective for me. Me and Erik, a buddy in one of my classes, brought the costumes to the shelter that morning and talked with a few of the kids. Really made a huge impression on me. Then we helped set everything up and then walked back to the shelter to escort the kids/parents to the civic center. Had an awesome missionary discussion with Erik on the way there, which only added to the good feeling of being helpful. At the civic center we provided a big lunch, face painting, a juggler doing a funny act, story time, and then a pinata for each age group. I had to set up the PA system, and am shocked I did it. One of the kids I talked to at the shelter, AJ, helped me do it. He became my favorite kid of the group. Honestly so worth while and so glad I did it. The shelter is already completely full and they are having to turn families (children away.) Please try and donate something to the shelter this year. Here are some pics of some of the kids who are without a home this winter.



This last pic is of AJ. He was a cop and that is what he wants to be when, he said if, he grows up. No kid should have to wonder about if they get to grow up.
And lastly Kriddee's Halloween Party. It was awesome. I was MC Hammer for halloween. And I was 2 legit 2 quit. So much fun. Here are the pics.








And this is what I saw when I stepped out on my parents deck Sunday after Church. I love Mt. Ben Lomand. It looks awesome. One day I will climb it......will someone please go with me.

Sorry

So I haven't had a chance to post anything in a while. As you all know I procrastinate everything and the past two and a half weeks I have had 3 midterms and two papes to do. I am finishing my last midterm tonight and hope to post some of the fun stuff I have done when not cramming. So in a near future blog there will be tons of pics from the Thriving Ivory concert, the Halloween party at the homeles shelter I volunteered at, and a summary of what has been up in the life of B-rad.

The art of judgement

I apologize beforehand to all who read this, please do not take personal offense to what I am about to write. This is not directed at any one person but to all as a whole. What follows is a ranting and a plea. I want to hear what you think about this so please feel free to comment, this time it is a completely judgment free zone, we can judge eachother on my next political blog entry.

The famed philosopher John Locke, once wrote,“He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss” I submit he is only partially correct. I would further add when judging a person's morality and relationship with Divinity, unless authorized and inspired by Divinity, one is always incorrect.

The culture that I live in and am a part of, as good as it is, in generality fails tremendously on this subject. I live in a culture where, speaking again in generality, peoples lives revolve around the way they worship. I consider this a great thing, my life does as well, especially since that devotion is centered around always striving to become a better person. One sad thing that I have noticed is that the striving to become better is starting to shift to being better than what we perceive others as. That by somehow thinking that if you are better than those around you; you are somehow exempt from harsh judgement because there are those that are perceived as worse. You can reserve your seat in heaven by not being your best but just moderately better than what you perceive your neighbor as. I regret to inform you that this is obviously not the case for the following observations:

1. You cannot and are not judged by the merits of others. You can only be judged by your own actions, thoughts, and inactions. Other's actions cannot restrict you from or guarantee your right to celestial glory.

2. One item that is so often mentioned but rarely internalized is that, with the exception of Divinity, no one is perfect. What I mean by this is simply no one is perfect. Definately not me, not you, not your mom, and as much as I love her not even my own mom. That's right, I just said that about my own momma.

3. Again, you are probably saying, "Brad, we already know this, why are you rambling saying the same things over and over again?"
This is the point I am trying (probably badly) to express, why then are we so quick to tell someone when they are wrong? We all have imperfections, we are all striving to do better, in general we are trying to progress but we need to recognize that everyone does it differently. I do it differently than you and you do it differently than me. Is my way better than yours? No. Is your way better than mine? Again a resounding no.

4. I am under the impression that we all have the ability to have a unique and deeply personal relationship with Divinity. Please note the usage of the words "unique" and "personal" in correaltion to "relationship with Divinity." My relationship with Divinity is inversely different than yours. Does that make mine better than yours or vice versa? We would all, unless responding sardonically, echo no. Then why are we so quick to tell someone that they are wrong?

5. I also believe life and eternal progression is hard. Very hard. Why then, would we want to make it that much harder for other people by condeming them by standards that we have decided are correct? In any sociology class that I have taken the theory of a self-fulfilling prophecy is always discussed. What this means is that when someone is conutinually assigned a label the chances of fullfilling that label are exponentially higher. When you give the label as sinner, charlatan, slut, overall bad person, you are helping to enable a person to fulfill that assigned label.

So to keep in line with the command, "Judge not," let us all put aside our spiritual judgements of others, and instead focus on how we can better ourselves as individuals. My life, as hard as it can be at times, would be so much better if others would keep what they think of what I do to themselves. Believe it or not I know the difference between right and wrong. It is left up to me, not anyone else, to decide what is right and wrong for me. If you do this for me I will definately do this for you. I will do it for you even if you don't do it for me.

What a weekend: figer tighting, movie night with me padre, flooded basements and a car that won't start

Figer tighting is an inside joke for those who were at Denny's after LAgoon friday. I don't know what we were on but it was fun. Saturday I went home to pick up my new phone and Saturday night my friends in o-town were too busy to chill-lame, see if I come to otown any time soon- so I chill-axed with my dad and watched I am Legend with him. I don't get to spend enough time with the pops so I am glad I did. That however was the only highlight of the weekend. The parentals basement flooded a little bit due to a leak in the water softener. Luckily I was spent the night there and caught it at seven in the morning before it had a chance to do extremely serious damage. Just some carpet padding and some books and some stuff we had in our storage. So Sunday I spent the day cleaning and getting the water out of the basement. I did that until three took a nap ate dinner and then did it some more. Exhausted I spent the night again there and woke up to my car not starting. Coldness killed my battery. Nothin like droppin a hundie before ten, good thing I got a job promotion or else I would have needed a parental bailout. Then I got to go to work and hear secretaries tell me how I need to do my job better. Gotta love my life... or not. So fun night with friends who turn lame the next day to flooded basement to bad battery to doing an apperently bad job at work. Yup sums up an awesome three days.