"Satan Eats Cheese Whiz" -- Weird Al

I think far too many people just nod their heads when somebody tells them that Satan did something directly related to a situation in their lives. I think if they were really honest with themselves, they would admit they didn't believe it. It seems to me that most people who believe in the Christian definition of The devil honestly just believe he does random acts of messing-you-up. After all, he is nothing more than a lion seeking out who he may devour, right?



Well, I'm not so sure that means he only runs around looking for vulnerable people to frustrate. He's out there getting at whoever he can, but I believe he's focusing on "stronger" people. I suppose he knows if he can crack somebody strong, then he can more effectively influence a lot of other people who look up to that person.



Another thing ol' Beelzebub likes to do is build you up and suggest that you're doing just fine in your daily walk. Pretty much his favorite thing to do is convince you to start thinking, "Hey, I know I'm a sinner and everything, but I've pretty much rid myself of that particular sin -- oh yeah, and with God's help, of course. But lately, I've been really good at keeping myself out of trouble." Man, that's about the worst thought to be thunk. You think you're no longer vulnerable there, so you go ahead and take that peice of armor off... BAM! You're hit, and right where you thought you were invincible. The thing about Satan is that once you're exposed, he's really accurate. Once he's got your pride pumping, all he has left to do is broadside you with the very thing you think you've got under control, and you can count on the attack happening within 24 hours from when you start thinking you're slightly better than a few of your friends in that regard. Then you fall to the attack and feel really stupid.

"Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it." -- The Message Translation

But there are two things to do at that point. You can feel like an idiot and think that God didn't care enough to keep Satan from messing you up. Or, you can know that what Satan means for evil, God could very well mean for good. If you realize that you were already sinning in your pride, then you can know that God needed to show you that you really aren't as close to perfect as you might have thought. The good news is that once you admit that fact, you're back on your feet and walking a lot more parallel to the narrow way than you were before.



Anyway, that's kind of been on my mind lately because something of that nature happened to me recently.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

So, the things that have been going on in my life are as follows:

I started assistant coaching in First Lego League (FLL) a while back. Basically, I'm there to help guide kids (around age 10) through an unbelievably complicated, strategic, and mind-bending national competition involving Lego robotics. It's pretty complicated, so if you're actually interested in seeing the challenge this year, just go to this year's challenge website. http://www.firstlegoleague.org/default.aspx?pid=29550

I got my drivers license in August. I didn't need a license all summer, even though I could have gotten it, but didn't because nobody likes to pay insurance when someone doesn't need their license. But it's pretty cool how once I got my license, I suddenly needed it for my job on Mondays, writing and composition class on Tuesdays, physics class on Thursdays, FLL on Fridays, and whatever else I need to do whenever. Currently, I can count on driving solo at least four times a week.

I got that job back in August. I'm paid $8/hour for various construction work. Various as in everything from electrician's work to framing to building block walls to plaster to stucco to landscaping to whatever. I'm working for a man in my church, which is cool. The coolest thing, though, is that I pretty much work whatever hours I want, as long as I let people know in advance. Currently, I work 9-10 hours on Mondays, and that's it. Just enough to make some dough and do some honest work. I'm just too busy right now to work any other days, so I just work all day on Mondays.

I went to that Christian music day thing at Carrowinds. I saw Thousand Foot Crutch, Barlow Girl, TobyMac, and the first few songs from Relient K (had to leave early). Some friends were kind enough to invite me with free tickets, so I went. As a result, I can proudly say I rode all the rollercoasters except the Borg Assimilator (which is only for stuntmen, crash test dummies, and people with a deathwish). I can also say I was unimpressed by Thousand Foot Crutch's show (all the songs sounded the same), I was impressed by Barlow Girl's show, I was unimpressed by Toby's show until he and the band did Jesus Freak as an encore -- that was incredible, and I can say I was thoroughly impressed by Relient K.

When Relient K was setting up for their "fell in love with the 80's" song, they introduced it by playing the first verse and chorus of "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears (great 80's song/band). They were really true to the spirit of the song, and yet, updated the sound from pure 80's to just plain good. So, I'm kind of into Relient K lately.

Currently, I'm really hating how small insects just love to fly all over the screen when you're in a dimly lit room at night.

"Planet," Not By Holst

Planet

This is kind of random, but today I made a loopable game-ish electro song. Traditionally, I assign an album name to my mp3's of my songs. Most of my stuff is under the album, "Glass," but today I decided that I wanted a separate album for my electro stuff. So, I drew up some album art for an electronica album:

More Like Post Circus

My Thoughts During This Diurnal Portion Of Our Current Rotation:

Post offices don't like me.

It seems like every time I enter a post office, something awkward happens. The past two times especially.

The previous time, I had to go in and get a manilla folder, put my stuff in it, and mail it. Well, the postwoman was exceedingly impersonal. She didn't look at me, she didn't say anything, and she had a stern look as if to say "Manilla folders are the cause of teenage laziness and you need to get a backbone, take a hike, and drop off the papers personally, young man."

More recently, I went in to get 15 two-cent stamps. This post office was lit like 2 out of every 3 flourescent tubes had expired. I got into line, and waited for my turn. Weird thing #1: The guy in front of me was trying to mail something, but he wasn't paying any attention to the postman. The postman kept asking questions, but the guy wouldn't respond at first. It was creepy. Weird thing #2: There was a lady at another desk, and she looked like she was getting ready to take a break or something, so I didn't walk up to her desk. She kept messing with other stuff around the office, but she continued to return to her desk, so it was really unclear whether she was working or not... so I don't know if I looked really stupid to the people behind me or whatever. Weird thing #3: When my turn came at the postman's desk, this lady carrying three boxes comes out of nowhere and says something along the lines of "The machine back there isn't working. I'm going to cut you real quick." I was like, "Okay... sure." Weird thing #4: My turn finally came, and when I asked for 15 two-cent stamps, it came out as "Fifteentwo... cent-stamps." I don't know why. It was absolutely retarted. I repeated it correctly, just to be sure he understood, but that probably just made it sound stupider. I got my 15 stamps though, and I gave him 6 nickels. He totally didn't even count them.

Post offices really just conflict with my personality.

What's With Impersonal Cashiers?

You go in to the local Super K-Mart, get you some delicious generic fig bars, and you go to the registers to check out. You naturally go to the shortest line, and when your turn comes, the cashier slides the package over the scanner and gives you your total. You make some hilarious pun about fig bars, but there is no reaction. It's like you're not even there. She is stone-faced and looks off toward the back of the store as she hands you your change.
I DETEST THAT!
No, I didn't go to K-Mart and get fig bars, but whatever happened to How-are-you-doing?-I'm-doing-great.-Thank-you.-Have-a-nice-day! cashiers?

Of course, there are extremes on both sides. I once bought a bag of pork rinds (so good) at a gas station, and the cashier was like "Man, only in the south will you ever see somebody buying these!" and then I was lectured on how they would make me fat. Sure.

Saturdations

Graham and I went to the debate tournament in Winston Salem. Since most of you readers were there, I'll skip the actual debate part.

On the Way

We had to get up at 5:30 am Saturday morning. While on the road, we saw a truck towing this massive load of bicycles and a grill:
We were like, "What is that? A church camping trip?" Shur 'nuff, we passed the guy and saw several church vans. Then we came upon this sign with no info other than "$250 PENALTY." We were like, "What? If we pass the sign, we get fined $250? Unlawful! Outrageous! Just cause to break away from the Union!" I barely caught a pic of it:

I also noticed how cool the relfection in this 18-wheeler rim was (click the thumbnail to see the reflection better). Also, you may or may not notice that the hazy reflection on the window I took the shot through is actually a printout from Google Maps:

Interesting ride.

Coming Home

We started home at roughly 9:00 pm. We talked about a bunch of stuff as usual. It seems we always listen to music on the way to places, but on the way home we pretty much only talk. By almost midnight, we were only a couple miles from our exit on the interstate, and we had had some pretty meaningful conversations about seriously and fully following God...

...And then we ran out of gas. The devil is like, my least favorite being, you know? Fortunately, we ran out at the top of the hill before our exit. We coasted to the exit and came to a stop right at the start of the deceleration lane. I had to get out and push the car uphill about 20 ft to get us off the road. We tried calling the parents, but they were asleep. So, we got out in the cold, windy night and hiked up the exit and to the nearest gas station -- about a 5 - 10 minute walk. I told Graham I was sure they'd have gas cans for sale, but I was secretly crossing my fingers because I had no idea what I was talking about. We walked in and looked around, and couldn't find any gas cans. I passed the same aisle several times and finally found a little gas can on the bottom shelf. They only had two. We grabbed one (and a pack of Sprees because I felt like it) and got in line at the register. There was a suprising number of (strange) people there at midnight. The two "ladies" in front of us in line were definitely hookers. It was sick. I wanted to be like, "How can you live with yourself?" We got up to the register and checked out, knowing that buying the gas can and a pack of sprees screamed "we ran out of gas!" The cashier said something along the lines of, "There's a whole lot of strange people coming in." We walked out to the pumps and filled up the can. It was pretty awkward just standing at the pump and filling up this tiny red container, but whatever. So we just walked back eating sprees and finally quenched the car's thirst, and we drove up to another gas station to go ahead and fill up the tank. I sat out in the car while Graham went in to prepay. There was this random guy out there, and I had this weird feeling like, "He's gonna ask us for directions or something," so I kept my eye on him. So Graham walks out and immediately the guy asks him how to get to Raleigh. Graham's like, "You get on the interstate and go that way." I mean, what else do you tell him? Getting to Raleigh is really vague and duh at the same time.

So yeah, we got home a half-hour late.

France Has Its Own Fries and Toast

I built a clock.
I was at a thrift store and I saw this really retarted old clock that had no hands for a whopping 99 cents. The face's color scheme was a wonderful combo of yellow and orange. It did, however have a gearbox that took one AA battery, so I splurged and bought it. I took it home and immediately ripped off the crime of a face and stuck a 60-tooth, 10-inch table/miter saw blade on it. 60 teeth means the space between each tooth stands for one minute! To make a couple days' work short, I ended up putting a red LED in each pre-drilled hole at the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock positions, cutting hands out of thin sheet metal salvaged from an old heater, and bending numbers out of wire. I think it turned out pretty nice, myself.

Dad mentioned that he wants me to build him another version with blue LED's for his office, but another saw blade by itself is about $20, so he'll probably decide he doesn't want one.

Thrift stores rule.

Swings

So Graham and I finally worked together on some music. We just felt like collaborating. I started playing some stuff on the keyboard, and we just went from there. It's probably the most progressive song either of us have ever written.


http://www.photehepson.com/swings.mp3

Lyrics:

Maybellene
I got a letter
A letter for me
Sayin' "meet me darlin'
In the garden
Behind the swing"
A letter for me

So our hero puts on his finest hat and vest and heads for the garden.
But on his way, his mind begins to spin...

Finally
Into the garden
My heart is in my throat
"But there you are, as you promised"
Suddenly she spoke
My heart was in my throat


If you weren't directed to my blog from Graham's, then you can go there for more info (www.photehepson.blogspot.com).

New Fragrance Line: "Naphthalene"

Primus:

I was doodling earlier this week. I had drawn some immense robot being attacked by a swarm of light fighters. I kind of liked the fighter design, so I drew it bigger, took a picture of it (because I'm having software problems with the scanner, and I'm too lazy to fix them right now), colorized it, and added a starfield.


Secundus:

Wednesday was the last day of chemistry class. We were supposed to have a party and order pizza and stuff, so my lab partner brought $5 for pizza. But he had to leave, so he just left the $5 for me because I only had $20 bills with me. Well, turns out we decided not to get pizza, and the party was exceedingly and abundantly lame.
But I made $5.

Tertius:

Last night I was at a play. In the predominately homeschooled environment, I realized that I knew far too many of the people there. It was disturbing. I fought the urge to wander around, so I avoided having to awkwardly talk to somebody who I knew, but not enough to have a good conversation. You know, when people think they know you really well and they just want to hang out and talk, but you don't.

So I just stuck with my people.

Quartus:

On Wednesday, two people weren't in chemistry class. Nobody really knew why. Well, yesterday, in the middle of the play, I noticed that two of the lead roles were the two people who weren't in class. And one of them was doing some serious singing. It was really awkward for me, because I had just spent a whole year of chemistry class with this guy, only to find out now that he's way cooler than me. I talked to him after the play, though, and it made me feel a little cooler.