Comments anyone.

Thank you Haloscan for providing comments to my blogspot. So, feel free to add any comments to the posts I make each week and even old posts too.

Well, it has been an interesting week for me. We had a Muslim from the Oklahoma City Mosque to come and speak to us about Islam in our World Religions class. It was funny, because he didn't show up on time and he called the teacher like 3 or 4 times telling him he was only 5 minutes away. The teacher was a little frustrated, but he showed up and he finally started speaking 30 minutes late. It was interesting, but most of what we heard we had already learned in the past week. Our teacher told our guest he needed to wrap it up, and he said "Ok" and began to tell us about the 5 Pillars of Islam. He finally let us go 10 minutes late, but luckily my next class was downstairs. I had a test on Tuesday in my Counseling class and it was one of those tests where I either did really well or I bombed it. I was supposed to get our tests today, but it turns out the teacher was sick, so we had no class.

My sister finally recieved her belongings in Alaska. It has been three weeks since she left and she has been missing her computer, TV, and other stuff. (If you are wondering why, it is because she could take 2 bags with her on the plane, mostly clothes, and the rest of her bigger stuff had to be shipped seperately.) Her car will get there in early October. But she is doing fine though. She is working in the delivery room mainly. She has been riding with a guy from California to work, because she doesn't have her car yet and one morning they got in his car and there was frost on the windshield. He was freaking out, asking her what was on his windshield. So she told him and he asked her how to get it off, and she's like "just use your windshield wipers." It was funny. I guess it would be funnier hearing it in person like I did.

Well, OU is off this weekend and will play at Iowa St. next week and then head to Dallas to play the Texas Longhorns. If you missed the OU/UCLA game last week, you missed one of the best OU games ever. It was one of the most exciting games I have ever attended. It was a game that you never sat down. Antonio Perkins two NCAA records (3 punt returns for touchdowns and 277 punt return yards) was amazing and overshadowed the record setting performance of Rashaun Woods 7 catches for TD's against some high school in Texas as they continue through their creampuff schedule. Don't get me started on this, so I'll just switch to a different topic.

I have been reading the book "Waking the Dead" and last night I read something really interesting. He said, "Jesus can, and wants to, heal your heart." Personally, I don't feel like I have a broken heart, but there are some things in my past that when my heart was broken, I just pushed it aside and hid it in the deepest, darkest part of my heart never going to Jesus and asking Him to heal me. He hasn't revealed anything to me, but I hope that when He does I will go willingly with Him to go back to where my heart has been broken and give it to Him so that He may heal my heart.

For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes
hear with their ears
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them. (Matthew 13:15)

Before Everything and After

It's finally here. I have been waiting since last summer for this album when they told us that they were working on a new album and had 40+ songs to choose from. They made some great selections.

(Note: This is my first criticism of the album so my mind may change.) My first impression of the album when I first heard it was, "different." That is the only way I could describe it. It has many different sounds, ranging from bands like Good Charlotte, Blink 182, New Found Glory, and Slick Shoes. There was a lot of different instruments and kinds of instruments used to make BE&A and if you buy the cd, you will find out what they used. You just have to hear it for yourself. They have strayed away from the punk beat on most of the songs on BE&A with the exception of a few songs. They used more of a rock beat, and they sound awesome. They put a lot of hype and time into BE&A and it is climbing up to the hype in mind the more I listen to it.

After listening to BE&A all the way through, the song You Make Me, Me stuck out as my favorite. Just one of those kind of songs you listen to for the first time and tell it is a good one. It has a great beat, great musicality, and great lyrics. The songs I like so far are; You Make Me, Me, On the Outs, The Capitol, Well Adjusted, Play It Loud, Brokenhearted, and You're Not Alone. Wow, that's half the album.

Anyways, the more I listen to it, the more I like it. It's a change from the old MXPX, such as "Life In General" (the best MXPX album so far), but change is good. If bands don't change things up ever once and a while, they tend to struggle and fall off the map.

Well, that is my take on the new MXPX album, Before Everything and After. Overall, I give it two thumbs up and a rating of 8.75 out of 10.

Critically Yours,
Zach

"Sounds like someone has the case of the Mundays."

Well, the countdown is on. It is now 18 hours, 3 minutes, and 48 seconds left and counting until the new MXPX album comes out. I finally got to hear "Everything Sucks" from Ben's new link also with the other two songs they have released. I didn't get to watch the video because my computer connection is too slow. Anyways, Everything Sucks and Well Adjusted sounds really good. Quit Your Life sounds really different. That is the first time I have ever heard a song like that from MXPX. So far it doesn't sound as "MXPXish" (in the words of Ben) as in the past, but I am eager to hear the whole album.

Our revival ended last night and to me it was the best night of the revival (and not because it is over, like some of you are thinking), because he preached on how we need to keep the focus off ourselves and on God so that we can be servants of the Utmost High. We had a baptismal service last night before the service. Two young men ages of 9, Rocky, and I think 13,Chris, asked Christ into their hearts during the revival, which is awesome. Rocky's sister (Chelsea, 15) has been going to our church for about a year in a half was saved in the summer of last year. It is a big step in their lives. They live with their grandparents, because their home life was not too good, but it really touched and blessed her to see her brother saved. And Chris and his sister were saved within a few weeks of each other and their family is coming to church now. These are the only salvations I know of, but there were other decisions made throughout the revival. Some may think that only 2 salvations in an eight day revival is not much, but it's two more that know Christ and it is totally worth it.

OU remains #1 in both polls and are recieving more and more votes. Ohio St. moved down to the #4 and #5 spots in the polls and I am so glad, because they are the luckiest team in the nation and should have lost their last two games. Arkansas pulled off a huge upset against Texas. Never would have thought that would have happened. Anyways, the OU defense suffered a huge loss on Saturday in the 2nd quarter with the loss of Lance Mitchell to a torn ACL (?). It will hurt the defense, but I think they will recover fine. Jason White is doing very well. Saturday was a great day for football. 70 degree weather with overcast skies. The Fresno St. game was perfect the first half. You couldn't have done much else to improve it. The second half was good too, with a good showing by the 2nd team offense and Paul Thompson, but the 2nd team defense had some problems; allowing Fresno St. to score 2 td's in the last 5 minutes which made the score 52-28 instead of 52-14. We still won, I'm not complaining. UCLA is coming up this week and will be televised at 2:30pm on ABC. OU should put them away this week too. OU 31-17.
That was a long blog. Thanks for reading and I'll leave you with this from the words of Homer Simpson - You can't keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once, and move on.
Zach

PS - 17 hours, 10 minutes, and 37 seconds left.

No two people are on fire!
Hello, how is everyone doing? I am doing pretty good. School is going pretty well for right now. The Basic Counseling class I am taking is better than I thought it would be. The whole class is cool and the teacher is relaxed, which allows all of us to relax and have a good time. These kind of classes are rare these days.

We have been having a revival at our church this week. It has been okay, nothing great though. This is actually the first time the church has advertised it and handed out flyers and have events to target different groups. But dissapointingly, we haven't had as good of a turnout as expected. (It actually surprised me that we didn't have a lot of new people show up. But in a way the church is sort of static and in a way it didn't surprise me. We don't even have people from our own church coming.) The best night was youth night on wednesday. Eric and I said that if the kids could get 80 youth there, he and I would shave our heads. They put together a great effort with 67 youth. We had pizza and Rickey Dale Crane who is a 5 time world champion, who gave his testimony and sang a few songs. But overall, it has been an okay revival.

Anyways, OU plays Fresno St this weekend and should be another win. I am not sure of how good they are, but they have only played in the state of Oklahoma once before against OSU. So maybe the weather will get to them. OSU is playing Southwest Missouri State (high school team) and that should be a win for them. If not, they will definitely the suckiest bunch sucks I have ever seen suck, boy do they suck.

Touching your butt; that's not very lady like.

Hey Guys, how's it hanging? Not bad here. Just getting ready for another busy weekend. My sister leaves Monday, so I am spending those last few days with her. Please keep her in your prayers. I taught on priorities on Wednesday night and I hope that the kids got something out of it, because it still seems that they don't listen. I guess the boundary of me being a youth and their friend is still in their mind and not that I am the intern and should get a little more respect, but I guess that comes with time. I hope so, cause it is frustrating when I am trying to teach, make an announcement or something and they are talking. And when I finally, with the help of one (that's right ONE) helper, get them to quiet down, I make a comment and always and I mean always someone has a comment and then that starts up a riot. Anyways, pray that I keep my temper and I will be patient with them.

Enough of my bickering. On to football. Well, I went to Meeker's first football game last night. They installed a new spread offense (which is way different than our usual run it up the middle, run it around the left/right, run, run, run) and to my surprise it didn't look half bad. I was expecting a 31-0 blowout, but Meeker lost to Prague 6-0. Meeker was driving and got down to the 10 yd line, but fumbled. But that was story of the night for both teams, and Prague took advantage of one of our many mistakes and we couldn't take advantage of their mistakes. But overall, they should improve throughout the season.
On to OU. They travel to Tuscaloosa tomorrow and play the Crimson Tide of Alabama. Two great traditions clashing again. It will be a tough game, especially being at Bama and them looking for paybacks from last year, but I think OU will ignite their rushing game and they won't stop Jason White and OU wins, 31-20.

I shall leave you with this from The Homer Simpson Random Quote Generator If something is too hard,give it up. The moral my boy is too never try anything.

Scroll button, one two, one two. And if you swing by my crib, then I can scroll with you.
Well this Labor Day Weekend was a good one, a little wet, but we needed the rain. College Football, a real sport, is finally here. I went to the Big Red Rally, which sucked by the way, but the plus of the night is that I got to go up into the new part of the stadium and looked around. It's really cool. It looks like a whole new stadium. The seats up top are high, but they have chairbacks, cupholders, and you can see the whole field. The suites are nice too. They have seats by the windows or you can go outside to sit and watch the game or you can go sit at a table and visit and watch the game on TV. It's nice and it would be nice to have A/C, but I don't think it's worth it. I got up Saturday and watched a few games, and then about 4:00, we headed off to the OU game. The throwback jerseys looked cool (good for one game only thought, because they started to remind me of Nebraska) and the atmosphere was great. It started to rain about halfway through the game and then it stopped. It did sprinkle off and on throughout the game. That place was packed, 83073 people was the most to see a sporting event in the state of Oklahoma. Well, it looks like I am leading after the first week of the ESPN Pick'em. I am taking more of a chance this week and have more upsets this week than last week so hopefully I won't screw up too badly.
At church, we had 5th Sunday Sing, which is where anyone who wants to sing/play an instrument or whatever can if you didn't know what that was. Anyways, that is always cool. We have a lot of people with musical talent, but we never hear it except for this time. Then we headed over to my friends house and played card games, ate food, and played Gamecube, X-Box, and Playstation 2 until 4 o'clock in the morning. Then on Monday, I just sat around and watched, "The Hunted" and "My Fellow Americans."
Be in prayer for me. My walk has been climbing back up, but pray that I won't settle at one point and that I will be obedient and move one. Also, like Ben, I am in some need of finances. My situation is different from Ben's, but I need books for school, supplies for school, and other misc. stuff. It is not a major thing, but I'm struggling right now to keep afloat. Also, my sister leaves for Alaska the 9th so if you could remember her that she has a safe trip up there and she enjoys her time and she finds a good church. Thanks.