june

HC was ravished by tornadoes last thursday night.  benton tornado siren went a wailing about 5 in the afternoon, winds were blowing like mad, we headed for the basement.  then my 12yr old sis bethany realized she forgot her dog, lily, so to the rescue she went.  i ran for my camera, checked the porch for any visible tornadoes, nothing.  so back down. they touched down a miles or two north of us.  so for us it just meant a broken patio table and fetching our trampoline back from across the field and road.  many around the county suffered worse.

one day a few weeks ago i ran across a nice digital photo processing technique. hi-density range photos - good for pictures with a lot of contrast - like night shots.  we used to do it in the lab with processing - push-pull it's called.  but now there's a prog you can do it with digital.  pretty snazzy.  take 3+ photos of the same composition (use tripod), but use different exposures to capture the entire range of light in the frame - bracketing but at least +/- 2 stops.  then the prog does the rest to mesh the different exposures into one picture.  i should mess with it more but here's some i did that day.

 amish horse

 my house at 10pm

went to Alive 06 last wednesday with my lil bro and sis, was fun to go to a concert after many years of not.  Rebecca, Mercy Me, Kutless, Matt Redman and a few others played that night.  Mercy Me was fantastic - we had church!

it's fun to be in america in the summertime.  it's been 5 years since i got to watch the t-storms come rolling in.

camping last wkend with a crew of GTO-ers was swell.  crochet was the game of the day, lots of time in boat with a line in the water as swell.  seemed that the fish have declared june to be a month of fasting.  but it was mad fun just to hang with all my asia friends again. shouts out to you all.

 the big crochet game

 i found these on my camera after it sat unnattended.  disturbing.

i'm off to grill some chicken.  until next time, take heart, my friends, and live life well.  and eat some fresh blueberries.

this past week, i was counselor at to faith building boys camp here in HC.  didn't do much counseling though. marvin mast headed things up, we had 37 boys 11-15 yrs old.  i had 6 in my cabin. not sure if i feel old or young now, but i do know that i had a mad fun time with the boys. they were great guys, was funny cause i'd walk up on them doin sumthing they thought might get 'em in trouble, smoke bombs, and stuff, all good stuff.  cabins competed in archery and bb gun contests.  here's my boys...


and the whole gang


this is "king ahab" "yelling" at "elijah" during a late night round of bible skits for cabin devo's.

the wall

37 boys, 6 counselors, some awesome cooks, and a mad good time.  three cheers for trailblazing thru the woods to camp and the wargames on the walkie talkies, midnight counselors rendezvous for pie at the lodge, ropes, and a swell crew all around. good times getting to know the other counselors.

shouts out to a bunch of pakistan guys for crashin my place last weekend. was gr8 to see u guys again. zac the master of crochet, what can i say. next time lee & matt, i'll be waiting for you at the benton bakery so ya don't have to sleep the night in the car. mike, 150 usd is crazy. get a bicycle.

good times in geauga county last weekend with a crew of just-returned missionaries.  thanks to the mullets for hosting. brad is a mean lean frog killing machine. he should have at least 22 notches on his marshmallow stick by now.  good thai food, a cookout, games and good times all around.

Congrats to my sister Ang - she graduated hs last friday. here she is...

getting congrats from her teacher brother beachy.

well, work is fun, summer's here, ohio is becoming home, and God has blessed me with many gifts. i struggle at times with living life here, but the moments that punctuate the empty spans are worth the struggle to find meaning and purpose. so onward onward.

may you say, "blessed be His name" whether the sun is shining down on you or you can't remember the feel of its warmth.  Is 29.11

hello, would u like to try our special today?

Today it was chicken enchilada casserole - it didn't look that great - yesterday's creamed chkn over biscuits was nice though.  So is life as a waiter.  I love it when i am ahead and on top of things, but when u get behind and have to make 4 sundaes and have 2 meals waiting on the warmer and everyone's glasses are empty, it's not so fun.  but it's good. fun to talk to and meet people.  enyways.

i was working on the soon 2 come gto staff site but i made a programming mistake and crashed the server. hopefully the host will figger it out b4 long and reset it so i can fix it and keep working.  ever hear of an infinite loop? that's what i just did.  oops. 2nd time i did that 2day.  took about an hour for it to come back up the 1st time.  wonder how many company's websites this server hosts anyway.

ok. fun talking to nate and mike about the hiking trip - shouts out to u guys and our great God for bringing u guys safely home. i was thinking work was pretty boring all week and wishing i was hiking, but in retrospect, well, i'm still undecided.  the bear sounded cool.

america is going pretty good.  people have cars, and work a lot here. the economy is down a bit but seems to be stabilizing.  sort of where i'm at i guess too.

we are getting a thai exchange student to live at our house for next school yr. that'll be swell. he's 16 and from bkk.  oh to speak some thai.  talked to may the other day for a while. that was good.  pray for her - her mom is not doing well at all.  speaking of may, she was quite wonderful and sent me spring rolls and chai yen with maria, and i made them 2 nights ago they made for some mad good aahaan wang.  thanks may, and maria for hauling them sneakily past customs. oh no, bird flu. jk.

well. that's about all 4 now. cavs lost 2nite by 2 points. would've put them into the finals. my lil sis was ticked. bummer 4 us. shut up brad.

shouts out to my sister Ang, she finished HS this week and i graduating on Friday at Gospel Haven at 6:30. everyone is welcome, bring a gift :) way 2 go ang!

hey, good news on my school stuff! a transfer adviser from Columbia called me yesterday and told me i can transfer all my existing credits, and get 2/3 credit for SMBI courses, awesome! that puts me at halfway finished already. i think i'm gonna do correspondence learning this fall instead of Kent State, and maybe some basic stuff at wayne college in mlbg.  next year, watch out SC, here i come.

here's a pic of my family we took on sunday.

have a swell wkend!

Times up

ok. it's been a long 241.5 nerve wracking hours for a few determined ones amongst us.  frustrating, at best, for the rest.

i think you have reached the end of the track.  it goes nowhere from here.  not even back.

braincramp_argh was not a lonely bloke.  he averaged a hundred+ visits each day of his short but exciting life on the world wide web.

shouts out to one and all who played this fancy game.  shouts out to to mary and dorothy for unravelling fib code.  i think mary will be mad how close she was to the pw. shouts out to mike for undying determination and an annoying tracking operation. shouts out to brad for taking hash and laughing in the face of it.  shouts out to maria for shouting my name all over the braincramp site and convincing others its me. shouts out to kdog for sticking up for nate in this cruel world in which he lives. shouts out to nate taking care of #5. shouts out to annie for hanging out with brad when everone else is talking braincramp. shouts out to kenny for bein a good guy.

poor lee is now 4 in 1

Oh boy, now we have a briancramp_argh. was wondering how soon someone'd debut that.  mary mary quite contrary.  peaceful.  so far nothing of interest on it except the hidden tag line.