Rocket Fuel

Yeah, it's that classic story of a kid getting in way over his head and setting something on fire.

When I was in middle school, more precisely 8th grade, I had a fascination with rockets.  My aunt found out about this and sent me a couple model rocket sets for Christmas I think.  Bottom line is I received rockets in some way shape or form.  But they weren't just any rockets, the used an electric shock that ignited the black powder inside which propelled the awesome contraption toward the sky.  Like every other kid my age I pretended like I knew how to work it, I mean after all, I had set of tons of rockets before.  (Yeah right.)

It was a beautiful Spring day and I decided today was as good a day as any.  I went to my middle school, set up in the baseball field, and prepared for complete epicness.  I'm more of a learn by doing type of guy so I set up the cords to the launch platform, walk out the cords until I'm a safe-ish distance away, and hit the button...  Nothing happens.  Then I remember, I forgot to put the batteries in for the launch button.  I put them in and prepare again to see something awesome.  Again, I've never done this before and I'm kind of by myself, in the middle of a field surrounded by a bunch of dead grass, on a warm Spring day.  I count down from 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.  Button pressed and I watched as the rocket shot up into the air.  They weren't lying when they said it would go about 200 feet.  Then it dropped, and as it got closer to the ground, I realized that in launching the rocket the grass was set on fire.  Crap, fire!  And it's spreading quick.  So I jump to action, literally, I ran to the fire and jumped on it.  After jumping around for a good five minutes the fire was out, the rocket was destroyed, and I had melted the soles of my shoes.  It was at this point that I decided, maybe rockets aren't for me.

That day I walked home empty handed thinking to myself, I need new shoes, that was awesome, and mom can never know.  I quickly moved on to something new, I think it was skateboarding.

Grenade

You might be thinking, "Grenade?, did he blow something up?"

The answer to that is, NO!  At least not intentionally but that story is for another time.

This story is about a sport I enjoy a lot.  It's ultimate Frisbee.  For those of you who don't know the object of the game is to pass the Frisbee down the field to eventually get a touchdown.  There are many different ways to throw the Frisbee and my personal favorite is called the hammer throw.  It's basically like throwing a football, or over hand pitch fast ball, but you have to angle it just right so it flies smooth, flattens out and drops into the receivers hands.

I'm a co-captain on a team called the Spartans, we have fun, even if we lose (which happens a lot).  Mac is our captain.  Together we have created a play we like to call the Grenade.  It only happens on a throw off  though.  We get the Frisbee, and in a burst of adrenaline and speed, Mac takes off towards the in zone while I hammer throw the disc straight to him, and for some crazy reason he catches it 95% of the time.

Case and point, our team was losing horribly, we wanted to score one more time in the last ten seconds of the game.  The other team threw the disc, and our teammate caught it and tossed it to me.  It was time, and in that last ditch effort I chucked the Frisbee as best I could knowing as soon as it left my hand it might just  make it to the in zone.  All the while, I couldn't see Mac running to the disc, little did I know he was in the in zone running around a group of guys and he slid in to catch the disc at the last second.

We still lost, I'm not even sure if we got the point or not, but I won't forget how awesome it was.  Don't worry I'll get to the story of when I caught a field on fire eventually, if not next.

Friendly Golf Cart Ride

Today I was reminded of the first time I had ever ridden in a golf cart.  Not really sure how old I was but it had to be around ten years ago.  I was with my buddy Cris at his grandparents house for a party.  We had been goofing off all day playing in the pool and eating food when he gets the idea to take the golf cart for a spin.  He asks if we can take it for a ride down the street and we got the okay.  We were warned by his mom not to do anything stupid.

He gets in the drivers seat, I'm in the passenger seat and we start riding around.  We hit the road and start to cruise and everything was nice, until he decided to swerve really quick.  I know what your thinking, I fell out of the seat and got hurt.  No!  At least, not yet.  Instead I slid towards the edge of the seat and Cris goes, "Did I scare you?"  I answer with a, "No."  As I'm adjusting my position by lifting myself up.  As I did this he decided to try again except this time, you guessed it, I fell out of the cart.  Instead of falling out and dropping to the pavement I decided to hang on.  Stupid move on my part.  I thought he would stop.  I was dragged for a few yards, cutting up my back, busting my big toe open, cutting my arm.  It hurt bad, so finally I let go as he realizes what happened and turns around to get me.  Did I mention it was a pool party so I was shirtless, wearing swim trunks, and bear foot at the time?  Yeah.  I get back on the golf cart and we ride back, the whole time thinking of an alibi for why I'm so cut up so that his mom wouldn't find out.  I put on a shirt which covered up the cuts on my back and arm, and when asked about my toe, explained that I tripped when I tried jumping into the pool earlier.

As far as I know his mom still doesn't know about it.  It's still fun for us to joke about.  A lot of stories of me getting hurt happen to have Crisman in them in one form or another.  I'm guessing the same goes for him, after all what good is a friend if you can't egg them on to do something stupid in the first place.  Right?

Restless Nights in the Ghetto

It's times like this when I wish I was in the country surrounded by nothing but silence, maybe the occasional cricket.  You see I have work tomorrow, and though I have to be up around seven, I'm still wide awake at one in the morning.  Going to bed at a reasonable hour sounds easy right?  Not for me.  I've got this problem, well not really a problem, more or less a skill I can't turn off.  I hear pretty much everything.  For instance tonight I decided I would go to sleep at eleven.  I'm laying down, I'm tired, I'm on the verge of falling asleep and then I hear it.... A car door slam shut down the road.  It's okay I'm still going to sleep, I'll just have to ignore it.  I'm calm, tired, eyes shutting when I hear something, except this something is followed by my dog getting up and barking frantically.  I quickly jump out of bed, grab my glasses, and check on everything.  Absolutely nothing.  Back to bed, laying down, calming down, drifting away and....  Barking Barking Barking.  Again I get up, walk to the window, check everything out and decide I'm going to stay up for a few minutes to find out what is going on.  I'm watching... waiting.... listening until I hear a crash.  I'm trying to find out where it came from while my dog freaks out, and I decide I'm going to sit and wait again.  Now I'm wide awake, I don't know where the noise came from but it has stopped, I'm waiting for my brain to fall asleep and that's why I'm writing this.  Good night.

Parkour, ordinary people doing insanely awesome things.

        I’m an avid fan of Parkour and free running.  For those of you who don’t know what that is, well just go to you tube and look it up.  I tend to free run/parkour whenever I have the chance, minus the flips cause I don‘t want to break my neck.  I’ll break it down into simple math for you.  Extreme + dangerous + fun + adrenaline = parkour.  When I started doing this awesome activity I started slowly adding a new rule to my life.  It is jump first and think about it when it’s over.  Now I’m not saying go jump off a building and hope that you live because that isn‘t what it is about.  Parkour is about testing yourself and reaching your physical limit.  Bottom line is I’m a risk taker.  Here is where the life lesson comes in.
People are so afraid to take a risk nowadays.  Remember when you were a kid?  How carefree you were?  You felt invincible right?  What happened when we got older?  Why are we so afraid of bad things happening that we sit on a couch watching tv wondering what could have happened if we just took that chance, if we just said what we felt.  Here is where it all mixes together.
Parkour and free running are a lot like life.  There are times when your going to try something new and it is going to scare the crap out of you.  You‘re going to reach a point in which you are staring at a wall that you know you can get over, but your not sure about how your going to land.  It isn’t whether you land on your feet or on your butt, the real learning experience is taking the risk and learning from it knowing that you at least tried.  Story time!!!!
It was my first time attempting parkour and I’m staring at this gap.  My jumping point was six feet higher then the part I was landing on and the distance was about eight feet.  Doesn’t seem like much now, but I was scared out of my mind.  I had chickened out two times already and before I had the chance to talk myself out of it the third time I ran full speed to the edge and went for it.  I hit the ground quickly tucking my body in so I could roll into a run.  It was awesome and now I handle it like I’ve done it all my life.
I had been in practice for a long time noticing a lot of problems.  Sitting back I wished someone would stand up and talk about what was going wrong.  I waited a little while longer hoping that it wouldn’t have to be me.  Practice is over and I’m walking away wondering how things could have gone if someone had stood up and said something.  The next day practice starts again.  I notice the same problems and decide to confront them.  Practice ends and I talk to the leaders.  Amazed at my willingness to bring the problems up they begin to work to make things better.  Those problems are now getting solved.
Both of these stories are true.  While every instance of my life hasn’t worked out like these two stories did, I’m happy to say that I have no regrets about trying something new.  You have the choice; sit around wondering what could have been, or do something and watch it happen in front of you.

My Devotion... Enjoy

There are three kids.  All are invited to a party, and they all know that there will be alcohol at this party.  The first kid decides to go to the party because he has had a stressful week and he wants to relax and get away.  He ends up drinking so much that he eventually passes out by a toilet from puking his guts out.  The second kid decides to go along as well thinking that he will be fine.  He thinks that he won’t drink but is quickly talked into drinking.  He regrets this decision later.  The third kid on the other hand decided that he didn’t want to go to the party.  He knew that if he put himself in that sort of environment that his chance of drinking was higher.
Which kid are you?  Do you welcome in sinful behavior like the first kid?  Maybe you don’t welcome it but allow yourself to be put into situations that can cause you to sin.  You might not want it to happen but peer pressure is different when your put yourself in that position.  Are you kid two?  Maybe your kid three.  The kid that instead of putting himself into an environment that could cause a lot of pain and regret, decides that going home would be the best idea.  It might not be as fun but at least he won’t regret being able to remember what he did.  Here is the Bible’s take on it.
Proverbs 1:8-19  “8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 9 They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.  10  My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give into them.  11  If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; 12  let’s swallow them alive like the grave, and whole like those who go down to the pit;  13  we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder;  14  cast lots with us; we will all share the loot”--  15  my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths;  16  for their feet rush into evil they are swift to shed blood.  17  How useless to spread a net where every bird can see it!  18  These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves!  19  Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it.
Why do we sin?  After asking many people ranging from men to women of all ages I’ve summarized most of there answers.  They either want the good feeling that comes after it and regret it later or they just don’t realize what’s happening until it’s to late.  The main reason is because they put themselves into situations that amplify the possibility for sin.  That raised another question.
Why do we put our selves in situations that would cause us to sin?  I know from counseling people that they want to test how strong we have become spiritually.  We try out certain situations to see how strong we are or how strong we are getting.  Most of the time we fail.  It’s like if your on a diet you wouldn’t go into a donut shop would you.  This leads to my final point.
How do we get away from sin?  Avoid it!  If your not put in that environment in the first place then you can’t do it.  Set boundaries for yourself, if you have a problem with drinking then maybe you should go to a bar.  If your addicted to pornography then don’t allow yourself to be alone.  Bottom line is that you do have the power to beat sin.  It’s whether you want to or not is your main problem.

Growing up!!

This kid at a camp I worked a few weeks back had an amazing shirt that really got me thinking.  It said something along the lines of, "First they encouraged me to talk and walk, but now they tell me to shut up and sit down."  I remember saying, "Wow that is so true."  That is when I started to think about all the encounters I have had with parents and there children of all ages.  This is what I have found.  When your a baby your parents try to get you to walk and talk.  After that they want you to sit down and shut up.  As you get older they want you to stop being scared of the dark, yet they don't want you doing dangerous things.  They also tell you not to lie yet they do it right in front of you and don't even realize it.  Then you start to hit those pre-teen years and the real fun starts.  Your told to sit up straight and do what your told, but at the same time be different and don't follow everyone else.  You start to be different and then they tell you to act normal.  You hit high school and every one is telling you to grow up except the college kids who are telling you to enjoy your time there while you can.  Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that everyone is going to try and get you to follow.  It's not until you step up and act as a leader that you will truly find your own way.  Cause lets face it.  No one is the same so make the most of what you have and stop taking the individuality out of kids.  I'm talking to you world and parents and pretty much everyone including myself.  I hope this helped.  Now my writers block is gone.