Does anyone really care about round and wrinkled peas?

I just took a Genetics test. We have been studying crosses between pea plants with round and wrinkled seeds until we look at peas and automatically start analyzing their genotypes and phenotypes. So unless you are really interested in genetics, I would recommend you skip to the bottom paragraph because this is about to get boring. Basically the whole test was on mitosis, the production of somatic cells through cytokinesis, meiosis, the production of germ cells through two cell divisions, chromosome structure, with regards to size, banding, and centromere position (metacentric, submetacentric, acrocentric, and telocentric), basic Mendelian Genetics, segregation and independent assortment, and how Mendel's laws works in the real world as far as pleotropy and epistasis. We also had to be able to work punnet squares, calculate probability and do test crosses and back crosses and know a little about sex-linked traits and the affect of multiple sex chromosomes on Drosophila. (I told you it was going to be boring)

It was our first exam of the year, the prof is new to Canyon and we had just gone over five chapters in class. There was no way to know what the test was going to be like. I assumed the worst and studied everything, read the book repeatedly, and quizzed with friends. It's a good thing I did. It wasn't an extremely tough test, but she expected us to know most everything and get all the correct answers too. So now my brain is fried, I have genetics pouring out of my ears and I am walking around like a zombie on drugs. Tomorrow I should be back to normal. We'll see.

Will the madness never end?

The oil and gas industry blames the hurricane for their jacked up prices. I blame greed. I'd show them a thing or two, but I just filled up my car yesterday with SUPER+ and I'm having a little trouble walking right now...

Where'd my time go?

Well today was a long day. I have been going for 13 hours straight. I had a small 15 minute break, which I used to take a shower, but other than that it has been a busy day. Not bad, just busy.

We had a football game today. I had two touchdown catches and a couple of really long receptions. It went really well, except for the losing part, it would have been perfect. Our defense just couldn't stop their offense. Oh well. We play again tomorrow. That should be fun.

Sorry for this pathetic excuse of a post. My brain is shot for today. Hopefully the rest of this week will see some higher quality writing. Hopefully. At least tomorrow is picture Tuesday. That always excites me.

Baby, You're amazing

I have the most wonderful, beautiful girlfriend in the whole world. That's all I have to say today. She is amazing and absolutely gorgeous. And she's pretty attached to me. I'm pretty blessed. I know. Wahoo.

Have a great weekend everybody. See ya Monday.

And there was chapel on the twenty-first day. And it was pretty good.

So chapel wasn't as empty as I expected. There was a really good turnout. As for the quality of chapel, it was definitely better than last year. The sound guy didn't have the sound quite right for the band. It was really light on vocals and heavy on electric guitar. The quality of the band was great though. From what I could tell, they did a fine job. The speaker was a little long-winded and didn't use the Bible as much as could be hoped for, but it wasn't a bad little talk. There were just a few too many stories and not quite enough of God's words. The important thing is, it went well and nobody walked away offended. This should be a better year for Canyon spiritually.

Football and chapel: Oddly enough they are related

Intramurals started on Monday here at GCU. The football season has kicked off. My team, The Eagles of Doom, played on Tuesday. The team is mostly made of freshmen guys with a sophomore and me. With that said, we didn't do too bad. Sure the final score was 45-12. Sure we didn't score in the second half at all. Sure we looked a little sluggish, but all in all it was a moral victory. We all showed up wearing the right colors. Joking aside, I had fun. It's a good chance to get some exercise and hang out with the guys. Our next game is Thursday, I'm hoping we can score 3 touchdowns this time.

Today is the first day of the new and improved chapel at Canyon. We're hoping it went under an extreme make-over, because, quite frankly, last year the chapel was deplorable. Meh. It's only once a week. As long as no one does an interpretive dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller this year, I'll be happy. Most likely it will be like our football game, full of potential but just not quite up to par. I'll give a full review on chapel in tomorrow's post. O ya. That has got you wanting to read again tomorrow. If you want to skip tomorrow, I understand, I'll see you Friday for a breakdown of the football game. Okay. Maybe I'll see you on Monday.

Monday is finally over

Hopefully a blogging trend is starting here. This is officially two days in a row!!! Yay me. Happy Picture Tuesday.


Think your day sucks? I bet this little guy is a tad embarrassed. At least he got a sucker.

The tank is half empty

As I sit here looking at my weekly schedule, it seems pretty full. Between classes, meetings and events I can usually count on being busy from 9 - 6 every day. Some days it isn't that bad, and some days it is worse. The good news is that my week isn't usually very intense, just busy. What makes the week long though is that I don't have church to look forward to at the end of the week.

Jamie and I still haven't found a church to call home yet. We were semi going to Open Door Fellowship and we may still end up there, but I have to believe that there is something better out there on this side of town. I really liked the pastor there, John Lynch, but there was something about the rest of the service that wasn't right. I don't quite have a handle on what is wrong, but I have a bad feeling about it. And then yesterday Jamie and I went to North Phoenix Baptist. Wow. That's a big church. Too big. Also, the whole service seemed like a performance rather than worship of God. The people up front were there to entertain and keep us occupied for the hour and a half that we "had" to be there. There were other problems, but in a nutshell, we won't be going back.

Pray for us that we would find a church. Jamie and I are both very active in leadership on campus at GCU and are constantly pouring ourselves into others. But you can't pour into other people if nobody is pouring into you. Jamie has some older, mature Christian women on campus who are pouring into her, but I have no one. I am the old guy on campus. Pray for me.

A pic a Tuesday keeps the doctor away

Today I'm gonna give out something extra special because it's also my birthday: TWO PICTURES!!! Yes, you heard right, Two pics on Picture Tuesday. It has never happened before, but I'm feeling generous


This is me and the girlfriend at 80's skate night.



And this one, well, I guess bikers aren't very well thought of in this town.

Who you gonna call? Me.

I love being an RA. It has been two weeks now and it really is a lot of fun. The one thing that I wasn't expecting was the intensity. It's really not a hard job, nor is it unpleasant. I really do enjoy hanging out with my guys and serving them. The thing is, it's a 24-7 job. Even when I sleep, I'm still an RA. I was taking a very nice nap on Wednesday, very peaceful and relaxing, when one of my guys came in to the room to ask me a question. I had been up 'till two the night before and had gotten only 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I just wanted to rest. I did not want to be answering questions about if he had to attend the mandatory hall meeting. But I had to and I had to do it pleasantly and with a good attitude. God has really given me strength to support my guys so far, I could not do it without him. But I cannot take a break on campus. I have to leave to be off duty. Because as soon as I think that I might be alone and free of responsibility, someone finds me.

Before the I give the wrong idea, I need to say that I love being an RA. It really is more than a job to me, it's a lifestyle. I love interacting with the guys and helping them out and being their friend. It's not always easy but I wouldn't trade where I'm at for the world.

Any fool can do this job

Yay for long weekends. Sorry for my lack of posting, but at least it's Tuesday and that means a new pic. Enjoy.

Y-M-C-A

I just got some more pics of 80's skate night. If you have a weak stomache, avoid the rest of this post, it could get ugly.

Left: The Village People reunited

Below: I'm the leather enthusiast. Take a look at my pants. I found those bad boys at Goodwill for $4. They are women's size 11 just in case you want to buy me something for Christmas...

Meet the Parks

My roommates this year are pretty awesome guys. Yup, the twins are back. Jon and Stephen Parks, brothers at large. Haha. They aren't really twins and they aren't really related. They both happened to share a room together last year with Matty and I. Since we were brothers with the same last name, we figured that Jon and Stephen have the same last name so they should be brothers too. They don't look even remotely alike.

Jon is quiet and thoughtful. He is a Bible study leader again this year and I know he will be a great influence on the guys in the hall. Some people think that he is shy. Nope. When he gets around people he is comfortable with, he's a little crazy.

Stephen is the exact opposite. He is extremely outgoing and can often be quite outrageous. But he is a great guy also and definitely keeps life interesting. When he gets around people he is comfortable with, he usually settles down a little and can be very philosophical and deep.

It's a pretty good combo for a room. We have the extremes and me, the middle man. It makes for an interesting college experience.

Is anyone else a little confused?

I love comments. They are probably my favorite thing about blogging. Here's another that really just made me laugh. If you don't understand the slang, vanilla basically means unexciting or conventional.

Dude!!!!!.
you title your blog "BE RADICAL"
After reading your article, I say this with great respect[ i really do]
you give and ENTIRELY new meaning to the word VANILLA ..
good luck.

Thank you for that. Usually when people call me boring, they do it with such little respect. I appreciate your honesty.

[Sigh] I have been over this before, and I'm sure it will come up again, the blog is titled "Be Radical" not because I'm some crazy, partying maniac. Be radical is my call to action to live a lifestyle radically different from the rest of society. Be radical is my desire for my life to not be all about me, for pride and self-centeredness to not be characteristics of who I am. Be radical is my way of saying I love without prejudice or condition, I have been given a second chance at life and I'm not going to waste it.

So, in order to avoid further confusion, I have decided to change the tagline of the blog: "Be Radical: not your ordinary vanilla." (Not really, but the tagline will be changing within the next day or two) Keep the comments coming...

Macho, macho man

Welcome Week is in full swing here at Grand Canyon. Every night of this week we have had an event to get people out of their rooms and meet new friends. Last night was 80's Skate Night. Basically, everyone goes down to Goodwill or Savers and buys the ugliest clothes they can find and wears them while skating in a circle for two hours. It's a lot of fun.

So the four of us guy RA's and two of our friends decided to dress up as the Village People. Yes, they started off in the 70's but they did release some songs in the 80's, so they were fair game. It was pretty scary how it all worked out. Each of us fit our characters pretty perfectly. I'm proud to admit that I was chosen to be the "leather enthusiast". All of our costumes combined cost somewhere between 150 and 175 dollars (I personally spent $25 on my outfit). But we won the prize for best overall dressed so we each got $25 to Harkins Theatres. So it all worked out in the end. I only have one pic right now of last night, but if you check back a little later tonight I should have some more up in this post.