Warning! Explicit Content

Whenever I put something on my blog that I think may offend some people I always put one of these "Explicit Content" warnings first. So now you are forewarned. The special Christmas video in the post below contains cursing and some, what might be called, "crude humor". So if you think that might offend you then don't watch it. If you watch it anyway and it does offend you then please don't send me explicit E-Mails full of cursing and some, what might be called, "crude hatred". And also I know that probably nobody reading this has ever watched Yugioh in their lives, but the video still is funny. If you watch it and enjoy it let me know. If you were offended then don't. So anyway, have a very merry and explicit Christmas!

A Christmas present just for you....

If you've been paying attention then you'll know that I love Yugioh:The Abridged Series. And so while planning up a special Christmas post I could think of only one thing special enough to put up as a present for you. Not a picture of myself this time. But the Yugioh Abridged Series Christmas Special! Yay! Hope I don't offend anyone. Merry Christmas, and thanks for reading my blog!

The Duel Report! (And I promise I'll write lots more interesting stuff later about stuff that actually interests normal humans)

As you may have guessed from that super snazzy picture yesterday I went to a Yugioh tournament and now I'm going to tell you how it went. Do you remember last week? I lost, but I did it with style. My opponent's had for every inch of ground that they eventually did take from me. And I did win a few battles, but not the war. Story of my life...But anyway, now you want to know what happened this week. Well first I'll give you the setting (don't you love suspense) this time I had no cheering fan club to back me. Anneli didn't come, and believe it or not she was missed, but don't tell her that. The reason why she was missed is not because she helps me win, far from it, she distracts me, but because together we make the ultimate comic duo and it's a lot more fun to lose when you're laughing. So I was late by a few minutes, but it was no problem because I made it an even number so I had an opponent waiting for me looking bored. Remember how Yugioh works? Best two out of three. Well I didn't win one all night. Well that's not true. I finished with one guy early and so we had a few friendly matches and I won one of those. In the end making it 3 wins to him and 1 to me. So basicly I lost horrendously. It wasn't my fault though. I just had tough opponents. So anyway, that's it really. Though I did fight admirably. For anyway who knows Yugioh, I did 4000 damage to his Life Points on my second turn. Now if you think that's impressive then you'll be even more impressed by the way I lost on the next turn, his second turn, when he did 8000 damage in one turn. Scary. So anyway, now I'm off to the Methodist bible study after a long day of babysitting. So until I blog about interesting things, Cya!

I haven't blogged in a while, but maybe this will help you understand why I DO blog now and then...

Toilet seat, good idea! I'm totally gonna do that to someone.

La, La, Lasagna!

Guess what I cooked yesterday. Wait a minute, correction, TRIED to cook yesterday. That’s right, LASAGNA! I’ve made lasagna before, and last time it was pretty good, and I was very happy with my cooking skills. But last time I didn’t use meat. My recipe was for vegetarian lasagna so that’s what I made. But this time I felt adventurous, I thought I should chuck in some meat and make this a good carnivore lasagna. So armed with instructions from my dad (who is the master cook in our house, despite the sexist idea that only women can cook, it is my dad and I who do about 99% of the cooking) I pulled out all the ingredients and got to work. Despite my little brother being constantly underfoot and making me splash sauce all over myself I was doing pretty good. I browned the meat until it was perfect; the smell of it could have driven a pack of hungry teenagers to the brink of insanity (though most are already there). Then I mixed it in with two types of sauces and stirred nicely than begin the repetitive cycle of “Sauce, noodles, cheese. Sauce, noodles, cheese. Sauce noodles…” but after the first layer I noticed I didn’t have a whole lot of sauce. So I grabbed two more jars and stirred them in with the meat and laid down more noodles and cheese, then as I was spreading sauce I noticed I was low again. So I grabbed my final two jars of sauce and once I had finished this layer of sauce noticed I now didn’t have room for another layer of noodles. Well, I guessed I’d just have one less layer of noodles than normal. So then I took this rather full and heavy dish and put it into the oven to cook. Half and hour later I took it out and put some nice cheese on top, three different kinds! I was like the cook master! Three cheeses! I’d never done that before. So 15 minutes later I pulled out my masterpiece of cheese and sauce and stuck in a spatula and began to serve. It was about this time that I realized that my master was nothing more than cheese and sauce. I had created lasagna soup. We at it with bread, and when my mom came home she wouldn’t eat it at all (people are always so appreciative of my cooking). We’re probably going to use it with spaghetti or something, because it’s a great sauce I created, it’s just not a great lasagna. So just a hint, if you’re ever cooking lasagna, don’t use 6 jars of sauce with two layers of noodles.

So that was an interesting start to me night last night. But as with everything I took it in stride because no use crying over spilled lasagna soup. The I went to the corps and got a nice surprise. Several surprises actually. One is that Nadia came to the corps with Elis (which surprised me after Elis told me not to scare Nadia away with “all that God stuff”, which I answered by standing up in our crowded tram stop and yelling “REPENT, SINNERS!”) and the other was that during youth group, Rebekka and Kerli showed up with 3 little girly friends! Yay! You know the song “Girls” by The Beasty Boys? I love that song. “Girls. Yeah all I really want is girls.” The only problem is that when I say “little girly friends” I mean they were all little. But then again so are Rebekka and Kerli. Why is it that no one ever brings their 17 year old, single Christian friends to meet me? Why do they always either have to be guys, or satanic, or really young? My friend Keit is under the impression that the dark haired one kept looking at me. I might be more interested by this news if she was roughly 5 years older. Anyway, that’s 5 girls who all left with applications for winter youth camp in January, so let’s hope they come. Though we really, desperately need more guys. So far I count 5 guys that I know for sure coming. And I know there’s going to be girls. There’s always girls. And as I said I want there to be lots of girls, but not too much or else the house will start to smell too nice. We need more of us men to stink it up.

Anyway, I’ve probably given you all nightmares of smelly men now so I’m going to go before I do any more damage. Cya!

I am so totally the Yugioh master...almost. (written yesterday)

Today was the long awaited (by me) Yugioh tournament. So last night I checked all my cards, made sure I was invincible and had everything I needed and then went to bed so as to be well rested for some nerd butt kicking. Then I woke up and spent the day in anticipation, babysitting and cleaning and reading to pass the time (which made my mom happy that I should choose to pass the time that way). Then at 16:00 (4 pm) I strapped my deck in and headed out. Have any of you ever seen where I keep my deck? I always have it with me so you should check it out sometime. Just like Mai has that cool deck holder strapped to her leg (how was a character as hot as her allowed on children’s television?) and Yugi has his cards in that cool deck belt (how was a character who has been described as looking like a bondage slave allowed on children’s television?) I have a cool little pocket on my bag where I can snap in my cards. I’m sure it wasn’t originally meant for holding cards, in fact I think that what I use as a messenger bag was meant to be a women’s purse. But anyway, I’m WAY off the point. Next thing you know I’ll be talking about my facial hair again! So I strapped my cards into my oh so smexical (better than smexy) deck pocket and headed to the library, where I was going to meet Anneli at 16:30 (4:30 pm). I’d had this whole hour planned to the second. Get to the library early because of course Anneli would be there early, she’s the one always fussing about others being late, then be to MegaGame by 16:45 (4:45 pm, do you really need my little time translations? Please comment yes or no, it gets tiring…) and enter the tournament and spend 15 minutes meeting other players and perusing their cards so I knew what I was up against, while keeping the contents of my deck a deep dark secret. Then at 17 (5 pm) unleash the madness of my skill upon an unsuspecting string of opponents and walk out victorious. Sound good? I thought so too. I don’t know about in your life, but for me things never work out as I plan them.

So Anneli was 10 minutes late and I had literally been about to leave without her when she walked up saying something about how just as an “academic hour” is 45 minutes girls have an “academic 10 minutes of lateness”. Dang it! That girl has an excuse for everything. So we walked briskly for 10 minutes and arrived at 16:50 (4:50 pm) just 5 minutes behind schedule. The only problem was that I didn’t see bunches of duelists lining up for me to beat. I saw a bored looking girl behind the desk reading a book. So I broke the dark spell of her boredom with a question. “There’s a Yugioh tournament in 10 minutes right?” “Yes, we sell Yugioh cards” Was her reply. I’d hoped that the book would counteract her blondness, but apparently I had yet another blond to deal with. So I spoke slowly and eventually found out it wasn’t until 17:30 (5:30 pm) and that she didn’t know anything about it. I knew they should have hired me. I would have totally been great at that job. But I think they wanted to add a feminine touch to nerdiness so they hired bored girls. So I stood and chatted and joked with Anneli and an old…more acquaintance than friend, Martin, who decided to take a break from his “CG madness” or in human language, computer games, to come say hi to me. I was truly honored. So we passed the half hour fairly quickly. But I still didn’t see anything resembling a tournament starting. So at 17:35 (5:35 pm) I went and asked my helpful blond friend what was up, was I just delusional in thinking anyone would still want to play this game with me? No, but I had missed the first round. My blond friend was a little out of touch with what was going on in the other room. The tournament had already started, and because I made player number 7 it made sense for me to just get an automatic win because of a lack of an opponent. That’s what happens when you get uneven numbers of players. So I got it all figured out and registered and paid my entrance fee and then waited for another 10 minutes or so while the first round finished. Then finally the duel finished, the apparent organizer of the tournament looked at me and said “you face him”.

An electric thrill of excitement shot through me as I eyed my first challenging human opponent in over a year (I’ve played against humans that aren’t that good, and against computers that are good, but not as good as me) I was finally getting the challenge I had been waiting for. We sat down, shuffled our decks, rolled a die to decide who went first (me) and I drew 5 cards and the game began. It was painfully close. To those of you who don’t know how Yugioh works (all of you) in a match is a set of 3 duels, best 2 out of 3 wins. The first duel I was on fire. Every move my opponent tried I countered. Every move I made brought my opponent one step closer to defeat. He was gone. But I still needed one more win. The next duel was close, too close. I lost. The third duel, the deciding duel was over too quickly, and once I again I had lost. No problem, I still had one more challenge ahead. We sat down and basically the same thing happened. I won 1, he won 2. But again it was far to close. I could taste victory sweet on my tongue. But I lost it. But it was not replaced with the bitter ash of defeat, it was replaced with a different kind of sweetness. Those two matches were extraordinarily close. I’ve been playing this game for 5 years and have never had a pair of games that were so close. I’m usually either against a loser who I mop the floor with or a champion who spits on my cards. And the thing that made it truly sweet is that every other player there knew how close it was. The other two matches had ended quickly while my opponent and I were still at it tooth, nail and flaming fire balls. And so we had a 6 person audience (the four other competitors and Anneli and Martin) while I lost by a few points only after pulling of some extraordinary moves to protect myself and damage my opponent. You might think watching a card game is like watching paint dry, but my skill, my moves, my strategies, my deck got some oohs and ahhs as I put up an amazing fight against a worthy opponent. I lost in the end, but I consider it amazingly worth it just for those appreciations of my skill. And also I got a new card. At the end of every tournament even if you don’t win you can still win a consolation prize, in this case one limited edition card which I’m sure has great collectors value, so if you want it I’ll sell it. I don’t need it. But I’m still happy to have gotten it. I’ll probably trade it for something better suited to my strategy later, but for now I’m happy letting it represent my initiation into the dueling community here in Tallinn, where there are weekly tournaments every Wednesday and Sunday. I’ll only be going on Wednesday s, but still.

And one final thing before I spare you any more nerdiness. Next week I will win! I am confident in my skills and my strategy. Next week they WILL lose. I promise you that. I’ve revamped my deck and now am truly unbeatable. But now I must go, tomorrow is Thursday, the party day. Not really, but it’s a day like any other, and I need sleep for every day. So good night, and please forgive my nerd ways…

Another Get Fuzzy comic about my blog...

You know that everytime someone makes me angry they shake with fear knowing that though I may not come right out and call them a jerk, I will gently insinuate it in ways only a select few will notice. JERKS!!!

Is Satchel writing a Blog?

I thought you might enjoy this little comic that is oddly reminiscent of my blog. "Some would say my lack of complication is refreshing." Amen brother, amen.

Decisions, decisions...

Life is full of choices, and choices are irritating and difficult. Tomorrow is Wednesday, normally a free night for me. A night to chill, a night to rest, a night to not go to the corps, a night to do whatever I want. But as I’ve already said, Christmas parties are trying to ruin my Christmas. Tomorrow night is some annoying Tallinn Salvation Army employees Christmas party, and since my parent’s are employees here in Tallinn they have the privilege to get to go to this party. And as their child I have the privilege to either stay home and babysit my three year old brother and cook supper or go to the party and force a smile as I shake hands with everyone and to force down over cooked food and have conversations in broken Estonian. See what I’m talking about? Such hard decisions. And neither of these is what I’d LIKE to be doing. I never did get around to blogging about what I know causes groans from loads of people who think that the fact that I still do blog about this proves my immaturity and that I should be locked in a cage until I’m 42. The thing I’m talking about of course is Yugioh. I’ve been playing (more like dominating) Yugioh since I was 12, and I’ve never gotten tired of endlessly reworking my strategies and facing new opponents. Some may think it’s immature of me to love a children’s card game but may I remind you that many men love playing poker. And I know some of you spend HOURS on solitaire on your computer. Or at least that computer repair guy the street does. Every time I walk past that's all he's doing! So you guys go bet big money on your “adult” card game while I go enjoy mine. But anyway, I don’t know if you remember my search for the perfect deck? In an attempt to discern God’s will I prayed for months that if it was his will for me to go to the MegaGame store in downtown Tallinn and play Yugioh and enjoy myself while making friends and inviting the to corps then that he would help me find and buy the “Zombie Madness” deck and use it to make myself all powerful. And if it was not his will then being omnipotent he would make it not be in any store I visited. So for a whole year I searched stores across two continents for this deck, and I never found it. They’d have every other Yugioh product ever made, but not what I needed. So I accepted it just must not be God’s will, and that I should just focus on studying and applying to college and everything. And as you know I got accepted and will be Houghton College next year. And on the same day I was accepted I also found the deck. I bought it a few days later and using the cards made myself the best deck I have ever owned. And so how does this story tie in with tomorrow? Yugioh tournaments here in Tallinn used to happen on Sunday morning when I was at church. So after returning to Estonia with my new deck I checked the MegaGame website (www.megagame.ee) and found that apparently Yugioh tournaments have been changed to…Wednesdays. And I didn’t make it to last week’s tournament because I hadn’t checked the site yet so that means that tomorrow at 17:00 (5 pm) will be my first chance to go dominate the Estonian dueling scene. But this party is at 18:00 (6 pm), and so if I need to either babysit or be at this party then I won’t be able to go to this tournament.

It’s a hard life I lead. Such choices I face. So I’m hoping and praying that tomorrow everything will work out for the best, because going to this tournament would make me very happy. But if my parents need me to babysit then that is first priority. And if my brother and sister go to the party and if I don’t will I be insulting everyone? Well, what will be, will be. I’m resigned to my fate. I chose the life of a GOOD (emphasis) officer/missionary kid and I guess I’ll just have to live with the work and impositions on my social life that that choice makes. So I’ll let you know how everything goes tomorrow, but for now I’ve gotta go take a shower! Cya!

What I've been doing lately.

As you may have noticed I’ve been on a bit of a blogging frenzy over the last few days, pumping out roughly 1.5 posts a day. So it must have surprised you when I didn’t blog yesterday, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t Saturday either. But now I’m back, with yet another bunch of words thrown together in such a way as to waste your time. The last few days were kind of interesting, on Saturday night Elis called me out to hang out with her and Nadia, and Anneli joined us eventually. And we did what we always do when we hang out in old town. Walked in circles, got bored, sat in Viru Keskus critiquing the fashions we saw walking by (quoth the Anneli “That guy is so I.T.” “She must be Russian, only a Russian would wear half a dead tiger with that much make up”), wound up all going home hours later with the soles of our shoes wearing thin to watch “Home Alone 3:Chickenpox Kid Vs. Idiot Secret Agent Spy People”. It was all quite fun, except that stupid movie. The original Home Alone is cool, the sequel was interesting, the 3rd and 4th were a waste of film. I wish I could outsmart international criminal masterminds using a toy car and a telescope. So anyway, that was my Saturday, I got home around 8 only to find that my dad was sick. Now of course my dad is the only one who ever does anything around here because my mom and I are always too busy blogging and FaceBooking. So this was a problem. So yesterday my mom and I went to the corps alone and made everything work, which wasn’t a problem for people as excellently skilled as us. And now it’s Monday, December 10, 2007. Wow, Microsoft Word just wrote that December, 2007 thing for me. That was nice of it. And because it’s Monday, December 10, 2007 (I love Word!) it’s back to work for me. I need to get my schoolwork really rolling again, because I want my transcript at the end of the year to look awesome. I’m going to read some Geoffrey Chaucer stuff and maybe that will make me a better writer, or maybe by reading “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” I’ll learn how to get “husbands meeke, young and fresh a-bed” which is just what I need. So I’ll be off now, Cya



P.S. those of you who are my friends on FaceBook should now know that my blog easily accessible through my profile through the “As Seen On…” application. Now if you’re on FaceBook you have no excuse not to read my blog!

A quick Bible verse...

A friend of mine wrote a nice little post on his blog and FaceBook about his thoughts on the movie and book "The Golden Compass" and because I had only written from the view point of anti and he was very pro so since I know very little about the subject and he knows very much I thought I would opy his thoughts and post them here. Then I realized something. While we're so busy fighting over some stupid movie that won't really convert anyone to Satanism people around the world are living in sin and dying and going to hell. And there are children starving to death. And there are women and children being sold into sexual slavery. And there are lots of REALLY BAD THINGS! We are totally in need of a priority check up. If a movie is more important than a starving child then you've got issues. I'm sure you're thinking "Well I care about those things too..." but you're missing my point. Why waste so much energy on throwing around negativity and hatred that will (rightfully so) get us less converts and more people writing books like "The Golden Compass"! There's so much more out there! Anyway, that's my little rant. I'll leave you with a Bible verse and then I'm going to sleep.


2 Timothy 2:23-26 "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will."

So, my position on "The Golden Compass"? Neutral, I've got bigger fish to fry.

Do you ever just feel irritated?

Just like the whole world is against you and you should do something like write an annoyed blog post to get revenge? Well that’s how I feel, allow me to explain why. Yesterday, Friday, one of my seven favorite days of the week, rather than going to youth group and spending time with my friends and being all super duper I spent 7 hours in the car. Then I spent 5 hours at the annoying officer’s Christmas party (not sure whether it was the officers or the party that was more annoying). So that was 12 hours of my day wasted! 12 hours I will never get back. It like someone just said “we were going to wait to kill you, but now we’ll kill you 12 hours earlier. I just lost 12 hours! And it wasn’t worth it at all. The one thing that made me want to go was blood sausage. Good Estonian blood sausage. Blood sausage is an essential food during Christmas here that I absolutely love. It may be an acquired taste, but I have acquired it! It’s great, as long as it’s not burned. I was so excited I as I grabbed some nice looking blood sausages and plopped them on my plate, so happy as I cut off a generous portion and raised it to my mouth expecting it to taste bloody good (play on words), then crushed by disappointment at the almighty “CRUNCH” that could be heard for miles. I was eating charcoal. This Christmas delicacy had been burned beyond all recognition. The torture was horrible. I still had 2 ¾ sausages to eat, and I had to be polite so…I spent the next 10 minutes crunching and washing it down with some juice and over seasoned ham. It was really the one big thing I have been looking forward to for months, and the only reason I had gotten up at 7 to sit in a car for 3 ½ hours with a fussy 3 year old. I was so disappointed. So now I’m writing this blog post. Just to get out all my sadness. I am so disappointed. But I still have something to look forward to. Sometime before Christmas we will have a corps Christmas party, and for that one of our amazing ladies will cook up some superb and not even slightly burned blood sausage. So, to the future!

The other reason I feel irritated is because as I said in an earlier post my aunt and uncle are coming for Christmas. Now I’m not irritated because they are coming, I’m irritated because of what a pain in the butt it is to get them here. Not by any fault of ours or theirs (that I know of) we have had so much trouble getting them tickets and visas and all that necessary junk. One reason is that my uncle is Russian, and Estonians don’t want to let Russians over the borders because in the past when Russians came over the border they brought tanks. And when we try to get tickets for them the website is undergoing maintenance and bla bla bla! It’s really annoying! I think it’s all a conspiracy to make me unhappy, first you burn my blood sausage, then you make it hard for my family to visit for Christmas. What more could you do to me? No wait, don’t answer that. Anyway, I’m gonna go before something else happens to annoy me. To late, it’s raining. So I’m off, Cya!

Don't you love chain mail?

The other day I got ANOTHER chain mail E-mail. You know the kind I’m talking about. Irritatingly innocent looking E-mails from friends and family that were not sent to you personally but as part of a mass infection of everybody on this person’s address book. They are usually full of sweet quotes like “If you have more friends than you can count on one hand then where’d your other fingers go?” and “A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend will be sitting next to you saying ‘now look what you got me into, you little jerk!’” and this E-mail was no different. So as I read down the list of crappy recycled quotes from anonymous people who are always feeling warm, fuzzy, and friendly one stuck out at me. One of those relationship advice ones. Now I’ve pretty much gotten girls figured out by now, they are a pox on the earth (Please note that that comment is, like most of this post, sarcastic), but I read this anyway. It said “maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before we meet the right one, that way we’ll be more grateful when we meet the right one” after reading this I leaned back for a second and pondered. And the result of my pondering was this simple statement. “Maybe God wants us to chop off one leg and one arm so we’ll be truly grateful for the other arm and leg.” Are these quote making people idiots!?! It would seem so. I am so sick of this chain mail full of fallacies about life. That’s pretty much my whole rant. But just a reminder, if you don’t copy and paste this and send it to at least 50 million people within the 30 milliseconds then you’ll get stabbed in your sleep by ninjas from Mars. Have a nice day!




I hate chain mail.....

I've finally done it...

We all knew it was only a matter of time before I just snapped. Before I went mucho loco on the worldo. It’s finally happened. Accidentally of course. But it still happened. No, I haven’t killed everyone by decapitating them with playing cards (Supposedly it’s actually possible to do that if you can throw the cards fast enough! I bet SuperMan could so totally do it!). I haven’t finally melded my brain with the computer so that I can rule cyber space. I’d just get deleted anyway. And then once I was in the recycle bin someone would double click on that and then right click on me and click “delete”. In other words, they’d kill me. But back to the point. What is it I’ve finally done? Does anyone know what slave labor I’ve been doing for roughly the last 3 years? The thing so horrible that my little brother has promised to sacrifice himself and take my place once he’s old enough? That’s right, it’s my chore to do the laundry! NO!!!! Isn’t that horrible? For years I’ve slaved away making sure my family has a clean supply of clothes, and now I’ve finally gotten my revenge. I’ve broken the washing machine! I grabbed a baseball bat and smashed it into tiny pieces! Not really. Actually I overloaded it with far too many clothes. Something my dad was always warning me about before. But anyway, I had put in a rather large load of water absorbent and heavy clothes and about halfway through (as I was in the middle of writing my last blog post) we all heard an almighty CRACK! We all went and stared as the washing machine bled and died. It died in my arms, my old friend with whom I’d spent far too much time. Not really. I went back to blogging and let my dad figure out it was broken. So now I’m guilty of murdering a washing machine. Will you ever forgive me? Let’s hope it gets better soon. Because as shown by hundreds of Estonian teens, it doesn’t matter how clean your body is, if your clothes are dirty you’re gonna smell. Doesn’t that stink? Haha. I made a joke.

Anyway, I really do hope our stupid washing machine isn’t broken. This isn’t my favorite job, but it still needs to be done. But now I’m sure you’re all wondering what’s going on here in the little town of Tallinn. Well, all our snow has melted, causing the same uneasy feeling as an enemy army retreating. Why uneasy? Because you know they’re out there somewhere regrouping, planning a renewed assault that will be 10 times worse than the first. That’s winter in Estonia. And also I hate it being cold unless there’s snow. It’s like having the discomfort of being covered in paint without the beauty of a finished painting. Where do I get these weird analogies?! I mean it’s nasty cold but not blindingly beautiful, and I want double or nothing. Tonight is songsters, bible study, and NELK (Women’s club), two of which I’m hoping to skip. Guess which two? That’s right, I want to go to women’s club, that’s where they give me free food. I’m joking, I want to go to bible study. During women’s club I usually go upstairs with my friends and we all try to laugh as quietly as possible so as not to bother the women downstairs. We usually do end up getting too loud eventually, but then my mom just sends me a kind and loving SMS saying something along the lines of “SHUT UP!” but tonight I may do something different. My friend Anneli has told me there is an awesomely cool bible study for college age dudes and dudettes at the Methodist church, and since some German guy goes they already are translating into English, so why not check it out? So I may or may not, I’m still deciding. You know those Methodists, gotta be cautious around them. And once again I’m joking, I love the Methodists, and Anneli is probably going to hook me up with one of the Methodist chicks at the bible study. Sounds great. Anyway, that’s all the news from home town of Tallinn, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average. That’s a joke from Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion”. Anyway, I must be off now. I must take up my babysitting duties in half and hour and I can hear Peter screaming, so best use this next half hour getting him calm so I don’t have to do it later. Anyway, Cya!

The Golden Compass. A story about killing God?

Because I'm always up to date with what's hip and in (yeah right) it has come to my attention that The Golden Compass, a movie with trailers that look like a cross between The Darkness is Rising and The Chronicles of Narnia, is causing quite a stir among Christians and Athiests everywhere. So now I'm going to blog about it. Because though I know very little about it I still would like to add my little bit of input. Correct me if I'm wrong but The Golden Compass is the story of a girl and her Daemon, (or demon, or familiar, or giant satanic pet, or what the movie says it is) the physical manifestation of her soul. The big bad in this story is simply "The church", a sinister group of misled religious enthusiasts serving a deranged, evil, weak old "God". And why "The Church" is so evil is because it has been trying to seperate the children from their "Daemons", their souls. And so she goes on some fantastic adventure including fighting polar bears and a golden compass that rather than pointing north tells what is truth. Very exciting. But some kind of freaky terminology. The honest truth is that the church is trying it's hardest to seperate everyone from their demons! Not their souls obviously. The reason why Pullman has the Church as the big bad is because he was raised by his pastor granddad. And as the son of two pastors I can say that one of the best ways to make an Athiest is to have him be raised by Christians. I'm not an Athiest. But I can see how easy it would be to become one. As a PK (or OB) you see the church from the inside out, not outside in like everyone else. And it's hard to see things like that. The church looks much better from the outside. Most things do. This movie does. From the outside it looks like another rather lame children's movie about a kid who saves the world. But as Pullman tells us, his books "are about killing God". Not a nice topic for a children's movie. And though "The Golden Compass" is book the book where God dies, it is the first in the series where he finally does kick the bucket. Though I just want to point out that in my opinion if anyone ever were to kill God the whole universe would collapse inwards upon itself and be destroyed, meaning there wouldn't be anyone left to enjoy Hell. Because of course Hell is total seperation from God, so that's what we'd get. Let's thank God that he is Omnipotent and therefore would be devilishly hard to kill.

Devilishly? That brings me to my next point. In one Christian article (http://www.dare2share.org/culturecommission/the-golden-compass) I read it said that in the books God is portrayed as "an old, weak, evil angel masquerading as 'The Authority' and setting up churches to exercise His control over others" and to me that sounds like a description of who...Hint, he is red, loves heat, has pointy horns and always carries a pitchfork. No not Triton! That's right, Satan. I think that the sentence works better like this: "Satan is an old, weak, evil angel masquerading as 'The Authority' and setting up churches to exercise his control over others". Dang, that sounds about right. I don't know that much about these books or the movie, because I only started caring about them a few hours ago. But to me this sounds like a story about fighting the devil. He's trying to seperate us, body from soul and soul from God. And so we have to fight back with the truth, the ultimate truth that we have through God's word, or as it is better known "The Bible". Now I know this isn't the story Pullman was trying to write, but from what I've heard of it it sure sounds like that! An angel masquerading as "The Authority" is exactly what we're up against.

Anyway, that's my thoughts so far on "The Golden Compass". I would love to do some more research though, because just because some Christians are going on a nutty witch hunt doesn't mean something's bad. Like Harry Potter. I love Harry Potter. That satanic practitioner of witch craft rocks. I'm joking, but I do like Harry. Anyway, these are my fairly uneducated thoughts about "The Golden Compass". If I've got it totally wrong please forgive me. Until next time, Cya!

I'm in love with Paramore! (Pictured)

Now, when I say that I don’t only mean that I love their awesome guitars, their sweet sound, and amazing vocals. No I’m mean I’m IN LOVE with Paramore. Or more specifically their lead singer, Hayley Williams. She’s 18, she’s a good singer, she’s got cool red hair that may or may not be natural (I’m hoping natural, I hate dyed hair), she totally rocks, and most importantly she is the first famous true love (Sorry Amy Lee and Tarja Turunen) to openly and honestly profess her faith in Christ. She’s a Christian. Now I’m hoping that it’s obvious that when I say that I’m in love with her I’m using hyperbole (is that the right word? I believe so). I’m not really madly in love with a girl who I’ve never met, though she did sing me to sleep last night. But Hayley, if you’re reading this for some bizarre reason then hat doesn’t mean I COULDN’T be in love with you. I’m sure I would love to meet you and get to know you. Maybe we could hook that up sometime. If you ever tour Europe…I’ll probably be at Houghton by then, so go there instead. Or do both. Doesn’t matter because the chances of you reading this post is zero to null. Anyway, let me explain how and why I’m in love with Paramore. Last time I was in America I heard their song “Misery Business” on the radio over, and over, and over again. And I liked it. It’s actually a song that kind of bugs Hayley because she breaks the 5th commandment in the lyrics. That’s what she thinks anyway, I could argue, but whatever. The fact that she notices, cares about, and blogs about these things on her band’s website is awesome, and one the reasons I love her. Now where was I, oh yes, last trip to America. I had heard them on the radio repeatedly but never looked them up. So I came home and forgot my true love. Well I didn’t love her back then. But she’ll forgive me for that. Then I went to America again, and heard them rockin’ the airwaves again. And knew I just had to find that voice. So I came home to Estonia armed with a small recording of them from the radio to use to track them down through the lyrics.

And upon arriving I saw in the pile of junk mail my new copy of Breakaway magazine (http://www.breakawaymag.com/) and yanked it out and started pouring love and attention over it. And one of my favorite places in the magazine is always the back page, High Voltage, where they talk about music, movies, and TV. And this day when I flipped back I saw a picture of a rather odd and out of place looking group. 4 guys with roses pinned on their shirts and looking slightly bored as the girl in the middle blows a kiss as her hair matches the roses. I was like “who’s that?” so I read the article entitled “Worth Joining Paramore’s Riot?” in which I found out that it is very worth it. Because they rock, and a few of them are Christians. And after reading Hayley’s thoughts on her own song and it’s meaning in her spiritual life I knew it was love. So I know I’ll probably never meet her, but here’s to you Hayley, the most rockin’ famous chick I know of. If you’re ever wishing there was a good looking Christian guy you could talk to you may want to look else where. But if you just want a Christian guy to talk to then I’m always available. And my E-mail, MSN, even phone number is available all over my blog.

Anyway, there’s my fantasy about marrying a Christian rocker. I know it’s extraordinarily unlikely, but if I can find a Christian girl who likes Paramore it’ll be just as good. When I told my friend Anneli that I was marrying Hayley she said she’d marry one of the guys in the band. So that’s cool. But anyway, I need to get going now, I’ve got some stuff to go waste time on. Stuff like maybe school work or something. I always find something. Anyway, Cya!

An apology to all you Taoists out there...

I made a mistake in my last rather misogynistic post. I said something to the effect of women=yang=evil or something. But I was wrong. To copy and paste from my Encyclopedia “Yin is the feminine, passive, weak, and destructive side of reality, while Yang is the masculine, strong, and constructive aspect of reality.” Not only does this prove that Taoism is slightly sexist, it also proves that I was wrong. Women=yin=evil=destruction=weakness. So sorry for the confusion. And I also want to just clarify that though my last post was, as I said, rather misogynistic (a word I love because it just sounds so cool. “Misein=To hate, Gyne=Women”) I still absolutely love women and have a very important want add I would like to put on my blog in that hopes that since it is so publicly accessible that someone might just find it.

Wanted!

Wife of Noble Character

Must Be Worth More Than Precious Rubies

For Full Job Description Please See Proverbs 31:10-31

If You Think You Fit the Job Please Contact Me At

chrisjohnclark@juno.com

You have no idea how long I’ve been dying to write that. You may think it’s kind of early to be writing adds like that, but by the time anybody replies to that I’ll probably have gray hair, so I say it’s not to early at all. And that applies to a girlfriend of noble character too. But anyway, that is just one of many things that I wrote in my phone while in America. I need to go through sometime and find everything I wrote down and blog about it. Most of it is songs though, so I’m not quite so sure that’s something I could blog about. One thing I wrote down on one of the best days I’ve had in a long time is “God blessed me in every area of my life that day. Except I still don’t have a girlfriend, but sometimes I think that’s a blessing too.” On that day I found out that I had kicked butt and totally pwned the SAT on my second try and that I was accepted to Houghton! And I know there was other good stuff too. Like maybe I ate pizza or something. I don’t quite remember. That was a great day.

Another thing I have written down is from back before I went to America. Back when I was standing at Stockmann this lady came and took down the Apocalyptica poster and put up a Marilyn Manson poster. And I stood there in my uniform collecting money for God’s work and I stared at him. And he stared at me. And we kept staring at each other. There weren’t any people around so I could afford to spend time narrowing my eyes at a poster. And I just thought “now there’s a vampire if there ever was one” and as I said after watching Van Helsing I am now a vampire hunter. So if I ever get the chance it is my sworn duty to stick a grade A angus steak up his nose. Though my friend who’s going to his concert would be rather upset so I guess I should hunt him down. I’ll just wait for him to come to me.

Anyway, that's it for now. Though I'm going to go write about Paramore in a minute, because I think I'm in love! So Cya!

How do I survive?

Jet lag is torture. Torture with torture on top and with a side order of torture. It’s really bad. Really, really bad. And I hate it. I did quite well with jet lag when I was going to America. It just felt like I was staying up really late, which is something I excel at because I like mimicking Dracula. But now that I’m in Estonia I have the opposite form of jet lag. I feel like I’m forcing myself to wake up 7 hours before I’d normally like to. Therefore I also am going to bed 7 hours to early. Going to bed in Estonia at 11 pm is 4 pm my American time. And I’ve never been much of an afternoon napper. So now it’s been almost a week and I’m still being tortured by jet lag. I can’t sleep at night. I just lie in bed, cursing jets and all their lag. And when I finally do fall asleep (usually a few hours after midnight) I don’t sleep long, because my body says to itself “I’m sleeping, but I’m pretty sure I should be up doing things instead, because it feels like that time of day.” So it drags my tortured soul back to consciousness and I lie awake at 5 am (Estonia time) wondering “why me?” this his been going on ever since I got back. I’ve tried all sorts of different things to try to help. I downloaded a bunch of stuff from NPR to listen to on my MP3 player, because I had thought that of course anything from NPR could put anything to sleep. But I was wrong, it’s all too interesting. Who’s this Ahkmadinigad guy they keep saying is hot anyway? President of where? But anyway now I sit here very tired, and rather cold too. I had been warm an hour ago, but thanks to my parents who seem to think warmth and comfort are deadly sins 8 and 9 I am now wide awake, with a slight sleep deprivation headache, and an overpowering desire to grab a sledgehammer and put myself back to sleep. It’s not nice.

Anyway, as I already said Christmas is coming, the goose bla bla you know the rest. On Saturday we decorated the corps. And as always with doing things that are meant to be fun and festive it was about a million time more work than (I believe) it was worth. When people turn my Christmas into work that’s a bad thing. Jesus didn’t work on Christmas, he was too busy letting all the donkeys and things sing “Away in a manger” at him. And now yesterday we decorated our apartment, which was also much more stressful than it needed to be (stick 5 jet lagged people together and try to get them to work together and the results usually aren’t happy) so I’m glad that over. I just wish Santa would hurry up because I want some more junk. I was a bad boy last year but go good stuff, now I’ve been a good boy this year so…I’ll get even better stuff? We’ll see. Whatever happens I’ll be happy because my Aunt Mary Kay, Uncle Sasha and little baby cousin Sashenka are all coming for Christmas, and I can’t think of any present I’d like more than that. Maybe my very own personal space ship with lasers and missiles and big guns and written on the side in dripping blood red paint the motto “We come in peace!” But I doubt I’ll get one so I’ll just settle with what I can get. It’s funny thought, I really did see once in a Toy R Us this giant mech toy with giant guns, and an impressive array of missiles, and little army guys with knives and weapons of math instruction…erm, MASS DESTRUCTION. And in big bold red letters a sticker on the mech said “Our mission is peace” my mission is peace too, and if you don’t believe me then you’re gonna eat lead. And it tastes horrible so you better believe me.

So yesterday I watched Star Wars Episode II:Attack of the Clones (which when I first heard the name before it came out I assumed meant that Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda and all the other good guys had been cloned, and just like in that weird Pokemon movie they’d have to fight and kill their own clones. I’m still not sure whether or not I’m disappointed by the truth.) and, as always, it made me think. What is it that made Anakin fall to the dark side? His pride? His anger at losing his mother? His love of, and fear for, Padme? His good intentions gone wrong? I’m sure there are many other ideas people have, and I know the paths to the dark side are wide and varied. So it could be any, or all, of those. But it seems what really pushed him to the edge is Padme. His forbidden love destroyed him. This is a scenario I’m not unfamiliar with. I have come to the conclusion (that same one I’ve been coming to for roughly 1 year, 1 month) that women are the absolute most dangerous things (don’t like me calling women things? Neither do I, nouns, people, places, things, take your pick) ever to have ever existed, and ever to exist. Now that’s not quite true. But I’d still much rather face a puff adder than an angry girlfriend. A puff adder will forgive you. So anyway, I think I kind of lost my original point there. Women=yang=evil. Got it. And I know it is probably pretty stupid to say all this because I’m pretty sure the majority of my readers are female (must be my animal magnetism) but whatever.

Girls have actually been on my mind a lot more than some might think they should be as I’ve been thinking about college. I know I have a small group of fans who is hoping that once I’m free of parental tyranny I’ll go crazy, have sex, do drugs, and write about it all here. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you but it’s not in my plans. That was another thing that went into my college decision. A place where I wouldn’t be the only one not having sex and doing drugs. I’d have that nerd across the hall who nobody likes because he smells. And me and him would make a great team. I’m joking. But when visiting both colleges I eavesdropped on conversations (sorry if that seems creepy) and watched the way different people acted to get a better idea of who I’d be living with. And in the end there was a definite difference. So it has been on my mind. Not because I’m looking for a girlfriend, but because I don’t want to jump into the middle of a college society where mindless dating is essential. And I’m not. And also I’m hoping that I’m not walking into a group of girls all desperate for a boyfriend and as one of my good friends just said to me recently “Some guys have great looks but no personality. And you have great personality.” (I’m not sure whether or not that’s a compliment or an insult. Is it like “you’re ugly, but you’re nice”?) will all jump at a guy with a “great personality”? Because when it comes to comparing myself to other guys I’m not going to be very humble. I’m a pretty good guy, don’t smoke, don’t drink, single and celibate on purpose, polite, loving, respectful. I rock! But I don’t want to be swarmed because I’m the first good guy they’ve ever met. So I was looking for a college with a lot of other good guys. Because back to my Anakin thing, what does it take to bring down the most powerful Jedi, the one who would bring balance to the force? A beautiful woman. That’s all. So what could it take to bring me down…as I said, I’m single for a reason.
Anyway, that post is much longer than I’d planned. And I hadn’t planned to write that whole bit about girls, but what’s on my mind usually winds up on my blog so there it is. But now I must go do some laundry because I’ m a weirdo enjoys wearing clean clothes. Cya!

I'm horrified! Someone thinks they can scare me into shaving! NEVER!!

I'm home! (NB:This post was written on Nov. 29th but was delayed due to technical difficulties. Happy B-day Lewis and L'engle!

Well, it’s been a while since I blogged I think. When my I’m so sleep deprived my memories get hazy. But at least I still remember how to blog. It’s like riding a bike, though you can forget, if you did than would do whatever it might take to get that wonderful feeling of wonderful freedom back. But anyway, I haven’t forgotten, so I have no excuse for not blogging. I’m just lazy. So now I’m fighting off my laziness long enough to write you this post. I have so much to write about. From my disappointment at NightWishe’s newest musical offerings (I miss you Tarja!) to my fear of the future that I can’t escape, because no matter what I choose to do with my life, whether it’s Salvation Army Officer or Super Secret Agent Assassin from Mars, That’s still going t be in the future. Unless I become the inventor of the world’s first time machine that is available for the general public and not just for things like assassinating JFK. So rather than blog about all the many interesting things I’ll just blog about coming home to Estonia. That’s right all you self-absorbed American punks who don’t believe I could “abandon” my “native” country. Estonia and home are synonymous for me. One and the same. When we landed and I looked out the window at the beautiful light powdering of snow covering everything in a very nice Christmas card style I was overcome with joy. When Andrus and Toivo met us at the airport I was so happy to be with these slightly quirky people who I love so much. And walking through Old Town, going to the corps, going to the library and watching The Mummy Returns with Anneli and Evelin…I love this place! I don’t know how I’ll ever leave. I guess all good things come to an end.

But anyway, I’m having lots of trouble blogging, not because I don’t have anything to blog about. Quite the opposite. I’ve got subject overload. So rather than the think I will do what I do when I want to produce maximum writing for minimal thought. Sit back, get comfortable, put on Bomfunk MC’s “Freestyler” and just lose myself in everything. Because of course it is only when I’m lost that I can truly find myself. So now I’m good and lost in the mystery of “what the heck do his lyrics mean? Celine Dion? What!?” as he rocks the, rocks the microphone (sorry, you have to be familiar with the song to get the joke) and am ready to get started. Okay, here’s something. I’m currently in the middle of a hugely important and monumentally significant project. I’m uploading last year’s HollyWood Night videos! I’ve already got up the tryouts of Naruto Uzumaki, Tanel Padar, and Avril Lavigne. All of which are played by either me or Anneli and are all hilarious. I’m sorry but they’re in Estonian. I provided translation though, just look in the video description. But don’t worry even without translation they’re still funny. Though I’m expecting negative comments from fans of those we mock. But I’m used to that now. And we all know what they’re trying to compensate for when they insult us on YouTube anyway*…

Anyway, Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. I like eating turkey but I’ll never eat a cat! I need to nickname some girl “goose” and then when I say “the goose is getting fat” I can laugh inwardly at how funny my little joke is. Hilarious. But since Christmas is coming I need to get ready. I’m trying to decide on my Christmas present to all you, my readers! I think I’ll probably stick a video into one of my posts. But what video? It has to be funny…and un-offensive. Which is quite a hard combo it seems. But I’ll see what I can do. It really stinks that I’ve got such horrid writer’s block. I think maybe a good night’s sleep might fix me right up, but I doubt I’ll be sleeping well tonight, if it’s anything like last night. Last night was torture, wanting to sleep, but not. Just lying in bed feeling tortured. Torture, torture, torture. Anyway, I think I’m done now, I just want to say that this post is brought to you by the combined efforts of my mother, C.S. Lewis and Madeline L’Engle along with The Writer’s Almanac downloaded from www.npr.org. Happy Birthday Clive and Madeline! You are both such wonderful inspirations! And now, good night! (I hope…)



*This statement is proof that I’m far too obsessed with Yugioh Abridged. I’m talking about Seto Kaiba in Episode 24…

What makes a punk like me happy?

WCYY! That's what! For those of you who know me well, you will know I always carry a black messenger bag covered in stickers, pins and buttons. Highly lethal if swung at head. And taking up pride of place as the first thing stuck on my bag is a bumper sticker from WCYY, the best radio station ON EARTH! I have traveled around the world, and sampled many radio stations. And the only one that could ever come close to equaling WCYY is Y100, but that got shut down. So I will repeat so you really get it, WCYY is the best dang station ON EARTH! EVER! I love it. So anyway, while in the Portland area I've been listening to WCYY and recording it quite a bit too. And I've gotta say, it's been making me quite happy. So anyway, I've said my bit now. WCYY ROCKS!! Until later, Cya!

Cleansing by rock music is the best ever...

It's been a while since I listened to project 86 but by impulse I put it on my MP3 player and I thank God I did. I've been doing great so I guess I should have been expecting something. It's normally when I'm feeling best that something happens to shake me up. And last night I was attacked in my sleep. A masked assasin snuck in through the shadows and plunged a cold dagger into my peaceful sleep. Just so you know I'm speaking metaphorically at the moment. I'm fine physically. And I'm fine mentally and spiritually too. At least i am now. But last night I had a dream. Normally the dreams that torture me are of the past. Reliving the moments I want wiped from my memory. And those are bad enough. This time though, I dreamt of the future. And in this dream I faced one of my most desperate and terrible fears. One that I have never blogged or talked to most anyone about, and most likely never will. It's one of my most terrible fears in conjunction with my most terrible memory. And it jumped me when I least expected it, and can least fight it, in my dreams. But I'm pretty used to pushing things to the back of my mind to fight later. So I put it away, to deal with later. And as I came down to the hotel lobby with my Dad's laptop to go online it just hit me. A missile of pain to my soul. I sat down, checked my E-mail and put on some NightWish. That didn't help. Songs I normally love tortured me as I heard the lyrics. I went on FaceBook, no help. I randomly flipped through my Mp3 player and then I hit Project 86. Oh yeah...Some people hate this type of music. But I swear it cleanses my soul. It digs deep into me, and fights my pains and fears and strenghens me. So anyway, I know I haven't really been blogging much about what's been going on in my life lately. But I've been busy building ginger bread houses and playing with little kids. It's just what I do. Anyway, I think that I just gave you another thoroughly confusing and pointless little post that someday I will read and understand, but you never will. So until next time, Tsau!

I HAVE SO MUCH TO BLOG ABOUT!!

But at the moment exeryone else is asleep so I can't type much for fear of their rage at being awakened. I just go back from Thomas More and it a was a pretty good visit. I learned what i needed to learn. I have examined both paths, and now must choose which to walk down. The decision is not an easy one, so as I go to think about this decision i will leave you with a poem that has been weighing rather heavily on my mind today. The poem is "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. It speaks of two paths in the woods, very similiar to one of the paths I walked today, strewn with the beautiful hues of Autumn's fair brush. But it speaks to me, and always has, of paths in life, and today I stand at a divergence in the wood, and must choose. I thank you all for everything. I had a dream about being prayed for which I will blog about later. And now to leave you with this poem....

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

ANOTHER prayer request.

You're all probably thinking that I'm getting slightly demanding asking you guys to pray for me all the time. But tomorrow I go to Thomas More (www.thomasmorecollege.edu) and though I'm not as nervous as I was before Houghton I'm still nervous. So pray for me, pray I won't be nervous and pray I'll make the right decision between these two colleges. Thank you, I'll write more later, Cya!

Life at Houghton

Well I've been at Houghton since Thursday and I've got to be honest, I like it a lot. So unless Thomas More is amazingly awesome than I'm probably going to go to Houghton the fall of 2008, which I think is very exciting. I visited the Wellsville corps today, where I would be going if I was at Houghton because it's the closest corps (30ish minutes away). It was great. I feel very content with the world at the moment. Tonight at 9:30 I'm going to a pizza party for prospective students and that should be absolutely beautiful. I thank you all for your prayers, I have had several times when I've been on the verge of utter freak out and then I remembered, "Hey wait, I gotta keep a cool head to impress chicks!" Well actually, that wasn't the only thing i remembered. The other thing i remembered is that i had a whole bunch of people praying for me. So everything was great! I'm very happy with things so far. I've visited several classes, and met with professors, and I keep thinking, I could do this! It's seems impossible that I could go to college. Over the years I've given myself several names, Pokemon Master, Yugioh Champion, and Video Game prodigy are a few of my favorites (that's a joke btw) but College Student? I've never really thought about THAT one before! Anyway, I think i gotta go. I'll Cya later! Please keep praying. If you do than maybe, just maybe I'll be writing a more in detail post about my visit!

An extra quick prayer request for (and from) a nervous teenager...

Well, I'm accepted to Houghton, and now today I go to visit. I'm pretty nervous, so please pray for me. I'm really nervous...But anyway, i'll be there until Monday, so keep praying for me please. As I've already said, I'm nervous!



Told ya it'd be quick.

Rock, rock on!! Yeehaw! Super special awesome party day! Chris Chronicles national day of "Hard rockin' hallelujahs!!"

Once again refering to my blog as a nation I officially declare today, November 3rd, a national day of "Hard rockin' hallelujahs" which means it's a day to rock hard and sing hallelujah! Why this day of elation? What is so wonderful? Shouldn't I be suffering from post SAT trauma right now? HECK NO!! I feel great!! Why? Because first I did great on the SAT. I kicked the S, the A and the T! O yeah. I wrote a sparkling kick booty essay that had a beggining, middle and even an end! I did considerably better on the math section this time. And i wouldn't be surprised if i got 100% on the verbal section. I didn't skip anything, and I don't think I got anything wrong! I was sitting there singing "You're the best around, nothing's ever gonna keep ya down!" (by the way i'm dying to know what that song is from, I only know it from Yugioh, the abridged series) I was rockin'. It was beautiful....then i had a great afternoon (and I found that Yugoh deck i've been praying about, but i'll write a whole nerd post about that later) ate crap food, listened to the radio, good stuff. Then i came home and found the true reason for celebration, the reason for hard rockin' hallelujahs. No, Jesus hasn't returned yet. I wish...No, but something really good did happen! I got an E-mail from Houghton! And what did it say...

It said I am tottally, 100% and completely accepted to Houghton College! What? Accepted!! WOW!! YAY!!! That means i rock! As you may have guessed, i am very happy about this. I hadn't been expecting to know until January 1st. But apparently when i visit on Thursday i will visit as a hard rockin' hallelujah accepted student. I am so happy. I can't express through words, written or spoken. This is final and clinching proof to all you doubters out there that I actually am quite smart! I just have no words so instead i'll just put two pictures, one for the SAT, one for Houghton. I rule them both!!! Hard Rockin' Hallelujah day of national parties and celebration. Oh yeah!

P.S. That "Chuunin" picture is the SAT picture. I've always pictured the SAT as being the Chuunin exam of the real world. Anyway, time to go dance ecstatically! Cya!

Partay.............

SAT, here i come!

Well i just came back from visiting the school where i take the SAT tommorow. I'm all ready now. I've got my calculater and i know where to go. Very good. But i'm still wicked freaked out. But i still have the same philosophy as last time. If Naruto and a bunch of ninja 12 year olds in a completely fake and unrealistic anime could get past the first part of the Chuunin exam by cheating horribly than so can I! But i won't cheat, because i don't have ninja powers. And i'll use Jedi calming techniques, like slicing off heads with my lightsaber. But i don't have a lightsaber. So basically i'll just stumble through it like i did last time and pray for a better score after these months of study. But anyway, i got some anonymous comments, which we all know i hate because they are usually full of grammatical errors and negativity. And so here is my only response. "Not nice" you say? Not nice, but honest. And i would agree to that line about selfish superiors who sent my family overseas. I'm glad now, but thanks for that initial hell. And i wouldn't be so hateful of my country if i hadn't been shipped out of here halfway through my life. Anyway, next time you leave a negative comment leave your name so i know who i'm offending. I don't apologize to nobodies. I write negatively on my blog and i put my name on it and every knows it's me if you want to write something, have the guts to put your name. So anyway, i'm off to NYC, so until next time, Cya!

Lice sucks!

Get it, life sucks, and so do lice. Why am i talking about lice? I hate lice. And guess who's head they're living on. Not my own. If I had lice than this would be much more panicky, andi would be dishing out piles of insults to all lice everywhere. No, lice have taken up residence on my little brother Peter's head. The little jerks. I think we should just shave him bald and then get a flame thrower wielding psycho to burn up his hair. Then those lice would pay. But for now it looks like shampoo is what we're gonna do. Though i've heard that mayonaise works too. But anyway, please pray for me and my family and especially Peter as we battle lice and put them to death one by one and laugh at their fate. I don't like lice. And i don't want them for myself. They're some of the grossest things i can think of to have living in your hair. Maggots might be worse. But lice is pretty bad. And i really don't want any. So anyway, now i'm off to make a Christmas wishlist to send to everyone, because though Christmas may seem far off, when Christmas seems near i will be far off. So i make a list now. I now that top of the list will be the Skillet and Thousand Foot Krutch Cds...But anyway, now i must go. Cya!

Halloween...BOO!

Well yesterday was Halloween (and also my cousin Bethany's birthday, but i'll spare her the embarrassment of me writing out a whole bi "Happy birthday" post) and it was pretty fun. I went trick or treating (because that's a verb) with my cousins, Bryan (i always spell it wrong), Jennifer and Bethany. It was fun, Bryan was a biker (seen the movie "wild hogs"?), Jen was a man(most disturbing thing ever with that beard...) and Bethany was from the '50s. All very unique costumes. And what was i you ask? I was a chaperone. Not the most exciting costume, but...no really, at 17 being 6 foot and sporting a beard it was decided that no matter what i wore people would think i was just out to steal candy and smash pumpkins. Which wasn't true, i wouldn't be stealing anymore than my cousins were, even if they were all much cuter and younger. It wasn't really fair, but i got a tax at the end. I think everyone gave me at least one piece of candy at the end. And i got lasagna! So it was worth it. It was very exciting. But now that i'm getting a lot of comments (i guess i have to do something extreme to get comments, such as be all hateful towards my "homeland". But as long as it gets me comments...) i need to answer some of them. But i hope you guys liked that song i posted, that's one of my old favorites. I love Calibretto 13. Punk is dead...

But anyway, now to answer some of your more wonderful comments. Erica asked me why, if i don't like America so much, did i come here for furlough? Well, all sarcasm aside, i love when people point out the obvious. Because that does seem like the obvious. Well but the answer is really four answers. 1. I have an American passport, where else could i go? Iraq? 2. This is "homeland" furlough. And America is my "homeland" according to all official documents. 3. I have to follow my parents. They go to America, i go to America. Once i turn 18 i'll go somewhere cool. Like Egypt. Or Greece. 4. The most important reason, and the reason that will bind me to America for all eternity, this country is where pretty much my whole extended family makes it's home. And since so far only the people who live out of America have visited/plan to visit me i have to go visit everyone else. If i could have gone anywhere on Earth and also been able to visit my family i would not go to America. I think if i had to pick the top 3 places i would want to go i would say Japan, Egypt and Greece. I love Rome too. Good ice cream. But i've already been there. And now too answer my friend Anneli's comment. Yes, i'm sure you would rather be in America than in school. But being homeschooled i'm in both. I bring my school with me. I've been reading and doing math since i got here. Not my idea of a vacation. But as my parents would point out, this is their vacation, not mine. My vacation comes in January when i go to youth councils. And i have the SAT on Saturday....I would rather be anywhere, on Earth or off it, doing anything but the SAT. AGAIN! I better get a better math score this time or all my work will be down the drain...But i'm pretty sure i'll get a better score. And i am going to miss the first snow...when it's pure and white. By the time i get there it will be grayand depressing. Yuck.

Anyway, I still have FaceBook and my blog. That's some thing that hopefully will never change no matter where i go. One thing i'm looking forward to is visiting colleges. Because though these colleges are in America, i'm hoping to find something that will make them...well, not un-American, but just a better fit for me than most of America is. But anyway, i gotta go now. Hope i can find something nice to blog about later! Cya!

A quick song..."Lalalala..."

"America"

By Calibretto 13

"Here in America I'm proud to say
That everyone's free and everything's OK
Do what you feel cos it's all good
Live how you want and not how you should
This is America land of opportunity
We kill our babies and we worship nudity
Our government's corrupted, sin is accepted
Forget about Jesus, cos He is rejected
Make your own god, worship yourself
Put the Bible on the shelf
Here in America we do what we want
We're a Christian nation believe it or not
Now it ain't alright and it ain't all good
Let me tell you something you've misunderstood
The red, white, and blue just ain't in my blood
Maybe it's because of what this country's done
Now if we were founded on "In God We Trust"
We gave it up for sinful lust
Now there will come a day when we're gonna pay
So America turn back the other way!
I am an American and the country in which I live
Is a country of hope and happiness and freedom it will give
But I don't see it that way because this holy blessed land

Has turned its back on the great I Am and jumped from His holy hand"

Welcome to America. I'm still not really liking it much. I went to the dentist today. Hate dentists...Went to THQ to see all the fat American officers today...YUCK! As my ever helpful friend Priit pointed out, i should count the days. Only problem is that i'm American, and therefore too lazy to count anything more than the number of pounds i gain. Urgh...negativity...seems that's all my blog has had lately, but you know what? That song should explain it all. A song from an American band, sung and recorded in America. Geeze, what will it take to turn this place around. A lot more than i've got up my sleeve. But now it's halloween, a great day for obese children. And so i'm looking like a farmer with a tucked in, buttoned up blue, black and white shirt (my silent salute to Estonia). You wouldn't recognize me if you saw me. Freaky. Anyway, i gotta go now. Cya later.

In case you were wondering, I'm still in America...

Don’t you just love my posts that freak out some, irritate others, and makes whoever is left just want to attack me with shurikens and kunai? I know I do! And I think my last blog post may have achieved that. But I don’t ever apologize for my blog, unless I’ve insulted pokemon. That’s the only time I ever apologized on this blog. I’m still not happy to be in America. And I’m sticking to that. Part of why I don’t like it is the way it changes me. I look at everybody and think “they have 20 GB Ipods that work perfectly, I have a 1 GB MP3 player that is in several pieces.” Or “they have a GameBoy DSes while I have a couple of battered, scratched, and barely working SPs.” Or even “they have their own personal portable DVD players while I have no DVD playing anything. Oh wait, I have an X-Box, but it’s a hunk of crap that I’ll be lucky to get 20 bucks for. And it does play DVDs, games or music anymore. So BOO-HOO!!!” Even though this has been the situation for months, if not years. The situation that everybody has better everything than me (I forgot to mention everybody’s cool “in-style” clothes next to my literally ripped second hand clothes) but it hasn’t bugged me because I’ve been far away, were in comparison to everyone else I live in luxury. It’s really quite frustrating. There are adds everywhere. Even on the milk! I go to eat breakfast and the milk tells me to buy some crap DVD!! It’s not nice!!! Well anyway, welcome to America. Fat is the word. “Freaking Annoying, Totally!!” Urgh, this isn’t culture shock, this is…I don’t know. It’s the black hole of America trying to suck me in, and knowing that is my greatest fear. I will not surrender to the greed. I will not surrender to the “money is life” mindset. I will not judge myself by my insignificant stuff!!!!! I have much higher and better standards to judge myself by. Because though so many America have it so good in the electronics, clothes and house departments, I carry my bible in my bag, NOT my Ipod (which I don’t have) NOT my DS (which I don’t have) and NOT my portable DVD player (guess whether or not I have it). Anyway, that’s another pointless rant of my impotent rage at life in America. Don’t know how I’ll survive next September…anyway, must go be un-American, Cya!

P.S. If you are some sort of secret service agent and think I’m being terrorist-like and un-patriotic than pull out your sniper rifle and hit me…

“America/America/Your food makes me so sick/I wish I was/In Estonia/where the food tastes so good!”

I hope you liked my new version of that good old song “America”. It basically shows how I feel about being in America right now. Unhappy. I love Estonia. And I miss it a lot. After going to bed around 6:30 PM last night (jet-lag sucks) I had a wonderful dream about walking in Old Town Tallinn, seeing the beautiful old buildings, walking on the cobble stone roads, laughing at stupid American tourists…then I woke up in a bed on the third floor of the Salvation Army’s missionary condo on Nanuet, New York. I looked out the window…no beautiful old buildings. Nothing. Only a bunch of identical suburban houses with picture perfect lawns and a very flat street. I miss Estonia. I feel like being in America, just crossing the border, changes me somehow. I feel different. And I don’t like it. It’s like there’s something missing. A part of me that I keep very close to my heart is gone. Estonia, how I love you. Being in America doesn’t only rip off a piece of my heart but it replaces it with a dark, parasitic greed. I haven’t even been in any stores yet. But I can feel the desires welling up inside me. The desire to have everything I want. And to have it HERE! And to have it NOW! Welcome to America. I miss Estonia. I miss home. Many people would assume that America IS my home, seeing as how I’m technically an America. I may have an America passport, but my heart has never lived here, even when I did for the first 14 years of my life, America has never felt as much like home as Estonia. Hope this trip goes by fast, because another part of why I wish I was back home is that now that I’m here, things are going to start happening fast. And it’s going to sound like this…BOOM! Halloween..BOOM! College visits.BOOM! ThanksgivingBOOMtime2go. Things are going to keep coming at me fast and furious. That may not sound like a lot of things, but in America, things have a way of sneaking up on me from behind and garroting me. And it’s not a nice feeling. I miss Estonia, I wish I were home.

But America isn’t all bad. In America there are great radio stations, I’m sure of it. But since my MP3 player is a hunk of slag n’ plastic and since no one deemed us missionaries and our sacrifices worth anything we don’t even have a clock radio in this place. And I’m absolutely sure that America has great TV, I’m sure of it. How could America not have good TV? But since my mom is aspiring to be Amish we can’t watch TV right now. Great. But now the final thing I’m sure America has. Great internet. It must have great internet. I mean of course America’s internet will be better than the rest of the world, right? Well right now I am once again writing this blog post in Microsoft Word and not on blogger as I would like because I’m not able to connect to the internet right now. Crap. Welcome to America. Well I guess after saying all that I have to take by my opening statement at the beginning of this paragraph. America is all bad. But it’s people aren’t. To finish off this very negative, anti-America post I will say something very positive, and pro-American (as in American person), and happy. Roughly 2 years ago my beautiful, beloved and cherished Nintendo 64 (N64) was stolen. It was the second N64 to have been stolen from me since moving to Estonia. And it made me sad. And then when I came to America to buy a replacement I was told that no one would sell me one. Once again I was sad. But because the thieves who stole from me the second time were stupid and un-thorough teenagers they missed several games and controllers, so I was left with N64 stuff, but no N64. So now as I prepared to sell my X-Box I also decided to sell my old, and useless to me N64 stuff. Until I was hit with a sudden inspiration. I probably wouldn’t get more than 5 bucks for that old N64 stuff anyway, but my cousin Adam has an N64, why don’t I just give it to him? Spread the video game love. So I fired off an E-mail to my cousin (who I normally don’t E-mail with much because all I ever get from him is chain mail) telling him that I would love to throw some free stuff at him. Then yesterday, before dying in bed, I checked my E-Mail, saw one from Adam, opened it up and what to my wondering eyes did appear? Adam told me he never used his N64 and so if I were to give him the stuff it would just go gather dust with the rest of his N64 stuff. He then went on to say that because he never used it, would I like free stuff thrown at ME? Now I’m not used to free stuff being thrown at me outside of Christmas and Birthday so wrote him back an ecstatic reply saying that, yes, I would like an N64 to give a nice home to. So now when I leave America I will leave the proud owner of a Nintendo 64, meaning that the age of nostalgic fun will return. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to beat Zelda:Majora’s Mask this time! (Every time I get to the last dungeon my N64 gets stolen. It’s happened twice, and I‘m starting to see it as a personal challenge!) So I’m quite happy now, well, as happy I can be after everything I told you about in the first 2 thirds of this post. But now I must go, so until next time, Tsau mu armsad!

All packed and ready to rock and/or roll! (Goodbye Estonia....)

Well as you may have guessed from the title of this post, I’m all packed and ready. In just a few hours I’ll be “going on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again, oh babe I hate to go…” You get what I mean right? But though it’s late I can’t sleep, so instead I’m writing you this post. I wanted to tell you what I did tonight after I got you guys all excited with my last post. I know you’ve all been wondering things like “Who is Nadia?” or “How hot is Nadia?” and most important, “How good of a duelist is Nadia?” and also the question many people ask when they hear that a new girl has joined my group of “girlfriends” (friends who are girls. Nadia is chick #4) “When is Chris going to marry Nadia!” Anyway, for those of you who didn’t read my monstrously long last post I’ll give a little background. Elis tells Chris “I have a new girl to come and be nerdy with us” Chris tells Elis “Juhhei! I thought was the only person on earth still playing Yugioh” and to finish Elis tells Chris “She’s excellently good, and will wipe the floor with you in a nerd card game! You’ll love it!” so Chris…I mean I have waited several days to meet this girl wonder who would beat me up and be my friend. First problem though was that she was 30 minutes late. Bad. Then we go to duel (play a game of Yugioh) and rather than the high tension thriller duel between 2 powerful opponent that I was hoping for it ended up being a one sided and all to quick one sided walk in the park that left me feeling rather guilty for winning so completely and quickly. Most people would say “Good, you won!” but it’s not the victory as much as the struggle to get there that makes things worth it. I always say I wish life were easier, but if it were I’d be bored out of my skull. So I was quite disappointed, especially after Elis had gone through Nadia’s deck and gone “Ooohh” and “Aaahhh” Every few seconds. But Nadia had told me from the start that her game is, in her own words, MTG (Magic The Gathering) and she is not, as I had been led to believe by Elis, a Yugioh master. So then after some very one sided trading (still guilt ridden from my easy victories I traded some of my good cards for some of her better junk. You never know, maybe she’ll surprise me and get better somehow) we left the corps and walked through Old Town, and talked and joked. Its great being with a similar nerd because you can make jokes no ones else would get. (Yugi, “Bla bla, cards games bla.” Pegasus, “Bla bla bla, attack mode, Bla.” Yugi, “Bla bla bla?” Pegasus, “Bla!”) Very fun. Then at Viru Gate I said good-bye to my friends who I won’t see for a whole month…

And I felt quite sad about it. It made me think. If I’m this sad leaving my friends for a month, how will I survive going to college? I have serious doubts that anyone at either of the colleges I’m considering has quite my style of nerd. But I can hope and pray. Anyway, now I’m home, listening to a mix of all my favorite American music (“Famous Last Words” by My Chemical Romance, “Paralyzer” by Finger Eleven, “Sweetness” by Jimmy Eat World, and “All that I’ve got” by The Used) and a little German too (before a trip to America you just have to listen to Rammsteins “Amerika” because it’s “Wunderbar!”). And our power just went out a second ago (the great plus of blogging on a laptop is that if the power goes out, my post doesn’t! But now It’s back so everything’s happy. So pretty soon I may be seeing some of you…I can only hope. I am hoping to see some of the girls I’m stalking (at the moment I have three, I got a new one today) and I should see at least one. We can only hope. Anyway, I need to go get some sleep now. 4 hours of sleep will be worth it (I hope). Anyway, keep watching, because I’m hoping to keep you posted about how life goes in America. Tell you about my college visits and all that. I actually had a really weird dream last night about visiting Thomas More. I had gone to bed thinking about Nadia and Yugioh and college. So in my dream a group of Russian girls at Thomas More stopped me and told me that to be accepted to Thomas More I would have to beat them all in duels. Then, sort of like those dreams where you find out you forgot to put your pants on, I had the wrong deck, and through horrible stupidity got my butt kicked and was told that I would never be able to go to college because I was too stupid to beat a bunch of girls at a children’s trading card game. It was freaky. I’ve actually been having a lot of college related dreams lately. Not all bad, but mostly (Recently I had a good one that my roommate was a super special awesome nerd who loved nothing more than playing with friends (like me) on his X-Box 360 and playing nerd card games with his other nerd friends. It was a nice dream, but I know that neither the nice nor the bad will happen. Everything will work out for the best, and with a total lack of nerdiness. Oh well, I guess I can always just read Acts of Gord (www.actsofgord.com), play Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw games (www.fullyramblomatic.com), and watch Yugioh Abridged (www.yugiohabridged.com) for my daily dose of nerdiness. That’s life. Anyway, I really have no more excuses to continue blogging, so I’ll see you all in America!



P.S. I totally endorse those 3 websites, but with a warning, none of them are for the faint of heart and/or easily offended. So now that I’ve warned you please don’t come screaming at me with your hatred of nerdiness. Cya!

Wow, it's been a while and a LOT has happened! (Warning, this post is long, take it in segments if you're not up to it.) P.S. I'm applied to college!!

Sorry for not having written in so long, but you know how life gets. I’ve had a lot of other stuff to do, like…video games…and TV….and FaceBook…and writing essays and sending in applications to colleges! Wait, did you read that right? Writing essays and applications to colleges!? What have you been missing? Quite a bit I’m afraid. So now I’m going to write you a nice big post about it all. As you may have guessed by now, I just recently finished my essays and applications for Houghton (In Houghton, NY) and Thomas More (In Merrimack, NH). Now besides meaning that I’m a big boy now it also means that around January first I will know who loves me and who doesn’t. I made two superb essays for Houghton and a little less superb, but still great essay for Thomas More. On my Christian character recommendation form for Houghton my friend Andrus practically told them I was Jesus (I have been extraordinarily flattered by people’s opinions of me during this application process) and in my academic letter of recommendation for Thomas More, Captain Stephen Court (PhD) over in Australia basically said I’m a great guy who they should throw money at. What college could reject all that? I mean seriously, once I get accepted to both and they start fighting over me it’s going to get pretty violent. Now that might sound big headed and overly confident but the truth is that I feel extremely confident. And I feel I did a very good job all throughout the application process and have earned my bragging rights. So while I still have bragging rights I will brag.

Let me see…what else has been happening? Well we had a big annoying regional congress a little while ago. It was a great. Lots of people from everywhere all running around our corps making a mess. Very exciting. I did rather enjoy it though. But the food was horrible. Anneli is still threatening to sue, because she claims that chicken is still bothering her. I say it’s been 2 weeks and that chicken should have (hopeful) run its course by now but…She says otherwise, and who am I to argue? Now that I’ve started what was meant to be a long post I seem to realize that why I haven’t blogged lately is because life has been relatively boring lately. It’s been like this, Wake up, study, chores, study, prayer room, study, corps, study, sleep, and repeat. Oh, there’s something. We’ve been having a prayer room again and I’ve been loving it. I don’t know if anyone else likes it as much as I do, but to me it’s a wonderful way to just recharge. It helps me keep going with my schoolwork, and corps work, and life work…it’s great. And though the prayer room hasn’t been so popular with everyone else (“I’m too tired from school/work/video games!”) there have still been a few people who will cover the shifts.

Since I was just bragging about my essays a minute ago let me tell you about them a little bit. Especially the Thomas More essay. The two Houghton essays were pretty easy. It was basically just two essays about me. And as you’ve noticed I love writing about myself. So I was able to finish the Houghton essays only after editing out half of what I’d written so that it was short enough for them. And they are great essays too. I’ll probably put them on my blog someday. But the Thomas More essay was hard! Three pages about heroism, and how education can prepare you for heroic action, and “who do you think is a hero?” at first I had trouble with this because I want to write about my favorite Old Testament hero, Joseph! Temptation dragging you down? Be a man! RUN AWAY!! It’s worked for both me and Joseph. So I started writing about Joseph. I wrote to great pages about how “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” but how Joseph was too heroic to care. But you know what? I read it over and I thought “well that sucks” and it did. If it had been paper I would have crumpled it into a ball and play basketball with it in my trash can. But it wasn’t so just saved it on the computer and started over. Then I decided I’d pick the most heroic hero in all hero-dom, the one so full of hero-ness that he can only be called the ultimate hero. Someone who sacrificed himself and saved the whole world. Who is this excellent hero? Well I thought it would be obvious. 007. No wait, sorry. More like 777, Jesus! Duh! I wrote a sweet essay about Jesus in all his majestic heroicness. And you know what, Jesus rocks! It was a great essay, but it took me three tries, several days, and lots of hours to get it right. I’m glad it’s done and sent off. It was such a pain in the butt to do, but I did it, and I feel very content.

One other interesting tidbit of info is that on Friday (today’s Wednesday so…CRAP I GOTTA PACK!) morning my plane takes off on its way to the good old U.S. of A. Now when I say “the good old” I don’t mean to say that it is more good, or older than, Estonia. Because it is neither. I’m rather excited about this trip. It’s going to be fun doing things like, eating American candy, seeing friends and family, drinking root beer, visiting exciting places, eating American junk food, and jogging my memory with repeat déjà-vu. Almost everywhere I go In America gives me déjà-vu But then again, I’ve been so many places it’s not surprising. Or maybe it’s just that the whole matrix thing only happens in America. Déjà-vu means they changed something. So maybe in America I’m being chased by matrix secret agents, and I’m going to find out I’m the chosen one and…maybe I should watch less TV. But anyway, I’m wicked excited because of thanksgiving, a time when it is culturally acceptable to stuff your face full of delicious food. And I’ve had the wanderlust on me for months, just the desire to travel. I’ve stayed in one place far too long, time to move around a bit. I still want to come back of course. But I just love to travel.

Now it’s time for just one final piece of “Chris’s trivial life trivia” before we go. I’m going to tell you what’s happening on the “happenin’” social scene. The other day I was chatting on MSN when my friend Elis told me she had some news for me. At first I thought “Do I want to know?” because many times when I’m told there’s news for me it turns out to be some story of soap-opera type drama full of sex, cheating and lies all going on down in southern Estonian with those I once called “friends”. And course this type of news upsets me greatly. It makes me want to go down to Tartu with a machete, welding mask and blacksmith’s apron and play John DeFoe (Matt, you know half of what I write only you will understand). But it turned out this wasn’t machete type news. This was my favorite type of news. Nerd news! So now a very special broadcast from NNN, the Nerd News Network. Elis told me she had a new friend, and not only a new friend but a 17 year old girl. I’m 17…And not only is this girl 17, she also speaks English, loves anime and (my favorite bit) plays Yugioh. And she’s Russian too! So tomorrow, Thursday, Elis says she’s bringing her friend Nadia to the corps to meet me. And I gotta say I’m excited. Now you all probably think (and rightfully so) that I’m slightly obsessed with Yugioh. Well I am a little. It’s loads of fun, really relaxing and gets me to do math without it feeling like math. And I already have the cards so why not? And believe it or not Yugioh has actually been a bigger deal for me than most anybody thinks. I’ve been praying about Yugioh for over a year now. I had this great vision of going to play Yugioh here in Tallinn and using it to meet people and invite them to the corps. It’s what I did in Tartu, and in Tartu kids came to our little VBS thing because I had translated their Yugioh cards for them. I truly believe I could use Yugioh for ministry. But the only problem is that to participate in tournaments and stuff costs money. And I need money for other things, like college. So for over a year I’ve been praying about this and using a variant of the “fleece” method of praying, just like Gideon in Judges 6:37-40. I did some research online and realized that if I bought the Zombie Madness deck than I could create an unbeatable deck using those cards along with what I already have. So I prayed something along these lines, “God, if it’s your will for me to invest my time, energy and money in meeting and inviting people to the corps using Yugioh than let me find this deck for sale. And if it’s not your will, then I’m sure that being both omniscient and omnipotent that you will have worked out all stores being sold out.” And guess what. I’ve looked in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia and America during our last visit. And every place will have every other Yugioh deck ever made, but not that one. So after months of searching Kaubamajas and asking sales people if they’re sure they don’t have one in the back room somewhere I gave up. I really wanted to go play Yugioh. But not if it wasn’t what God wanted. So I started praying that if it wasn’t God’s will than he would take away my love for the game, and desire to play it. But he hasn’t. Instead, out of the blue three of my best friends, Anneli, Evelin and Elis have suddenly taken a great interest in playing Yugioh. Not in actually buying their own cards of course, but playing with mine. So I had been trying to figure out what it was God wanted. He doesn’t want me to spend time and money on tournaments, but he does want me to goof off with my friends…? Giving me a bunch of new playmates isn’t a great way to take away my love for the game. But now maybe this girl Nadia will come to the corps, meet me, have a wicked good time playing Yugioh with me, spend more time at the corps, and end up getting saved. That would be great, but I can’t see the future so for now I’ll just keep trying to work out God’s will for my life. And if you guys could pray for me about me figuring out God’s will, that would be great. Because Yugioh is the least of the things I’m praying about. Pretty high up on the list are things like which college to go to if I get accepted to both, and who to marry, if anyone. So thanks in advance for your prayers.

Anyway, that turned out a bit longer than I thought. Sorry about that. That’s almost three full pages and just over 1900 words. Wow. Anyway, I need to go now; my sister wants to use her typing instructor thingy on the computer. Until next time, Cya!