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Well, I’m back in my familiar territory now. School. As much as I do rather enjoy sitting in front of my computer coding school projects while listening to coldplay, it still pains me to know that I will be doing this till next June. But that’s what happens when you do summer school. Oh well, it’ll pay off in the long run.

Lobby Days was ballin’. In about a week we’ll have an actual list of all the cosigners onto the bill and then we can start bugging our congressmen all over again! And this time you should join me, if you haven’t already that is. For now we are just getting sporadic updates about who is signing on every few days.

In my few days in DC I

• Made some su-weet new friends
• Ate at Elephant and Castle (wasn’t much of athentic English pub, but good food nontheless)
• Played a mad game of Ultimate frisbee
• Attended a private sushi club party
• Slept in a church gym with 300 over kids
• Lobbied our government

My CA group didn’t get to meet our House Representative since she was in session for the whole Health-Care thing, bleh. But her staff member was really responsive. We did get to meet Senator Boxer though, and as much as don’t really agree with her politically she was really onboard and I thought that was rather cool.

With over 400 meetings with Members of Congress, I only heard two negative stories from meetings. Most of Congress members realized that when people from you state start flying out to Capitol Hill to talk to you about a bill they should probably listen, and listen they did. One House Representative even took their consitutients out to breakfast the next day to talk about it more!

For all you political savy people you should check out what the bill exactly says, afterall I wouldn’t want you to support something you don’t want to!
http://www.resolveuganda.org/legislation
I think the genius behind the bill is that even though we want to apprpioate some monies for Uganda, we aren’t spending anything new. We are recycling some old monies that the airforce uses to innventory unneeded materials. If only our government did more things like this…

So I got my tax return back a couple days ago.

With an extra $300.

Turns out the IRS messed up and gave me a free $300 even though I didn’t qualify for some stimulation something-or-other. And they aren’t going to rectify their mistake so I get to keep it!

Isn’t it nice to see your tax dollars hard at work?

So for Spring break I went on a missions trip with my Cru group at UCI up to NorCal. We were aiming at going to public areas and just talking to people about the gospel. Not by any means corner evangelicals, but we kind of cruised around and asked people if we could talk to them about spiritual/cultural beliefs. After a few questions, we would ask if we could share what we believe in and if you found a cool enough person, a pretty good convo would ensue. I didn’t really find any people that were really open, but some people did come to Christ through this trip which was AWESOME!
(Saturday)
After being the last group to reach Santa Cruz (3:30 am, wtf google?!), we went out sharing today in the heart of San Francisco. I was paired with my friend Sam and it was a really positive experience I must say.At first we wandered aro und a little aimlessly, but then we ran into a group of homeless people on the steps of what was the old San Francisco Mint from the gold rush era. We asked them if we could ask them a couple of questions regarding their spiritual background and they responded positively. Even though two of the three were way to drunk, one shortly passed out on the sidewalk, the third guy seemed very interested in what we had to say. We must have talked to them for at least 45 minutes. The thing they really liked was the fact that we had stopped and talked to them, since everyone else would simply pass right by without even looking. I hear this a lot every time I get to go down with the povertees gang. Homeless people love it when us ‘others’ talk to them.

Excommunicating the undesirable is something that has been happening since back in Jesus’ day. Jesus responded with kindness that they had never really experienced before. While it’s all good an easy to show this kind of kindness to people that have visibly less than us, what about other groups of people that we have as a church excommunicated?

The Homosexual Community?

• Definitely excommunicated, but we don’t have to support their lifestyles to interact with them.

The Islamic Community?

• We kind of excommunicated each other, ever since the crusades…

The World in General?

• There are tons of crazy religious right, and even left, groups harming the image of the Church the world sees.

How can we/you remedy these broken relationships?

I for one have tried to stop using the phrase “That’s so gay!” in public. While I probably use it in the same sense that an actual gay person might use the phrase “Well that is retarded!”, it is something they probably do take offense to. I mean, having your lifestyle taken and being used as an insult is a huge slap in the face. I would be a little offended if people started saying “That’s so Christian.” I don’t think that if I stop using this then all the gays will see their sin and repent, but it sure is a lot better to get to know someone when you aren’t using their life as an insult. And that’s how you spread the word, the Holy Spirit takes it from there.

EDIT://

And the times that our church does try to overcome this excommunication, it gets death threats.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29769258/

I understand that maybe these people did some drastic things in their life. But they have to start somewhere. And I think this was a great idea, until the community started giving out death threats.

Do you guys frequent the Onion? I love it. It is funny. It is sarcastic. It is brilliant.
I was thinking about how their videos have different degrees of truth in them. I mean, to be sarcastic, there has to be some kind of truth for it to be truly funny.

Here are some of my favorite ones.

Obama Supporters Don’t Know what to do Now

Apple Introduces new Macbook Wheel

New WoW Sequel Advances Videogame Concepts Back to Real Life

Kid banqrupts Make-a-Wish Foundation by Wishing for Unlimited Wishes

12 Year Old Boy Scouts Plan Ambitious Eagle Scout Project to Help Fight Breast Cancer

Trent posted this on facebook about 5 minutes ago. I don’t know if you saw it or not but you should read it right now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/us/30pastor.html?_r=2&ei=5087%0A&en=34ccb5db8fcf8eca&ex=1154491200&pagewanted=all

While participating in politics isn’t bad, I think Christians need to be much more hesitant with your force of immersing yourself in them.

“When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses. When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.”

After all, we are called to be a new creation.

In a very related note–GO READ ROB BELL’S NEW BOOK!

Jesus wants to save Christians

So, Christmas. It sure was a good one. For some strange reason everything in my life these past couple of months has been going terrible wrong in all the right ways. Not really sure what that means exactly, but it is true.

I’ll just highlight some of the really cool gifts I got:
-Left 4 Dead(On the Xbox Liam so get ready to be eaten)
-The Halo Trilogy Sound Track(That game just has some of the best music I’ve heard)
-A 24 DVD/Board Game
-Some pretty freaking sweet Tom’s Shoes with a flag and DVD
-A large collection of new clothes(if I was still 6, this would be counted as a disaster)

The rest were stocking stuffers-I have never been more excited to receive scrubbers/sponges before!

The night concluded in a spectacular win by me in Uno Stacko.

Well on Tuesday, I helped my church’s youth pastor to remake www.theburn.com. Now, it is not really completed at all yet(ie the banner), but it’s shaping into something really cool. Check it out! Speaking of social networking…A new service was launched on the 24th. It really is kind of lame, and I am a litle ashamed of this story, but it has to be told.

Mugglenet launched a Harry Potter Social Networking service called MuggleSpace. Yes, it really is that lame. It is basically Myspace, but everyone loves Harry Potter way too much. And, well…if you know who I am, I had to get one(now now, wait for the story to finish before you judge me). After I mad it, I didn’t know what to do. On Myspace I have friends so I could friend request them and talk to them, even on Hifive I have friends in Ecuador. But I didn’t have any friends or love Harry Potter quite like I do, or on Mugglespace. So I was wondering how this was going to work out.
Within 2 hours this random girl friend requests me. Her display name was Griffyndor Whore. A couple of things hit me right then and there.

1)Wow, this is why I deleted my Myspace
2)Why do I have an account on this piece of crap?
3)Griffyndor Whore? Really?
4)IT IS SPELT GRYFFINDOR YOU FRIGGIN IDIOT

So I deleted it and am never returning again. If people on there can’t even spell a word right and misrepresent what Harry Potter stands for, then I want nothing to do with it. Just like this book.

8 TV Shows I Watch:
1) CSI
2) The Office
3) 24
4) Chuck
5) Doc Martin
6) Malcom in the Middle
7) Friends
Seinfield

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1) Sambi’s
2) Taco Bell
3) In-n-Out
4) Chipotle
5) Chilis
6) Elephant Bar
7) Mambo Grill
El Torrito Grill

8 Things that Happened to Me Today:
1) I read a book till 3 am
2) I ate two chocolate Banana Muffins
3) I ate some Cheese Straws that I made for Christmas
4) Organized my gifts
5) Woke my sister up
6) Had a disturbing dream
7) Listened to the Halo Sound Track
Waited/ing for the mail man

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1) Taking a shower
2) Going to visit Niall/Ben/Liam this weekendish
3) Having our ‘Bad Movie’ night at Cory’s
4) Going shooting on the 4th
5) New Years!
6) New Years Eve Party!
7) Finishing up the Burn’s website
Getting the University Project Underway

8 Things I Wish For:
1) Confirmation that my grades will end up being good enough
2) Confirmation that I will get hired out of college
3) Confirmation that I will get married to a nice girl
4) That I could take the 100 pushup challenge more seriously
5) My mom to not care about my bed being made
6) That people wouldn’t be giant douches
7) That I could take learning the guitar seriously
That I could ban people from using the internet

8 People I Tag:
1) Amy
2) Cory
3) Niall
4) Jillian
5) Dan Kim
6) Chris Luna
7) Trent
Liam

(I just didn’t think the blarg or GeekyWeekly would do it, if I tagged you :p)
(And Anna already did it so I couldn’t really tag her.)

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Let this be a reminder to you all.
It doesn’t matter who our president is.
It doesn’t matter who our senators are.
It doesn’t matter who our house representative is.
It doesn’t matter what props passed, and what props failed.
It doesn’t matter if you ‘totally-showed-that-guy-down-the-street-that-he-was-wrong’.

Because of two reasons:
1)We are the citizens of America, and we have the final say in it. Like V said, “people should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

2)God is in His heaven, and all is good.

Besides, Obama has some good things to say…

I hope not Obama…I hope not.

Watch today’s progress right here!

After you looked at that, check THIS OUT!

The opening cinematic for LEFT 4 DEAD!!

Election day is almost here. As it gets closer, political talks are heard much more throughout campus, in classes, and even over Facebook. The thing I like about it all is that I get to hear so many opinions and/or arguments for both sides of every issue. This enables me to have a better understanding of the issue…usually. This prop 8 business is getting really out of hand. The most common ‘arguments’ I have heard from opposers are the following(actual quotations from people).

“Protecting marriage means not stripping the right away from anyone.”
-This might be the best of the arguments. It does make a little bit of sense. I mean, we are not allowing them that right. But that hardly means it isn’t protecting marriage. Marriage is a right and an honor to have. It comes with a price, there are rules and regulations. Is only allowing actual winners of an olympic race to recieve the gold medal unfair? Why don’t we just give everyone a gold medal! That’ll solve the problem! Hey look, kind of like Obama’s attitude towards the economy.

“Imposing your belief system on people who don’t share it? That’s not what the US I live in stands for. “
-I have no idea what US you live in, but I live in a US where we are supposed to try to impose our beliefs on others. It is called ‘casting a vote.’ When you vote, you are trying/hoping that your opinion wins over everybody elses. And if it does, it becomes law no matter if other people don’t agree with it. The point of Democracy is to impose your beliefs on others.

“Your whole opinion is based on your religious beliefs, which are irrelevent to those who don’t believe the same.”
-This is by far the weakest argument to hear. The more amusing ones try to tell you that the US constitution talks about a seperation of church and state, which isn’t true. That clause they were refering to is found in a letter from Thomas Jefferson and then idolized by the Supreme Court. Someone tried to tell me that since Thomas Jefferson wrote the constitution, he obviously knows what it means. So, by this logic, we should incorporate every single thing that any of the founding fathers ever wrote about into our constitution. I think not, BUSTED. So now, thanks to an over zealous supreme court, we have an entire country who think that relgion has no place in the government, and that it is stated in the constitution. But so what if my opinion is backed by my religous belief? Isn’t yours? Having no religous affiliations is a religious belief after all. So everyone’s opinion is backed by their religious beliefs. Funny how that works doesn’t it?

Not to mention that there is a theif going around Downey who steals “Yes on Prop 8″ signs off of lawns. Not only is this a federal crime, but a stupid way to try to fight for your cause. You could try talking to them, write pamphlets, or even write an opinion article in the newspaper. At one point he was approached by an owner of the sign he was stealing and was asked what are you doing? He responed by punching him in the face and driving off with the sign. Awesome way to campaign eh?

My bottom line is that intellectual people should not be swayed by terrible arguments, sadly most people are not very intellectual.

Edit://And look! The UCI newspaper didn’t bother to print a pro argument for Prop 8 like it did with all the other ones. Just the Con argument.

Check out GeekyWeekly and theblarg’s thoughts on this as well. The articles they have are very interesting.

I know that with all the hubbub of Obama/McCain/Palin of whoever, we are all focused on the presidency. But this is also a very urgent political matter guys and we can affect it NOW, rather than in November.

A few weeks ago, there was news of a bill going through the senate. This bill would restrict U.S. military assistance to governments where children are used in conflicts.

There is a snag, Congress goes on break after this week and the recent financial crisis has made it easy to ignore that this bill is even out there. So it really is up to us to make sure our senators are aware that this bill must be voted on, and it must be voted on this week!

With over 250,000 child soldiers being used in 8 governments, and the U.S. providing some sort of military assistance to at least 6 of them, we can’t delay with this guys. We need to fight injustice, and we all can help.

Here’s what we need to do:

-Call our senators (www.senate.gov)

-For CA their numbers are (202) 224-3841 and (202) 224-3553

-Tell them your name and where you’re from.

-Let them know you want your Senator to pass the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. (The House of Representatives already has!)

-Tell a friend to do the same.

Head over to World Vision’s website if you need any more information. Let our senators know what we stand for.

Please help us on this readers! It is just barely 6 minutes of your time to possibly affect the world! Congress closes for election season next week. There’s no time to wait.