... Dude

You know those things that just make you stop, stare, and after a few moments you find that the only thing you can say after seeing, hearing, feeling whatever it is is 'dude'? Well, I logged out of my 'Rae' account and into my 'Lil Bit' account and looked at some of the stats. I cannot believe some of the things I see when I look into my viewing history. I know probably more than half of those stats are people who randomly find this blog while looking for a way to kill some time, but still. Russia, Germany, Poland... dude, seriously? More than three views for any one post is awesome to me and I look into the history and see something like 4-7 pageviews and I'm like 'Woohoo! there's actually people out there besides Mel who reads this stuff? Seriously?' I just had to put that out there. Also, the referring sites? one of them was topblogstories. I didn't even know something like that existed, must less that it would point to me. I mean, really, most of the stuff I have here is just what a normal person goes through or has floating around in their head. Nothing really deep, except every now and then I might share something I found cool or meaningful. Dude, I really am rambling now aren't I?

Something else that makes me go 'dude' is a couple hundred feet of slick plastic laid out on a kinda steep hill, lathered with baby oil, and drenched in water with a whole youth group slipn' and sliden' down it every which way. Oh yeah, fun times for my youth group. I wasn't so sure about our new youth pastor, but one thing I will say about him and his wife: they have brought a bit more life to our stuffy youth ministry. For that, I gotta give em some sort of credit. Not too many people can take a dead room of sulky teenagers and put some energy back into them.

More musing on the word 'dude'. Has anyone noticed how often it is used in America with meanings vastly different than its actual meaning? I mean, I've always thought it was first used to refer to guys who surfed, you know, surfer dudes. But we've come to use it differently than that. It's more of a... filler word or... something I can't quite think of but I'm sure someone else will. Like, 'dude, you just got owned,' or 'dude, that looked like it hurt,' or just plain, 'dude' in the face of something that defies all other words. Its a word used a lot like 'wow' or 'oh'. We use 'man' in much the same way, but we use it for its actual meaning more than we use 'dude' for its actual meaning. Dude, the English language is strange. One has to have a lot of respect for foreigners who can speak English as well as the next guy, 'cuase English is pretty confusing if you aren't raised in it.

music, musings, and blah

So, first, I was looking through places I had bookmarked in my paper bible and I noticed Psalm 100.

"Psalm 100 1-5, ESV
1  A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
2  Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
3  Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4  Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5  For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."

Now, I look at this and say, 'Hey look! God likes it when we sing our hearts out and dance like fools!' Something seems to me to be contradicting some of the things I've heard about certain denominations of the church. No, I am not bashing those who think a certain about of dignity and pose must be maintained in the church and that such acts would shame said church, I'm just saying that God likes it when we sing and dance. Now, I'm embarrassed to dance in front of other people, and I won't sing unless there's enough noise to cover it up, but I'll sing in church and I'll dance like a fool in my room... while singing my little heart out.

• Musings

Yesterday I finished reading the play 'Our Town.' It wasn't as bad as I had been lead to believe, but it was one of those things you read and after you get over the 'what did I just read?' factor, it starts to make you go, 'man, that got me good.' People are always caught up in something or another and don't relish the life that they have. In the questions following my reading of the play, I was asked "what is the value beyond price of the little things in life?" It is something you cannot put in words, or at least, something I cannot express in words. I won't tell you to read the play, just the last act. It's a fairly easy read, but it hits you hard after you finish. My rambling here won't really make much sense until you read Act 3 of Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town.'

• Blah

One word. School. I don't think I need to elaborate much beyond that. Math is sucky, English is having me read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' next unit and that's sucky cause it makes it hard for me to do several lessons and catch up to where I need to be so I can finish somewhere in the general vicinity of on time. ON a happier note, Bible and History are looking to be finished early... so I have more time and mental energy to burn on English and Math. Ergh. Oh well, that's what I get for being a procrastinator. And over the summer I'm looking to get a job that I can hold all through the end of high school as that I can start saving for college and life on my own. Which means a car, a better phone(preferably with GPS), an apartment, tuition, food, gas, and whatever else I need. Real life sucks.

Summer... or not

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It's MAY! It's MAY in stinkin' ALABAMA! WHY IS IT STILL RAINING and on top of that STINKIN' COLD!?! ok, mini rant over. Where weather is concerned any way. My sister has graduated, most schools are out, I've already had two finals, but i still won't finish school until JUNE! Ok, so my natural laziness might have something to do with that, but COME ON! Are you kidding me?! Now I'm done ranting.

All my stories are stalled, I have a sneaking suspicion this blog is basically just me yelling into the wind by now, despite what the numbers say on the post list, and I've already cleaned my room. Twice. School is stalled, except for (sorta) math, history, and Bible and my muse has either fallen asleep(like my cat) or run away so I'm stuck. I actually went on facebook today. FACEBOOK! I have got to be bored to do that. Course, I have to be bored to post on here now. My life is so boring and I have nothing smart, funny, or uplifting to say most of the time. Plus FaceBook doesn't give enough space for me to suffecently rant. Dad's back, time to scream.