Monday, November 23, 2009

A Few Updates

The past couple of weeks have been rather devoid of noteworthy action, yet there are a few things worth mentioning. Since there hasn’t been anything that would make a particularly compelling story on its own, I’ll just give a list of some of the things I’ve been up to.


  • I think I’ve settled on a church, which is nice. I’ve gone there the past month, and all aspects are up to par, so I think I’m sticking. It’s called University Covenant Church, a member of the Evangelical Covenant denomination. Pretty similar to what I’m used to, except a lot bigger. It’s cool.
  • I photographed a gospel choir concert at the request of some friends in the choir. I was up on stage and everything taking close-ups during the performance, so that was a unique opportunity.
  • I attended a bonfire with one of the fellowships I’ve been going to. College-aged guys looking for lady friends should check out college Christian fellowships. The ratio is 2-4 girls for every guy most of the time. Not what I’m looking for, but worth noting.
  • I took my second round of midterms. After a less-than-stellar first round, this set went very well, hopefully bringing me back on track for As. I still think it’s rather deceptive to call them “mid”terms when they are placed at the 1/3 and 2/3 points in the quarter.
  • I have passed an invisible threshold so that it is now difficult to go somewhere without seeing people I know. I counted up all the names I’ve learned, and I’m currently sitting at 108.

One of the cooler busses available for students to ride around Davis.
  • I’ve continued to attend three weekly college fellowships, and two small groups. While I probably won’t be able to sustain this kind of commitment long-term, it’s been awesome. God’s been showing me really great things through the different sources of input.
  • My bike broke, and I fixed it.
  • I’ve begun the process of trying to become a Resident Adviser (RA) for next year. For those who might not know what an RA is, they are basically a non-freshman student who lives in the dorms to assist freshmen with a variety of issues. They get free room and board, valued at around $12,000, which sounds like a sweet deal to me.
  • For those who are curious about protests in response to fee increases and what not, they have had minimal visibility on campus, and I really haven’t seen any. There have been some arrests, but it’s all been very peaceful. The really hard-core people take the bus out to Berkley to protest there.

That’s about all that’s been going on here. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family for Thanksgiving this week. They'll be coming up to get me on the way to my grandparents' cabin near Yosemite. Should be sweet.

Also, I’d like to thank everyone for the overwhelmingly positive response to the last post. People seemed to enjoy it quite a bit more than I expected, and I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to share it with everyone.

‘Til next time.


Thursday, November 5, 2009

A Conversation

This is a rather special post that may have a smaller audience than usual. It comes in an auditory form, which you can download below. If you’ve ever wanted to hear the life-story of a homeless person, then it may be worth the thirty minutes it will take you to listen to it. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting and inspiring.


To download the .mp3, right click the link below and select "Save Target As..." or "Download Linked File", or you can stream online by simply clicking the link.


Link


If the above link doesn't work for you, you can try listening at vimeo, 
here.


Here are a few pictures to provide a visual supplement.



This is George.





This is George's garden project. I'll vouch for him that it has seen better days. (see below)




George's garden in better days.


Music on interview:
"I Will Possess Your Heart" by Death Cab for Cutie
"Fear of Flying" by The Album Leaf


You can Google "George Swazo" if you're curious to read more about George.