Justin's Blog

"Apples to Apples" is a game that I was introduced to the first day of the DOS assembly. It's a game in which all participants are given a certain number of RED cards, all of which have nouns on them. When everyone has their cards, each player then takes their turn.

Turns proceed like this: whoever's turn it is will flip a GREEN card, which will have an adjective on it. When everyone sees what that card is, they look at all their nouns, and choose a noun which they think will "go best" with that adjective. When everyone has played their cards (upside down to maintain anonymity), the cards are shuffled, and the person whose turn it is will pick the card they like the best. 

For instance, if it were Jeremy's turn, and he flipped a green card that was, say, "shiny," I would then choose one of my noun cards, like, say, "sun," and proceed to place it upside down in the pile. Each person does this, the pile is then shuffled, and Jeremy will pick the card he liked best.

The twist is, he doesn't have to choose the card that is necessarily the most accurate- he just chooses the one he likes best. Thus there is an interesting dynamic to choosing your card wisely; namely to gain the most recognition.

If your RED NOUN card wins, you then achieve and get to keep the corresponding GREEN ADJECTIVE card. (you would then draw a new red card to refill your hand, or else you would [predictably] run out of cards). The person with the most Green Adjective cards at the end, of course, wins.

So, here I have an example game with highlights. Today we played a game with the players (in alphabetical order):
Anna,
Ben,
Jared,
Jeremy,
Jordan,
Rachel,
and Rebecca Rose.

Rachel kept track for us of some of the more memorable combinations, which I will transcribe here as written- note the repeated dissimilarity between adjectives and their nouns; ones that gain recognition and win are often those that have NOTHING to do with their adjective:
Jordan won "weird" with His Dreams,
Rebecca won "virtuous" with Watching Football,
Rachel won "unhealthy" with Barney,
Jared won "handsome" with Creamed Corn,
Ben won "crazed" with 21st Century,
Jared won "cute" with Mold,
Jeremy won "heartless" with Cafeteria Food,
Jeremy won "fake" with Bill Clinton,
Anna won "shiny" with Michael Jordan,
Rachel won "furious" with Toaster,
Anna won "snappy" with Kilts,
Jared won "frazzled" with Mark Twain,
Anna won "tame" with Beauty and the Beast,
Ben won "smelly" with Prince Charming,
Jordan won "exhausting" with Celine Dion,
and finally,
Jeremy won "unnatural" with Milk Duds.
And now, here is the list of players, in order of their winning-ness, and what they won:
ANA in first place with 16!!!!:  The Revolutionary, Responsible, Explosive, Snappy, Earthy, Unusual, Insulting, Shallow, Tame, Squeaky Clean, Temperamental, Touchy-Feely, Influential, Shiny, Friendly, and Confused!
JEREMY in 2nd place with 14!!!!: The Wild, Primitive, Unreal, Graceful, Unnatural, Heartless, Creepy, Violent, Ridiculous, Fake, Dramatic, Swift, Distinguished, and Sweet!
and we have a 3-way tie for 3rd, all with 11 cards:
BEN: The Hilarious, Fragrant, Zany, Crazed, Weird, Worldly, Smelly, Spiritual, Sappy, Scary, and Quiet!
RACHEL: The Visionary, Unhealthy, Funny, Furious, Speedy, Foreign, Silly, Industrious, Eternal, Popular, and Intelligent!
and
JARED: The Tough, Frazzled, Fancy, Refined, Crazy, Cute, Sultry, Important, Hardworking, Handsome, and Expensive!
in 4th we have REBECCA with 9: The Delicate, Virtuous, Easy, Relaxing, Spooky, Repulsive, Sensitive, Spicy, and Spunky!
And in 5th we have JORDAN with 7: The Saintly, Selfish, Smart, Disturbing, Radiant, Exhausting, and Fresh!!!
Jordan would like me to point out that he had to leave partway through, and thus deserves the benefit of the doubt.

So anyhow, this has been a quick overview of our game today; Hope you enjoyed these adjectific-nounarific paradoxically mesmerizing combinations!!

If you just take a look at this post, you realize that there is a lot there, and would take a long time to read. Because of this, I have it subdivided into basic categories, so you can feel free to read or not read whichever part interests you.

Because St. Peter the Aleut Camp of 2008 included so many different activities in different orders, I won't even try to chronicle it in the same way I did with the DOS assembly. Rather, I'll just go through some highlights and main activities.

There were four main groups: A, B, C, and D.
A=younger girls
B=older girls
C=younger guys
D=older guys

I was the junior councilor for group C, the young guys; the group that tended to show the most energy, and alacrity.

Having established this, here were the main activities: blobbing, canoeing, and sailing; archery and riflery; horseback riding, and another activity called "what d'up," as well as a hike up Johnson's peak and "Little Mt. Athos." Finally came the skits and talent show. I will now go into more depth on these topics:

Blobbing: Here was a very, very popular sport. It's intense, it's dangerous, and its funner than fun. The blob is a giant oblong balloon in the water. At one end is a tall platform, from which people jump onto the balloon. Have you ever jumped onto a bed that someone else was already on? Or plopped down on a beanbag which had previously housed a small toy? Note how the opposite object tends to fly away. The same effect works with the blob. Get someone on the far end, jump from the platform onto the blob, and they are flung high and (less often) far into the water. Of course, we would pair up small with tall whenever we could, to achieve maximum blobbage effects. As a matter of fact, Jeremy (my younger bro) was doing flips, beginning a trend, until it was put to a quick stop by a safety conscious overseer.
Oh well.
The Blob created many heroes of the high-fly. Namely the tiny Marat (he shoots in the air similar to a bullet); "Spaceman Spiff," for which he was given an award of the same name; Jeremy, who received the award for acrobatics; and Joanna, who flew much in the way that bricks don't.

Moving along to
Canoeing: For the guys (in whose group I was) this was a sport all about tipping each other's boats. I am very proud to say I was never tipped. Oh wait, yes I was. Anyhow, me and Marat (one of the high fly-ers) were in one boat for the first part, and he was such an adept that he achieved the Master Canoer award. After that, though, myself and a different member of group D, named David, spent most of our time going around using our canoe to right-side-up other canoes. That's an interesting process right there. Often very difficult- especially when most of Group C is determined to keep the boats keel-up. David can attest to this.
We met up with the girls later and were told that they didn't flip even one of their boats even once. At all. Obviously we found this superbly boring. But what was entertaining about their canoeing experience was this: the guys were at archery at the time of the girls' canoeing, and each team had a walkie-talkie to communicate to each other with. So we were there, shooting our arrows peacefully, when we hear the talkie blare: "Sam, Mr. Bean! We need those canoes to come in; they are WAY TOO FAR out!!" (and I didn't make up those names). We all burst into laughter and joked with the girls about it later. Namely right after they boasted of their non-tippage.

Next up is
Sailing: No wait, I'll save sailing for last. It's much too priceless.

So the real next up is
Archery: At the archery station were four bows- two longbows and two compound bows. Group C's head councilor was John. John never shoots bows. John held his bow and arrow wrong for his entire first round.
John is a very, very good archer. He hit bullseyes nearly every time, at which he was more astounded than we were. The other good archer in our group was Alex. Unlike John, Alex has a bow at home that he uses, and he was hitting close to center every time without apparently trying. I myself did okay but not splendid- at least they all hit the target instead of flying away. But keep in mind, everything I've discussed so far is with the longbows, whose strength in the shot is proportional to the strength you pull it back with.
Round 2: the compound bows. I walked up, but the longbows were taken, so I had to go with compound. A compound bow will deliver the same amount of strength regardless of the user (providing you actually pull it back all the way).
I think the compound bows were about two-pounders, because when I loaded and fired my first arrow, I think it made a sound something like Plthlthlbbtt as it slid to the ground a foot short of the target. It took me forever to get one to actually hit the target, and then not to bounce off. The same thing happened for John and then anyone else who attempted to hit the target using a bow that was probably designed for the occasional 3-year-old who attended camp.
Oh and before leaving the area of archery, Daniel got a bullseye too. . . .
ahem

NEXT is
Riflery: For riflery we were given the opportunity to blow up balloons that we would shoot (blown up inversely proportional to our confidence in our own shooting) and also to have targets behind them. Most were able to pop their balloon on the first shot. Alex, the good archer, blew his balloon up to a reasonably small size, but something interesting happened when he shot it. Unlike everyone else's, which exploded when hit, Alex's sort of sizzled out after he shot it. We saw afterwords that he had actually managed to graze the side of his balloon in a long streak of black, which left only a tiny hole for air to escape. He kept the balloon.
Another poor guy couldn't shoot his balloon at all, despite his many attempts. So there it was, fluttering about, tied to its little post, waiting for something interesting to happen, looking as nervous as a balloon can look, but it still wasn't shot. On our last round of firing, however, the person next to him (Dan) was apparently tired of seeing the taunting balloon. So as the poor balloon-misser was reloading his last bullet, Dan stealthily shifted his gun, fired, and shifted back into his own position- all in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Dan never was good at keeping a straight face, so when the unfortunate shooter realized his balloon was gone, he only hesitated a second before realizing that the person next to him (who was beginning to laugh hysterically) was probably the culprit. We were all laughing by that point too.

And now for
Horseback Riding: The most interesting thing about the horses were their attitudes. As the YMCA staff member informed us just before, these horses had been exposed to three weeks of loud girls riding them up and down the trail, so they were rather irritable. My horse (Mr. Echo) was especially unhappy. He grudgingly did what he was supposed to do, but he made it quite clear that it had nothing to do with my promptings. Anytime I told him to do something, he would just toss his head and ignore me, only to do it "of his own volition" a few seconds later.
Jeremy was just disobedient with his horse, straying from the line for a detour around the stable. When they told him not to, he blamed it on his horse, who had conveniently just found a puddle of water. Clever. Besides that, the horses were not too amazing (nothing against horses, but these horses were very tired and out of sorts, and we tried to keep things very mild for their sakes).

Now,
What D'up: No, I have no idea what d'deal is with this name, that's just what they called it. Basically, we went to an outdoor basketball court caged in by tall fencing, and played ultimate frisbee and knockout; both fun games, but nothing really to remark on. . . . besides that my team always won. . . just kidding.

Finally,
The Hikes: We had two hikes: one up JOhnson's peak, the other up Little Mt. Athos. We hiked up Johnson's peak by groups, with me, of course, leading team C. I had "Dan the Man" right next to me the whole time, acting as assistant junior councilor, as usual. Most of the hike included me keeping Group C's conversation to the relatively mild topic of their political positions within group C. (some of these positions included vice president, secretary of state, undercover security, Iron Man, and "the dog treasurer who likes to wear red suits but doesn't really have spiderman's powers") For me the hike included getting to talk a lot more with Dan about stuff in general. 

The second hike, up Little Mt. Athos, included many memorable parts, including the ride over. After the hike up, we found a hermit on Little Mt. Athos, standing on the edge of the cliff overlooking the lake, loose hair blowing in the breeze like his black robes, holding his gnarled old walking stick in hand. He had a striking resemblance to one of the priests there at camp, but that's besides the point. He gave us a talk about life, relationships, and prayer, after which we continued to walk around the cliff sides, always keeping in mind the "3-foot-rule", meaning no getting within 3 ft. of the edge. We also balanced water bottles on our heads. The way back was also interesting. 

And nooooow,
Skits!!!!: At the beginning of camp, we were put into "skit groups," which throughout the rest of camp discussed and prepared a skit for the final day- the theme for camp was "Godly relationships," meaning with friends, family, others, etc. Each group was led in its skit-making by the Junior councilor. There were 5 skit groups (and thus 5 skits- yay for math). Skit 1 was "what not to do at a wedding," a very humorous account filled with marriage messups. Skit 2 was "A day in the life of Fr. Antonio," in which a different priest played the part of Fr. Antonio, and a brief story was given of Fr. Antonio's bringing religious articles across the border to Mexico (with the part of the Bishop's Miter played by a plastic tub of twizzlers). Skit 3, one of the funniest, was Noah's Ark, the alternate story; it went quickly through Noah's experience twice- once with Noah (played by Alex) as a jerk, and the second time with "Godly relationships," as it really happened. I think I laughed the hardest on that one. (it is needful to note here that a certain member of group C was shanghaied into the part of Mrs. Noah- a part which he was very reticent to take, but performed admirably. For this he was given the "Best Actor award." I had a very hard time not giving him "Best Actress"; but I digress). Skit 4 (my skit- que trumpets) was about a day in the life of the mafia family- a normal family by other standards, but also part of the Italian mafia, at war with the French mafia; this included dramatic scenes (thank you James) of incredible depth of character. . . or something like that. Many Thanks to Joanna for saving the day with the bleu cheese souffle! Skit 5 was about Snow white and the (deep breath) two-dwarves-three-humans-and-two-giants. The motley crew is always fighting about their respective sizes, until Snow White shows up and conquers the poison apple (given to her by a diabolical Gollum puppy) by splitting the apple up to give to all her friends.
And THAT is all the skits.

Talent Show: Alright, the talent show had so many different things going on, I doubt I'll remember them all- but please comment on any left-outs. Alex played the guitar with an accompaniment of two singers; a very nice piece for which he achieved the Jimi Hendrix award. We also had our youngest camp member- a 9-year-old girl- sing "Jesus take the wheel" as a solo! Wow! We were all astounded at her bravery. (Unfortunately, I couldn't get this out of my head while she was singing). She did very, very well, especially for her age. We also had a Jewish dance, danced by Joanna (who taught the rest of us), her sister Abby, Rachel, Cristina, Ben, and myself. It was accompanied by music, but apparently those not in tune with the depth of the song are unable to hear it at all. . .
Joanna also did the human jumprope (using her arms as a rope), a group of us sang "Cristos Anesti", Rachel and Ana sang Celtic songs, and Ana even did a solo song as well. One of the most memorable spectacles of the talent show was Mary singing a song that she wrote- she's only 12!!! She got a songwriter award for this one. Her and another friend of hers, Caroline (also Snow White) also sang another song together. What else? Ah yes, Jeremy did a backflip, and Jenny (who played the part of the French Mafia) showed her profound one-handed clapping ability. Okay, and one of the biggest events of the talent show (I saved this one for last) was the "Ah" play: a play in which the script's only word is "Ah." This was done by Rachel, Joanna, Rosa, and Abby, and in three different speeds. It got many, many, many laughs; and we made them repeat it twice upon returning to our house.

AND FINALLY,
SAILING: Quite possibly one of the most beloved activities of camp this year. We went sailing twice- once was with all the guys (groups C and D) and the other time was with all the olders (groups B and D). The first time, some of the kids of group C got a bit carried away and didn't return when signaled, so they had to send a motorboat out to tell them to come back in. When they got somewhat close, many of the kids in a boat (3 max in a boat) bailed, leaving Dan by himself to handle the rudder and boom and to tack in the wind and keep the boat headed for shore- all of which he did. I'll never forget the image of Dan, sitting erect in all his glory, one hand on rudder, the other holding the rope of the sail, tacking through the wind as he cruised up towards the shore for all the world like another Jack Sparrow. He glided on in, pulled up the rudder, removed the dagger board, and popped out of the boat like it was easier than walking. For all of this, and for being my assistant junior councilor, he got the Master and Commander of the Caribbean award.

The second time we went out sailing, it was all about the boat wars. Jeremy stood on one prow and I on the other, and we dove for each other like bloodthirsty pirates. Actually, he dove for me, more like. So we spent our time flipping each others boats, pulling them erect, and sailing full speed for each other again, while the girls in a different boat looked on probably thinking "what morons" as they laughed to themselves. We also sang loudly for no reason and tried to gain as much speed as possible, also for no reason. All in all, it was a grand time.

OTHER EVENTS: Well, time would fail to tell of the many other things that became precious moments; playing soccer, making crafts, sitting around fires with smores, becoming part of the Liturgy and other services, and staying outside stargazing for as long as is allowable when you have to be up by 6:00.  We gave awards, we talked and talked, we played cards, we ate was was edible, and we did a multitude of other things, making every moment count as we could.

This has sort have been a long, and I really mean long, post. Still there are things unsaid, but, once again, there's always comments. (And congratulations if you actually had the fortitude to sit and read this BOOK about a small part of our camping experience).

Well, hello to everybody. That is the few people who would actually check a blog that hasn't been updated since the brontosaurus first realized he didn't have thumbs. Well I'm back, to blog about an incredible two weeks. There's so much to say I'm not sure if I should split this up or not; how about I just keep on typing, and we'll see where things go from there? Right.

Week 1 was the Diocesan assembly in Dallas, and Week 2 was the annual St. Peter the Aleut Orthodox summer camp. Both were events to remember.
First things first. Well this started on a Thursday, when we waited for our friends, Ana, Cristina, and Rosa, to arrive in "the north," that is, the Dallas-ish area. Which they did. From there for a few days we had a good ol' time watchin' movies and "a-makin' da souffle."
Tuesday morning, we went to St. Seraphim's where we reunited with Joanna and others of the St. Seraphim's crowd. We proceeded to choir practice, Vespers, and dinner afterwards with a good crowd.

Then things started speeding up for me.

After Vespers, I was told that the next morning for the hierarchical Liturgy (which included 2 ordinations- Axios!) I would be reading the hours, prokeimenon, epistle, and prayers of thanksgiving. I was flabbergasted enough to nearly decline the offer on the spot. I was given one quick runthrough that night on how different it was from St. Barbara's methods, and that was that. But things ended up well. . .Except that I read from the wrong chapter after being flustered about not being able to find the epistle/prokeimenon book. . . *ahem*

moving along

Soooo, after Liturgy Wednesday morning, we had a brunch upstairs of St. Seraphim's hall, where we once again had a grand ol' time; eventually, however, it was time to go to the hotel nearby to attend one of the workshops which were set up for the occasion. The younger ones swam on the hotel roof while we attended the Christian Education workshop, given by our very own Matushka Christine. We (which in this context will usually mean Ben, Cristina, Joanna, and myself) also went to the roof area to mess around on the workout equipment, which we did quite effectively. Mess around, that is; not work out. From there we went to a (very interesting) Chinese buffet dinner, and then back to the hotel. At the hotel our elders attended a talk given by Fr. Paul Lazor, while "we" went to a different talk given by Fr. Justin Matthews. Fr. Justin, in my opinion, gave a very effective talk which he made broad enough to reach the 12-to-21 year olds in attendance. The talk was mostly centered around the Romanian Fr. Calciu, who reposed in 2006.
Thus endeth the Wednesday.

And now, Thursday. After Matins in the morning and a quick (but very tasty) brunchfast, came the first of the plenary sessions, which I, as chosen delegate for St. Barbara's, attended as such. (while the rest of the "we" attempted to be able to hear, and, failing that since they were far away, entertained themselves with various ingenious methods). After round 1 of that, "we" went to Mexican lunch (Ben and I still in our cassocks- talk about stares) with Fr. Antonio, Ana, and one Mr. Nicholas Chakos, the IOCC development director, who talked during lunch with Fr. Antonio about their food pantry service in Pharr, Tx. After that came round 2 of the plenary sessions, which started with a brief but very moving talk by the same Mr. Chakos.

Okay, the sessions: I'll be as brief as is acceptable. The most notable and outstanding feature of these sessions for me was an event which started with a multitude of questions floored about the resolution of the "Kondratic controversy," at which point an interesting thing happened. While questions and concerns (all quite legitimate) were coming from every side, suddenly Archbishop Dmitri stood up. He and Abbot Jonah Paffhausen had been sitting in front of the crowd, overseeing events without yet having been involved. Archbishop Dmitri went to the microphone, and briefly cleared up and summarized the totality of his involvement in the situation, after which Abbot Jonah also stood and went to the microphone. This is where it got interesting. The entire room was hushed, while Abbot Jonah spoke at moderate length about the nature of the situation, how we should spiritually handle it, what it really meant for the OCA, how the OCA is really an adolescent in its time of existence, and ultimately that we should keep our focus on Christ, and thus break through troubling circumstances.

The entire room stood and applauded. All around there were interjections of "Axios!" ("He is worthy!"). Abbot Jonah had just quieted every concern or worry about this inflated issue in about 10 minutes. And I watched this thinking, hm. . . how interesting: this, if nothing else, is a final seal on Abbot Jonah's election to Auxiliary Bishop. And apparently everyone else was thinking the same thing, because when the time came, the entire room unanimously and animatedly shouted "Axios" to Fr. Jonah's election. (just to be clear; Abbot Jonah is, as Fr. Joseph Fester put it, unofficially official in his election to the position of Auxiliary Bishop- there are still processes to go through).

And so, after plenteous plenary session-ing (which I actually found more interesting than I had expected), "we" went to the Anderson's to prepare for the Banquet which would be at the hotel. We went to the banquet, sat with friends, listened to the exquisite music (which a little boy on the other side of the room either thought he knew the lyrics to or was supremely upset by) and ate fine foods. At the end, a young boy who was apparently Vladika's God-son helped accompany the musical group with his melodious fluctuations on a flute. That was a precious moment of silence from the crowd, who applauded raucously afterwards. Then came a talk by Fr. Paul Lazor, which was about Archbishop Dmitri, who's 85th birthday was impending. After that came a cake, with all candles included, and gifts for Vladika presented by our priest, Fr. Basil.

And so,

After that I had to go home with Jordan because the next day I had .. . .work grrrr. . . .That day, Friday, the "we" without the me attended a morning service, ate, and went to a water park with a lot of other people, and had a very good time. I regret missing that day immmmmmennnnnsellllllyyy. Especially the diving boards. I love diving and love almost just as much watching other people dive and do stuff; namely Jeremy bellyflopping or something. Anyhow, thus ended the Assembly.

You know, this is getting preeetty long, so the camp will come in the next post. I know I probably left out so much that happened or that still needs saying, which I hope will be supplemented in the comments section.

Okay, some random stories that will perhaps bring a little white to the Christmases (funny looking word, that) of some of us Texans, and maybe to others who "dream of" more than "see", a White Christmas:

These occur in Erie, Pennsylvania, where my family (on my Dad's side) abide. They also, incidentally, take place in our grandparents' yard, wonderfully white during the chilly months. Brief setting: good sized land, beginning with a rough road leading past fruit trees and grape vines to a fence. Behind the fence is the rest of the land- rolling hills traversed by a wizened old horse, an empty silo, the shell of a car, and, in the back, a bigger hill ('the hill') leading down to 'the creek' (a smallish water flow that thinned and widened alternately from a couple feet wide to perhaps 6 or 7 feet). All of this, at the time of these events, was covered in an even blanket of snow and ice, which found itself periodically hurled in small chunks toward unfortunate faces. And so,

There was the time (and this one was quite some years ago) that my older brother Jordan, our cousin Jimmy, and myself were down by 'the creek', wondering just how thick the ice was in a particular spot, and, more to the point, whether it would be safe to walk out on. Thus, in all our wisdom, we found rocks to pelt it with, and it held. We found bigger rocks, and it held. Finally, we found a boulder which took all of our combined effort (which, please realize, doesn't mean much in this context) to lift, and heaved it onto the ice. It landed with a tinnish crack and slid a few inches, but the ice held. So it had to be safe, right? Suffice it to say that Jordan and I were laughing a little as Jimmy with his wet shoe trotted back to the house to warm up. Who could've known that we had weakened it just enough with those rocks that the weight of Jimmy's foot would make it yield? Ah, well.

Another time, much more recently: we were all exploring the wonders of snow-lands, tossing flashlights in the air and finding them in the snow when they landed, bestowing uncalled for frost missiles upon each other just because, and other such frivolity. Ben was exploring the interesting mound of snow that was vaguely car-shaped. Here's a shocker: it was the car. (little sarcasm there- just making sure it didn't go unnoticed) Sooooo, he's on top, looking around, slowly taking each step, when phwoomp!! . . .and the Ben was gone. (a good schwump might have worked here as well, but I really like the swallowing feel you get from phwoomp, because it really did seem to swallow him). As you may have guessed, there was a moon-roof in that old car (perhaps not by design, but over the years, you know), which Ben had just discovered. When he extricated himself from the beast, doing his best to laugh with numb mouth-parts, we all had a good bit of merriment at the idea that Ben had just cleanly disappeared in a vehicular snow-mound.

And yet another, and here's a good'un: the hill is a wonderful place for snow-sledding. Crunchy snow, while not the slick speedy stuff, is great for snowmen and, incidentally, other structures. Our conniving (or I prefer the term engineeringly-ingenous) minds would not leave structurable snow out of the sledding equation. Suspects prese--. . . I mean, those who were present at the hill at the time: Engineering Ben, Jeremy, Rachel, Nicole (our other cousin, i.e., Jimmy's sister), and myself. And the device of the hour, a ramp of snow. Ben's idea initially, most likely. In any case, we first made sort of an uncomfortable bump, which evolved to a little jump, which proceeded to dangerous (but undeniably comic) proportions. We finally had a wonderfully sloped, wonderfully sized ramp. First contestant? Nicole. She prepared on the little circular sled (designed suspiciously like an aerodynamic trash-can lid) and set off with our pushes for speed. She was traveling at a respectable rate when she met the ramp. Her airtime would have shamed Rudolph. Or so it seemed to our awed selves. Imagine those movies where it appears that someone has just jumped a good few feet up, and then it jumps to a shot under them and they're cruising through the air at unrealistic altitudes.  That's what it was like. She flew high enough to flip totally upside-down after some unfollowable and unintentional acrobatics and landed in a way that would make any person cringe. We certainly did. Our brief cold fear that she must have broken her neck in that kind of landing left when she popped up with invigorated (if snow-packed) shouts of glee. Her face was frosty red and snow was still finding its way out of her hair, but she had apparently enjoyed the experience and the stunt had great spectator value, so, of course, we all proceeded to try what we deemed the "flippy-floppy-Nicoley-thingy."

In summary, our guardian angels need a raise.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Have a fantastic rest of the chilly season, or, if you're wishing for snow, either fly north or remember the accompanying shoveling duty and feel better!

Blessed Nativity to all.

           Whew, first blog post in a while. . . hope I remember where all the keys are on this device. . . here we go. . .

 

Well, we just finished the entire Harry Potter series, and overall I can say that I really enjoyed J.K. Rowling's works. Her plot was original and her characters were unique and believable; she also managed a difficult task for an author- she was able to introduce many characters in such a way that it was not tedious to remember them all since they had unique enough personalities not to be overly confusing. Her ability to weave her plot together was likewise intricate but clear. Concerning content, I'm impressed with Rowling's willingness to broach the concept of love as a dominating power; I wouldn't say that it is a new concept to use in a fantasy story, but I do believe that much of modern culture has begun to look at 'love' as a silly concept that has no power over cleverness and/or brutality. I enjoyed her ability to implant this reality into her works and concept of magic; she very strongly portrayed the power of love for others expressed through selfless sacrifice without letting sacrifice become a means for greater power, and also strongly portrayed love without making it sound like the romantic whimsies that have laced themselves influentially into the modern idea of 'love.' In short, I was refreshed by her ability to walk this line and to do so openly.

 

            While I'm on the topic of fantasy/fiction, I'll go ahead and name a few of the other authors and their works that I enjoyed.

 

Among the older of the writers, there are Tolkien and Lewis, whose Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia speak for themselves where quality is concerned. There are two main complaints I've heard here, respectively: the first is that LOTR is too lengthy, drawn out, etc., but one must realize he was attempting to create a mythology here- entire cultures and civilizations, a whole world with a setting supplied largely by his writing of their influences, histories, and literature. The second complaint is where the Narnia series is concerned, and basically says that it is religious propaganda. There are, I would think, two main points that could be addressed here, or two main standpoints from which to view this argument. The first thing I would say is that it is not the morals taught in this book that are likely to be the basis for complaint (bravery, self-sacrifice, family love, etc.- not too much to oppose there). Therefore, it is the fact itself that Lewis has interjected his beliefs into his works that are apparently the problem. This brings about the second point, which is that I don't believe it is possible to write a book without having your own

philosophy put into it. Everyone has a god, whether they realize it or not, whether they want to or not. Either it will be "science," or "mother nature," or something else. This pursuit and goal of theirs will inevitably be portrayed in their works.

Other author's works I've read: Terry Brooks, who has an incredible ability for originality and character development; Jonathan Stroud, whose Bartimeaus Trilogy I enjoyed immensely for its (once again) originality, humor, and complexity; and Robert Jordan, whose books I've only barely touched the surface of, but have enjoyed so far. I've also read and liked Christopher Paolini's Inheritance series, though there are a few points that nagged at me. The elves, basically, are the difficulty. Their relationship with the dwarves portrays the dwarves as naive, albeit heroic, pantheist whose religion only gets them into trouble and confusion, while the elves are a

somewhat haughty race of individuals who openly though penitently admit their own vanity. The elves, of course, are science-driven and believe only in what they can "prove" "scientifically"; i.e., no god allowed. In this way the books are subtly following Eragon's travel from "naive theist" to "enlightened atheist." This, again, is extremely subtle and not oft mentioned, but it nagged nonetheless. The other problem is that the animals in the book are put on the same level mentally with humans- not mental capacity really, but spiritually in a sense.

To clarify, when Eragon puts himself into the mindset of an animal, (via magic) he feels that animal's being, as though it were a merely less enlightened human, and thus for the rest of the book becomes vegetarian (like the rest of the elves) for loathing of harming a creature that apparently has just as much right to live as he does. But on the other hand Paolini does certainly have an intriguing and skilled writing style.

So aaaaanyhow, that's my little literary synopsis of some, that is, a few. . . a very small percentage. . . of the main fantasy/fiction books/series I've read. To get slightly back on topic, Harry Potter certainly has a favorbable ranking in my little list of enjoyed fiction books, and I'm glad to have read it.

Here's an interesting topic that I've read about in a few different sources, though I can't cite any off the top of my head (I think one of the places I read this was in one of the apologies of my patron saint, St. Justin Martyr).

Background: a way of overcoming the passions is to redirect/repent of what you do wrong, and direct it in the way it was created to go; that is, not casting it out totally, but using it as it was meant to be used when all was created. I don't remember where I've heard this, but I think I recall it from somewhere Orthodox; please stop me here if you have any objections/additions/changes to make to that statement.

The topic is basically the concept that nothing was created evil/wrong, and that which is the latter is merely a twisting or distorting or corrupting of that which was created good. So, some of these are relatively simple: drunkenness and gluttony are obvious misuses (wine to gladden the heart of man and bread to strengthen man's heart), anger, from what I've read, is supposed to be reserved for demons and such wickedness/activity; much good or harm can come from the ability to speak, of course, so that's another obvious one. The list goes on.

Now here's the tougher one (for me); what in the world was pride supposed to be? Is it a demented and bloated form of "dignity"? Perhaps, though these still seem a bit stretched from each other. Maybe, like anger, it is merely misdirected; maybe it is the honor, glory, etc. that man was created to ascribe to God, and has turned on himself. But pride still seems more complicated than self-glorification;  or is it? Perhaps pride is just that simple; self-glorification in its many forms.

But another thing I've read is that Satan's original falling was not in his own self-confidence or self-glorification, but inasmuch as he did not ascribe his lofty condition to God, and thus, by leaving his Creator out of the equation, became arrogant and fell. So here is another aspect of pride in man; not just in self-glorification, but also in self-confidence and self-attributing of that which is good in him.

So the conclusion I've reached is that (I suppose. . .) pride is essentially a misguiding of glorification and thanksgiving due to God, by attributing it to oneself. . . Any thoughts? This is a topic that could easily use a lot o' input, so please let me know if you've got any additions or subractions or changes or any thoughts at all in this area. (and if anyone happens to know any literary source for where I may have heard the original concept, that would be great too).

And if anybody has any ideas on pairing any other tricky sins with their original untwisted purposes, it's always good to know one more way of gleaning away the passions by seeing them for what they really are. (rooting out passions; another intriguing topic, that. Well, another blog for another day).

For instance, my desire right now to be extraordinarily lazy and just go to sleep eventhoughIgotplentyofsleeplastnight, is probably just a misguided use of the need for man to rest from much labor. . . though I wonder what to do about this sudden and overwhelming desire to eat vast amounts of chocolate. . .hmmm

Okay, I have something of a dilemma, and any advise from anywhere/any perspective is very welcome.

So here's the deal:
    For English 12 this year we have what's called a "Vocation Project"; basically, we have to find 8 sources (book/magazine), a person to interview, and a person for a questionnaire, and write a (lengthy) paper about a certain "vocation", or job/occupation/profession, that we want to go into. The problem? I don't know. That is, I don't know what it is I'll be doing.
       Since I was very young, my mind's always slipped up when I've tried to think about a future occupation; anytime someone popped the common question "so what do you want to do when you grow up?", I've always found my mind at a loss- not because I couldn't make a decision, but almost as if no choices presented themselves- my mind just seemed to slide off of any "profession" I tried to attach it to. This nearly started to worry me, until one day at St. Barbara's.
    We hadn't been going there for very long at all; in fact, we hadn't even been chrismated into the Orthodox Church yet. We were talking to Fr. Basil (before or after a service, I don't recall) as we often did, and the topic of seminary came up- a topic I hadn't given thought to before. He said something, almost a passing statement, like (and don't quote me on this), "I would recommend to anyone to go to seminary; not necessarily to become a clergy, but just for their own edification." And that was that- from that point it just seemed like a given; it was like, "oh, that's what I'm supposed to do." Clicked just like that; weird, I know. And it wasn't just because Fr. Basil had said it, but rather that he had provided the spark for realization. So from there, it was simply but quite solidly, seminary is step 2. And there were no doubts on that account for me anymore.
    Oh something to clear up: an Orthodox seminary, most certainly. Then of course came the next issue; which one? And what education to get before that? Well, those still need some consideration (and lots of suggestions would be wonderfully appreciated, I might add), and aren't the issue at hand.
    So, any suggestions? I suppose I could write the paper on the priesthood, but I've always been sort of hesitant to treat/talk about ordination as something you just decide to do (which is why you'll rarely hear me speak of it in that context.)
    Anyhow, Thank you to all who will give suggestions in this area, or in the area of pre-seminary preparations or even seminary choices. In fact, thanks to all who have read this far through!
    

    Wednesday: Father Basil gives Ben and I his copy of the King James Bible and tells us to open it randomly and begin reading to get used to that version since one of us will be reading the epistle Sunday when Archbishop Dmitri visits St. Barbara's. hmmmmmm

    Saturday: Father takes Ben and I aside and lets us know we're going to be tonsured as readers the next morning. Okay, he did make sure we knew that we could wait if we needed to, or thought we needed more time. . .

So Sunday came, after much practice. My tendency is not to get nervous
until just before the event, and go figure,faithful nerves as always, just so.
Nonetheless, things progressed smoothly, right through the tonsuring.

After this and prayers that Archbishop Dmitri read, he chose a random passage from the New Testament for us to read, the part I actually found the most unnerving. (the part when he was choosing a passage, that is). But as I began to read, my mind and voice went into chanting, and the nerves began to leave, just until I realized that at any point the shoulder tap would come. . . soon. . . eventually. . and it came, unexpectedly but at a good point to be able to stop naturally.

For that service, I also read the beatitude versed and the epistle. Ask any reader/chanter of the epistle, and he will tell you that no matter how many times you read the epistle, there will still be at least some nervousness (or if there isn't, there should be, as my godfather, Roy, says). Anyhow, here's me reading the epistle for the first time as a tonsured reader. My Godfather Roy is the one standing behind me.

Another thing Ben and I got to do was to sing the Eis Polla "trio" (quartet. . ?) with Father Basil and Nick. Though I had practiced all week with our Liturgy book, any time we practiced it at church there was one jump I could never get, until right before the service, when we practiced a couple of different ways. Fortunately, during the service we were able to get through just fine.

Finally, here is a picture of the newly tonsured with Archbishop Dmitri and Father Basil.

 

Take away the penguins in the above picture (okay and the aurora), and you get what we saw on just one small part of our Cruise to Alaska. But, I'll back up.

First, we flew to Vegas: lights are everywhere, buildings are huge and modeled after other buildings (pyramids, castles. . . New York), and some of the people in the casinos looked like they hadn't slept in a few. . . weeks. . .
   
After this, it was a drive to San Fransisco- We got to stop at the Grand Canyon, which was amazing. One quote they had put up there said something to the effect of "any idea of dimension disappears, and one is left with a troubled sense of immensity." And it's true- I didn't have even a hint of a guess as to how big it was; it was just everywhere. Quite intriguing.
    Anyhow, San Fran; I'm pretty sure if you flattened it out it would cover about half of California. I really don't know how our rental van survived what we put it through on that terrain. We all really enjoyed not only the scenery, but the weather; in fact, Ben was ready and set to hop out with his polka-dotted-handkerchief-on-a-stick and set up shop. We were also able to attend a Liturgy (in Slavonic) at the very Cathedral where St. John of Shanghai's relics are. That was awe-inspiring, and their choir really lived up to the setting.

    From there, we cruised- on the first day or so, the water was quite choppy, and the boat did some rocking; I actually enjoyed the recurring extra weight followed by weightlessness, but others were not so fond of the Dawn Princess's bobbings. Actually, after that, the weather was magnificent; without one storm in our way. We first stopped at Sitka, where we saw St. Michael's, the Bishop's house, and much of St. Innocent's very own handywork. After having read a biography on St. Innocent, many of the things we saw there were quite awe-inspiring for me.
    Then it was on to Juneau! Here, we saw St. Nicholas' (who's priest is Fr. Michael; don't get mixed up!) Another of our stops after this was Skagway, the population of which we more than doubled just by docking. It was a very interesting old gold-mining town with an incredible history.
    Our last stop was Victoria, where we had the privilege of looking through the Maritime museum, which has not only the most amazing ship models I've ever seen, but also is the home of the oldest working elevator in North America! And we got to ride in it! That's was pretty cool, and the 8 men operating the pulleys and ropes to get us up and down didn't even break a sweat. . . . that's a joke. . . I'm just kidding. (about the 8 men, not the sweat. . oh nevermind).

Anyhow, from there it was back to San Fran; but one of the best things of the whole trip were the people on board the Dawn Princess. The staff was amazing, and it was quite a challenge to find even 1 person from the USA, though there were about 1,000 staff. There were Romanians, Bulgarians, Mexicans, Australians, Martians (oh wait, no. none of those), Brazilians, and a whole arrangement of others from all over the globe, and they were all great. They were kind, funny, entertaining, and helpful throughout the entire cruise. The friends we made who were our age were mostly from California, and they were very neat. They also were kind, sincere, funny, and friendly, and we miss them all already.

Of course, there isn't enough room on a blog; actually, there isn't enough room in black and white words; to express what it's like to see what we saw. Places like Tracy Arm where we saw deep-blue crystalline looking icebergs and a huge glacier surrounded by mountains really defy words.
Coming back to Texas was cliche-ishly bittersweet. Though it was sad to leave all the vacationing behind, it was also nice to be home; I actually didn't realize how nice till we went to a Vespers service at St. Barbara's and I slept in my own bed again. Home sweet home, right?
   

I couldn't make up my mind, so I'll just go ahead and put this on here as well, also from Choir Camp, the last song we sang: Clap Your Hands,