Snowboarding Today

I am so tired! This was the first time I have been snowboarding in I think two years. I went with three other friends to Sierra at Tahoe and it was a blast. I am not as sore as I thought I would be but none the less I am very sore. The weather was not ideal, it was snowing the whole day, but I was so stoked just to be up on the mountain I didn't care. Man I miss snowboarding. I need to get some new pants though. I didn't bother to try my pants on before I went, so I found out once I got up there that I have gained some weight since last time I wore them. I had to snowboard with my pants unbuttoned the whole day. It wasn't really a problem though, they were tight enough in the hips that they stayed up, with the zipper up, without a problem. I am exhausted though, time for bed.

Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in
him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

I'm Still Here

Wow I have neglected this blog a bit. I just haven't had the drive to get on here and post recently. I want to keep it alive though so I need to keep at it.

So the Nova's motor is coming along. I have the intake manifold, starter, water pump, and motor mounts installed. I have a buddy who is willing to loan me a cherry picker so I hope to have the motor in the car within a week or two. I can do the remaining work needed even with it installed. Here is an updated picture of the motor.

From Blogger Pictures

On another note I have got back in the habit of playing Battlefield 2 online. I have even put an application in, along with my brother in law, to join a clan by the name of Iron Sharpens Iron. Their tag is [ISI] and they are a Christian clan. You can check them out here. They are pretty big and they have a lot going on so I think it would be fun to join up with them. If anyone plays BF2 you can find me as "christshippie" and I have the tag of RT*ISI right now showing that I am a recruit for [ISI].

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

The Motor

I have been busy since this semester is coming to a close but I wanted to let everyone know I have got the motor and have put it on my engine stand. I will probably start working on it tomorrow some time, I still need to get some gasket kits. Here is a picture of it in my garage, the intake manifold is just resting on it.

From Blogger Pictures

I have one more final on Tuesday and then I will have about a month off before next semester starts so I should be able to get a lot of work done in that month. Hopefully I will have it running by the middle of January!

Overwhelmed

I have put off more stuff then I should have. Finals are only about a week away and there are a few end of semester projects due this coming week. I have a bad habit of putting things off until last minute, which honestly is an environment I feel I thrive in. I think I came close to putting it all off for to long this time though. I have virtually been doing school work nonstop since getting out of class on Friday. I am pretty much done with everything at this point, just a couple small things left to get ready for tomorrows evening class and then preparing for a group presentation on Tuesday. So the pressure is starting to lift and I am thankful for that. Only a couple weeks until I get a month off.

Speaking of time off, I am still itching to take off on a road trip. I have even considered taking a couple week trip to slab city around the new year, I hear that is the busy time of year down there. I am still committed to making a summer out of traveling in a van. I am pretty sure it will be done alone at this point though. It would be nice to have someone to talk to for all the driving but I don't want to make plans based on someone coming with me and then have them back out on me last minute. Plus it will give me the freedom to do whatever I want without having to consult with a traveling partner. It will be a lot more expensive since I will have to pay for the vehicle and gas all by myself but I am faithful that God will provide if I take a step of faith. I think it would be so cool to travel the country in a van sharing the love of God with everyone I meet.

Talking of God, I went to a new church today. I found it through the Bible study I have been going to on campus. Two of the girls in the Bible study are the daughters of the pastor. It was a good message about the story of Christ's birth (it is Christmas season). I have to admit that I did, at first, feel a little out of place. The church is largely made up of people of Asian decent. I was one of only a few Caucasian people in the building. They were all extremely welcoming and by the end of the service I was feeling right at home. The congregation is not huge, but I was still amazed to find that they had a full lunch buffet set up for after the service. It was great, I especially liked the bakes spaghetti. I don't know if I will be a regular at this church but I am sure I will be there again sometime in the near future.

Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

International Student Outreach

I went to an international student outreach dinner tonight that was set up through Campus Crusade for Christ. It was a good time, good food, good people. The pastor that spoke had a wonderful way of relating how God looks at us. What he did was hold up a hundred dollar bill and ask who wanted it, everyone raised their hand. He proceeded to crumple it up and then asked again who wanted it, again all the hands in the room went up. He then threw it on the ground stomped on it and ground it into the carpet a bit; he picked it up and again asked who still wanted it, there was not a loss of people still wanting it. This is the way God wants us. It does not matter what condition you are in or what you have been through, God still wants you!

Proverbs 28:22 "A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him."

Old And New

Today I went and hung out with a long time good fiend of mine, Dek Bake. I have known this guy since the first day of seventh grade, which we reminisced about a little bit today. I hadn't really talked to him in quite some time and it was good to see him and chat. He will be in town at least through Christmas so we will have plenty of time to catch up, I know I have changed a lot since we last hung out.

On the new side I am going to a international student outreach tomorrow with some people I have met through the Campus Crusade for Christ group that meets at Folsom Lake College. They seem like a really good group of people and I am really looking forward to getting to know them all better. This is the first time in quite a while that I have felt a connection with a group of believers. One of the members is the daughter of a pastor who preaches at a local small church. They have invited me to it and I think this Sunday I will go check it out. There is something about this group of people, I feel like this is where God wants me to be.

1 Peter 3:10 "Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;"

So Frustrated

Well the night was going great. I watched the movie Expelled by Ben Stein, which was really good. Anyone that has not seen it should go check it out. I had planned on writing a nice little review about it but when I checked my e-mail I saw that my domain purchase had been completed, and so began the frustration. In my domain set up I am pretty sure that I want my domain to be forwarded to http://christshippi.blogspot.com which seems to work fine. You can type in the url http://christshippi.com and it will direct you to my blog. What I can't figure out is how to get it to where when you type in the blogspot hosted url it automatically changes to my custom url. When I have tried to go into my blogger publishing settings and changed to a custom url and then type in the blogspot hosted url it sends me to a page which states the blog is no longer at that url and asks if you want to redirect to christshippie.com, but when you click "yes" to redirect it again send you to the redirect page. It is all quite infuriating because if I can't get rid of the blogspot hosted url all together what really was the point of paying for a custom one? I am sure there is a way, maybe someone could give some pointers. I think I will call Casey in the morning, he is tech savvy and I'm sure would know how to fix this. Anyway I am tired and I think I have blown off enough steam to go to bed.

Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Super Busy

I have haven't got the motor yet but I have been busy sanding and re-primering the Nova. There were some spots that had minimal surface rust, no big deal. Then there is one spot that I knew had some bondo, and I am now realizing how much. The thing with bondo is that your only supposed to use it in very thin layers. Whoever did this obviously did not know that or did not care. I have sanded a good majority of it away and should be able to spread a very thin fresh layer just to fill the little cracks that developed due to the thick layer that was previously applied. I am hoping the motor will be here in a day or two, then the body work will be put off so I can get the thing running. I'll take some more pictures in the next couple days and show you the progress.

Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."