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| So you'll never guess who preached at Lakeridge this morning. Well, I'm gonna brag.
Yeah. That's right. Tony Freakin' Campolo. Well, I'm done bragging. Please resume your regular scheduled nonsense.
Randall | | |
| So one of my old campers from last year is starting Landscape Architecture at A&M this semester. I'm not entirely sure about their program out there, but I know that at Tech, when I get board working late hours in the Architecture building sometimes I'll walk over to the Landscape building and go talk to those guys and see what they're doing. So I know they've got a pretty crappy schedule, too. Anyway, this guy asked me for any advice, and this is what I told him. (Warning, this is long, but it's worth the read if you're in a hard major.)...(Oh, and it does have a badword at the end, so if you're offended by my spelling out BS, then don't read the end.)...
1. Forget sleep. I know that sounds like a joke, but it's not. I typically sleep every other night during the semester and then every third night during midterms and finals. It's not as bad as it sounds. It will take some getting used to, but it's not to bad once you get going. I'd be willing to bet it may be 2nd or 3rd semester before this happens, but it's probably coming.
2. Take care of yourself. Go buy these three things before you go down there and take them daily. Centrum High Performance, Vitamin-B Complex (Or just vitamin B-12 if you can't find the complex) and Odorless Fish Oil. I know that sounds weird, but it will help you get motivated, keep going, and it will keep your bloodpressure down if you have to start pulling all-nighters.
3. Don't do Rush. In the grand scheme of it all I'd say be friends with the frat daddies but don't waste your time buying beer and driving the drunks home from all the parties. That's all you'll do as a Freshman in a fraternity and all it does is screw up your GPA. In the grand scheme of it all you're paying for their beer and doing all the dirty work so that you can screw up your potential. If you work hard in college you'll have the rest of your life to party. Don't party too hard in college or you'll spend the rest of your life working hard for some other guy who didn't party.
4. Find some kind of ministry where you can get plugged in. You'll need the support. You'll need friends who are willing to bring you a pizza at one in the morning or call you at 8 and make sure you're up. You also need to find one that's a little bigger so that if you can't make it every week they won't be hurt by your absence. This could be a sunday school class or the Wesley or the BSM or CRU or whatever.
5. Start watching HGTV. I know that sounds gay, but that's the best way to get new ideas and it should be a good motivator. I always think about how these people are getting payed out the nose to tell other people how to fix/build their house/garden/yard. Try to imagine how cool it would be to be the designer.
6. Buy a sketchbook and use that as your notebook. I'd imagine this will be required anyway, but if it's not, its a great habbit. If you're bored out of your mind in class, draw. If you see something cool, draw it or take notes on it.
7. Do whatever it takes to be the best. The best get internships. The mediocre spend the rest of their lives drawing up other people's plans and ideas. If this means staying home on a friday night to do your horticulture or biology homework, do it. Like I said earlier, if you work hard in college you can party hard for the rest of your life and afford to do it. Besides there's always that off weekend or spring break, or summer, or Christmas that you'll have freetime to hang out and do whatever. You'll enjoy it more. A's Stay. B's skate by. C's go home. Remember that.
8. You're gonna have to study. Learn to make flash cards out of note cards or make a powerpoint presentation that serves the same purpose. You're gonna have to study. Welcome to college. And by study I mean make a card for everything you can find and memorize all of them word for word. This takes hours but it's how you get an A.
9. Get iTunes. It's your best friend. When you're drafting a yard at 2 in the morning it helps to have hours of music to listen to. Also, there's a program called myTunes redux. Get it. Instead of streaming other music off the server you can download it. It's across the network so it's not illeagal and it can't be traced. I have 100+gigs of music because of this program. There's never a time that I don't have what I want to listen to.
10. Learn to get along with other people. Designers work in teams, not as individuals. That's the one bad thing about HGTV. It's not entirely true to life. While it shows the designer to client relationship it doesn't show everything that happens back at the office. Group work is crucial.
11. Make friends with all the people who are good at what they do. If there's a guy in your intro to Landscape class who is 100 times better than you'll ever be, find something in common with this guy and start hanging out. Do your homework with this guy.
12. Also make friends with your TA's and with people in grades ahead of you. Later on it helps to have someone to look at your work and give you advice who knows more about design and Landscape than you do.
13. Learn to seperate yourself from your work. Your work is going to be insulted torn apart, made fun of, used as "a perfect example of what NOT to do" etc...They are not talking about you. They are talking about your work. This is VERY hard to learn, but if you want to make it you have to learn it quick. You'll be beat up and have your feelings hurt and you'll drop three weeks into the program if you don't learn it.
14. If you have to take any art classes do your best and once again hang out with the really good people. Also always ask your teacher what else you need to do or change. And don't be offended when they tell you. Don't take it personally, just do what they say, try to learn, and do what it takes to get the A.
15. Don't cheat. You will be caught. I'd rather see you get a D because you suck than get kicked out because you cheat.
16. It's hard work and it's more than most people are willing to do. Don't be scared, don't drop, be proud. You can handle it.
17. Take it a day at a time or an assignment at a time. Don't think about the whole big picture or you will go crazy.
18. Look at what everyone else is doing. Find a way to do it, make it your own, and then add something extra that makes it better. That's how you get an A.
19. Learn to talke about what you did. Learn how to tell people how you thought about your project. It takes practice. Listen when other people are talking, and listen when your teacher talks. Pay attention. There's lots of new vocabulary to learn. You learn it by using it and using it well.
20. Get your friends on www.architorture.org I'm on there and lots of my friends are on there, and there's lots of help to be had if you'll just ask. My screen name is your_momma7911. I post more than almost anyone.
22. Find magazines and books about Landscape and design and start looking at the pictures. Take it all in. If something is cool, draw it or read about it or cut it out. Figure out what makes it cool.
23. Don't ever use the words "cool" or "nice" or "beautiful" or anything subjective like that in a critique. You'll look like an idiot.
24. Don't give up.
Well, I know that's a lot, but I'd suggest you read it all and print it out our save it somewhere. You'll need it to get through. There will be bad days where you'll need it. Your first bad critique, your first time to be made fun of in front of everyone, the first time you have a project you don't want to do, the first time you have a project you don't understand, the first time you have a project you can't make a first move on, the first time you have a professor that sucks or a class that you hate, you'll need this list. And whatever you do, think about what it takes to finish strong, and do it. If you have to take a bunch of (pardon my french) bullshit classes to get your degree, take the bullshit classes and get A's. Do what it takes to finish the job.
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| I must confess. My favorite music is old, stuffy church hymns written by the likes of Charles Wesley, et. al. I like it old, traditional, and stuffy, typically performed to an astonishing pipe organ and sung by a well trained chior wearing robes. I'm going to go listen to some hymns now as I drift off to sleep.
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| Everyone knows John 3:16. At least if you live in the Bible-Belt. But how many people have actually read it from the Bible and not on a bookmark or an "inspirational" coffee mug or a website or any other source? How many people can quote John 3:16 but have never read the following verse? John 3:17 is my favorite verse of the Bible. In the NIV it reads "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
The reason why I bring this up is because Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas is sending a group of protestors to little, old Lubbock, Texas tomorrow to protest the funeral of Andrew Velez. Andrew died in Afghanistan last week only two years after his brother Freddy Velez died in Iraq. So now this family that has lost their two sons, as if that isn't enough, has to endure the inane protests of this fringe group of radical Christo-retards.
I have been fuming all day. I am frustrated and confused and despondent. How could anyone be so evil? How could anyone defame the name of Christ like that? What kind of heretical eisegesis could possibly bring you to the conclusion that you must parade around outside of funerals while families mourn the loss of their loved ones whom they haven't seen in months? Not only that, but they profess that God HATES homosexuals so much that he lead their son to death. Their son wasn't even gay. But their hatred of gays is so strong, is so blinding that all they can do is stand there seething and displaying their hate-filled signs.
And the arrogance is appalling. WHO ARE THEY to say that God hates gays with so much anger that he is killing straight men fighting for their country? WHO ARE THEY to display signs that say that God is our ENEMY?!! WHO ARE THEY to spew so much hate under the banner of God? They have forsaken and defamed the name of the Lord. The have been too busy thumping their Bibles to read them.
And on that note, don't you think that if God "hated fags" so much that he would kill innocents as punishment that he would have put a little more about that in our Bible? Don't get me wrong. I fully understand that homosexuality is a sin. I also know that if you refer back to John 3:17 it plainly states that He "did not send his son into the world to condemn the world."
TD Jakes said that "I don’t believe that there is anything beyond salvation that’s
any more important for people to have in their life than leadership. Leadership is critical...
Jesus came and he came and he came to show
Himself
in a human form -- God in a human form -- to us. Ultimately, he went to the cross and died for our sins.
He could have made a beeline from the cradle
to the cross, if all he came to do was to die. If all he came to do was to die, he
could have made a beeline from the cradle to the cross, but that wasn’t all he
came to do. Before he left, he came to plant a seed of leadership in the lives of
twelve men, and that seed was so potent that eleven men carried it into the
foundation of the Church, and even after Christ, who, himself was a seed, even after
he was buried into the earth, those men continued to bring forth fruit in their
lives, because they understood leadership
Christ
did not carry around twelve men for three years just so that they might
be evangelized. He carried them for three years so that they might be
discipled, because discipleship is critical. Discipleship is more then
grounding into your heart the foundations and the fundamentals of the
doctrine."
How is spewing off hate-filled diatribes showing the world anything about God or Christ? How does that bring glory to God? These ideas aren't even close to acceptable doctrine. In fact they are heretical at best. There is no leadership here. There is no fruit bearing. There is nothing but shallow, empty, uninformed hate.
And what happend to Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27? Not familiar? 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' Let's not forget the last part there. WITH ALL YOUR MIND. Who in their right mind would buy into this crap? And not only that, but who would drive from Topeka, Kansas all the way to Lubbock, TX to spread this filth? No one bearing the image of God. No part of the Kingdom of God.
I will close this post by posting a story from one of our local news stations. As you read it I want you to consider which group is doing God's work. The "Christian" group from Westboro Baptist in Topeka, Kansas or the secular Patriot Guard.
**And as one quick side note I'd like to mention that Westboro Baptist owns and opporates the website GodHatesFags.com if you want to study up on their Kookery.
8/2/06
Patriot Guard Rallies in Support of Fallen Soldier's Family
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Even
though a law is in place to keep protestors back, one group is going to
make sure the Velez funeral services go off without a hitch. A group
formed nation-wide, called the "Patriot Guard," has found their way to
Lubbock to honor and protect the Velez family from protestors. One
member of the group, Steve "Shooter" Brooks says, "It's a shame we have
to do something like this, but they keep talking about their rights and
they do have their rights, but it's the Veterans that gave them their
rights." 300-to-500 motorcyclists are planning to line the
street to block protestors from causing harm or embarrassment to the
Velez family. The Patriot Guard will line up in a single file line
across the street, they will each hold a flag and turn their back to
the protestors. The reason, they want to put all of the honor toward
the fallen solider Andrew Velez. The purpose of the group is to make
such a tight line that it will be nearly impossible to see protestors
through their bikes, flags, and many supporters. Steve says, "We'll
turn our best side to them and just ignore them and if they get loud we
can start bikes and drown out anybody." The Patriot Guard
did call Roy Velez, they prayed together and then got the blessing from
the family to make the protective line.
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| Well, it's been almost a month, so I suppose I'm long over-due for a new entry. This has been a very, VERY busy month. Right after my last entry I went off to be a councilor for my 7th year at OneWay 6/7. This year I got to teach a Biblestudy which was very rewarding.
Then, the next couple of weeks after that have been UBERbusy. I've gone to weddings, I've played golf, I got commissioned for my first real, paying architecture job. I've been in the hospital, my wife has been in the hospital, and I've managed to work full time on top of it all. I know that's a bit of a brief catch up, but that's all the time I want to spend on that. I'm gonna spend the next hour or so writing up a few entries which I will post daily for the next few days, and most of this hectic life crap will be included there with better detail. So be on the lookout. I may even post the first entry tonight as well, so if you're lucky you'll get two entries in your xanga update email. And if your reading this on blogspot, well, just be on the lookout.
Randall <;))><
2 Timothy 2:15
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