Yeah that's right! I'm a geek.

Maximizer, ideation, strategic, learner, command.
I am a trustworthy, authentic, and confident man of God.  
My mission is to engage, restore, and achieve excellence in myself and others.


This year, I am thankful, beyond any sort of doubt, for how much God has taught me about life, love, and who I am to become in His light.  I have gone through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows this year.  I was in the most life changing romantic relationship I have ever experienced.  I got my first real job.  I worked with an incredible team of leaders at a children's ministry camp.  I attend the greatest school I have ever stepped foot on.  The people I have met here, the way they follow God so passionately is beautiful. Being in Azusa, I realized the power in Christian community.  We all have challenges and being able to share that so openly in a public environment is a powerful experience.  In a secular school, you may learn a lot about who you are and how God is shaping your life before your eyes, but I strongly believe that you will never really find deeper relationships and vulnerability than in a college campus like Azusa Pacific University.


Seeing how I've changed, I wanted to reflect on some of my favorite episodes of my life.


Injuries:
The great hand explosion - I'd like to say I am a miracle child with this one.  From my memory (my parents say the story a little different), I was walking around at church.  I was only 3 years old and my parents were doing some sort of worship thing if I can remember.  My mom handed me here car keys and being any smart youngster, I knew that keys got plugged into things.  I didn't know they were for the ignitions of cars.  Lo and behold, a wall socket lay right in front of me. I thought to myself, "perfect for a key!"  Next thing I know, I'm blown across the room and I can see the bones of my left hand next to seared skin and blacked charred muscles and tendons.  I don't remember anything after that.  I've been told that the doctors said I would have no feeling and limited movement in my hand the rest of my life.  Also, the electrical current somehow hit a bone between my middle and index finger and stopped the power from going straight to my heart and killing me instantly.  Today, I have full feeling in my left hand and have no scars at all.  Miracle child, no?


For the sake of time, I'll spare you these stories.
4 years old - split head open trying to do flips on the couch, landed on our marble coffee table
9 - hit in the face with a baseball, pretty much shattered my nose
10 - hit by jet ski because the driver didn't know how to stop
11 - split my shin on a dolly because I fell off a temporary wall and landed on the edge
15 - busted tail bone snowboarding, then made it worse by falling down stairs
16 - first time on a longboard, went down a hill. Intense raspberries. Enough said.
16 - pulled a superman on my snowboard, landed from about 8 feet flat on ice.  Still pain today.


Ironically, I have never actually broken a bone.  Just something to think about.


Ok, now some geeky stuff about me.  I've always been into video games.  I'm scarily good.  But I'm a very social player nowadays.   I may be playing a game for hours on my own, but if somebody wants to play a multiplayer party game, I'm way down for that.  I wasn't always that way though.  When I was five or six years old, I would set my alarm at 3:00 am and sneak off to the living room to play Super Nintendo.  Not joking about the age either, I am very very strategic and when my mind is set on something, there is no stopping the freight train of trouble.  My first time sneaking to the Nintendo I got caught because of the volume. The next night, I did the same thing, but this time, I turned the volume all the way down right when the TV turned on.  I got caught that time too, but I still remember multiple nights of getting away with it.  Even to this day, I can stay up all night if I have a videogame to play.  It isn't even a challenge for me.  I've pulled videogame all nighters several times, mostly playing one game.


Since the Super Nintendo was so engrained in my brain, I can tell you every single secret on every level for Super Mario 1, Super Mario 3, Super Mario World (yes there's a difference), and Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, and 3.  I consider DK 2 and 3 my speciality.  I know where every single hidden secret barrel is, every DK Koin, and every shortcut to every level.  And remember, this was all before the days of the internet.  No cheat codes this time, champ.


My favorite games, new and old, are Super Mario World, DK Country 2 and 3, Strike Gunner, Halo, Age of Empires 2 Gold Edition, C&C Generals Zero Hour, and Combat Flight Simulator, Amped Snowboarding, NFL Street 2, and of course Dance Dance Revolution!


Wow I realized that I went from wanting to talk about my life and the fun stuff that's happened, and all I talked about was video games.  Good thing I work at Gamestop. 


Well, love it or not, I'm a geek and nerd. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Peace.

Not so typical day at work.

Today was Gamestop's last day for our store.  I worked the full day from open to close. It was my first time doing this but it was well needed because I am not available the whole rest of the week.  Anyways, the whole day goes by, super busy with the closing sale and all but at around 4:30, a guy walks in with a big case of beer.  I was assuming he was going to pick up MW3 like the rest of our average customers.  
He walks right up to me asks who owns the Audi with an Idaho plate on it.  I told him I do and asked why.  He looks me deep in the eye and asks how much I want for it.  I laughed and told him that there's no way I would sell my baby.  He then asks how much it would take for him to drive it away tonight.  This guy wasn't even joking! He was literally offering me a few thousand dollars cash on the spot for me to give him my car keys.  I told him the only way I would get rid of that car is if I had enough cash to buy a UR-Q (a really nice classic Audi).  He just laughed at me.  

I asked him how he saw my car and he said he had seen it a few times around town and had been trying to find out who owned it for some time.  Turns out this little stalker of mine, he was like 5' 5" by the way, he was a Volkswagen Audi collector.  He knew every little detail about my car, it's history, engine, specs, and other random stuff.


We discussed my car for like ten minutes or so and eventually told me about a show he says I should bring my car too, I told him it wasn't near show quality but he said that most people start that way to begin with.  I don't think I will follow through with it but it is fun to think about.  I love my car.