Benjammin

Nest

2008-09-02T23:45:00.002-05:00

My mom told me about this corner desk at a moving sale for $15! I ended up buying it an now I'm reorganizing/cleaning out my room. I bought some posters of bob dylan, shawshank, and the clash. Amazon is slowing down, the shipping is outrageous and I have to wait a week and a half. Utter bogadociousness... nhl 08 is amazing. I'm attending what should be my last semester at the community college here and working every friday. That's my life right now. Lets see, what else is going on? Todd is buying a guitar, so that might motivate me to start playing again. I've discovered/been shown some new bands. MGMT, between the buried and me, russian circles, pelican, the black keys, and band of horses. Pretty sweet stuff lemme tell ya.

Mr. Way Too Proud of Texas Guy

2007-09-07T12:07:00.002-05:00

2007-09-07T12:07:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apMyjOAacyA

Flight

2007-06-10T18:42:00.000-05:00

I jumped off the roof today!

...probably won't do it again though.

Most likely feel it when I'm 50 or something.

Outstanding

2007-01-15T22:17:00.000-06:00

Here's a better question from the Shop N Save survey:

You agree with people more than you argue
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly agree

Amazing

2007-01-07T14:35:00.000-06:00

So I was taking one of those dumb surveys for a Home Depot job application and one of the questions included this:

I disagree with people a lot.
x Strongly Disagree
x Disagree
x Neither
x Agree
x Strongly Agree

2007-01-04T20:38:00.000-06:00

You betcha

2006-12-08T20:14:00.000-06:00

-New blog

-And my buddy list has another weird curve to it (yet again)

Inspirational post has yet to come...

2006-11-16T22:57:00.000-06:00

...but here's some everyday revelations from your favorite Benjamin Graham (if I said just Ben, I'd get a mob on me)

-Dwight needs to brush his teeth, it's a freakish yellow. Showing your teeth is not a sign of weakness.

-Led Zeppelin's "How Many More Times" has quite possibly the coolest guitar solo

-Only one of many

-Never tell your mom there is a cockroach in the house

-I need a haircut, it looks bad.

-I wish my future self would fax me things

-If I had my own political party my animal would be a mongoose.

-Mongoose isn't my favorite animal

-If I chose wolf I'd have an unfair advantage

-People would choose wolves over a donkey

-Ehh I probably wouldn't get the religious vote

-Maybe I should of chose sheep

-I recently got a new belt in karate (green) ..hehe my next one is a purple belt!

-Yes I said purple belt

-I like top 10 lists, you should too

-Here is the top 10 continents:

10:North America
9:South America
8:Europe
7:Asia
6:Africa
5:Australia
4:Antartica
3:....

...I ran out of continents

I want to see your top 10 lists.

2006-11-03T19:55:00.000-06:00

Do you see the resemblance?

Please throw your roses

2006-10-27T00:21:00.000-05:00

I DID IT! I FIXED MY COMPUTER! AFTER HOURS AND HOURS OF TOILING BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS! YESSS!

But yes I will explain how I managed to pull it off.
It all started when I was clicking away at my computer nonchalantly humming along and all of a sudden the screen flicks... Oh no! What did you do Ben!?

My computer has just restarted itself. This problem will plague me for the next 9 months. Whenever my computer uses the graphics card extensively and the sound together it would just reboot itself. Originally I assumed a graphics problem, but when I checked the computer heat it was outrageously high. So we decided to install a new CPU Fan that drastically cooled the system and we also upgraded to a Gig of RAM. I was convinced that was the problem (the heat) but alas I boot up the computer and guess what? It flicks off... So I wept like a little baby (if you can think of that except with no tears and a very manly whine) (mmmm wine) Anywho I did what I did earlier, search the vast resources of the internet for information concerning this issue. Come to find out it is a very common problem and many factors could be involved, checking forums also can be misleading because many know-it-alls suggest answers to completely different problems that can throw you off. Until just recently though I finally stumbled upon a very odd answer to my problem. Did I check my sound driver? Sound...driver? What has my soundcard have anything to do with intense graphics rebooting my computer? BUT! I checked my soundcard and it said: Realtek AC97 Onboard Audio
Interestingly enough the person on the forum had the exact same sound card and eventually later on he had found a solution to his problem by upgrading his graphics card! However I also found this bit of info... Realtek AC97 has compatibility issues with ATI Radeon Graphics card series 9000-9200 up until like 9-600!? (I have an ATI Radeon 9250) Because unfortunately ATI decided to completely forget about those series and stop supporting them (problematic issues?) So after finding this bit of information I had three options: Buy a new Graphics Card, buy a new Sound Card, or spend countless hours and the next few days staying up late and downloading drivers/new info/and troubleshooting other potential problems pointed out by completely different problems that sound similiar. One person had his problem solved by upgrading to ATI Omega drivers but not until after I had downloaded them, uninstalled my original ATI Catalyst Control Center Drivers and replacing them with the Omega ones did I totally mess up my computers video and have to eventually system restore and reinstall my Catalyst CC. It wasn't until after all this I read the fine print under the driver downloads that said "Series 9000-9600 will not be compatible with Omega Drivers" ........NOOOO........ So I jump right back into the internet for more information. I also along the way found some neat websites and programs extremely helpful to the whole PC process, not to mention flashing BIOS and all that non-windows jazz. But anywho I used a program called Everest: Home Edition to tell me everything inside and out of my computer hardware wise, and driver wise to inform of what specific specs I had in my computer. I noticed in the spec list that the company "VIA" was infront of the AC97 Audio. Interesting and all this time I kept looking up "Realtek" which proved useless (Realtek is absolutely useless help wise) So I check out VIA and stumble upon various FAQs and issues involving audio incompatibility. Eventually it leads me to one issue that referred to Halo, which I have on my PC (I typed in "game" and "restart" in the sites search engine" It gave me a "Does Halo restart or hang when you enter a mission" clicked on it, yet its solutions all involved things I've already done before until the very end. It told me to go into my display settings, then the advance tab, then about 15 tabs are on the little box (all ATI setting and video settings) at first glance I was like "there's no way this would solve my problem, I've done so many other things related to this" but there was one tab it wanted me to go to, the "SmartGArt" tab. In this section it had a slider for none/low/medium/high. This adjusted the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) from slow to high. At first I didn't think AGP was the issue but apparantly the AGP was what was incompatible ALL ALONG with the AC97 Audio (onboard, mind you) It made since afterwards why it wasn't working. But yeah I turned that off and I can't really tell a difference in gameplay. All that my computer was having trouble with was when my graphics card was accelerating it apparently didn't mesh with sound when both were being used extensively. AND you thought AGP was better than PCI Graphics Cards... Well in a sense it is. Alas, I will give you a rundown of the difference between AGP and PCI slots:
On your motherboard is several slots, the main standard slot is the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) is like the USB (I expect you know what that is) of slots on the motherboard. Pretty much all motherboards have them (they should). Standard PCI slots will fit just about any card (sound/graphics/internet/enhanced stuff) aslong as it says PCI compatible on the box. As for AGP, AGP is special to only Graphics Cards. They are larger slots that basically enhance the Graphics card to act much faster and assemble graphics more quickly such as for computer gameplay. Despite the enhanced graphics, my problem was the enhanced graphics were incompatible with my onboard sound. I searched and I searched for downloadable drivers but after many different drivers none worked. But yeah, I fixed my problem by simply turning my AGP into a normal PCI. I guess I figured if the sound wasn't working with the graphics then it just wouldn't work regardless with AGP or without. So there you have it, that hardware conflict kept restarting my computer randomly and now it is solved. Oddly enough my computer didn't recognize the incompatiblity and never told me...mehh.
So there you have it.

Not to mention I found this along the way:

http://www.download.com/Everest-Ultimate-Edition-2006/3000-2086_4-10596207.html?tag=lst-0-1

I highly reccommend it, I'd download it first aside from AdAware if I got a brand new computer. What this program does is reads computer temps/gives you links to driver updates/and gives you specific detailed information on your hardware. (neato huh?)

Adios
-Ben Grahammin

What happens if I mess with Texas?

2006-10-22T19:35:00.000-05:00

Oh man, it's been a zillion years since I posted...I know! But what a great way to comeback with a post about the Feast!

Come and gone, just like that, another one of God's fantastic Feast of Tabernacles! This year was the year to crack open my listening and focusing potential; the messages were absolutely fantastic... The first day we had Mr. Smith give the first service sermon while Mr. Bryce gave the second sermon, quite possibly the best 1st day ever for me...I really hope those sermons were recorded. :) Now before I delve into everything that went on I have to point out what was special about Texas. Texas... is a lone star. Nobody! gloats asmuch as they do... "Don't mess with Texas" that, "we say howdy all the time" this! Bleh. Oh and I expected a lot more fat guys with pistols and cowboy hats, but instead I got just a bunch of guys who just wear cowboy hats!? Where's the guns!? Not to mention oil derricks...I wanted to see oil!!! Mehh Texas was not at all what I had imagined. Just a bunch of cowboy-hat-wearin-we-say-howdy-all-the-time-our-state-is-better-than-you peoples... You all make me sick. I demand euphoria!!!

As for everything else it was awesome, sunday I went to six flags with pretty much everyone except Charles and Cole (the other half of everyone else went to Seaworld--bah) I won a football pillow at the "throw the football through the tire" game and various other stuffed plush novelties. After crazy rides and 20 dollars worth of mini-games and arcade games later we went to some mexican place. That was the first dose of excitement. Other various things we did the rest of the week included going to wal-mart literally 5-6 times, burning rubber, rolling down the windows going to tacobell and turning the mexican station up full blast. Chocolates with love notes (from Charles ;0 to women), David Hasselhoff spanish dubbed movie, completely owning everyone in bowling 4 out of 5 games. Going to an outlet mall with nothing but clothing stores (naturally), getting schooled by a bunch of black guys in basketball, going down the river and in the schute, and finally coming home and finding out I smoked my GED (oh yes!). Mind you I'm going to get my homeschool diploma too, the college I plan to attend wanted me to take it despite homeschooling...meh. Oh and we also played ultimate frisbee at night. That was all good and fun until I hurt my finger, looked pretty bad at the time, but it wasn't that bad. A good closing with everyone was the friday night dinner at applebees. We had tremendous fun there, not to mention Cole clocking the daylights out me and my chair (that's right AND the chair) After the LGD me, Charles and Monique rented a movie and stayed out until 1:00. 4 hours later I wake up load the car and off we go back home.

A few Feast notes:
-There were no bears
-New Braunfels had the greatest waterpark in the world named "Schlitterbahn" but it was closed
-Texas is full of themselves
-Everyroad has atleast 1 SUV and 1 truck on it
-Charles sings in the shower, loudly.
-Mexican food has its revenge
-Bowling alley grilled cheese sandwiches are good
-Friday Night Lights is a good movie
-I'm sick of "Howdy"
-I'd like to hear more "Howdy-doo-dees"
-Missouri is like an oasis in a desert of states considering what Missouri is surrounded by.
-High school football in Texas is full throttle
-I want to be the next urban ninja

As for everything else in my life I'm pretty much the same, I never did post about pre-teen. Most of you who read my blog were there anyways... and school is lame, I'm wearing fuzzy slippers more often and I've ascended in ping-pong. The Cardinals are in the world series, I'm really psyched about that. Also, tonight my dad started a fire (chimney-fire) for the first time in the Graham household since like 3 years ago. It was grand!

Anything else that I want to say I'll just tell you later.
-Ben

Prophetic

2006-08-20T02:51:00.000-05:00

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"
-Abraham Lincoln

Ben can rap, almost as good as Katie!

2006-06-30T14:21:00.000-05:00

I wanted to see my friends real bad
So I went to camp this summer
And it was super awesome
This year it wasn't a bummer

I had some crazy cool campers this year
Some good, some bad
But overall they were great
Nobody was ever sad

Ben, Jeffrey, Justin, Ryan, and Kevin
Always shared their gum
Everyone was great to hang with
Even Beau the Bum!

I absolutly love camp
And I hope you get to go someday
No one is ever mean or crazy
Everyone laughs and plays

I really miss it, yes I do
Everyone is at ease
I want to go back so bad!
Will you come with me, please please?

That cuts deep

2006-06-26T23:39:00.000-05:00

Little girl camper: I found a rock that looked like a kite *has a big smile on her face*

Myself: Oh that's neat, can your rock fly?

Girl: No stupid, rocks can't fly!

.......

So yeah a dose of pre-teen camp :D

More to come later!

Explosive Package

2006-06-26T18:44:00.000-05:00

I wish it was as easy as throwing a pokeball...

A life changer.

2006-06-11T02:50:00.000-05:00

So I'm finding myself constantly rewinding my playlist back to the Mortal Kombat theme song and listening to it over and over again.

I call it the Ben Graham therapy course:

Cures lack of motivation.

Weak nancy boys.

And those without and iron will.

You'll feel pumped, try it.

Creepy

2006-06-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

So I opened up my yahoo e-mail today...

My bulk folder had "666" spam e-mails in it.

Yeah whatever...and they played Stairway to heaven backwards on the radio today...yeah...

Psh nothing will happen

For all of those people getting all worked up today...go to sleep its just a day.

....stop scaring me.

2006-06-02T19:26:00.000-05:00

ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH:
Devout in his inspiration for why he plays the game and proud of the perspiration he has put into how he plays the game, Albert Pujols says his record-setting power this season is a welcome testament to the type of player he is:

A clean one.

"You're not going to find anything out about me," the Cardinals first baseman and reigning National League MVP said Wednesday during a far-reaching interview with several members of the media. "They can test me every day if they want. I don't care."

"At the same time, yeah, you feel happy to do (this)," Pujols continued. "I know a lot of people have approached me - friends, (and) I heard about it - that people thought that I was on steroids and some stuff like that. Now that they do the testing and I put up these numbers, it's good. It's good to prove that because I work hard for it. I don't need any type of things like that to help me out with my game. I just take the blessing that the good Lord has given me to perform, to glorify his name and to help out my team to win."

Another reason why Albert is such a stud.

Story of my Life

2006-06-02T17:31:00.000-05:00

*cracks knuckles* pheewww...*lonnggg sigh*.... Alright! Okay! I'm Pumped! I'm ready! Big post time! Here we go!

Let's rewind...no a bit further...there we go. Last sunday, the one before. That sunday before memorial day weekend. We are exhausted yet still manage to get up. After we go to the new house after loading up stuff on our very hillbillish trailer, Todd and his dad help us manage the refridgerator onto this flatbed trailer, and add some other various furniture. As we embark on our epic vendetta to the new place we encounter some other various vehicles. Nothing too dangerous. We make it to the house and meet some friends of ours helping us move. Mr. Barry Gannon and our friends in Todd's family Rory Ries and his son Seth. After they help us unload the pod (portable on-demand storage) we pretty much had they rest of the horrible mess to myself and my parents to sort and whatnot in the house. After our friends enjoyed a nice cold beer they departed and we started into our great endeavor. Naturally I set up my bed first and organized my room. Then came organizing the basement and various other tiring tasks which 90% of the time involved lifting boxes and whatnot. I never really was sore or wore down just sleepy, I took the time to set up the computer and the main things ;) (the important everyday life things for Ben) After getting our internet last week around thursday we set that up too. Another big adventure was the preparation for my grandmother's room. She hasn't moved in yet and the walls are covered in a dark wallpaper in which my grandma wouldn't be able to see the complex patterns and just feel like shes in this dark room all the time. We don't want that...atleast my mom doesn't. SO, I get the task of de-wallpapering, de-wallpapering the second wallpaper underneath (YES THERE'S TWO LAYERS?!?!) and this job is just completely tiring, and no matter how tired you are you have to endure that awful steam coming from the steamer you have to use on the wall in order to tear the wallpaper off. This steamer nozzle thing is only about the size of a rather large book and you have to hold it on the wall until its done steaming. So after I did this a bazillion times I finally got the first one off and about a quarter of the second part and my mom was just fed up with everything, the steamer was making an atrocious mess and the wallpaper shreds were everywhere and this project was taking way to long. She told me to take a break and our friend Mr. Gannon stopped by and professionally peeled the wallpaper off and sanded/removed the mold from the wall. It was an answered prayer and my mom couldn't believe how fast he did it all (he does this for a living, working on homes). So after that he told us to paint a primer on the wall and then paint over that whatever color we wanted. So it's again my job to go back and work on the wall. After putting the primer on...that wasn't too bad. I then had the great ordeal of painting over it again and by this time I had a colossal headache. The paint was getting to me, and my arms were terribly tired from holding them up all day. SO I decided to do it tomorrow only to have yet another headache...and yeah I hate de-wallpapering and painting. They're the devil. I'lll never buy a house with wallpaper ...ever.

As for school I've been completely blowing it off. The move has takin me out of the groove and I have also finished my Digital Art class...so won't somebody please motivate me? Anywho, this last weekend (memorial weekend) I spent the night at my friends house, watched some blue collar tv and played some Halo. About a day after that I bought Star Wars: Battlefront for my playstation 2. Then the next day we moved ALLLLLLLL of my grandmothers things in storage into the home. The magnitude of her things suprised me. Then the day AFTER that! We moved my grandmother in :D and is now living with us. That's the good news. ...and with good news comes a little bad news. THE VERY NIGHT SHE MOVED IN she fell and since it was so late she took some tylenol and we decided to take her to the doctor in the morning. So after taking her there she found out nothing was broken, which was good, but she is still in a lot of pain. She also becomes very incoherent when she takes medicine or sleeps a long time which leads to making us very stressed. Patience is a virtue that we all need right now. It's a task to help her into the bathroom, into the kitchen, back to the bedroom. And I don't think my grandmother realizes that some of the things she does makes us frazzled. For example she doesn't want to wear a hearing aid not for the sake of wearing one...but for the fact that she doesn't want to bother with these small things in the first place which places a greater burden on us because the tv now can be heard the next block down. Another thing is she thinks she can walk with a cane not a walker, which is untrue, she is very unbalanced and still is stubborn in the fact that she wants to use her cane. This is the reason why she falls and dominos all the things we have to do. If she would simply heed our initial ideas to help her she would save us a lot of grief and herself. My grandmother is someone who strongly goes out of her way to help other people and take the load off them. What she doesn't realize is that something she thinks is only affecting herself is actually going to turn out to be our job or task. My mom is frazzled she has had absolutly no time to rest since we have moved in and is horribly tired. This is a much needed Sabbath *phew*

Today I went to see X-Men 3: The Last Stand with my friend Mike! Only to realize afterwards that there was short clip at the end of the credits that we had missed! But alas I found out what went on in the clip, but I still wish I could actually see it.

As for anything else...I just can't remember, so many things, so little time.

I'm playing on the Jets.

2006-05-23T10:52:00.000-05:00

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) -- The New York Jets signed punter Ben Graham to a contract extension Monday.
Last year, the Australian punted 74 times for a gross average of 43.7 yards and a net average of 37.9 yards in his first NFL season. Both of those were sixth-best in the AFC.

The 32-year-old also became the oldest rookie in NFL history to make an opening day roster.
"The Jets have been an outstanding organization from the moment I arrived," Graham said. "The team made an offer and we just said, 'We'll take it.' I'm excited that I'm going to be punting for the New York Jets in the best city in America."
Graham signed with the Jets last year after playing 12 seasons of Australian Rules Football, where he was one of the biggest stars in the Australian Football League.

Aside from my fame the move is going alright. More on that later. I'm posting this from school.

-Ben

Moving

2006-05-21T01:10:00.000-05:00

As you all should know...I have been packing a lot for our recent move locally. So far on the night before our main segment of the move. I've been bitten on the bum a spider (hopefully nothing serious.) Get freaked out by a raccoon right next to me. THEN have the same raccoon who trotted away earlier charge at me then let out this freakishly satanic snake/cat hiss which I just spazzed out after that. If I didn't flee he would of bit me, and after I screamed like a woman my dad chased it a block infront of our house with a shovel. Craziness. Hey you would be freaked out to. Anyways asmuch as I think raccoons are cute, I believe I lost ten years off my life. Raccoons are fascinating! Rabid or not they are extremely aggressive, will penetrate almost any plastic container or lid concealing trash or food, and have the black fur around their eyes making them the perfect bandits and thieves. God really knew what he was doing when he put the black fur around a raccoons eyes. Anywho, I won't have internet I don't think for like umm a week? I know...how will I survive? Well, we'll see.

And Stacey....rackoonie is not a nice, cute name.

...it's evil, raccoons are the devil.

Oh and sorry Ian and Gary my phone went out last night.

I got Skype.

I love Albert Pujols.

and it's 1:16 and I'm tired.

Goodbye

Sweet

2006-04-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

Me: Oh man! Oh man!
Marcus: What?
Me: I got Final Fantasy: Advent Children!
Marcus: Hehe I saw it too...
Marcus: It has touched my life in a very profound way.

4B

2006-04-24T16:09:00.000-05:00

Small in number yet great in ability, 4B was a strong mix of young men. 4B focused on raising standards and creating a friendly, Christian environment for all of camp. Starting with ten separate individuals, the dorm pulled together as a group and looked out for eachother. The friendships formed will hopefully continue on for a long time as brethren in God's church.

--Living Reflections

Ouch

2006-04-24T16:07:00.000-05:00

http://kevan.org/nohari?name=BenjaminG

What you don't know

2006-04-21T21:08:00.000-05:00

Alright for any of you females the following contains what men will do in their spare time...ehh make that most of their time. This contains the secret lives we conceal from the opposite sex in fear of eternal shame and embarassment, because you would just never understand. That you will never really know about. I mean to this extent. Aside from the sports, the trucks, and the passion this is what most boys in my generation consume themselves with. I know! It's shocking! But there is an innernerd in all of us. That quiet little voice saying feed me! For all of those people who know what I am saying. More rupees for you!

Star Wars
Now now!! Contain yourself woman! You are probably wondering "Hey I like star wars too" Do you really woman?! hmmmm?!?! I'll tell you what when a man sees a fantasy movie or story a man analyzes. A man knows everything. I mean how do we know all this stuff? Video games. Video games, the flux capacitor of our being. Okay so this post is aimed towards the average-not-so-very nerdy-girl. You have probably never played Battlefront 1 or 2. Jedi Academy? Anything to do with Kyle Katarn? Does Biggs Darklighter ring a bell?

Wedge
This is actually Wedge Antilles. Did some of you real nerds catch it before I told you?!

Zelda
First off let me get this straight if you are male, between the ages of 7-30 and you are not one of those special case children who grew up deprived of the video game. I'm sure 97% of you have played the game Zelda. Tis a game with much magnificence and strategy and such a redundant storyline yet nostalgic to those diehard. This genre and franchise will always be left untarnished because of the sheer brilliancy of its magesticism.

Zelda

The Zelda games to date: The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, The Wind Waker, Four Swords, The Minish Cap, and coming soon: The Twilight Princess. All remarkable games with almost all having one goal in mind. Save the Princess in perilous doom while also saving the world from being swallowed by darkness! Sure its simpleminded but you will be suprised! Not only that but! It gives men this hopeless fantatistical illusion of always wanting to rescue that damsel in distress. Is that nerdy or manliness!?

Dude I'm a 8 year-old kid who just slayed a giant man-eating behemoth spider!

Pokemon
Ahh pokemon. Great times. I had everything. From the cards to the video games and the 6:00 am wake up time to watch the show before I went to school. Yes it was very much a part of my kid life. Kids flocked to pokemon like druggies on meth. Except it didn't have that yellow teeth side-effect. Literally kids memorized all 150 of the original pokemon and had get all their little kiddie hands on them or...catch them all!

Pokemon
Yes I know...he's throwing a Voltorb not a pokeball!
Pokemon was crazy. I mean you couldn't walk into a store or go to school without seeing atleast 1 pokemon ...maybe 2. So the premise of pokemon was to become "the pokemon master" capture and collect every single pokemon and be able to defeat anyone who was formidable against your army of creatures. It is also a simple game throw pokeballs at creatures so they will be captured and yours to keep. Stored away in your balls. Ehh Hehe moving one the creators of this game sure had testosterone in mind! My big fire lizard Charizard will totally own your weak Clefairy!

Mewtwo! Psychic blast Jigglypuff!

Final Fantasy
This one isn't really a shocker, because the franchise is more for an advanced audience. Not only will the entire series of games literally take months to try and conquer but the story is immense and flawless. Not only is the gameplay gripping but the plot seals the deal. For example and the best game to date: Final Fantasy 7 - not only is it compelling but the battle system was unique and revolutionary. Anyone who has ever liked a roleplaying game has had to of played this game one way or another.

FF7

There are about 20 Final Fantasy games in all and can take up to 40-80 hours of your life on each one of them, each with their own unique storyline that always seems to tackle a different aspect of life or conquering greed? Maybe just psychoness?

Cloud: *Omnislash!* ....your dead.

I'm not speaking for all men either...just the mainstream gamers hehe ;)

Dragonballz
Kamehameha!

Kamehameha

I can't explain this one. You had to be introduced at a certain time, at a certain place, by a certain person, and you had to have an open mind.

Any Mel Brooks movie
The movies are brilliant! Watch!

TMNT
If you do not know the acronym you do not know ninja turtles. I have no idea what girls did when ninja turtles was big, maybe they watched it? Ninja turtles was just what its name implied! It was Ninjas and Turtles combined!!! Genius! I mean what 6 year old kid doesn't like that? Oh and props to the guy who decided to put Vanilla Ice in one of the movies. Ever bigger props to my homie who made the ninja studs in the first place.

14,337,890 Japanese know what I'm talking about, about Zelda.
11,601,289 Europeans know what I'm talking about, about Pokemon
12,177,346 Americans watched Dragonballz at one point or another.
101,133,981 Worldwide humans understand the REAL Star Wars universe.

..and the boys of my generation who think this is all wrong. Well I think your weird.

Oh and it's your turn women to tell me everything about what you did or whatever...not that we would want to know anyways.

The only mutually assured multi boy/girl toy I think I loved was Lincoln Logs.

What?

2006-03-26T00:28:00.000-06:00

So me and dad are driving to church today...

*Switch on some soothing symphony orchestra music*

*Plays for about 5 minutes*

Me: "Man this is such a nice Sabbath song"

*Song ends*

Radio DJ: "....and that song was The House of the Devil"

Cool

2006-03-16T09:06:00.000-06:00

Apparantly I am already a famous wall street investor.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071409394/qid=1142521413/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/102-7727035-7408120?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

and

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0070242690/qid=1142521413/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-7727035-7408120?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Johari sounds pagan.

2006-02-22T11:48:00.000-06:00

http://kevan.org/johari?name=BenGraham

We are blessed!

2006-02-14T23:30:00.000-06:00

We are Blessed!
If you own just one Bible, you are abundantly blessed because one-third of the world does not even have access to one.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of five-hundred million people around the world.

If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three-billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If your parents are still married and alive, you are very rare.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face, and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them, or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer God’s healing touch.

If you prayed yesterday and today, you are in the minority because you believe in God’s willingness to hear and answer prayer.

If you believe in Jesus as the son of God, you are a very small minority in the world.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.

If you think you are the only one hurting and feel that the world is putting you down, think again.

Sometimes we call the problems upon ourselves, and it takes an act of will to get out of the rut in which may be at the moment.

Recognize the many graces in your life and you will know that you really have been blessed; more than you or anyone in this world can ever imagine.

- Author Unknown

Not a normal weekend.

2006-02-14T20:10:00.000-06:00

Hi guys, I'm writing this right after I got home from my karate class. I just graduated to yellow belt and I feel pumped...not exactly in a violent way, more like a flex in the mirror kind of way. Anywho now that I am done trying to earn my yellow it's now time to start cracking on my blue belt yeppidy doo no relaxation for me. Anyways, this past friday I became sick yet again...it wasn't anything serious, I had chills for a while and then got this pretty bad headache. So the next morning I slept in and didn't go to church because A: I wasn't feeling well and B: My grandmother had fallen late last night and my parents (before I had awakened the next morning) went over to her house and then took her to the hospital...so they took x-rays and all that stuff and they found out she had a fractured hip which basically put her out of commision for a week. So after staying in the hospital saturday and sunday she was released and on monday night (last night) we made went to her house and ate dinner with food we brought and my mother stayed the night to take care of her (I had no ride to digital art, so I had to miss it) and this entire tuesday I woke up with no one home and basically did school on my own and just chilled and around 4:00 my mom came by with some pizza. Dad came home from work to get ready to leave again and after dinner me and my mom went to karate and that brings us to now. My grandmother still needs care at home so that is why my aunt is staying the night there then my mom will stay again tomarrow night annnnd that's pretty much my weekend. I really have to hand it to my grandmother, before she has broken both her hips and has for awhile walked with no cane or walker and still is up and about always helping us. I find it extremely hard for her, at her age to do what she does. Which is why I love and respect my grandmother so much despite her age (soon to be 94 in spring) She has outlived all twelve of her sisters in which she is the eldest and sews for a living with arthritis.

Best commercial ever.

2006-02-06T09:17:00.000-06:00

Changes

2006-02-05T12:35:00.000-06:00

Hey guys...it has been awhile since my last real post so I hope this can make up for it. I decided to make some changes that might get changed again and again...I never make up my mind on what I want. The heading/title picture is my family crest and Ne Oublie stands for "Do not forget" I thought it was a savvy addition to my blog. As for my life in general I recently started a class at my high school in digital art which is coming along nicely. I recently got my KC pictures developed also so I'll post some of those on here a little later. So umm that's about it, I'm going to go clean out the disastrous mess in my room and watch some super bowl tonight--sounds like a plan ; )

I thought this was funny.

2006-01-29T22:08:00.000-06:00

Every loser...and his mother.

So I got this in my email...huh?!

2006-01-14T11:20:00.000-06:00

Dearest beloved,It is not without deep consideration that I am writing youthis letter of acquaintance and proposal as to be myexecutor. I am Mrs Marinah Rhikanul the wife of late MrHamell Rhikanul. I have prayed and fasted for 21 daysasking God to show me a reliable person with whom I canentrust this money for future investment, and the almightyGod has directed me to you as my future partner, andadviser in whatever business you may choose.My late Husband Mr.Hamell Rhikanul national activist and awealthy cocoa merchant of his time in Republic of Congo.My late Husband owned a partnership company, but thissudden death was as a result of liver poison suspected tobe his associate with proves of their series of attempt onme and my childrens life to kidnap me but the interventionof the police made it impossible,not with standing, I amliving in fear in my owncountry,immediately we move to Abidjan to look for aforeign partner, which can help us to clear the box fromthe security company.The persitant trials on me and my childerns life by myhusband associates was a result of my husband's wealth. Hedeposited the sum of USD $ 18 million(eighteen millionUnited State Dollars) in one of the security company herein Abidjan Côte d'Ivoire. And the relevant documentsconcerning the fund was handed to me by my husband beforehis death, viz.,certificate of deposit agreement andreceipt of the said sum, which in effect is bound fortransfer for investment with foreign investor.I am desirous of having my affairs in the hands of athoroughly trustworthy person. Yours efforts in assistingme will not be underestimated, 15% of the total sum. Willbe offered to you as a commission and 5% is mapped out forany expenses that you may encure during this transaction.Please I would want the confidentiality of this transactionto be respected for security reasons and more details andclarification follows suit at you approval.Endeavour to quicken action for delay is unfavourable forme.Contact me on the above email address and kindly includeyour private telephone and fax numbers for easycommunication.please contact me through this {REMOVED}
Thanks and best Regards.Marinah Rhikanul.

So I took Todd's quiz...

2006-01-13T08:12:00.000-06:00

Knight Rider Hasselhoff

You are Knight Rider Hasselhoff. You own up, you're wicked sexy, AND you are the proud owner of a sweet action talking black Trans-Am. What else could one ask for?

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Charmander Char!

2005-11-21T22:21:00.000-06:00

Heh it has seriously been awhile since I last posted and you all probably thought I was dead or something...well kind of. Last friday I got sick...really bad, this was one of the worst and I could see it coming too. Before I even felt anything at all I was like "I think I am going to get sick" and well...I did. I was sick to my stomach, fever, chills, and had a terrible headache the spanned my neck all the way to the top of my head. It was bad to say the least I also sat on my knees in front of a bucket for about 45 min in a queezy vegetative state of sick gut wrenching, hurlafied soupness. Ach but now I'm getting a bit better :) Allright I have to break it too ya I have really nothing to say though...maybe after this weekend because I'm going to my aunts and uncle's for thanksgiving! Which I can't wait for and also saturday night going to a pink floyd concert with Marcus in KC!!! 1337 pwn3d n00b! (I should give a whole post in leet) While you are eating popcorn and watching a movie on your broken down sofa I shall be rockin to kc and back pink floyd style! *puts ridiculously large sunglasses on in a turtle like whip motion* Speaking of pink floyd I would like to erect Ben's top 10 best guitar solos of all time list thing:
10-Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix
9-Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin
8-Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson
7-Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult (gimme some cowbell!)
6-Time by Pink Floyd
5-Dazed and Confused (Live) by Led Zeppelin
4-All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix
3-Eruption by Van Halen
2-Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
*Drumroll please**1**-Freebird by Lynryrd Skynyrd!
Other bands that could have made the next five include Aerosmith, all of Satrianis stuff, and Rush...I seriously feel like I'm forgeting something. Anyways I would like to share with you this ridiculously good score by my mom and how well she owned me and my dad in a grueling game of rummyness!:

Well with that I conclude my post with 1337 h4x0rz pwn j00!

skrazo eht fo ekal

2005-10-26T18:06:00.000-05:00

Haha this Feast was awesome...like always though it was depressing to leave. The trip home was exhilaratingly fast and I unpacked my luggage with the speed of cheetah with the captain universe powers! Ok seriously now the Feasts every year get more and more inspiring I don't know how it could get any better than this...the messages were brilliantly executed with spirituality and an extremely zealous manner...Dr. Fall gave some excellent sermons that I shall certainly review again... Lets see, you won't believe what we did, we taped glow sticks to a frisbee and wrapped glowsticks around our wrists so we could play ultimate frisbee in the dark! Not to mention it was raining aswell. Quite possibly the best ultimate frisbee game ever! We had an entire golf course to play on and considering it was dark so no golfers would hinder our fun. We also went to the mall...which had about 86 clothes stores and one theater with a bunch of cruddy movies showing...alas we still managed to have fun and at the only music store there I bought 22 hours of Macgyver season 2! Oh yea! About halfway through the Feast I realized that I didn't really want to buy much of anything with all of my summer job tithe but I just wanted to spend time with friends..that's what my heart really desired and I wish I could continue that. I have invented a new syndrome PFB=Post-Feast breakdown....you start to feel sad...even to the point of crying, you feel like you need to break every ceramic ghost and witch put up for halloween and sadly start to lose that smiling glow you gave out at the Feast as did every church member did...the only thing that makes you last through the winter is snowboarding/hockey, looking forward to the next FoT and the time when it will last forever. I'm going to go watch some hockey and cry...

...there is certainly more to talk about but I figure I can just remember it when I talk to you on instant messager.

I'm glad your my friends
-Benjammin-

Squirtle

2005-10-04T20:38:00.000-05:00

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Dark Prowler
Your Superpower is Radiation
Your Weakness is Balloons
Your Weapon is Your Energy Bullets
Your Mode of Transportation is Ambulance

What's your Superhero Name?

Trumpets

2005-10-03T22:31:00.000-05:00

Leviticus 23:23 Read it! Believe it!

McAffirmitive

2005-09-30T18:52:00.000-05:00

Ok I stole this from Gary...so what?! I thought it was fun hehe.

X-men

2005-09-25T21:01:00.000-05:00

From now until tuesday evening you have to decide which one of the x-men you shall be...my buddy list shall never be the same! Gambit and Toad are taken :-D

R0flc0pt0rs!

2005-09-16T19:46:00.000-05:00

Huzzah! I made a video game *Ben stops to do a little jig* Alright my game is not some new halo or anything...I know you are all disapointed in me, BUT my game does have some 2d bear mauling aliens!!!...well making them disapear actually. Hehe I also can make my bear throw snowballs or make trees fly, I am in command, Harharhar! Moving on...my day was uneventful I did some schoolin and got some rainin. I'm trying to learn this wicked awesome song on my guitar but it's like really fast picking so I probably won't have it down until I'm like fourty-years old wearin blue overalls playin the banjo down by the river....or something. Oh sweet I just noticed I have another brownie on my plate!!!...I shall be back later after I am done devouring my brownie! Rawr!

Semper Fi
-Benjammin-

Fangs

2005-09-12T20:57:00.000-05:00

Arg! Stupid tooth...earlier today I had a conundrum of sorts with my tooth. Part of the bonding on it just popped right off...how I realized it was not noticing the big gap in the front of my teeth but the white shard of bonding that had dislodged itself away from my big dumb half tooth. You see 60% of my front four top teeth are fake I lost my front two in a bicycle accident some years ago. Lodging my front tire in a crack in the road my wheel would absolutely not move, thus going a very unusually slow 5 MPH I went over my handlebars and landed right on my face!!! YEOUCH...I don't remember how long it took for my face to heal but anywho I'm fine no....err not yet hehe...my mom has yet to schedule an appointment to get them refilled so yea I guess I'll have to not smile in the Feast pictures :D I forgot to mention that this isn't the first time this has happened. In 7th grade one of my friends on the bus just teasing lightly thumped me on the head with his hardcover book (remember it's hardcover) and somehow the bonding fell right out and into my hand...I was like whoa what is this, until my tongue managed to discover the space missing in my teeth...come to think of it!! 7th grade was a terrible year speaking of accidents. In 7th grade a friend slammed his locker (accidentally) on my pinky finger. My immediate reaction was to jerk my hand back...well.....considering my pink was inside the locker and the rest of my hand was on the outside....let's just say there was lots of blood! I clasped my hands immediately and they were already filled with blood. I ran to the restroom and rinsed off the blood during this time another friend (different than the one who is standing there yelling "DUDE I'M SO SORRY!!!!") hits me on the back of the head with his binder! (this is really ironic...two different friends hitting me on the head and 2 accidents happening) I shouted you moron I'm dieing here and well he goes DUDE SORRY!!!...but anywho I said lets go and we sprinted to the nurses which is downstair across the school....so yea she rinsed it off for awhile applied some gauze and I went to an emergency local mini St. Johns place and got 5 stitches in my pinky...ahh I love anesthetics. Watching him sow up my flesh was a very weird experience to say the least. Buuuuut there's my stories...

Also, today I had my first of five classes all throughout this week today of an online course called projectFUN. It's going to teach me C++ coding and some basic game design which is of course...awesome! So I'll have to show off my mad computer graphics skills when I'm done! That's about all folks so yea peace!!
-Benjammin-

Legends

Sabberific

2005-09-02T23:39:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone I'm really procrastinating on my blog recently and giving you cheap unthoughtful pictures and such just to hold you off....well the pressure is too great for me to bear so I leave you with this message of wishing you an awesome heartfelt Sabbath! and awesome Labor day! I hope everyone had a good friday atleast kinda sorta better than mine. The customers at work weren't exactly in the best of moods so yea I had to put up with a lot today...I'm glad it happened on a friday so I have the Sabbath directly after it. But anywho I wanna give a shout out to Boston for being such a wicked awesome band!! Here's some pictures I stole from other peoples albums HAHAHAHA!!!!.....Goodnight.

I have an awesome Sabbath!

2005-09-02T23:38:00.000-05:00

Barbie....

2005-09-02T23:36:00.001-05:00

You mess with the bull you get the horns...as my dad always says.

2005-09-02T23:36:00.000-05:00

Hahaha!!! I love cats!

UGH!

2005-08-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

Todd's name messes up my buddy list formation.

2005-08-26T23:07:00.000-05:00

Page

Spork

2005-08-23T23:12:00.000-05:00

I bought a game.

[Feel free to ask what it was]

No work

2005-08-16T20:02:00.000-05:00

Ahhh...there's nothing like a little rest and relaxation. I don't have to work until friday so I'm going to savor these next 3 days of completely slacking off...well not totally. Today is the day I offically became a member of an online program called project fun. It's an online course directly from the Digipen college in Washington devoted to teaching how to animate and design games...this is so sweet. Anywho I'm really happy that I get a bunch of software and such to mess around with now, thanks to Digipen I can tamper and learn about animation to my hearts consent...ahhh what a great feeling.

Poor Wayne

Anywho, I went to the gym today and built my already studly muscles...I mean people spend years for guns like these. I'm suprised I'm not like getting chicks left and right [takes off sunglasses in a slow awesome fashion] With the muscles of a behemoth and the wits of Macgyver I could rule the world!! Bwuhahahaha!!!! Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I'm officially a jedi because I can open automatic doors with the wave of my hand...it's the coolest thing ever! Bwuhahahaha!! That is all...

Work

2005-08-14T17:00:00.000-05:00

Alright everyone so far my day has been uneventful...I've managed to eat, watch tv, go on the computer and pick up my clothes all before I have to go to work soon. Yep I am so excited to get to work today and get away from terrible video games and talking to friends on the internet...or listening to music..whatever!! I really want to work...I want to go to school to .....WAHHH!!!
I just want someone to hold me and tell me everything is going to be alright!

I dislike my work doors.

Oh yea and while your looking at that hilarious cartoon I would like everyone to know that Larson is a stud! Hands down this guy is one of the best cartoonists ever...so to show my respect I will periodically post Gary Larson cartoons for my audiences enjoyment...guten tag!

Fuzz

2005-08-12T22:58:00.000-05:00

I feel all warm and fuzzy!

4B locked and loaded!

2005-08-12T17:40:00.000-05:00

Okay here is my post about camp, Bwahahaha!!!! ...This year at camp was very excellent indeed but I have to say not as good as my last...that's what happens when you expect the same thing and get something else such as new people. My dorm was alright, I had awesome counselors but some of the campers were goofy (not gonna name any names) but for the most part it was great. We all got along awesome. Also considering this is my second year I was able to experience archery for the first time at camp and I'm glad to know that aslong as I have a bow and arrow I can protect myself against any random bear that starts to charge at me...thanks Ian! I got to shoot a warthog/pig (whatever) in the face and cripple a couple animals not to mention kill a turkey at point blank range...good times. The classes this year were great! Ultimate frisbee was exhilarating and canoeing was something we should of done more of. Now I have to say the class that I feared the most (speech) was actually not that bad. Last year speech was terrible, I completely freaked out but this year I did much better. I even was the speechmaster this year for my dorm which was awesome now that I think about it...and the fact that it is done and over with. I'm glad Josh chose me to do it. Oh and I'm still jealous the girls got to make a pajamas and I didn't.

The trip to mackinac owned! I got to tandem bike with Sarah Reed and get some ice cream bigger than my head and I got to scare Charles on his bike :D The view on the island was spectacular and the small town near the boat docks and such all made for a perfect setting. Don't forget the friendly beer festival (I guess there's one advantage of having no cars on the island) Anyways the trip was very fun and I'm glad I got to experience that. Although I still think we needed more canoeing. If we couldn't have both trips during camp we could atleast try and switch em up every year...anyways that's my idea. Back to the classes...I forgot to mention the Christian Living classes were good talking a lot about issues us as teens need to focus on, but I don't think some of the kids in my dorm totally caught on. But we can't force them to follow it either, only set the example. It was interesting when one of the campers came up to me and offered me some gum (right before we were about to enter the chapel) I took the gum and said thanks stashing it in my pocket and explaining that I'll save it for later. Well his response ironically was "why don't you just sneak it in?" It's sad really to see this...especially at camp :-/ Anywho please excuse me as I vacuum...... [like 15 minutes later] ......alright back...anyways to put it plain and simple camp was awesome! I still miss my friends really bad and I can't wait till the Feast.

The trip home was ok I guess...very boring indeed. The busride is as always...a boring busride especially when everyone is sleeping...the planeflight was better though, as I looked out the window at the sun bounce off the clouds it looked like a huge painting and God was the artist...it was really awesome. In detroit we ate some taco bell and said more goodbyes to Ian, Alex, Conrad and others. I made a lot of new friends this year and saw a lot of old friends aswell. Anywho I can't wait till next year and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

NEWSFLASH: I got my pictures back

Jimmy Page

2005-08-12T17:15:00.000-05:00

Guitar playing stud!

My post about camp

2005-08-04T17:03:00.000-05:00

I must prep...

Camp!Camp!Camp!Camp!Camp!

2005-07-18T15:29:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving for camp in less than 24 hours...I so cannot wait...camp is like the ultimate home away from home...in fact I wish I could live there.

Mmmm Ice creammmm

2005-07-06T18:42:00.000-05:00

You Are Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

You are kind, popular, and generous.
You tend to be successful at anything you try.
A social butterfly, you are great at entertaining a crowd.
You are most compatible with strawberry ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

3 weeks..

2005-06-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

...till camp; think I can make a time machine in 1 week? I don't think the time will go as fast as it is supposed to. Coming back to a job and school after a week of awesome fun doesn't make things go faster. As of now I have nothing to do....so as you can see I did a bunch of quizzes to pass the time, and boy that sure helped...not. Although today wasn't a total loss! I watched Macgyver this morning take down 3 poachers with a some wire, rope, and a flashlight case (good stuff) I can't emphasize enough how much Macgyver is a stud! The second plus is my parents are now having Bible study discussions with me to help me focus on what is right. I tend to find myself veering off when I don't study and I'm glad I can study with my parents so we are all on the same page (hehe, get it? "same"....."page") .....*ahem* yep, so I guess this day was pretty good. Oh sweet!!! I just found my lucky black guitar pick!!! Right underneath the mouse-pad. The day has just upgraded to a great day! Haha, anywho... :) I have decided to remove the music from my blog completely...you see I go through phases and such where I get so caught up in the moment of adding something I don't realize that about 6 people out of the blogging nation care about my kind of music. Thus ends the complete music saga...what saga will arise next? Will it be videos? games? pictures? or will no one care? all these and more on Benjamin's "Man with a plan" blog....until next time...may your tvs flip to Macgyver.

~Bennileckihi...lekkyhiddyhoo~

Quizzes :)

2005-06-27T21:16:00.000-05:00

Your Sexy Brazilian Name Is

Felipe Mendes

What's Your Sexy Brazilian Name?

Your Geek Profile:

Gamer Geekiness: Highest

Movie Geekiness: Moderate

Fashion Geekiness: Low

General Geekiness: Low

Internet Geekiness: Low

SciFi Geekiness: Low

Academic Geekiness: None

Geekiness in Love: None

Music Geekiness: None

How Geeky Are You?

Your Birthdate: April 18

Your birthday on the 18th day of the month suggests than you are one who can work well with a group, but still remain someone who needs to maintain individual identity.

There is a humanistic or philanthropic approach to business circumstances in which you find yourself.

You may have good executive abilities, as you are very much the organizer and administrator.

You are broad-minded, tolerant and generous; a compassionate person that can inspire others with imaginative ideas.

Some of your feelings may be expressed, but even more of them are apt to be repressed.

There is a lot of drama in your personality and in the way you express yourself to others.

Oddly enough, you don't expect as much in return as you give.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

PRE-TEEN CAMP

2005-06-26T16:31:00.000-05:00

Yipee!! I got back from camp today rather cheery and feelin sad at the same time...yea...I miss my friends really bad!!! ....Anywho... :) Pre-teen was awesome and everything went great! Being assistant counseler ain't that bad especially when you have such an awesome head counseler like Mr. David Moore. This guy is one of the coolest guys you can meet, he's from the Memphis congregation and is very laid back and nice...it was great working with him and we really bonded with eachother and the campers aswell, so everyone got along really well! Also, some of the after lights out conversations were very deep, talking about the meaning of life and about the Kingdom! It was splendid! The St. Louis and Columbia congregations attended the Sabbath there and that was stupendously superb seeing my local church brethren and friends together ...I still miss my friends.....I got to see a lot of friends and even made some more. It's especially fun when there's a mere 4-5 boys on the staff and about 10-15+ girls on staff aswell ;) Hehee.*ahem* uhh yea... I miss my friends...BUT TEEN CAMP IS IN 3 WEEKS!!! oh and.......WE LOVE CANOEING!!!

I have to go to work though : /

I'll try and get pictures as soon as possible.

A very wise man once said
1+1=2

Benjammin, Benny Boo, ChittyChittyBenBen, David Hasselhoff, Macgyver, Ben...
Signing off

Pre-teen

2005-06-18T22:02:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be an assistant counseler at my church pre-teen camp so I will be gone all this week so I hope you can all live without me. :)

Okay..I admit it! I'm a Led Head!

2005-06-15T18:47:00.000-05:00

I'm going to try something new from now on. Instead of you having to listen to the song I choose, you can now choose it yourself. If you scroll down a bit there will be a list of led zep songs to the right. All you do is click on the song you want and it should open whatever media player you have installed on your computer..so have fun! Also, if you want me to add any music that you want to hear I don't mind aslong as it is from http://www.listen4free.l2p.net/index.php Have a great day!

~Ben~

Mr. Ogwyn

2005-06-15T00:48:00.000-05:00

Dear fellow ministers and brethren,

It grieves me to have to inform you that our beloved fellow servant, Mr. John Ogwyn, died in his sleep this morning at 5:30 am. He was at home with his wife, Genie, and his sons, Charles and David. Mr. Roderick Meredith is at home today, fasting and praying and resting up from his recent trip. He will send out a special letter soon to everyone about the sad and profound loss of Mr. Ogwyn. In the meantime, he has asked that I send a letter to all of you about this unexpected and tragic turn of events.

Mr. Ogwyn was one of the top leaders in God’s Church and Work. He was a “tour de force” who cut a very big swath; an Evangelist, prolific writer, telecast presenter, member of the Board, member of the Council of Elders, Regional Pastor, and much more—and he carried out all of his responsibilities with the utmost effectiveness, commitment and zeal. God used him in a very powerful way. For example, notice what Mr. Wayne Pyle wrote about the success of just one of John’s responsibilities: “Mr. Ogwyn made a tremendous impact on many tens of thousands of viewers since he made his first formal appearance in front of the TV camera about three years ago on July 5, 2002. Since that day, he made a total of 27 half-hour television programs. Twenty-two programs have been aired, and three were aired a second time, so there were 25 airings; and his final five programs are scheduled for airing over the next five months to November. The programs produced more than 37,000 responses in the United States and Canada, as well as bringing in more than 18,000 brand new subscribers. Who knows what will come from the spiritual seeds he planted among tens of thousands of fertile minds.”

I think of John when I read 1 Chronicles 28:21, “And, behold, the courses of the priests and the Levites, even they shall be with thee for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every willing skilful man, for any manner of service: also the princes and all the people will be wholly at thy commandment.” It is well known that Mr. and Mrs. John Ogwyn worked as hard and as skillfully as anyone in God’s service. He was a shepherd in the fullest sense of the word.

Why has this blow to the Church taken place? We don’t know the answer to that, but perhaps we can put it in better perspective by looking at some examples in God’s Word. John the Baptist was called one of the greatest men ever born, by Jesus Christ Himself. Matthew 11:11, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Yet, he was killed at about the age of 31, for nothing more than telling the truth to a wicked, powerful man who didn’t want to hear it. Matthew 14:3-10, “For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. Because John had said to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, ‘Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter.’ And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her. So he sent and had John beheaded in prison.”

Why would such an outstanding and dedicated servant of God meet such a horrible and untimely death, brought about simply because of faithfully serving His Creator? We don’t know the answer, but we know that God loved him deeply and even chose John to baptize His only Son, Jesus Christ. Matthew 3:13-17, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”

When we as God’s people are faced with such an inexplicable and painful loss as now, we need to ask God to help us trust Him. He will hear and strengthen us without fail. He will help us keep the sorrow and suffering in the right perspective and somehow go on. God Himself does not take death lightly. Rather, He deeply loves and cares for those who die. Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” And in Psalm 48:14 we read, “For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.” Mr. Ogwyn knew these scriptures well. He believed and taught them and took great comfort from them. Please ask God to help all of His people do the same thing at this very trying time. He will not let us down—ever.

Remember what now awaits our dear friend and fellow laborer, who remained totally committed, loyal and faithful to God, His Church, and to his own personal family to the very end. Romans 8:17-18, “and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” This sure promise from God is the next step in Mr. John Ogwyn’s life. This should be our bright and shinning focal point as well, as we follow the sterling example and remember the outstanding legacy left by this true man of God.

With Christian love and affection,

Charles E. Bryce

P.S. Mr. Meredith will conduct Mr. Ogwyn’s funeral, which will take place on Thursday, June 16, 2005. Once final arrangements are made, we will notify all of you.

~I am so shocked and grieved that we have lost this many ministers in such a short amount of time. Satan is hitting us hard, we need to really start waking up.

~Ben~

Ok...

2005-06-13T19:11:00.000-05:00

..from now on I'm am no longer going to announce the song hehe. I know voting was udderly useless but... what are you gonna do? I'll eventually change it back to Stairway and so on and so forth. All this week from 4-6 pm, the local radio station (kshe95) will be playing every single led zeppelin song from a-z. Which of course is awesome.

On another sad note I have heard from many sources that Mr. Ogwyn is very ill. I will be praying and I hope everyone else does to that Mr. Ogwyn is healed. I never would of imagined anything like this to happen 1-2 years ago. We have had Mr. Mcnair and Mr. Gregory pass away and now Mr. Ogwyn is very ill. Satan is no doubtally attacking our ministers and I hope we can all draw closer, pray fervently and fast to prevent Satan's will.

Which one are you?

2005-06-10T22:59:00.000-05:00

I'm kip lol. Anways I wanted to tell everyone I'll be changing the music on my blog ever so often. So here is Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" ...and again if you don't want to listen just hit the stop button on your browser.

You are Kip Dynamite and you love technology.

Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Song...

2005-06-08T21:37:00.000-05:00

..that I chose was Stairway to Heaven...considering no one will vote for any other song 3 times, so I just ended the voting today. Yes yes... I know there will be a mob of people outside with picket signs going WHY DID IT END SO SOON..WE WANT REVOTE. But! this song saga must end today. If you don't want to hear the song just hit the stop button on your browser this helps especially when you surf the page and it keeps starting over hehe (thanks to Gary for the input)...anywho we had storms today which was awesome (cept it interfered with the cards game *sob*) Lets see.. I beat my mom 4 games to 0 today in ping-pong. And that's about it. :)

~Benjammin~

Media

2005-06-07T19:27:00.000-05:00

Alrighty! Like I said in my last post I wanted to add clips and media and such...well I don't exactly know how to get clips yet but I do know how to play some music everytime you come to my blog. So! I'm going to mention some bands/artists I want to play but you all will be the ones who vote. If you don't like any songs I list you can pick some out for yourself but I'll have to like it. Here is where I'm going to get the songs from http://www.listen4free.l2p.net/index.php so check it out.

Led Zeppelin:
Communication breakdown
Babe I'm gonna leave you
Stairway to Heaven
Since I've been loving you
Achilles last stand
Immigrant song
Heartbreaker
The Ocean
Song remains the same
Rock & roll
D'yer Mak'er

Black sabbath:
Paranoid

Rolling Stones:
Can't you hear me knockin'
You can't always get what you want

Aerosmith:
Dream on
Jaded
Last child
Sweet emotion

Sadly the website does not have "The Who" "Rush" "Hendrix" "Yardbirds" or else we wouldn't be having this vote.

Feel free to mention any Clapton songs (Layla was a live version)

...you can also check out the site and hear the songs I've selected for yourselves and you can vote more than once just not on the same song.

I SAW STAR WARS!

2005-06-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

Yippee! I just got back from Star wars: Episode III and it was amazingly cool. (kind of depressing) ..but I think Lucas did a superb job of tying the 3-4 episodes together. It's just like Gary said things made a lot of sense. Being a huge star wars nerd anyways I noticed a lot of neat tie-ins. For example I found out why Leia's last name is "Organa" and also where all the stormtroopers come from in the latter films. Let's see..what else was new? Ahh yes! Like Gary mentioned the scene when yoda walks in and the guards hit the wall and collapse..I thought that was hilarious and so did the crowd in the theater...also to mention the special effects, they were dazzling. You just get overwhelmed with sooo much lightsaber action and explosions it's hard to following everything going on. And even though this movie did have such a dark premise to it, it leaves nothing unknown...by the end of the movie you know all these events just help the happy ending and you walk out satisfied that you know the outcome of it all, that Luke ends up bringing balance to the force. I wouldn't be suprised if millions of people got home from seeing this movie and decided to watch episode IV, I mean! you could tie the movies together...maybe besides the oldness and lack of special effects. But, the plot and characters are all there.

Anyhwo I guess I'm done describing the awesomeness of this movie...I also want to let you all know I'm going to try and add media to my blog (clips, music, etc.) so I hope I can get that a workin' ...(man I wish I owned episode IV) =) As you may have noticed I got a new template aswell! I thought this template was wicked awesome (Gary really said I should use it when I showed him it) but anywho I'm satisfied.

I WANT TO SEE STAR WARS!

2005-06-04T21:23:00.000-05:00

Argh! As you noticed in the title I have not seen episode 3 yet...and thanks to Gary I know how Padme gets hurt! EVEN though I saw the spoiler alert that has never stopped me in the past from reading video game spoilers etc...etc...anyways it's your fault Gary (joking) = ) Alright as you may already know another one of God's awesome Holy Days is approaching. So we are going to Columbia Missouri for Pentecost which will be cool I can't wait.

Anywho moving on...have you ever noticed you always think of something to say on your blog when you are in the shower or right before you go to bed?! It is so frustrating, I always something extremely funny or witty in the shower and I never ever remember it! I know your all probably thinking "Ben can think of something witty?" but yes...I can actually come up with some pretty original stuff. Ok moving on...I have officially mastered "Mary had a Little Lamb" on the guitar woopee! Also have got that C chord down..it was pretty tough but I'm getting the hang of it. Lets see I also can play the intro to "Stairway to Heaven" which is one wicked awesome song. Well that's all I can think of right now (next time I remember something in the shower I will be sure to right it down) so I'm going to listen to some Hendrix and talk to friends.

~Benjammin~

Life is good!

2005-05-20T16:43:00.000-05:00

Wow, I've never felt so alive in a long time. Things have been going really well for me, I just recently got a job which is awesome...so now! I can afford camp....(please excuse me)
WAAHHHOOOOOO!!!! *Ahem* Okay back to whatever. I recently got a guitar (I've already told everyone, because I was so excited) and so far it has been awesome, but the C chord is a pain in the foot (err I mean hand). Next let me think what else is new...Ahh yes! I received a call from Mr. Solomon about me being an asst. counseler at the Missouri pre-teen camp, and how could I refuse it sounded so fun despite what I've heard about all the hard work and such. I know whatever happens will be for the best and everyone will have a great time aslong as they have the right attitude of course. Although I've been accepted for the pre-teen camp now, I have yet to have been accepted for the teen, this kind of situation makes Ben really nervous and makes him check his e-mails every hour. I really have nothing else to tell anybody so adios! And one other thing by the way. Ever notice that God sounds very close to "good" and devil sounds very close to "evil" pretty neat eh?

Mother's day!

2005-05-10T20:18:00.000-05:00

I trust everyone one had a great Mother's Day! I know all the mom's did . Anywho I recently applied for 2 jobs at an ice cream place and a library. I'm hoping to get one soon so I can save up for camp, however after camp I plan to get a guitar unless my parents intervene and get me one beforehand ...which will be awesome! I'll be all set for camp and be in guitar playing shape (I hope....) Anywho! I can't really think of anything else to say ...all I really want to do is watch baseball...so I'm going to leave you with a couple cool pictures. Have fun!

Better take the bunny hill.

I don't see a handicap ramp.

Tennis...

2005-05-05T09:49:00.000-05:00

It's ironic because tennis used to be my least favorite sport and well because I was so tennis illiterate I never liked it. That all changed when my father's constant struggle to keep me outside the house and do something spawned tennis (which my father really enjoys) so I have a new outlook on tennis ...anyways after a disappointing 6-2 set against my father I wanted to play another round well.. knowing my dad he usually only has room for one game but I can't blame him because he's much older than me and has to work all day. Thus he gets very tired and still manages to beat me due to experience but we still had a blast and I can't wait to play him again ...next time I'll get him.

By the way I thought this was funny:

Nice!

Wow this quiz nailed it!

2005-05-04T19:28:00.000-05:00

I was cruising around the blogspot quizzes stuff and noticed the "you know when your from St. Louis if..." I figured had to see this being a St. Louisan and all. I was amazed they nailed most of the things we know about our home town such as:

-we bleed blue between the months of september and may (refering to hockey!)

-vacations refer to Silver dollar city and Lake of the Ozarks and they forgot to mention Branson

-Although I can't drink beer yet... I know for sure! St. Louisans are big on beer

- Ok now when it says "You know at least one person who's gotten hurt at Johnson Shut-ins" THIS right here is absolutly true if your a St. Louisan. That place is super dee duper fun and yet it's very dangerous considering the whole place is rocks and water.

-Just read the rest all of it is true! ..my mom pronounces it MUSKACHOLLI

You Know You're From St. Louis When...

You love toasted ravioli with Budweiser beer.
"Vacation" is a choice between Silver Dollar City and Lake of the Ozarks.
You can get anywhere in 20 minutes, except on highway 40.
You can debate for 30 minutes whether Missouri Baking or Marge Amighetti makes the best Italian bread.
You know what "Party Cove" is, and where the "lake" is.
You still can't believe the Arena is gone.
Your first question to a new person is, "Where did you go to High School?"
Your non-St. Louisan friends always ask if you're aware there is no "r" in "wash."
You know at least one person who's gotten hurt at Johnson Shut-ins.
You know in your heart that Mizzou can beat Nebraska in football.
You think the three major food groups are Beef, Budweiser and Imo's.
You know there are really only three salad dressings: Imo's, Zia's and Rich and Charlie's.
You'll pay for your kid to go to college unless they want to go to KU.
You would rather have a root canal without anesthetic than drive on Manchester on a Saturday afternoon.
It just doesn't seem like a wedding without mostaciolli. AND YOU PRONOUNCE IT 'MUSKACHOLLI'. The balance of the menu is ham, boiled roast beef, string beans with ham and of course pitchers of Busch Bavarian (class weddings have Bud)
You know, within a three-mile radius, where another St. Louisan grew up as soon as they open their mouth.
Everyone in your family has floated the Meramec River at least once.
A hoosier is someone that lives just south of Chouteau, not a person from Indiana.
You have made fun of Mike Shanahan and tried to imitate him ordering another cold, frosty Busch Bavarian Beer.
You have listened to Mike's broadcast on KMOX, while watching the game on TV and wonder what game he is watching. A tear forms in your eye as someone mentions their favorite Jack Buck story.
You've said, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity."
Your favorite summer treat is handed to you upside-down
You bleed Blue between September and May
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from St. Louis.

Get Your Own "You Know You're From" Meme Here

More cool things for your blog at
Blogthings

Hello all!

2005-05-04T16:52:00.000-05:00

Hi all! I am totally new to this and I hope in time I can write as much as everyone else is...It looks so overwhelming how much everyone writes. Anyways this whole blog thing sounds great and I enjoy reading everyone's blogs!

Your Taste in Music:

Classic Rock: High Influence

80's Rock: Low Influence

90's Alternative: Low Influence

Hair Bands: Low Influence

Progressive Rock: Low Influence

How's Your Taste in Music?