Isn't it funny how the worst team in Baseball has the nicest view from the stadium. I love PNC park mainly because it is by far the nicest stadium I've ever been too. Which of course is only three, maybe four, but the fourth wouldn't count anyway cause I really can't remember it (could have been a dream). But of all the stadiums I have been in, it is the nicest. Anyway, it does have have the sweetest view no matter where you get seats. These nose bleed seats are probably the coolest view I've been in since I've been going to the park every year for the last 8 years or so... Who would have thought that the cheapest seats in baseball would be the best in Pittsburgh, cause as you can tell no one comes to the Pirate games to watch the Pirates. Leah and myself walked around the park for more of the game then we sat through. That's pretty much what we always do.
Here at MBI there is an event that the STUCO puts on for the Freshman and Sophomores called the book sale. The name is pretty self explanatory, it's where the upper class men sell the books they no longer want to the under class men. No one ever sells the Jr./Sr. level books. It's really annoying. But when you find a good book at the book sale and get a good deal on it you feel like a champ. Every once and a while you get a few crazy kids that sell other stuff, that was me and some guys from D1 this year. Anyway, Here is how I saw the book sale.
Moving back to school was a wonderfully terrible experience. I say it was wonderful cause I had a great time, and terrible because now I'm back into the full swing of school and I am still not ready to take on the task that is this semester. I don't really wish to talk about the terrible part of the experience so I will fill you in on the wonderful part...
My dearest Leah joined me on an expedition to the top of the Chicago skyline on two separate occasions and locations the weekend before school began. So, something like 2 buildings, 212 floors, and $40 later we had seen Chicago from two of it's highest points. It was a great view from both the John Hancock and Willis (formerly Sears) Towers. I took a ton of pictures these were the only two I think that are worth sharing. You really should spend the money and walk on air in the Willis if you are ever in Chicago, It's really cool.
Yeah, You might be wondering what happened to me all summer. I disappeared from the internet scene for the last bit of good weather. Truth is I love summer too much to sit on my computer for very long. I worked at a summer camp for kids with behavioral problems. Might have been the best summer job I've had to date. I loved going everyday cause the kids were great. I spent a lot of time with a girl that I am in love with. I am now back in Chicago and I am getting ready to post some new stuff more frequently. Hopefully, I get some time to do that.
-Smitty
Butler is covered with churches. Not just churches, but old churches, that look almost like castles. Ok, to be honest, not a ton of them look like castles, but this one sure does. It is one of the four churches that surround the Jr High school. They all have church bells. I would hate to live near the Jr. High and hear those bells everyday. I remember trying to take tests in 7th and 8th grade and not being able to think when the bells were ringing for a half hour.
I was surprised to find that calling sub style sandwiches Hoagies is only a western Pa thing. But, I remember always trying to talk my gym teacher at the Jr. High school into letting me leave class early to run across the street to this fine establishment. I never got to. But, I've heard about the kids that did.. They were much cooler then myself. But, this place is a butler food getting classic.
I've never been in the Butler Art Studio downtown. I'm not even positive that it is called the Butler Art Studio, I think it might be the art show, but that doesn't sound right either... But, I do enjoy the building it is in. It's the parthenon of Butler. Well, I wouldn't go that far. But, it does look kinda cool.
Welcome to my home town. If you live here, I'm sorry. But, I live here for the summer too. Making this my home, sweet home. I love this town. Most people that live here don't. They probably don't know what they are missing. The fact is, most places you live will get boring. Once you know everything already, life in one place gets a little boring. That's were people come into play. Get to know the right people, have the right relationships, then any town will be great to live in. Whether it is Butler, PA or Chicago, IL (I live in both) your life can be just as exciting and interesting.
I will be exploring with you over the summer some pictures that I hope will show a little bit of my home town, and some of the stuff that I enjoy about it. For starters, you can almost always get two free hours of parking on Main St. Most people can't parallel park, making these spots always open for me.
AHHH! It's finally summer. It's been so long since my last post. Summer seems to be just as busy as the school year. On top of that, my camera (aka Clarabelle) decided to not like my SD card and made it sick somehow. Have no fear though, Clarabelle and the SD card are getting along now, after holding some really important pictures for ransom and really making me upset for a few days.
All that aside, I got to go out and shoot for the first time in almost two weeks today. This shot is about a quarter of they way down the hill I live on; I call it the big brick hill. The hill is massive, impossible to ride my single speed up, and made almost completely of these bricks. Butler is rustic, or just old. Whatever you want to call it. Consider this the start of my Butler, Pa Series.
Remember when you were little and you got out a box of crayons, your mom told you keep them on the paper, or the disney characters coloring book. Something inside of you disagreed with that request, or demand in some cases. Your artistic ability should be confined to one piece of paper or closed between the covers of a book that would be misplaced in the coming days. You eye spots the wall: a solid color, boring, almost begging for improvement. You get up from your bench seat at the lil' tykes table with favorite color in hand. As crayon meets paint you can't stop the perpetual motion that brings life and color to the once mundane wall. The swirls are your masterpiece, and your mom will never understand your genius as she unravels her frustration on your back side.
Luckily, once you get older, you make your own choices of how your room/walls will look. Our artistic taste is no longer persecuted. We go past our crayons now, however (thank God). My personal preference is posters, or random things that make me happy to look at. The picture here is just a small section of my walls many pictures.
Make your wall a little less mundane today.
-Smitty
College has been good to me. In fact, I'm pretty lucky to have ended up here. With these guys. The "D1Family" is pretty great, if have must say it. We have some good times on the floor and off. I'm glad to be a part of it. If you go to moody you might have seen some of the pictures from this photo shoot around the school : ). If so, I'm really glad you did. I hope that you didn't take them off the wall in anger; our intentions were to make you smile, not stumble... ^_^
The Pictures here weren't used in our final posters. But, I enjoyed them enough to edit and post them here.
Dread. It hit's you around eight or nine o'clock on Sunday night. You don't know why. Just something it's right in your life. Monday is just a few hours away, and even closer if you think about how fast the night sleep with pass by. A long week a head to do a thousand or more things that you might never be able to accomplish. I've felt this a lot of times. When youth group would end and I would have to wake up in the morning and go to school. I would just think, "Why do I have to do this. What has my life come to?" Always later, upon realizing the ridiculousness of my questions, I would think about how this is just life. But, in the moment you think only the worst about your situation. Nothing makes it better.
I thought I had invented the idea of Sunday Night Syndrome, however, after some research I found I was mistaken. The articles I read basically say what I was thinking in my head, I could be a doctor. Sunday Night Syndrome is not really a condition but a state of emotional dread, stress, along with a mixture of other random things that make you feel like complete crap the last night of your weekend. It's detrimental to the last night of enjoyment/weekend. However, Sunday night is a school night, leaving it in some sort of weekday/weekend limbo; where does it fit?
If you feel like this is something that you deal with, I know that I think I do. Remember that, well, life is life. I'm not saying you need to suck it up and deal with it. I'm saying you need to check yourself in the mirror and make sure your happy with where your at in life. If you need to change something, or if you just need a change of pace. If you need something, e-mail/call/facebook me. I'd love to talk.
-Smitty
Kid's can't swim by themselves. Anyone under the age of 7 doesn't seem to me to be capable of surviving even the baby pool with out some adult supervision. I get nervous when I see any kid near water without an adult within three feet of them. The child could be, and probably is, capable of swimming better then myself. Still, children in the presences of water is a scary thought.
Now that you have lost all respect for me. I'll tell you what's been going thru my mind as of late. Firstly, I've noticed a steady decline in my writing. Not being something that I want to happen, I plan on putting a significant amount of additional effort into my writing. This could be another weightless statement that seem to come up in every blog now-a-days. I sincerely hope this is not the case. My entire purpose for blogging was to improve my writing and share some pictures along with some simple (maybe sometimes complex) thoughts. I plan on starting to fulfill those goals once more.
Ready. Set. Go.
-Smitty
It's in funny how we always see the past perfectly. It's been said over and over, until it has been beaten to death, that hindsight sees 20/20. Of Course it is, if we knew then what we now know, well then it would make life so boring. But, it's easy to look back as say, "I wish I would have been different... wish I would have made that call.. wish I would have said I'm sorry... wish.. whatever.." The truth is you can't change the past. I can't change the past... and honestly God, can't change your past. But, God's not in the business of changing my past, or yours. He's in the business of changing futures.. Everlasting futures.. That's what makes getting to know God worth the time. A relationship that will change your life drastically. The greatest thing is that God can take your past and use it to reach others. The most powerful story anyone can tell is the story that is their own. Maybe it makes no sense to you what I'm saying but God can use your story, your past, to impact others in your future. It makes seeing the rearview in 20/20 more important then ever.
I love being driven around by this girl. Not because I always feel save when she is driving, cause I don't think anyone does ; ). It's because I love her, and some how she still loves me when she is driving. You know it's true love when you can sit in the front seats, take silly pictures while at stop lights, and not want to kill each other when you are in a shady neighborhood in Pittsburgh and don't know how to get to your destination. Ok, So maybe letting Leah drive me around is a little more nerve racking then I'm making it sound. But, I wouldn't want anyone else to drive me crazy.
First of all, I'm terrible at posting blogs. I need to just quit... or maybe I should just make time to type post them. It's not like I have a shortage of photographs or ideas about them. Actually, I wish I could do the pictures justice and tell you more about each and everyone of the above photographs, as well as the others that I post. I need to be less tired then I am currently to take on such a task.
For the last month or so I have been pretty busy. I suppose.. : ) I got to go home for two weeks. What a wonderful experience that was. I got to spend a lot of time with the wonderful woman in the third picture from the top. Leah and I had a great time over spring break. I got to ride my bike a couple times. and most importantly I got to eat pie for Leah's Birthday. Overall, it was a very relaxing time off school. I got some time to go out with my camera and snap some pictures of B-town. I got to thinking about doing a photo series of Butler this summer. I don't know if I will be able to. But I just thought about it. So, maybe be looking for that if you live in Butler...or if you don't and just want to know more about my home.
I love the Chicago Park District. By far, some of the nicest parks in the middle of a city. At least the best that I've seen. The above pictures are from a day I spent in Millennium Park this last month. It was cold, but there was still a lot to see and do. If you visit the windy city you have to go to Millennium and see the bean (or cloud gate, depending on your preference to it's name). It really is a must see.
Fun Fact : The top picture is of the bean. You can see the top of it against the sky. It's the coolest thing in Millennium Park.
I love Chicago. As much as I miss the rolling hills of Pennsylvania (and all those whom inhabit them) I really love living in this city. Chicago is so much different then what I have been use to for the first 19 years of my life. So much movement, so may buildings and people, trains and cars, and taxi's that look like police cars. I still give a lot of taxi's second looks because they look so much like police cars. I don't know why I even give a second glance. I have never been in trouble with the police, excluding one speeding ticket (which, I must admit, was well deserved), so it is really pointless for me to be worried about them; if anything, they are keeping me safe. I see these buildings everyday on Chicago Ave.
If you have never been in Chicago, I urge you to come visit me. I'll take you out for some deep dish... your treat of course and I know a couple of great hot dog places.
My second founders week was a little like this picture. To be completely honest I wasn't all there mentally leaving most of the picture of founders week a blur, a shame, I know. I really hope that my attention span grows in the next year so that I can pay attention to the required sessions the entire way through them.
However, I did get some great stuff from founders week this year. The most over lying thing is to be a real Christian, in the real world, right now. Every speaker from PJ to The New Life Guy (Mark Jobe) to David Jeremiah challenged me in different ways, whether it was to fast or to flee from sin instead of dealing with it or a number of other things.
This week really impressed upon me that I need to be a true follower of Christ, someone that denies sin and loves and fights for biblical values, in a real world, that is covered with sin not just the "moody bubble," and I can't wait any longer to do so. I hope this theme that I created in my ADD mind will sink into my life.
I really should post more.
Thanks,
Smitty
I'm sure you have been wondering where I have been this last month. To be honest, I've been in Wisconsin.. To actually be honest, I've been super busy this semester, I should be reading right now... However, I have been in Wisconsin last weekend for a Jr. High Youth Retreat and may I say, it was spectacular. I got a glimpse of what I hope to being doing in a few years. I got to drop the books for a couple days and do what I really want to do: chill with kids and invest some time into them and have good ol' fun too.
I was encouraged that there is a reason I'm learning all this stuff at Moody. I'm really glad I got to go and hang with some of the best kids on this earth. I got called Justin LeviBebier like five thousand times (you wouldn't understand), hated every time, but loved the kids regardless. A lot of kids made really important decisions this last weekend. A bunch from our group got saved this weekend and it really pumped me up. I am really excited for all of them and can't wait to see them continue to grow. Here is some snapshots from the weekend in Wisconsin. I hope to go back for the Sr. High Winter camp next month.
I've waited to talk about the new year until my birthday, which is about 40 minutes from now. The last year has been a great one full of change and learning, I think. For one, my physical appearance has changed. But, who really cares about that, I just have some holes in my ears now and some permanent art work on my wrist. That doesn't really matter that much. I've learned a lot in the last year about who I am, and who I am becoming. I finally revisited my love of photography and got myself a camera, I'm sure you knew that and are sick of hearing about it, but deal with it. I'm really happy I did that, I'm having a lot of fun with it and it gives me something to do. I've also been falling in love over and over again with the same girl for the entire 20th year of my life, and most of my 19th year of life too. Leah is great. You should really meet her. If she had a blog I would put a link to it here (Non-exitent blog link).. But she doesn't have one. I know she is a loser. (Leah if you are reading this, you better get a blog.)
Anyway, My life is getting more interesting, I keep breaking promises about this blog. So, I'm promising to not promise anything anymore and just post when I can. I hope that this next year is a great one like the last one. I'm sure it will be. here is some of the last year in a few pics.
