Nameless

Hello World.

So Kim and I watched the 24: Redemption movie that came on tonight. And basically its the first two hours of season 7, which starts January 11. And its amazing. I won't spoil it for you people that haven't seen it, but I will tell you it has Jack in Africa and it centers around the terrible tragedy of African children, young boys being kidnapped and turned into soldiers for the rebel army. You want to know more about the movie, it comes out on DVD Tuesday I believe. Anyway, the child abduction/turning into soldiers is a very real situation in Africa right now. These kids are so young and are brainwashed to kill their own people and anyone their captors tell them to. Yet most people tend to either not care or refuse to believe it goes on. Kim is a member of an organization called invisible children, just one organization that's trying to help stop this horrible situation. You can talk to her, or go to the website for Invisible Children, which of course is Invisible Children.com. Apparently, the leader of the LRA (the rebel army taking the kids) is going to sign a Peace Agreement, so keep that in your prayers, maybe some peace can enter that region and little children can grow up in peace and actually have a childhood.

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The other day Doug, Kim and I had the oppurtunity to deliver a thanksgiving food basket to a struggling family of three. Our church is partnered with a local organization called LOVE inc, and they set it up so people in our church (and the other churches in manteca that are participating) can form groups and take a basket to a family. Our family was Frank and Monica and their daughter. Both Frank and Monica had lost their jobs recently and were wondering what they were gonna be eating when the food runs out, so this basket was a huge blessing to them. Monica mentioned she might be getting a job at the new theatres, so I'm praying that happens. Despite all of the stuff that has happened in their lives so suddenly, both of them never seemed to blame God. Their struggles are so great yet their faith was even greater...It really was inspiring to talk to them.

In light of this post, as the holiday season is coming up with Thanksgiving this week and Christmas in December, I encourage all of you to show love to others. Be slow to anger and judging. Theres struggling people all around us. All over the world, yet even in our own town. Help someone. Help them do anything. Its not that hard. People need us. Let show them Christ's love, not man-made condemnation and hatred, or equally worse, the indifference; that seems to be ever present these days.

Have a good Thanksgiving everyone.

Oh and Happy Birthday to my brother Josh (On thanksgiving!)

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER

So I decided that these cookies were so good they deserved their own mini-blog. Save Mart sells these cookies, and they are simply amazing.

Heres a pic:



Yea, they will change your life. Next time in youre in Save Mart, get a bag, theyre like 4 bucks or so.
OK enough free advertising from me.

More substantial blogs to come in the near future

Save Mart

Hello all.

I thought I'd update all of you on my work situation. A couple posts ago I mentioned I was applying to Save Marts because I was finished with Big Boy. Well I actually got hired at the Save Mart in Ripon back in June.

Grand Opening a year ago or something

Big Boy Market was a good job to have-during Highschool. But after, it was just time to get out. I stayed there a good 4 plus years, because it was comfortable and I was just lazy. There was good people that worked there, and a lot of the customers were pretty cool- Pastor Dan would even shop there once in a while. I made min wage tho, and my hours werent the greatest. After 4 years somewhere, you think that would not be the case. I dont blame them though, I mean they couldnt really afford it, seeming how they closed down!
So when I got offered the job on the spot during the first interview, you bet I took it. So I put in my two weeks notice to Jen and told Save Mart I could start after the 2 weeks. I took some pics on my last day.

Thank you for working?



Front of the Store at Night

You know, I thought i would miss the customers and my co-workers at Big Boy, and the freedom and laid-backness of working there, but let me tell you, its a world of difference. I do miss the people somewhat...

At Big Boy, sometimes I kind of liked my job, but now that I'm working at Save Mart, I LOVE my job! My co-workers are all pretty cool for the most part; I've made a couple of friends already. Yes, its not as laid back, but thats okay, I needed to take my job seriously and grow up in that area. The majority of the customers are amazing. I think this is due to the fact that its Ripon, where everyone is generally in a great mood 98 % of the time. The hours are significantly better, and I started at 8 35, somthing I wasn't even making at Big Boy. Another reason I feel blessed is a few of my co-workers are Christian (and one of my managers) , something I didn't really have in common with my Big Boy co-workers.

So adding to all of this, Save Mart does the secret shoppers program, (to make sure were doing our jobs) and I recently passed mine with flying colors. Which isnt hard, if you do your job, something I tend to do very well. (Not to brag or anything) Theres incentives for getting good scores, and I got a $5 gift card to use at the store, which is cool.

Wait, thats not it!

One of managers, Rick, came up to me on Tuesday and asked if I wanted to be an extra in a training video that corporate was making Wed night at the Riverbank Save Mart. I said yes and it was loads of fun. I was there from 11 pm to 6 in the morning. (We will get paid for a full 8 hour shift) There was about 10 or 11 of us, all Save Mart employees, 3 of which were my co-workers. I was an extra in the background for several scenes, and I had a small speaking part as well, where I had to 'win the right' to take a customers' groceries out to their car. Every Save Mart employee will have to watch this video the week before Thanksgiving, so that means it will be seen by hundreds of people. Pretty cool.
One of the corporate ladies said we will probably all get a copy of the video, so I'll try to put part of it on here if I get it.

Pic I took of the Director prepping Bob for the scene

I'm sorry if this blog came off as me bragging, but I figured you would all like to know about my new job. I truly feel blessed to have this job, especially after Big Boy closed a little over a month after I got hired at Save Mart. Thank you, Lord.

Rest In Peace, Reese

So once again I apologize for not posting in like a gazillion months. I really want to post reguluarly, I do. Anyway, I thought I would put this up to start up the blog again. As many of you know, the best rabbit in the world, Reese, had to be put to sleep recently. I was upset the day it happened, maybe a few days after. I'm good now though. Still miss him here and there. However, I thought I would put this up for you people to see. Enjoy.

RETURN OF THE BLOG

Hello intrawebs!

So its been a while. 5 months and 11 days to be exact. I decided to keep blogging. So what has changed in my life?

Well I am no longer on the market. I am spoken for by an amazing girl, Kimberly Erskine. We've been dating for just under two months now. I haven't been happier. :)
Heres a picture:

School wise, this was a terrible semester for me. Terrible. I've also realized some things about myself and some other people..but I'll get into that on another blog. For those of you who have been begging me to get another job and to leave Big Boy, it should please you to know that I've been searching for jobs; I applied to Trader Joe's in Modesto and Im submitting applications to the different SaveMarts around.

My niece Aimee turned 1 last week. The joy she has brought to mine and my whole family's lives already in just this past year is incredible. I love this little girl and I want to be an awesome Uncle to her and to be around as she grows up into a young woman. To celebrate we had a birthday party at Brandon and Amanda's (her parents) house in Merced. Great food, lots of people, good time all around. Here are some pics from the birthday party on Sunday:

Kim and I talking to Aimee

Aimee being a little piggy.

Beginning to open her presents





Center of Attention



Getting love from her cousin Elizabeth



With her other grandma Donetta (Amandas Mom)
and Cassidy and Kiely (my 2nd cousins once removed)



Last but not least, heres a picture of Josh being, well Josh.



Thats all for now. Expect a few more blogs outta me very soon. :)

So I've been thinking.

I write blogs. I know theyre not important or anything. But I really dont get all too much feedback on this blog, and thats what I enjoy. Whereas with myspace, I always got feedback. More people are apt to read them if theyre right there on my profile too.

So I'm wondering... should I just use myspace only from now on?


I'm going to transfer a few blogs from here over to my myspace...but tell me what you guys think as far as me deleting this blog.

let me know, anyone can comment on my blogs now.

Thanks.

Thurrrsssday (Yes I realize which day I wrote this is)

Good Evening, actually Morning, Ladies and Gents!

I'm really tired but I'm gonna write a short blog before I go to bed. So today I cleaned out my closet, a few skeletons, nothing too terrible. I also cleaned out my desk (with the shelves and such.) Those two things were so messed up, it took me all dang day!

A bonus was finding some pictures from my senior year of highschool photography class. I loved that class, and the teacher was one of my favorites. That being said, I pretty much sucked at developing, so I apologize in advance for these poorly executed pictures:

***Also, for some reason Whenever I put pictures in a blog, they look fine when I preview them, but then i actually look at my blog when its posted, the pictures are cut-off from the right, as you can tell with all of these pictures. Theyre not supposed to be cutoff like that, I'm not THAT bad at framing. Anyone have any ideas on a fix?***

This was our "Drawing with light" assignment. Two Jerms are better than one.



Forsaken on the Stairway to Oblivion. Actually its just Spencer lying down on the steps by the MHS pool.



I believe this was our Juxtaposition assignment. This elf worries me.



Still Life assignment. This is what I used to be about. well sorta. You'll notice the Five Iron, Relient K, and Roper stuff, the glared-out Best of Will Ferrell DVD, a picture of Kristin and I (we were dating at the time) and my Bible, among other things.



Portrait assignment. Spencer was yet again my subject.



Last but most certainly not least we have the Texturing assignment. I believe it was taken through a tissue. I could be wrong. Anyway, I like it because it makes David look like part of the tree; some pretty sweet camoflage.



Yep. In the evening Doug came over and we watched an episode of Heroes. (I bought Heroes season one at Target for 19 bucks!) We were shortly joined by Cassie, and we watched another one. Josh also came over. After a while Cassie left and we were joined by Anna, her sister. Tim also came over a bit later. We watched the musical episode of Scrubs, then episodes 3 and 4 of Heroes, and a short Comedy Central sampling of comedians video I got for free on iTunes. Fun times were had.

OK im going to die from exhaustion so that about wraps of this latest edition of Jerm Gone Wild. (Did I mention I'm really tired?)