Thrice Concert = Awesome!

So this last week was a pretty good one! Monday was orientation for all the new staff at California Pizza Kitchen, which basically was everyone in a big classroom watching sexual harassment films and hearing about how this is going to be the best job of our life sort of schpeal... I guess almost all jobs have something related to that, but it was good, just started getting prepared for training. I had tuesday through thursday off work, so i just chilled, hung out, did some work here and there, studied the server manuel some. Friday was our first day of actual training. It went very well and it was great to meet some new people and try new (FREE) food! Saturday I had off again. I woke up and the weather report stated : THUNDER STORMS AND RAIN... an hour later it was 75 and sunny, so needless to say I went outside (being that it was the first sunny day of the week). I went and checked out this skatepark here in Tigard, and it was one of the coolest skate parks i've been to. I decided not to skate since there were a bunch of rippers... then there was me who would display an astounding new trick i like to call the "Face Plant". So I just did some photography. I met the manager of this skate team that was there from England and talked to him for a while. It was pretty cool to see some of their culture.



Have you ever noticed that cussing in a thick english accent sounds more silly than bad?

Well the best part of the week was that I got to go to a THRICE CONCERT at the Roseland Theater in downtown Portland. The other bands that played before them were interesting but more just music to pass the time before epic music. Thrice put on one of the better shows that I have seen and it was just amazing! I thought that they chose their set very well and it had a great flow to it.

The bummer of the week was sunday... There was a mandatory CPK training in the morning so i had to miss my first Colossae Church meeting which I was way bummed about... I heard the meeting went well and luckily we record the sermons but it was hard because my hearts desire is to be there. Luckily work promised not to schedule me on sunday mornings after that. Training was similar to friday, it was good and very helpful. Well that is about everything. I am excited for this week as well!

A video of my Oregon Photography So Far

Here is just a little video i put together of Oregon Photography to be used as propaganda to get people to move to Oregon!

Last Week of No Work

This week was a pretty good one. I really didn't do too much before weekend but still got some stuff done. I had to take an online Alcohol Servers Class to get my serving permit. I am glad that is done! We have had a hot end to the week, with multiple days of 90 plus degree weather. I am not going to lie, i kinda look forward to having rain again so i can cool off. I am pretty tired and out of it right now, just from waking up early and going to bed somewhat late so some of this may not be coherent. If it isn't... i guess i apologize. =)

Well the most eventful part of my weekend was being able to finally make a trip out to the coast. I went with my buddy Kyle. His wife was on a business trip this weekend so it was bachelor bro time. We drove out the 26 to Cannon beach, hung out there for a while and got some good burgers. Then we took a drive up the 101 to Astoria, which was beautiful. I heard about this bridge that spanned over 3 miles from astoria to Washington, so we drove on that and it was amazing. Over all it was a great day, i ever got a tanktop tan. (stupid sun, i didn't even think i was in the sun long). Well I really don't have too much to say, probably because I am tired... But below are some pictures. A little later i will write about Colossae Church week 6.

Colossae Week 5 (plus a little extra bout my week)

So another week has passed and I think one thing i am learning already or at least am being continually retaught is the fact that time goes REALLY FAST! I swear these weeks are just blowing by, but i has been great too. So this week hasn't really been eventful. I secured my California Pizza Kitchen job last week and that hasn't started yet so I am officially just chillin at home, trying to get out and check some stuff out but it has been great.

Wednesday night I went to the Portland Rescue Mission where some of the people from Colossae and I went to help serve the homeless dinner and then I lead worship for a chapel they had. That was a unique experience for me but was cool at the same time. Though not many people sang along (except for to the song Amazing Grace, which everyone knows) I pray that people were able to worship the Lord in their own hearts.

{PICTURE BREAK!!!!!!}

So the picture above is a few miles from my house, gorgeous place and reminded me of my aunt because of all the horses on the left!
So i think this picture is funny because we have a bunch of Alpacas up here, and obviously they are a little skiddish. All I wanted was a close up but know they had to akwardly gallop away. (stupid alpacas)

Ok, now onto week 5 of Colossae! This was another great week. We had about 4 new people come check out the church which was awesome but there was about 7 people out this week with mother's day and other stuff. It was still an awesome meeting. There were two songs of worship in the beginning: Consuming Fire, followed by How Great is Our God. Chuck then began to speak out of the passage Matthew Chapter 25. We were discussing the Parable of the Talents and just taking a look at how this parable relates to us as the body of Christ and even just us as we build this church. One of the cool things that we began to talk about was that this gift of the talents to the master's servants was known to them to be not their own. The faithful servants put to use what they were given and then returned all of it to there master, because it wasn't their own. Something that I noticed which I had never thought about was that when these servants returned the money to their master with the extra money they earned, they were overjoyed in being able to provide more for their master and give back what they were given. They weren't sad or upset about giving it all to him, for they were not in need. The master was taking care of them and providing for them. As a body we aren't continually learning to be faithful to the Lord in all areas of life, one that seems to strike close to home with many people is the matter of money. As a body we are still trying to look to the needs of others and making sure that we are being good stewards of the money God has given us, remembering, it isn't our own. At the end of the sermon, we sang the song Surrender, which has the simple chorus of "I surrender all to you, all to you". And once again we went over to the leatherman's house afterwards to eat lunch and watch a little basketball and hang out.

Life is good!

Who Am I (For Mom and Dad)

Just thought you guys might enjoy this, i love you guys and miss you all! Ps. if you aren't my parents feel free to watch the video, but you may not enjoy it as much =)

Another Week Gone By (Including Colossae Week 4)

So this week was a pretty good one! Some stuff is finally coming together which is great and encouraging for me! The engineering job search as I have mentioned a multiple blog entries has been nothing more than stagnant, which I think understandably has been frustrating for me. As I continued to search and try to find any entry level engineering stuff, i just started realizing that maybe I should look for something else at this point, do that job for a while during this transition phase. First of all, because I think it will be healthy for me mentally and socially to have some work and some place that I can easily meet more people. Secondly, I need to start making some money so I can do that little thing that we like to call "SURVIVING". As of Saturday, I was officially hired to be a server at a new California Pizza Kitchen that is opening up here! I am stoked about it! Though this wasn't my college dream: to graduate with a prestigious engineering degree and pick up a waiting job, I really think God is going to use this time to teach me a lot and I am honestly excited to be a server. It is something I always thought I would be good at so I am glad I actually have the chance, I mean, we only live once right? The interview process included 3 interviews... if you think like me, you are probably wondering "what in the world job at CPK needs 3 interviews". If they had done a full background check on me, i would have been a little more curious as well, but I am getting good a role play waiting =). Other than the interviews, and all that Jazz, the week was pretty uneventful, just enjoyed my time with some random hail for a few days.

Now onto Colossae Church Week 4:
So I am still stoked with the church and seeing that passion that everyone is bringing to the group. We are consistently staying at about 20 - 25 people (when I say consistently, that means all 4 weeks that this church has been in existence). This week Chuck spoke out of Acts chapter 4:32-25. This passage is when the apostles show the importance of being one body, and continually providing for the body. As we read through the passage, we began to discuss what it looks like to live as one body, to live where you truly believe that no possession is your own. Some people when they read this are going to be naturally inclined to fear that we have all decided to join a commune and that we are going to make Karl Marx proud through living out fundamental communism....haha, well that isn't what it is about. I am just excited that we are really starting to prod our minds and questions what our priorities, where we struggle in areas of trust, what it looks like to be selfless and thinking about the body over ourselves. We want to be the body of Christ, yet I know that I struggle a lot with this. I personally cling to my independence and as my parents know, I have had the urge to be independent since I was young. The idea of having to be real and show needs when I have them, to actually not rely on myself when I am in need but trust that the Lord and the body are the for me truly scares me. I think that a lot of us feel that we don't ever want to be a burden to someone else. So this passage is definitely challenging in multiple ways, but I am excited to see what God starts doing. It all comes back to the passage from last week: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind." So it was definitely a great 4th week, I am overjoyed!