Thursday, October 30, 2008

Dear


Yesterday I received a quick message from one of my best friends from high school. He is currently on his Mission; a 2 year mission trip that Mormon males have to go on; and I haven't seen him since the spring of 2 years ago. He will be returning this summer and I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to hang out with him again. 

As I responded to his message, I sometimes found myself feeling emotional. At first it confused me, but The more and more that I thought about what I was feeling, the more I embraced it. I felt emotional because I realized how important his friendship was to me. I realized how much I respect and admire him as a person, and it gives testament to the level of our friendship. 

I don't think that I am idealizing our relationship because of the time apart. I know that we really are close friends, and I really do want to continue to invest in that friendship. 

As all of this hit me, I began to understand a little bit more the importance of having good friends. I still sit down and remember the good times that Thomas and I had in high school, and those things make my life happier and brighter. The friendship that I have with Tom and with all of my close friends make me a better person. 

So to all of my good friends, thank you. Thank you very much for making me a better person, and i hope that i can do the same for you. I hope that you have friends that you can think about, and they bring a smile to your face. Its one of the best feelings in the world.

Friday, October 24, 2008

1 Kings 11- My own personal punch in the face


Yesterday I was reading in 1 Kings 11, where Solomon turns from God. At this point in Solomon's life God has blessed him in unbelievable ways, and Solomon had followed God. In 1 Kings 11, Solomon is nearing the end of his life, and in his old age and in all of his wealth and poor decisions he had made, he began to worship other gods. Actually, it was because of the women that Solomon had married that he was convinced to worship other gods. 

When i read this, i was very disappointed in Solomon and the way that he ended his relationship with God. I actually thought that he was a really stupid person for acting this way. If God had blessed him so richly throughout his entire life, then why would he stumble right at the end? I dwelt on this for a little while by myself, then I began to talk with Bethany, my girlfriend about what I had read. 

She brought up the point that Solomon was the wisest person to have ever lived apart from Jesus. I realized that, but i still wasn't turned from my negative view of Solomon. Then, in her wonderfully scathing and forcefully introspective way, Bethany said made me see the story in a different light. The easiest way to show this is through dialogue...

Jordan- "I just don't understand how he could fail right at the end of his life after being the apple of God's eye for his entire life. I mean God had given him everything that he could have ever wanted and more, but he still was turned away from God. He's so dumb! If i was in his position, i wouldn't turn away from God"

Bethany- "Jordan. Stop and think for a minute. You are in his position. You have been blessed beyond most everyone else in the world, but you still turn from God every single day. How can you say that you wouldn't do what he would do, when it is impossible for us to live perfect lives? Just because God blesses you doesn't give you immunity to failing and sinning."

Jordan- "Oh crap. I'm the stupid one, aren't I?"

Bethany- "Now you're just being ridiculous Mister Bolte."

Bethany had it right on. I am just as blessed as Solomon was, but i still sin. The amount of blessing that God bestows upon someone doesn't correlate with the individual's ability to stand strong against sin. The wisest man that has ever lived was still suspect to his sinful nature.

I'm so glad that we believe in a God that knows that we are crappy, but still loves us. He blesses us in ways that we can't even begin to understand, yet we still rebel. I hope that Solomon and his actions help us see that material wealth, God's blessing, and beautiful women don't protect us from sin.

-JB

Monday, October 20, 2008

If allergic to Cheese and Sap, DO NOT READ!


Hey everyone!

Here are some lyrics to a song I wrote to Bethany last year. I felt that I should show everyone else how much she has my heart on our year and a half anniversary.

Together

When I look into your eyes girl
I find comfort in those eyes girl
I look into those eyes and I see
Who I really wanna be

When I see that pretty smile girl
There's true joy in that smile girl
When I see that pretty smile I know
That I Never wanna go

How can I know? How can I
Show you everything you make me feel
How will our love grow together?

Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming
Its just too good to be true
Me and you, on this afternoon
Together, Forever

My Heart is thirsty for you in my life
Just a thought of you blows my mind
I just need you to know that you are the one for me girl
You are the one for me

How can I know? How can I 
show you everything that I feel? 
Because with you I know
We need to be together

Though the miles may separate us
My love for you gets brighter everyday
That why from my full heart
I must say

How can I know? How can I
show you everything you make me feel?
How will our love grow together?

Happy year and a half love. I'm looking forward to many more. 


Thursday, October 16, 2008

FALL BREAK 2008


Today is the start of something wonderful.

Fall Break 2008.

Thats right. Today starts a chain reaction of fun events that come in many different forms for many different people. Some people left earlier this week, choosing to skip classes to fully enjoy the long weekend. Others have decided that a long weekend at school doesn't constitute skipping classes and have chosen to stay here at school. I am more in the camp of the latter, but just because we've decided to be more responsible doesn't mean that we still can't have fun! My roommate headed back to Bolivia for a week, so from my room alone i feel like we have the entire spectrum of Fall Break activities covered. 

So let me do a little bit of explaining of this coming weekend. 

Thursday- Today is the beginning of all of this insanity. Starting later this afternoon, we most likely will be playing a board or two of Lord of The Rings Risk, which by the way is awesome. After that, Julie Coddington, a fellow PA from English hall, will be possibly making some of us privileged individuals pies and cakes and the sort. We get to be the official taste testers! (SO TIGHT) After these things take place, other mayhem will ensue, but it won't be planned, which is probably the best kind of mayhem. :-)

Friday- Friday we will wake up and begin the day in a lazy manner. Friday is our official Board game day. Risk, LOTR Risk, Settlers of Cattaan, Heroquest, and many others will all be played tomorrow. This is the true root of our geekiness and we are going to relish in it, so be jealous. After all of the gaming has gone on, we are planning on heading over to a neighboring dorm and making root beer! I ordered Root Beet Extract (from zatarain's, the people who also make rice) and Brewer's Yeast (from swanson's, the chicken broth company). I was very confused as to the sellers, but its no use to fret over it. :-) This is set up to be a major event, so a lot of us who are sticking around are planning on heading over and learning this obscure art! Who knows, maybe one of us will find our true calling.

Saturday- Saturday is set up to be another slow start to the day, but then we have a lot of plans. The plans of our overall group deviate a little bit more on this day because of other responsibilities that we have. One guy, Ben Aalderink, will be headed up to Fort Wayne to see some friends from home. Ryan Gates and Dustin Friesen are going to Indianapolis to shop at the Apple store, considering Dustin's computer is on the fritz. *moment of silence for dustin's mac...* I personally will probably be trying to watch seasons 1 & 2 of heroes. I will blog about my reasonings for watching Heroes some other time because this is already a long enough blogpost and you probably wouldn't be interested anyway. :-)

Sunday- Finally, the final day of fall break. On sunday, many people will be coming back with crazy stories of what happened over fall break, all of whom thought they had the best break. Unbeknownst to them, I know that everyone who stayed would have had the most fun. This day we will be doing homework and hanging out with other friends, all of whom realize now that fall break is over that responsibilities have come back to bite them in the butt. 

Its okay though, its college. This is where we are weaned away from childhood and thrown into the cold world, holding onto only our weak presuppositions of the way things are and what we are told we have to do to be good people. Its a bleak and dismal outlook on everything, but that really is all you have in the world.

at least, thats what you think if you didn't spend fall break at Taylor University. :-)

Friday, October 10, 2008

The History of Heroquest.


Ahh, friday. The day when everyone gets to loosen up their ties and shoelaces, all in expectation of the wondrous weekend. Everyone loves the weekend in the words of Loverboy. The lounging, the lack of schedules, the pandemonium that occurs, and Heroquest.

Ahh, Heroquest. Let me explain this game to everyone.

It all started around 3 or 4 years ago in lexington Kentucky, the homeland of Heroquest. It had been a cold, cold winter and spring was wanting to break out of winter's icy grasp. Jack Frost was willing to let up on all of us, but only if he could have one last blast of winter weather before he left. This blast came in the form of a monstrous ice storm which dumped three to four inches of said ice over the entire bluegrass. Any of you readers would know of what i speak, nod your head at your computer screen in confirmation.  Trees and power lines were falling daily, roads were un-navigable, and power was removed from thousands of homes. In Firebrook, there was only two or three streets that had power, and mine was one. Across the neighborhood, Dan Marino's house (not the football player, but the Mormon EMT driver) did not. 
Despite the lack of power, my mormon friend and his cronies were sure to find ways to entertain themselves as they always did. During the 2 week period where they had no power, this desire for entertainment manifested itself in the form of Heroquest, an 80's boardgame that is like a mall madness version of dungeons and dragons. Now here, there is a small aside that i must state. I realize that this is very dorky and nerdy, but i promise that it is worth your time to continue to read. If you are saying on the inside of your head, "Oh Pish Posh! Why should I, a nobel prize winning all american athlete, continue to read about silly board games?"

You should.

Anyways, they taught themselves how to play the game and they actually beat every single mission that they could! With the power still out and the game complete, they did what any other group of mildly bored, ethically sound group of high schoolers does: they started making their own rules and missions. Dan was givn the coveted title of Zargon, the dungeon master (DM) and everyone else was able to create their own specific character. My good friend Thomas was Nigel the hollister Elf. He was wearing trendy clothes and rode on a plaid cloud. 
Oh, the dorky revelry. It was so awesome.

Time continued on, the ice melted away. but the heroquesting continued. More people were joined to the fold (aka me) and the game grew in size and in hilarity. Rules were removed and ludicrous situations were commonplace. Once, a hero kicked coals into the eyes of multiple orcs, successfully burning out the eyeballs of each orc, and then successfully killing the orcs (somehow). 
Ohh, those were the days. The classic days of Heroquest, with all of the original pieces and all of the original players. These were the times that really shaped the way that i saw the game and how i played the game. Yet alas, all good things must come to an end. The end of high school came upon our merry little group of board game adventurers, and the group was disbanded. Sigh...

College! The excitement of living in a dorm with hundreds of other smelly, hormone driven twenty somethings! I came to college and enjoyed the first semester of my schooling at Taylor University greatly. School was fun and all, but the one thing that i talked about regularly was this ridiculous game that i played in high school called Heroquest. I could see the sparkle in other's eyes as I explained it to the excited listeners. Everyone would say, "why don't you bring the game up! We need to play this!" I wish that I could've brought it up, yet i didn't own it! With that, i really lost hope...

Until January! It was J-term and my birthday happened to fall within J-term. Unbeknownst to me, my good friend Steven Stevens bought Heroquest on E-Bay and had it shipped to Taylor. Now the fun could really begin! With that, hilarity and pandemonium has occured in Samuel Morris hall, but i can't really explain it and do it justice. I would recommend that you come and see for yourself... Midnight on Saturday nights... Come enjoy! :-)

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Bandanas and Americanos go well together


Today, something horrific occurred in my life. It became known to me that the only coffeehouse anywhere remotely close to Taylor University will begin closing early. Yes thats right, Payne's Coffee and Custard will start closing at midnight from now on. Why you ask! What in all of God's wonderful green earth could cause such a magnificent cloister of greatness shut its doors to hungry and caffeine craving patrons? Money. We asked one of the workers what the deali-o was and she informed us that Payne's wasn't making enough moolah, hence the depressing news. If I'd have had a candle, i would have lighted it for Payne's sake. 

So, if any of my dedicated readers (which i have 2 of! ^_^) happen upon vast amounts of money, please make your way to upland, Indiana and leave an exorbitantly large stash of cash in the seat cushion for the failing business. Everyone at Taylor would thank you profusely.

On another note, I am thinking about re-arranging my computer Keyboard from the Qwerty keyboard to the Dvorak keyboard. The initial benefits will be little, but in the long run, there are many benefits. 1. The Dvorak keyboard is proven to be faster and better for your hands. 2. other will have a hard time sabotaging the work that i create. 3. I will know a vital skill if i want to be an "international person". 4. Its just the thing of a trendy white hipster to learn. 5.  positive challenge would be welcome in my life!

take it or leave it, thats whats going down.

-JB

and to end today, the most entertaining video on the internet... Here

Monday, October 6, 2008

The Music of Life


Ahhh, Monday. You can't really disagree that you feel the least alive on monday mornings. :-)

This past week was a good week for me. I got a lot of homework done, got to hang out with a lot of different people, and i got to experience one of the best concerts that i've ever been to in my whole entire life: Ben Folds backed by the fort wayne philharmonic.

I was told about this wonderful concert by one of my friends on another floor who had an extra pair of tickets. I already was interested in it because i needed to go see a concert for one of my classes, i was sad that the Eagles had lost and i was looking for a way to appease my sorrow, and the tickets were just $23.00! Needless to say, i jumped upon the opportunity to obtain these tickets for my girlfriend and I. 

The concert was part of the Pops series that the fort wayne philharmonic has been recently engaged in. Ben fold came out, chipper and awkward as he seems through his music, but he blew everyone in the audience away with his level of musicianship and skill as a pianist. It is always a good thing when you have a quirky jewish piano player cussing out his ex wives on stage with a philharmonic orchestra. :-)

In a completely different and unrelated topic, I was surprised with an epic choice this past week! I went to breakfast with my girlfriend Bethany this past tuesday, and after we had finished our meal i was surprised with an envelope containing some paper on the inside. After i opened it, the paper read something like this. "You get the choice of a fleet foxes concert next weekend or a kings of leon concert in november. Happy late (long story) anniversary!" 

Now this is a huge descison to be made! Fleet foxes are my favorite find of the summer, as the style of music they play could be called baroque folk. They rock indefinitely, and i would highly recommend everyone to listen to them. The Kings of leon are a southern rock band from Tennessee that have become rock royalty in Europe. The band hasn't rally blown up here in the states the way they have in England. For example, this band was the headlining band at the glastonbury music festival this year, whereas they are playing at a small theater this november. It would be a very intimate show with a wildly popular band. 

Which should I choose?

Have a good week!