Paul’s Blogging

Ok, I’ve got quite a few pictures for you guys!

So, this might take a while to load but it’s well worth it. Just open the page and then go about commenting on my other blogs and when you come back, it should all be loaded. :D!!!

 

It was really cool seeing them hook up the engine.

 

The trip was beautiful!

 

 That’s Julia’s fingure. :D

 We followed this river most of the time, there and back.

 From the very back of the train…

 

That would look cool in black and white.

 

 

More of the river

 

 You guessed it, a bridge!

 Same bridge

 A cool dock/look-out thing/deck.

 That’s Julia making her way through the train. They let us go from car to car.

 I got a lot of really cool river shots

 part of a train that is no longer used

 

 These rail-road ties were laying along the track most of the ride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Sorry I got so many pictures of the same area. The train was going slow and it was just too cool!

 They had a few farms scattered throughout the hills.

 

 Over a bridge we go.

 That is so cool.

 Lots of hills.

 

 

 

 

 Once we got to the end of the line they let us get out for an hour and a half.

 We had lunch there. It was really good!

 They pulled the engine off what was the front of the train and stuck it on the “new” front.

 

See the little guy? Mom is almost 4 MONTHS! This picture is kinda funny to me. It reminds me of the Cingular ad campain “Raising the Bars.” Tallest to shortest. Almost
in a perfect line! LOL! :D

 Mr. and Mrs. Marcum (and Luke and Dad).

 At the rest stop, they had a museum. And it had this really neat model of a rail-road station.

 

 

 Ok, now we’re heading back to the beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

 Over the bridge we go …again!

 

 

 That’s a great picture!

 

 

 This tunnel was so cool. I was amazingly dark in there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 up high, on another bridge

 

 

 

 The “junkyard”. (Why did they bring us through here?) That would look so good in black and white.

 That too!

 

 

 

 Mr. Marcum

 

 

 
I call this masterpiece, “The Speed”!

 Julia.

 Water.

 More “Speed”!

Ok, that’s it for now!

We’ll be driving home tomorrow. So pray that we’ll have a safe trip!

 

-Paulie

BTW, please visit my website at www.ShatteringWindows.com

Alright this is going to be one short entry!

I just wanted you to know that I’m going to be leaving at 6am tomorrow (with a fully charged phone this time - AND the camera, Mom says!).

We’ll be seeing the Badgleys and the Dixons (sorry I don’t have time to link to anyone; I’m in a real rush)!

But let me leave you with:

What do you think I should have as my avatar?

The orginal happy-go-lucky Tux (I’m not sure why he’s got purple on him)?

  

 

Or the new “Dancin’ Groovin’ I’ve got a headache” Tux?

  

Does the new one make you a bit sick? Is he kind of anoying?

Please post your thoughts!

Vote!!!

 

 

:D

 

See you when I get back!

 

 

 

 

Please visit my website at www.ShatteringWindows.com

 

 I’ve got lots of pictures for you all and even a few videos!

:D

Let me see if I can remember everything.

I think we left the 27th.  Anyhow, we started on our way up to the Indianapolis area to meet with the Badgleys because their neighbor was going to host this huge “shin-dig”. I didn’t realize it was going to be as big as it was!

  

They had this huge balloon and they were giving rides!

 I took these pictures from the Badgleys’ house. We weren’t quite ready to go over there yet.

 

While we were waiting to go over there, the Badgleys showed us their garden. It was pretty cool. Dad found some weird, wild herb in there that the Badgleys didn’t even plant. :D

 

 

 

 

Mom and Dad.

 

 

Dad and Mom.

 

 

Mom and Dad AND Levi!

 

 I guess I could have chosen a better background, huh?

 

I resized them wrong. So, some are big and some are small.

 

 

 LOL, Brea is so cute.

 Everyone taking interest in the fuzzy chicken.

 Makes me hungry for KFC!

 Dad and Mr. Badgley talking.

 

We camped out on their yard with our tents! It was fun.
 

 

Then we looked at their new horses for a while.

 

 We were all petting it.

 And all was well, until…

 

 

Shaiya got bit! It made her bleed. This picture was taken a day later, after it healed some. But when she first got bit it looked pretty bad.

 Ok, so now we decided to walk on over there. …Allowing me to get a lot closer shot of the balloon.

 While we waited for one of the little golf carts, things, to come and pick us up (to drive to the top of the hill where the party was) Brea threw rocks in the culvert. :D

 

Ah, they had the BEST food there!!! Even MOM LIKED IT (shocker)!!!!!

 

 

And live music.

 

 

Ooo, cool looking guitar.

 

 

They had a really old tractor there. So, I took a picture of it.

 

 

Well, I guess a few pictures.

 

 After that we all came back over to the Badgleys’ house and some friends of theirs came over, too.

 

They sang for us and played their guitar and banjo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was really cool!

But after all that and some ice cream they left and we headed on out to our tents for the night.

The next morning, we got up and Mrs. Badgley made the best omelett casserole and waffles. But after a while it was time to go. We still had a few hours to go ’til we got to the Dixons. So, we all said bye and piled into the car.

It’s so late that I unfortunately don’t have a lot of time or energy to write everything we did when we first got there. Mainly cause it was SO much. :D

But the Dixons wrote about our stay so I think I’ll just be lazy and link to them. :D

Though, I did take lots of pictures!

 

 

After getting there around 8pm we spent good time with their family until bed time. So, I didn’t get any pictures the first day. But, I did get lots of pictures the second day we were there!

 

 

Eric REALLY wanted me to pull out my throwing knife so he could throw it at their old unwanted cedar.

 

He’s pretty good. I really wanted Amanda to try it though. And she wouldn’t! She was more concerned about her “dignity” than throwing the knife. I mean, come on, what’s more dignified than throwing a knife? :D

So after showing how to do it…

 

a few times…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She decided to give it a shot! And as you can see it was a good try but just not enough “go”.

:D

 

After a few more tries, there was that perfect throw… SMACK!

 

 

She hit the tree! She posted lots of pictures of her getting it; you should take a look!

 

Then Jocelyn wanted to give a try.

 

 

 And amazingly…

 

 

 After a few tries… 

 

 

She got it too! It took me several days before I figured it out and they all were making perfect shots within there 3rd and 4th tries!

 

After moving their goat cage so the goats could eat fresh grass…

 

 

 

We were back at it!

 

 

 

 
  

 

 Then this loud plane flew REALLY close to the ground. So, I took a picture of it!

 

 

I got a random picture of their horses …I’m not sure why.

 

 Yay, now pictures of my really cool sheath!

 

That I made, BTW. :D

 

 

See? I had to punch every one of those holes. With leather hole punch PLIERS. My hand was REALLY sore.

 

 

My super cool throwing knife. :D

 

 

 

 

 

 As soon as I got home from the Dixons’ house, I started making a really cool belt to go with my really cool sheath!

 

 

The leather on the belt is too thick to punch so I screwed it together and took old computer parts including part of an old motherboard as nuts to anchor the screws down. :D

 

 

It looks like a little hobbits sword. :D

 

 

It fits me perfectly.

 

 

Pay no attention to the junk in the background. :D

 

 

Oh, yes, and this is a picture Jocelyn painted for me! 

 

 

Is that not the coolest image of Tux ever painted!?!?! He looks a bit stuffed, eh? :D

It even has “ShatteringWindows” on it. And man, that is a cool window!

 

Wow, we had such a great time on that trip - it was so fun to see you all. Thank you Dixons and thank you Badgleys for being so hospitable.

Ok, everyone, I’m not sure when I’ll blog next, hopefully soon!

 

 

 

 

P.S. It looks like more people voted for the orginal happy-go-lucky Tux. So, I’ll put him back up in a little bit.

:D

 

We are planting a salsa pot garden!

 

 

We’ve got a few peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers!

 

 

It was fun for the kids to be able to help.

 

 

 

Sorry the images are so blurry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOL, we used our Cherry Coke bottle to water the plants with. 

 

 

Oooh, look at the sky.

 

 

 

 

Tada!

 

 

And that’s not even all of ‘em. There are a few more on the other side of the deck.

 

 

Dad bought a Badminton set! It is so much fun. I got some pictures of us setting it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took us a while to set up.

 

 

 

But, at last it started looking like a net. 

 

 

 

 

Beaver is trying to be a circus performer. :D

 

Finally! It was done!

 

 

So, they got to play it before it got dark.

 

 

 

 Skateboard!!!

 

My good friend/neighbor, Hunter is a skate freak! And little by little he has taught me a few things. So I thought I’d share with you my newest trick; the fake-y shove-it while playing my DSLite with a hat on and a Tux shirt and a throwing knife all with a Philadelphia cream-cheese packet in my mouth! It’s very complicated. So stand back! :D

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only point in this post is to respond to a few of Chris’s beliefs.

So, this post is mainly geared and is written to and for Chris. But I encourage everyone to comment their thoughts.

 

I would greatly appreciate it if you would pull your bible out, for I am going to be addressing several verses. It is important that you look up every one of these verses. I pray that you’ll read this with a clear mind and actually consider the fact that you might be wrong.

 

1. The co-existence issue
2. The flawed Christianity issue
3. The homosexual is not a sin issue

 

I’ve brought all of this to my dad and he has helped me with these responses.

 

First, off, the co-existence issue – you said that:

 

“It shows symbols from many different forms of worship including Islam, Judaism, Shinto, and Christianity. It is a symbol popularized by U2. It is a call for members of all creeds to live together in peace and harmony. In other words, to “Coexist”. I believe one day this will happen, and I plan to do my part to make it happen.”

 

As I think about this, Chris, you may be right. All of these religions may very well co-exist in harmony someday. However, the Christianity that would co-exist with all of these other religions in harmony would be an apostate form of true Christianity. In other words, true Christianity could never – and will never – co-exist in harmony with the others. You have to realize, Chris, that all the other religions deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ as described in the Protestant bible you claim to believe in. Jesus Christ and His disciples (those who wrote the New Testament) emphatically claimed that Jesus Himself was the only way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through Jesus Christ (Jn 14:6).

 

So here on Earth in this temporal realm, these different religions (including apostate Christianity as mentioned above) may find a way to co-exist peacefully amongst each other some day, but in the eternal realm, the only faith which will exist is the one that God (Jesus Christ) established – Christianity. Sadly, I guess it could be said that the others will also co-exist throughout eternity – but only in Hell (Matt 7:13, 14).

 

If you truly are a Christian your focus should not be to “do your part in getting all religions to co-exist”, your focus should be to advance the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Point two, Chris, is the flawed Christianity issue. You said that:

 

“I believe that Christianity as a religion, is deeply corrupt and flawed.”

 

I’m not quite sure what you mean by your statement but here are my thoughts on your remarks. Biblically, or from God’s perspective, God does not view Christianity as a religion – He views it simply as the Truth. Now if you mean that “Christiandom” (or the Christian community) has its flaws or is corrupt, then I can agree with you to some extent here. Let me explain what I mean.

 

1. Christiandom is made up of Christians who are imperfect, and thus the community of Christians is an “organism” that is imperfect and flawed because it is made up of individuals who are imperfect and flawed.
2. These flawed Christians hold to doctrines which don’t always agree with each other, and of course, two opposing views cannot both be right at the same time. Therefore, some doctrines within Christiandom must be wrong.

However, if we accept that God and His word are both inerrant and infallible and we further accept that Christianity was established and defined by God’s word, then Christianity cannot be flawed and corrupt as originally established by God and His word since both God and His word are perfect.

 

Issue number three, Chris, is the homosexuality issue. You said that:

 

“I believe that being gay is not a sin, but that being a practicing gay is a sin.”

 

Here are my thoughts on this: You are wrong on the first count but correct on the second. Being gay is a sinful state of existence. It’s a corrupt state of existence. It is a state of existence that is the direct result of the fall recorded in Genesis chapter 3. In this sense, homosexuality can be said to be “a natural result” of Adam’s sin. It is natural in this sense only. But if we want to talk about God’s ideal and the way God originally created man and the rest of creation, then homosexuality is not natural (aberrant). The bible always speaks of homosexuality (whether the state of or the act itself) as evil – an abomination to the LORD. (Lev 18: 22) The bible also describes homosexuality as something that God always judges or will ultimately judge as a wicked sin. (Genesis 19, Romans 1)

 

One more thought to keep in mind: no where in the bible does God’s word ever make the kind of distinction that your above statement has made, separating the state of being gay as opposed to the practice of being gay (condoning one and condemning the other).

 

 

I do agree with a few of your beliefs like pre-destination and Calvinism. So, don’t feel like we are all “against” you. The true goal in this is not to stunt you blog traffic by warning people against you or slam you publicly to make us look smart. But to come alongside you and help you. Please consider all that I have said and pray about it.

 

Paul

 

 

 

Alright guys, I’m going to ask you all one more time.

 

 

What avatar should I use?

 

I like the old original tux but I’m kinda tried of him. SO, I made the new groovin’ Tux and most of you didn’t care for it. So, what do you think of this here, newest one?

 

It took me a while to make. Should I just go back to the original Tux?

 

SuperAngel really likes it! And so do both JocelynDixon and rjdjohn316.

I think SamIAm said she likes it too.

 

 

Ok guys, you all get a gold star if you click all of these links below!

Haha… 

And don’t even think about cheating by clicking only half of them and claiming your gold star!

:D

Ok, here are the links (in no particular order):

 

JoeM – the best web-designer in town!

Anne – the best web-coder in town!

SuperAngel – the best Super-man lover in town!

JocelynDixon – the best goat-maiden in town!

EricNovak – the best Word Press-Blogger in town!

CamTheMan – the newest-cool-blogger I’ve met in town!

Rjdjohn316 – the best 13yo-girl-blogger that I know of in town

Praisethewarmachine – the best skateboard-teacher in town!

PaulsBlogging – the best “me” in town!

benjaminparrish – the best Linux-user in town!

musicRme – the best English-blogger in town!

Mo – the best brother of the best English-blogger in town!

PoorBoyHat - the best coolest local-friend in town!

ClassicalAstronomy – the best classical-astronomer in town!

 

 
That’s it! And if I’m forgetting anybody, just whack me on the head!

 

I’m posting this video for ClassicalAstronomy.

He wrote a VERY good book on, you guessed it, astronomy called Signs and Seasons!

You can buy this awesome book at:

http://www.classicalastronomy.com/On_line_Ordering.asp

It’s very important to be thinking about our financial futures!

If you could get some kind of business going now then you may not have to waste time starting one in the future. Now is the time to start one! Now is before we (as “young adults”) are paying big expenses such as, electricity, payments on our houses, payments on our cars, food, and so on)

Do you really want to waste time struggling financially? No, not for me. If I can generate a steady income before I leave home than I won’t have to worry about getting one when things are tough.

And there is no better way than doing it over the Internet!

Especially if you can make some kind of business that requires very little work such as a high traffic site that you can sell ad space on. If you spend the time now to build a site that people will WANT to go to, than you can sell lets say 20 ad spots at $70/month (very reasonable) you’ll have $1400/month coming in and you’re not even wasting time to go out to make it! Once you spend the time to put the site up, it’s up! And it’ll just continue to make you money! Now $1400/month isn’t a whole lot but it’s a start!

Think about it, if we are able to set up a steady income without having to work much, then that’ll free up our lives in a huge way! Sure, we’ll have to work hard to get it started. But if we can count on a check every month from our “little self making money maker” (try and say that ten time fast) then we can spend our time with our families, starting another business, taking college classes, becoming a missionary, you name it. We’ll have TIME and that’s the point. We HOMESCHOOLERS have time!

Ok, sorry to bore you all with that but Jocelyn posted a few of her goals so I thought I’d post one of mine.
:D

We’re going to be packing half a cow in our freezer soon. More on that later.

:D

(This has got to be the most random blog post ever!)

The homosexual issue:

 From my dad and I.

I’ve read a lot of comments generated by Chris’s original post.

Many of those responding to Chris start out with or include such statements as:

 

-“I think what Chris was trying to say…”

-“I believe…”

-“I think Chris was…”

 

I suppose if I wanted to have a little fun with this, I could now start generating third and fourth generation comments to what “I believe what PoorBoyHat believed that Chris believed…” or “I think that what Totustuus was trying to say that what Chris was trying to say…” or “I believe that what so-n-so believes that what Chris believes is…”

 

My point here is that it really doesn’t matter what we believe Chris meant to say. The only thing that really matters is what Chris actually said and what his original statements actually mean. Now if Chris misspoke (or miswrote), that is an entirely different matter and he can correct himself at anytime. But if we start addressing all the “I believe he means…” or “I think he was saying…” then this is going to turn into nothing more than an endless chain of “supposings”.

 

So, let’s go back to Chris’s original statement - “I believe that being gay is not a sin, but being a practicing gay is a sin.”  Since the word “gay” means “homosexual” in this context, I prefer to use the word “homosexual” since “gay” is not used in the bible this way. And this, after all, is a biblical argument.

 

Chris said “I believe that being gay is not a sin…” This is true – this is what Chris believes. What is not true though, is that the bible teaches this. The bible teaches that being a homosexual is a sin. Let’s keep in mind that according to Chris’s words, Chris is not talking about being tempted with homosexuality – he said “being gay”. There is a big difference between “being” and “being tempted”.

 

It is very interesting that one of the verses that Chris uses to support his view, 1Cor. 6:9, actually argues against his position. Let’s take a look at this passage.

 

vs. 9 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,

vs. 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” NASB

 

Chris may have used the NIV where the text actually says “homosexual offenders”. This might give the false impression that the NIV is making a distinction between the “practicing” of homosexuality and “being” homosexual. Both the “practicing” and the “being” are implied in the text. In fact, “being” is more strongly implied since this sin (homosexuality) is paralleled with a whole list of other sins which are mentioned in the same manner – that of “being”.

 

Also, as my dad pointed out, and to further strengthen my point, in the following verse (vs. 11), Paul (the apostle, not me : D) said “Such were some of you;…” He did not say, “As such were some of you practicing”. As you know, the word “were” is another form of the verb “to be” as is the word “being”. My point is that if “were a homosexual” was a sin (and it is according to verse 11), than “being a homosexual” must be a sin also. The verse goes on to say “but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” There is no need to be “washed”, “sanctified”, and “justified” if there was no sin.

 

So, all this to say, that while Chris wants to make a distinction between “being gay” and “being a practicing gay”, the bible makes no such distinction.

 

One more thing - Matt. 5:44? You got me there! I have no idea how this verse relates to “the homosexual issue.”

 

P.S. Now if Chris wants to clarify himself and say that he meant to say that it’s not a sin to be tempted, that would be a good thing since that seems to be what everyone else thinks he was saying.

 

Please look at what Eric Novak has to say for a lot of my thoughts are in his latest entry!

I also agree 100% with SuperAngel. And unlike Chris, she used good scripture passages that backed up her points!

I’ve got a fun contest for you all!

 

Our dads are more important, special, and NEEDED than some of us might think.

We might take him for granted sometimes.

So to get us thinking in that direction I got a fun contest for you!

 

This contest is easy; you just simply write a nice detailed post about how great your dad is and why. You’ll have a chance to win a ten dollar gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store and/or possibly get printed in a future issue (Spring, ‘08 - Father’s Day Edition) of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine along with your blog URL! This contest is not “put on” by HSB. This is just something SuperAngel and I are doing along with the help of BlogBoy and JocelynDixon.

 

 

 

Here are the “contest” rules even though this is NOT officially an HSB contest. It is open to anyone 21 and younger who comes across the contest on my blog, Amanda’s, Eric’s, Jocelyn, etc. 10 winners will each receive a $10 gift card (no strings attached and shipping is even free) to the Schoolhouse Store. Five winners may be chosen to appear in a Father’s Day tribute (next year) in the pages of TOS Magazine (we may ask you to edit your post down for size/clarity if you win a spot in the magazine). Blog URL may be included as well. I, Paulie Suarez, and Amanda Dixon are the judges. Basically, here are the rules:

 

- Post an entry entitled, “TRIBUTE TO MY DAD” (you MUST title it this way to qualify as a participant).

- Entry can be as long or short as you wish (the longer ones MAY have a better chance of winning).

- Don’t just say what is wonderful about your dad - be detailed! Tell us WHY your dad is as terrific as you say he is.

- Once you have posted your entry, come and comment on both Amanda and Paulie’s blogs (both of them), giving them the URL where your entry is posted.

- For a better chance of being selected, also post a comment on BlogBoy and Jocelyn Dixon’s blogs - provide the URL to your entry in those comment sections - IMPORTANT. BlogBoy and Jocelyn will be consultant judges.

- 21 years or younger please.

- Contest ends August 15. Winners notified August 20.

 

Does that all make sense?

 

Ok, then, you can start now!

Hello everyone. This is Paul’s new secretary. Just want to let everyone know that Paul is out of the office on some vacation jaunt. He was just at a big convention and he has been working on a his computer whenever he gets a chance. Paul is now heading to Timbuktu! He said to tell everyone that when he does get back online, he will try to answer all of your comments. In the mean time, visit ericnovak.com for some great blogs!

 

Eric Novak