SK8RZ

i've rode pass this skate park many times.
the general age level of those who come to this park is between 13 - 18.
while waiting to begin a photo shoot i caught some shots.

these kids are pretty inspring.

this kid had to have been the best out there that day...
... he just had more guts than everybody out there.

new Ride

... you know the expression "ride it 'til the wheels fall off" ?

well, that was almost the case for me with my last car.

it got to a point where the alignment was very off, leading repairs to become quite more frequent on a car that had $900 to go in payments.

as a new college grad and recent hired employee of Bank of America,

the opportunity for me to trade for a newer car became suitable.

swimming through ads, I came across '03 Toyota Camry SE V6.

It was perfect!!

66K miles

$8990.

It was a good car deal.

check it out... notice the 'hand' in one of the pictures.... it makes me think that I've been blessed and God's got his hand over me.



i feel pretty honored and blessed to get this car last week. Thank you God.

...........Get this

..... woke up this morning.

.... looked at my car.

....passenger rear was flat.

rolled to the nearby gas station with hazard lights on...

...filled tire with air.

got a massage. ;) went to flea market.

hit up the tire shop on the corner.

visited friend's shop to talk about audio equipment.

went to my favorite taco stand.... RIGHT NEXT TO the tire shop.

i get summoned to check out my tire...

... which had a stick in it...

...a stick!!

I can see a nail or a screw, but a STICK!

the tech showed me the tire and indeed the stick was the diameter of a pinky!

recently cut..

when and how that happened... i'm amazed.

got a new tire.

point A.

point B.

[voted too].

Best Eye Exam: Ever!

new job.

dual monitors.

astigmatism. 

[The term comes from the Greek α- (a-) meaning "without" and στίγμα (stigma), "a mark, spot, puncture]

I need glasses.

I stare at a screen all day. two actually.

with astigmatism... in photography terms...

it's like looking through a lens and not being able to have a sharp focus. 

not 100% y'kno?

from the recommendation of my mom , i went to eyeglass world.

exam: 40.

retina photos: 20.

I did my prelim tests with a tech: puff of air in the eye, look at the house in the distance; blinding light [twice].

went into another room to wait for eye doctor for part 2 of exam.

..... in walks in Dr. Rachel Kain.

She's the most attractive optometrist that has ever examened me. 

... .you guys know me.. and know that i'm outspoken. 

I say, "wow, you're young to be a doctor" {she couldn't have been a year older than me} 

She attested that she knew all of the studying involved with college and wanted to be done with it ASAP.

my respect for her broke the meter and I was somewhat captivated by her beauty and high level of ambition.

to check my eyes she had to get in my grill... and it was pretty awesome.. haha. i was so close to such a hot... doctor.. she checked my eyes one at a time... shining a light in my eye as I looked to the side.

my eyes "are healthy".

to carry a conversation... and ask about a question i filled out on the survey..

i asked her... "what's a floater?"

i normally don't see floaters in my eye(s) unless it's bright light and my eyes are closed.

i've seen em before

even seen a bit on family guy about it. 

so... since i was in the presence of a professional who has devoted

a portion of her life to this...

i asked her. 

 i was kinda glad i asked her something to spark conversation. she could have said they were mutant ants designed to hatch in the eye and eat the brain and it wouldn't have mattered...

however, to paraphrase it's something that's literally floating in your eye.

wiki - eye floater: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_floater

i read the line.... T C V E D.

dude... i'm 20/20!!!!!!!!!!

i have 20/20 vision!!!!!!

In my opinion..... i have crappy vision...

but it's only because of my astigmatism that i don't see as best  i can...

"which is better: 1 or 2?

...1or2?"

"three or four?

...3or4?"

"or about the same?"

that continued on for about 5 minutes.

until... both eyes were fine tuned.

i got 2 frames fro $78 bucks. benefits havent' kicked in so i had to pay out of pocket.

i'll use all of the above as a tax write off though... so i know i'll get my money back. [woot to my tax preparer!]

i've been wearing my glasses the entire time i've been blogging this and i must say that my vision is rather nice right now... it's pretty awsm. Gloria Dios!

as a photographer... it's like looking at a focused imaged through my lens.

Fellowship

Yesterday was awesome.

After church, I prepared myself to go to the beach to take pix for my buddy Matt Killen. He's taken the initiative to sell tie-dye shirts. I called up my buddy Ciaran to come with me. i invited more friends.. but it's cool that the people who were involved are Christians.

as I'm typing this, my mom is in surgery having an ovarian cyst removed. i'm in the family waiting area with my brother and my dad.  we're chillin' now but everyone's been on pins and needles except me. I'm glad for the time that I had yesterday b/c I had to get away from the stress. my mom's a soldier... she's loving... kind... blunt.... not really in-your-face... but she comes from humble beginnings. my dad's kind of the opposite haha. so ... it's been crazy leading up to the time before my mom's surgery. my mom isn't all big into us buying her flowers and stuff like that. she's tough as nails y'kno? but generous and sweet...
tempers were flaring so i had to get away and go to the beach to take pix for my buddy.  having ciaran come was cool.

Ciaran brought his guitar and as we got to the beach he busted out a tune.

his tune was melodic but also included a rap

my buddy K.C. was there as well, but he was buried under homework so he couldn't join us much.

After Ciaran busted out the freestyle we started taking pix a bit for Matt's tie dye shirts.

before we went throughout the beaches taking pix... my buddy asked if I could pray for him.

what an honor. in the new testament, it's big to 'lay hands' on someone when you pray for them as a sign of enhanced faith when praying. Ciaran, Matt, and I placed a hand on KC and I prayed for him.

It's awesome to be used like that for God and for his people. Just reaffirms that my past is not my present and that God can use anybody. Game's not over y'kno? 

we rode around the beaches taking pix in different spots... houses... lawns... pile of mulch... a park...  and most of all... traveling with guitars. i felt like we were a group of troubadors from the 'olden days'.

here's some previews.

after pix... we went to the beach to chill.

since the weather is cooling off... we knew that it won't be hot for much longer. it was a good chill time. i meditated then read chapter one of Craig Groeschel's 'Chazown' [hebrew word for 'Dream'/ 'Vision'. pronounced khkhaw-ZONE (make sure you get that hacking sound)].

my buddies are big into meditation as well. while i was reading they were in the water.. but when they came back.. they laid down, began to meditate,  and i read to them part 1 and 2 of chapter 1. It was good practice for me since I want to be an audio reader/ voice talent. As the sun was setting we went back to matt's to drop him off, said goodbye, and Ciaran and I rode back to Arlington. 

we were all one one accord. Matt ministered to us from Matthew. I prayed for KC. Ciaran played music. It was a good wholesome time.

Praise God.
Peace out guys.





New Job

My new job that I've been blessed with is phenominal. I'm a Short Sale DIL Negotiatior for Bank of America.

In a nutshell a short sale is selling something at a loss. ie. I agree to purchase a laptop for 1000. I pay 50 bucks a month. I'm doing good making payments until one day I'm unable to make payments. A couple of months go by in default and I am in trouble with this agreement. Just to get this property off my hands I sell it for 600.

That's a shabby example of a short sale... but you get the jist of it.

That is what I will be doing for my job. millions of americans are in danger of losing their home to foreclosure. my job will be doing whatever I can to negotiate with the seller/agent to gather necessary documents in order to help the seller sale the property avoiding curtailment and foreclosure.

I feel blessed to have this job. I'm truly going to be helping people. Saving lives. How's the company I work for you ask? So far in my first week of training... they treated us like royalty. Catered breakfast. Lunch vouchers everyday. What more can you ask for. There was a LOT of information to go through regarding mortgages... buyers... sellers... appraisals... damage... squatters.... duplex.... occupancy.... deadline dates... .

it's like a race..... a race to save the house. i'm going to have to be super organized and keep up with the progress of the files........ {this is going to be so awesome}

This job is going to open up so many doors for me. I'll catch up on bills. Hopefully take a missions trip to Haiti this December. get an iPad ;) HELP family. my car is almost paid off... so ... i'm just thrilled... I was doing cartwheels when I found out that I had the job. Now I'm kinda feel like i'm stepping up to the plate y'kno? God blessed me with this awesome job.

Like I told my buddy's yesterday.... Imagine someone handing you this glowing white crystal... and you know that it will have the power to change your life!

you look at it with anxiety, excitement, doubt, but in the back of your mind... you know that it will change your life in a great way.

I've seized this opportunity and starting to feel the effects from the white crystal. [payday is going to totally make me feel these effects haha. ]

but yea... it's like... i'm being elevated and becoming more humble at the same time.
i've changed a lot in my life... and I give total credit to God for this opportunity. I have to be like Clark Kent now. at this job with an "S" on my chest.

Thank God.

I'll let you guys know how I"m doing in my job come January.

incubation / maturation

the next chapter of my life started today: first 'good job' after college.

i'm not a teen loitering at the mall anymore. 

i'm not spending quarters upon quarters in the arcade anymore.

i'm not drooling in my books studying for finals anymore.

i'm not partying all night anymore.

no turning back. 

 for the past month i've been unemployed relying on prayers and photo shoots for survival.

it's as if i've been crossing a pond with unsturdy stepping stones as a path. i've got a lot of things going good for me. however, i'm still a human being. i'm not invincible to the variables of life.

my faith: God, devo's, my Celebration family, my close friends, my parents, and music have really helped me to keep my sanity.

i worked out a lot during the off month... although i did get complacent in doing nothing [the price is right!] , i attempted to fill this 'empty schedule' as much as possible. I swam laps at JU pool about 4-5x week. worked out about 3-5x week. and played disc golf about 2-3x week. knowing that my new job was coming up... it was truly awesome to just chill and treat the time in between jobs as a vacation from life. if only my cell phone was off it would have been a renaissance much like the break i took from facebook in august. [ THAT was awesome].

In this economy i consider myself to be super blessed to have such a high paying job with an awesome company^✝. the position that I have is called a Short Sale Negotiator for Bank of America. I feel great about this position since I'm truly going to be helping people - preventing foreclosure.

for whatever reason, i've been feeling nervous, anxious, scared to start the job. my training is 8-5 so i decided to go to a men's breakfast at my church at 7am to start this chapter/job/day/week off on a good foot. The message was about putting on the armor of God. also from ephesians 6: 5-6 "work with obedience not with eyeservice". I really needed to hear that because I give good eyeservice when I'm at work. haha. i guess the nervousness was me not wanting to 'drop the ball' on this job... of the millions of unemployed Americans I've been given this rare opportunity that I don't want to thwart by my own actions.....  i want to give 100% on this one.... not 75%.

the job is going to have continental breakfast daily through training and free lunch all week.... how nuts is that!??!

I feel that I'm really in a good place right now.

having woke up so early this morning.... men's breakfast.... non-eventful training ... disc golf... gym...ironing... and now blogging.... i'm super exhausted at QUARTER TIL 11. deng. gotta shake last month off of me.

to be continued...