brilliance:

so i don't really post in my lj very much any more. really i guess it's not that important to me anymore. i probably won't post in it after this one. to keep in touch, email me at kennynogood@gmail.com

you all know the drill.

last night was fun. korie and i took kristinruins shooting and then the three of us went to applebee's. it was kind of funny, actually, because we waited there for 45 minutes just to get the 1/2 price appetizers. we were there for soooooo long, too.

then, when we got back to kristinruins's house, we talked in the driveway for another hour. it was an interesting stroll down memory lane.

just now, korie and i watched our wedding slideshow. i have to admit...it was pretty good. honestly though, i think that the music is what makes it so good. it starts out with "older chests" by damien rice and then bleeds into "on legendary" by FSF; a perfect ambience for a wedding slideshow.

watching the slideshow made me think of all of the fun times korie and i have had. it was great to look back at all of these pictures of us smiling at the camera. although it's easy to compare how much we love each other now to how loved each other then and think, "gosh, we love each other so much more now because we've been through so much more and we've built so much more...". but.....
in spite of all that, i know that we loved each other then as much as we had the capacity to.

it's still hard for me to grasp that i have the capacity to have a relationship with someone that runs this deep and it scares me to think of what i would do for her if it really came down to it.

aside from Christ, this is, by far, the best gift i have received from God to date and i'm sure it will remain so until the day i see Him face to face.

i couldn't believe it when i heard it today. tommy, the lift driver, got fired today; not laid off, FIRED. apparently he hasn't been checking the oil in his lift and the thing has been running bone dry for a while now. this morning the engine just locked up and wouldn't do anything.

the poor guy. joan (the real power at BMI), told rick, my boss, to fire him as soon as she heard about it.

other than that things are alright. we're just worried about money...so give us some!!!
:-D

so i hurt myself wednesday. my back is pretty sore and i'm on prescription meds. i've missed 2 days of work because of this injury and there's nothing i can do about it. yep: no work = no pay = ridiculous

this little incident, consequently, has made me seriously consider getting another job. i'm looking at a lot of stuff online and have also reconsidered ministry. anything i do with ministry, however, will have to be something i take great caution with. apparently there's a church out in georgetown that needs a youth guy. this particular church is one that's based on the cell church model (which i love) and i've considered the position enough to email the contact person to see whether or not they've found someone yet.

i've considered my particular philosophy regarding church work and i've had to revise a few things because i now realize how much of my philosophy has come from a reaction to Highland Christian Church.

here's a running list of the things i've had to reconsider:
1. as it stands, i hate the american church and am not currently interested in working in it.
revision
i hate the american church...but it is, unfortunately the only church within 3,000 miles of my apartment. so, if i really want people to start spreading the gospel, i have to do something about it (i.e., work within the american church to some capacity).

2. i'm not really into youth ministry
revision
after watching myself at highland and trying to figure out what i'm good at and what i actually enjoy when it comes to church, i think that i really do like working with youth. that's youth, not birth ---> graduation (thanks HCC). unlike adults whom have already figured out how the world works and already know everything, the youth of our churches are actually interested in learning things (so long as you teach it in a way that's relevant to them). adults, on the other hand, seem to want to argue with you a lot and prove their points. whatever.

3. the church is full of stupid people that are normally interested in pushing their own agendas and don't really care about what God wants them to do
translation
highland christian church was a beautiful f'ed up microcosm of the american church at large and, therefore, had a lot of problems; one of which resulted in my termination.
revision
sure, highland was screwed up as are most other american churches. that doesn't mean, however, that they're not interested in doing God's work. granted, many of them (highland included) have a REALLY screwed up idea of what God's work is or they're too interested in something not God's work to effectively do God's work.
this does not, however, mean that i absolutely can not work within such a structure.

SUMMARY
i'm interested in doing God's work and i want other people to interested in the same. i want them to be all about spreading the gospel wherever they are at all costs. people, unfortunately, don't normally come to this conclusion on their own because they're too interested in sports, guns, stampin' up, quixtar, spending money or just being assholes. as a self-aware person (guns and being an asshole) with a college education and an ability to work with students i feel it's my duty to at least try to do something with the american church.

i think i'm gettin' there. hopefully i'll end up doing what God wants while being relatively satisfied with my career soon.

so i finally got my rifle. this past saturday i went with xrageofangelsx, Korie and the Danmeister (who's reputation precedes him, apparently) to a little gun shop called "oneshot" down in newtown. unlike the two gun shops in milford that we went to first, oneshot actually had a really good enfield. so, being as how the gun's bore was excellent, it was stamped "1942" (that's right, a vintage WWII and it was just a little out of my price range, i picked it up with the danmeister's help (again, his reputation precedes him. so i don't really need to say anything else about him). as of right now i am the proud owner of an "enfield #4 mark 1" that came with nostalgic military-esque strap and bayonet. next purchase: ammo.

anyway, i watched Syrianna with korie, ed and mindy. in retrospect, i think i liked the movie. really, it did nothing but support all of the conclusions i've already come to about the world around me. i'm not really active in the government (i.e., the political arena as an activist) because a) i think that there are much more important things to spend my time and efforts on (i.e., the salvation of the unbelieving) and b) i, unlike many others, believe that i will never know enough about everything going on behind the scenes to make any sort of educated decision regarding legislature and/or the political arena.

on a sad note, i seem to have misplaced my phantom planet cd. so if anyone finds it, hit me up on the celly.

other than that...i'm just kinda chillin out with korie right now. we're working on how we relate to God (together) as well as how much we read the Bible. things are good.

by the way, we really need to hang out (you know who you are).

so i picked up some pretty good loot this year.

here's what i can remember off of the top of my head:

1. CD's
Eisley - Room Noises

2. DVD's
Steamboy
I <3 Huckabee's

3. Video game stuff
Nintendo Gameboy SP
Kingdom Hearts (Chain of Memories) for SP

4. Clothing
a New pair of Vans from Korie
a botton up, vertical stripe shirt from Korie
a pair of dockers khaki pants form Korie

5. Gun Stuff
100 rounds Winchester in .45
350 rounds of painstakingly made reloads from dad in .45
1 extended slide stop for the 1911
1 chip mckormick featherlight trigger for the 1911
some guiderod buffers for the 1911

6. Cash and gift certificates
$60 for best buy
$20 for dick's (and....ammo)
$10 for build-a-bear (i'll explain in a minute)
$50 from my bro
$20 (late wedding) from Korie's friend, Jessie
$40 from Korie's grandpa
$25 from uncle charlie (dad's brother)
and an extra $16 from dad when he went in halvsies with me for some powder for him

7. other awesome stuff
a build-a-bear from korie that has her voice recorded saying "i love you, kenny"
tons of candy
axe body spray in the stocking
an electric drill
the sweetest umbrella ever (it's completely transparent)

...i think that's it...but i might be forgetting something. i'll post again if i did.

so life seems pretty good for now. i just don't wanna forget who i am and why i'm here while i'm feeling good. after all, i don't deserve any of this crap. God just chooses to be much more awesome to me than i deserve.

-out

so i'm thinking about getting a rifle. i'll probably work a little extra with a friend from small group once a week for a month or two to save up the money.

the question is: which one do i buy?

1. russian mosin nagant
good - cheap, cheap amo, reminiscent of jude law in "enemy at the gates"
bad - bad bore (barrel) due to the fact that a. russians made these rifles to shoot...not shoot well b. russians usually use corrosive ammo which makes the bore bad c. russians didn't usually clean their rifles during wwii

2. british enfield .303
good - good bore, accurate and pretty sexxy looking
bad - not quite as cheap (about $200 - thus, more working later hours), more expensive ammo due to the fact that it's british.

both are bolt action and awesome

ooooooor

i could always go for a yugoslavian sks (semi-auto) with a bayonette (which has cheap ammo)...but the gun is almost as expensive as the enfield and xrageofangelsx already has one.

i dunno...it'll be a few months, but i really want a rifle and i don't mind sacrificing a little to get one. maybe i'll just sell something to get it.

so i went shooting with behindthevisor yesterday.

i started off by shooting a magazine of "range finds" (i.e., ammo that was found laying around on the floor--probably dropped by someone). out of those 7 bullets, 2 hit the paper...and those two were nowhere near the black circle in the middle.

i did fair the rest of the day only to have behindthevisor shoot 3 bullseye's in a row right before we left. at least somebody left on a positive note.

...

seriously, it was fun. i think i just keep taking people who have never shot before to the range in hopes that they'll like it and i'll have an excuse to go shooting later...that...and i like hanging out with my friends (i.e., ed, mindy, russ, behindthevisor and xrageofangelsx).

see? look at that. that's at least 5 more excuses for me to give korie next time i go shooting. "you know, korie...i really haven't hung out with xrageofangelsx lately. he might think i don't like him anymore. i think going shooting with him would really make him feel better.....)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!1! BUY ME BULLETS FOR X-MAS!!

so korie and i have been having this problem with being solicited by our friends lately. we have one set of friends that has gotten into quixtar/amway. they only call us when they want to try and sell us something, which they did a few weeks ago. we hadn't heard from them (outside of small group) for a month and the girl all-of-the-sudden calls korie to invite her to do some "X-mas shopping". korie had to drag it out of her that the "X-mas shopping" was actually something affiliated with gaystar.

we also have another couple we hang out with that is promising to solicit the crap out of us with yet another pyramid scheme by some food company. has anybody heard of "sunrider"? because that's the organic food company they're gonna pyramid scheme for when they get the dough for the starter pack.

then there's this other guy we know. he just started selling insurance and he talks about it non-stop. granted he talked the most about it when he first started, but he'll still put in a word or two whenever anybody brings it up. let me say about this one, however, that this one is exponentially less annoying than ALL of the other ones because he's just trying to help us out as opposed to trying to get us involved in some stuipid pyramid scheme in order to make himself money.

then there's dan, an elder at mt. carmel. he sells like IRA's and crap like that. wouldn't you know it? it's another pyramid scheme. he's talked to me twice in the past two weeks about maybe "working for him" part time until i build up enough clientele to quit my job.

man...if i get solicited 1 more time by a friend from church...i'm gonna start shooting people.

ok, so let's get some feedback.

while perusing the ol' interweb i found this quote from our dear friend Mao Tse Tung. honestly...i thought it was kind of cool...in a creepy "i'm just giving you a cop-out answer to your question of why i'm such a violent person" kind of way.

so here it is: "We are but advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun."

i dunno...it SOUNDS cool...but i'm not sure how i feel about it yet.

so i'm going to the dentist for the first time in 2 years today. i'm not excited about it. last time i went i didn't have any problems...but then again...last time i went i was going for wisdom tooth pain.

although i'm not 100% sure, i think i can see a small cavity in two of my teeth. also, i'm going to korie's dentist instead of mine...so i'm a little nervous about that. keep in mind, my dentist gave me nitrous for a cavity once because i told him i didn't like needles.

anyway, ed and mindy are supposed to some over some time soon. they just recieved PS2 as an early X-mas present and they're looking for games to play. being the nice guy that i am i put together a little care package of games for them to try out. hopefully they'll enjoy.

other than all that i'm kinda grumpy and i feel sick. that blows.

so small group was tonight.

quick note - we started out by singing "amazing grace" and i felt very at home when we sung it. now, in saying what i'm about to say i understand that it makes me deserving of the lowest level of hell...but i've always hated "amazing grace".

however, i really liked listening to everyone sing amazing grace tonight. i almost felt like i was sitting in a pew at some old little church in the south. i dunno...it was a good feeling. i felt like i was right in the middle of doing what i should be doing and i was, at that moment, who God wanted me to be. listening to everyone sing that song reminded me of who i am and what i should be all about

i was just remembering a conversation i had once with someone about my work. we were talking and she was saying, "gosh, i can't imagine what this summer was like for you. i mean, i know i was really hot...but i wasn't swinging a hammer all day outside."

general fyi - i don't swing a hammer all day--that's what carpenters do. i'm a hod carrier for masons. so i do stuff like this and this which, if you ask me, are worse than swinging a hammer all day.

anyway, i guess i'm just trying to dispel some of the many myths about what i do :-D

by the way, the guy who was stocking block in the first picture was doing it wrong. you're supposed to do it one handed...unless you're just starting out.

eat it, sissies.

tonight has been good. korie and i went to bed bath and beyond to pick up the last bit of our wedding loot (knives, basting brush, shower mat; crap like that), so that was nice. after that we went to biggs and picked up an X-mas tree and some decorations. we spent a lot of our remaining wedding stash, but i think it was all worth it.

in other news, korie fell today while she was taking a shower (hence the previously mentioned shower mat) and we think she actually hurt herself. see, the floor of our shower is pretty slick and it has one of those little 1' tall by 4" wide porcelain walls to keep all the water in one place. so she slipped on the porcelain floor and landed on the little wall...on her side. we're hoping she didn't crack a rib or something and we're really hoping she didn't mess up her spine. she's in a lot of pain, so pray that she a) has less pain and b) didn't hurt her back/ribs. we would gladly settle for a pulled muscle and/or a bruised rib.

onto deeper things. i have a friend in my small group that has almost every girl he meets end up being attracted to him (although...i'm not quite sure if he knows it). in spite of this, however, my friend is a very interesting guy. i mean, he's not the typical meat head/pretty boy. he's actually very intelligent, thoughtful and he's kind of sensitive (in a good way). did i mention he's humble? because he is.

so this friend of mine was, of course, at my wedding. while there, someone else i know (along with a friend of hers) made a comment or two about how "attractive" this friend of mine is. keep in mind that my saying "attractive" actually translates to something much more crass in real terms.

all of this made me start thinking about what kinds of things people say about other people. it's so odd how people just say things about other people without any regard to how their comments might make the other person feel. they assume that the other person will never know about their comments so they think it's "safe" to say whatever please. granted, everyone does this. but i keep wondering...if everyone actually thought about how their words affected other people (whether or not they were around to hear them) would they be more careful with their words?

the negative side of me says, "not at all. people are assholes and they only care about themselves unless they have to care about someone else in order to get what they want." the positive side of me hopes for something better...but i'm not sure the positive side will win out after this encounter.

fags.

anyway, i'm out.

feeling good i guess.

korie and i have just started reading the bible and praying as a couple pretty much every night. it's nice to finally feel like i'm doing something right instead of pretending that G-d doesn't exist.

also, things with the little cambodian (i.e., vuthy) seem to be going pretty well. vuthy is this little asian guy i know at work. he's like 50 (even though he doesn't look a day over 35) and we've been talking a lot at work. it's not like the guy's asking me all about G-d and faith or anything...but i think i'm starting to develop a friendship with him, so that's good. pray that he'll find the Truth.

anyway, i'm about to go shooting with my wife and ed. that should be pretty sweet. maybe ed will like shooting :-D

anyway, i'm out.

ok.

so aside from the wedding and honeymoon korie bought me one of these as my wedding present. we took it (along with the lil' 9mm) to the range a couple of nights ago for an official christening.

since we returned from the honeymoon we've been pretty busy. we, of course, had to return to work (which sucked) and we've also begun our evaluation of our loot. we recieved like 8,000,000,000 picture frames and a lot of cash (as well as a few things from our registry). i have to admit, the cash has come in handy.

i can't complain about married life. it's nice to have someone there with you who doesn't have to go home at the end of the night.

in other news, we're hanging out with xrageofangelsx and browneyedgirl82 in like 45 minutes, so that's cool.

hopefully i'll be around to do some more posting in the coming weeks.

a good night to all...and to all a good night.

so i guess a lot has happened in the last two weeks.

first (and foremost) off - two fridays ago on October 7, 2005 i was wed to the beautiful Koralynn Cherry. that was pretty cool. i think our wedding was, overall pretty classy. everyone we've talked to thus far says that our wedding was, "one of the most beautiful weddings they've ever seen". so i guess that's pretty good.

the day after our wedding korie and i took a plane to the wasteland known as florida spend a week in the happiest place on earth. i have to say, disney world was pretty sweet.

er...i'll have to update more later, i'm out.

*insert peace symbol*

i just listened to the 2 new watashi wa songs and i am thoroughly impressed. unlike their last album which, although catchy, pretty much sucked (minus like 2 songs), these songs actually show a lot of promise.

i first heard these guys right after they had switched from the "supersuperfastcuttimebeattimestwo", nu skool punk to the "rockin", wejustwritegoodmusic punk. so, since i first heard them as a really good punk band i had a hard time accepting their following album ("the love of life"). interestingly enough, i find it interesting that they changed from good punk to predictable pop just as tooth and nail (i.e., their label) was going through some significant changes. they were, after all, adding a lot more poppy stuff as opposed to the usual punk/christiancore/sf59/otherwierdcrap.

anyway, this stuff sounds a lot better than their other junk so let's hope their next album delivers.