about a burning fire...

Craziness of all craziness...Kevin has Tuberculosis! That's right kids...you read correctly, I have a disease. Monday I had to go in to get a TB test. If you get a swollen bump mark where they injected you after a couple days you have Tuberculosis. So, I had to go in today to have them check it and it was confirmed...I have a bump. Anyway, I've done a lot of research the last couple days on TB and found out that it's not half as bad as it sounds. At worst I would have to spend a couple days in the hospital. But, what I have is probablly just the TB germs, not the TB disease since I don't have any of the symptoms. So, that means I'll probablly have to take medicine for 6-9 months. The meds will kill the TB germs and I won't get the disease. Even the actual disease is very treatable these days. Still...pretty crazy eh?
TB kid,
-Kevin

Music I'm listening to: Radiohead, "Kid A"
Mood I'm in: Calm

This, thus far has been a film weekend. First of all Jes and Jo came over last night. Jes watched all of my films and videos. She actually thought a couple weren't that bad either! I sure fooled her. Then today I got $40.00 in the mail for a tape that I did last month. I taped my friend Kendra's wedding reception and I guess her parents liked it so much they thought they should send me money. So, for the first time in my life I got money for a video I made! I'm pretty excited about it! Especially because I am wicked poor these days. I am putting it straight into my bank account. I can't afford to spend any more money. It's such a nice blessing to have my bank account go up a little though rather than the constant decline it's been in the last couple of months. Ok, time to hit the books...against the wall (as Ben would say).
Shalom,
-Kevin

So, the Indiana Jones trilogy was finally released on DVD Tuesday!!! I bought it as soon as I could. I am actually wicked poor but c'mon, it's Indiana freaking Jones, the best trilogy ever!!! I've been waiting years for this to come out. The quality is amazing...it looks like the movies were shot last year! The bonus material is over three hours long too and includes amazing rarities from behind the scenes stuff to original screen tests. It's so cool!!! Anyway, other in news I am really searching for what God wants me to do next. I am starting to question how long I am supposed to stay at IWU. I really love it here a lot, but I am wondering if I should stay here for my whole college career. It would make a lot of sense to go to a film school. I feel to an extent that I am wasting money by going here. I am paying for classes such as American Civ. and Phys Ed. which I will most likely never actually use. In the mean time (as Christy says) I am getting a "quality education". Anyway, I am just trying to seek God and see what He wants for me. I want to be wise about all of this. So yeah, anyone out there who loves me and reads this I'd love your prayers as I seek where God is leading me. You guys rock! Thanks to everyone who reads this by the way. You guys are so rad for caring about little 'ol me.
My heart is on my sleeve, and yes I still believe in you,
-Kevin

10.20.03 So, I went home for the weekend. We had Fall Break...Friday we had off. One day. Oh well, I'll take what I can get. I left Thursday around 11:00AM and got home three hours later...new record for me! New speeding record too...(mom don't read this) 40mph over the speed limit! Went 95 in a 55. Good times trying to break the sound barrier. Thursday I went to my cousin Joel's soccer game. They lost in overtime...their first lost of the season. I felt bad for them. Joel got his team's only goal though, which was cool. After the game we had dinner as a family which was nice. Then I hung out at Thom and Rose's house with Nick. It was pretty cool. I showed off my gun. Rose shot it all over the place. She wants one now. I split from their house and made my way downtown G.H. I have missed it so very much! I stopped by Jumpin Java then made my way to the pier. It was the most beautiful night. I walked to the end and laid on my back and just stared at the stars. It was the most stars I've seen in years! God truly blessed me that night. I even got to watch a huge ship leave port for the lake through the channel. It was awesome. Cool, crisp autumn air, only the lampposts and stars for light, the waves crashing against the shore....beautiful. Friday found me hanging out with Kory. Melissa, him and I made our way down to Niles to check out some of the "haunted" places we went to a couple months ago. Niles is a couple hours away from where we live. Kory was borrowing his parents digital camera so he wanted to take pictures at a couple of the places. We went to the places and they were just as cool in daylight as they had been at night...not as scary though. Anyway, around 9:00 at night, on our way home we passed a cop car on the side of the road with its lights on. We didn't think much of it until after the car I saw a cop with a flashlight looking in the road. No sooner did I see that then we hit something. I looked around and saw blood all over the road. We passed the spot and Kory was flipping out. He convinced himself he had just run over a de-capitated head. After trying to calm him down a bit I told him we should go back and see what happened. We made our way back slowly and noticed that not only was there blood all over the road but there were guts. It was the innards of something no doubt. We went back one last time and determined it was a deer. If it was a human I think Kory would have been scarred for life. He was pretty upset about it. After that ordeal was finally over we continued along the highway. We got about fifteen minutes down the highway and Kory's car just quit working. He pulled it off the highway, onto the shoulder. We packed up a lot of out stuff and started walking along side of the highway hoping there'd be an exit nearby. Lucky for us there was one only about a mile or two away. We got to a McDonald's and all-out feasted because it was around 10:00PM and we still hadn't had dinner. Melissa called Nick (her boyfriend) and he drove down to get us. We had to leave Korys' car there. Poor little pony. It was quite a fun adventure though. Saturday I got my hair cut then called Mike. My mom, he, and I went to Best Buy and I got a c.d. player for my car. My mom got it for me as a very early Christmas present. I'm way excited about it!!! Later Mike and I went to the beach, sat in the car and watched the waves crash. He let me hear his new c.d. that comes out next month. It is REALLY good! It was such a beautiful day and the waves were huge! We sat there and listened to his c.d. for quite a while then had to go down and get in the lake. We put our feet in and remembered why people don't swim in the lake after September. My feet went numb right away. Sadly, we decided against going in. It was a tragedy because waves like that don't come very often. Later that night Mike and I decided we wanted to go to an apple orchard. Our thought was that we'd just drive and in the country and come across one. Nick joined up with us and the three of us got as far away from civilization as possible. When we were far away from anything we found an old, scary looking dirt road and took it out into the woods. We found a creepy old graveyard and poked around in there for a while. Then we noticed at the end of the road was a sign that said "End of Road" or something like that. But, it obviously wasn't. The road went back further still into the woods, it was just narrower. We decided to proceed down it. I took my not-so-off-road car down the bumpy dirt road until we came across a small body of water. It looked small than a pond but far bigger than a puddle. We could see that the trail continued on the other side of the water. We got a flashlight and crossed through the water with plastic shopping bags on our feet to keep dry. The water was about a foot deep. We left my car on so we could have the light from my headlights and not have my car die. Once we crossed we followed the path far into the woods. It was so dark. Nick was pretty scared. It was funny. We followed the trail to the end about a mile or two later. It was quite a fun time. Sunday I got to attend Watermark's second Sunday service. It is so cool to be a part of such a cool community seeking after God. God is really blessing them. Then Sunday afternoon our whole family had lunch at my grandparent's house to celebrate my uncle J.P.'s birthday. Good times with the family. Later in the afternoon I made my way back to the wu. It was such a great weekend! God has blessed me with an amazing family, great friends, and just countless other ways. God is so good!!! Speaking of which, today is my parent's anniversary! Congratulations mom and dad! You guys are the best!!!
Feeling the blessings,
-Kevin

10.14.03 A lot has happened...I'm not sure where to begin. I guess we'll start with: I bought a gun. I did it. I bought an airsoft gun Saturday. These things are so awesome! I was able to participate in Saturday night's gun war in our hall. It was a blast! That is until I accidently shot an innocent bystander trying to get a drink of water at the fountain. We had an altercation. It was bad news. When I hit him I shot him at point-blank range and it actually made him bleed! He was quite mad. Woops. Anyway, it was one crazy war. By the end of it I had two big welts on my back from getting shot. Good times in Hodson! Anyway, Friday night I went to FNL here at the wu. It was pretty funny. It was the first Friday Night Live I'd ever been to and it was everything people had made it out to be. Quite hilarious. Saturday morning I went to the Mississinewa War of 1812 re-enactment. It is the world's biggest, most famous War of 1812 re-enactment. It had actors from Pirates of the Caribbean in it which was pretty rad for me...love that movie! Also it was worked on this year by the man who made The Patriot (Roland Emmerich)....love that movie just as much! Also a historian working for the History Channel was there and they actually shot a big thing for a documentary which is to be on the channel later next year probably. So I realized that this Mississinewa thing is a pretty big deal! Anyway I attended for extra credit for American Civ. But I found myself actually having fun and getting into it. It was all so interesting. I would definitely go back. Later Saturday I stopped by the Marion library and also checked out the Marion museum just for fun. It was pretty interesting. I didn't realize that Jim Davis (the maker of Garfield) was from Marion. That was the main thing I took away from that experience. Monday I was able to see Michelle! She is in Ohio visiting her grandparents and we met half way between us: in Lima, Ohio. It was so very good to see her again. I had missed her a lot. We had a fun day hanging out in Lima. After this I'm not sure when I'll see her again. Sadly, probablly not for a long time. I'm so thankful for Monday though. Then today (Tuesday) I got a package from her. It had two c.d.'s that I've really wanted, German chocolate, Dutch candy, a letter from her and a really rad bookmark about filmmaking. It was my first package I've gotten mailed to me here at the wu. I am very stoked about it!!! Michelle is so rad! Ok, it's 1:17AM...time to start on the homework.
Pulling an all-nighter,
-Kevin

My friend Amy has this cool thing on her web journal that lets you post what music you're listening to and what mood you're in when you make a post. I don't have one of those cool things but I want one...so, this is my homeschool version:
Music listening to right now: Alkaline Trio
Mood: hopeful

10.9.03 There is a warzone in my hall right now. A gun war has been going on in my hall since before noon today. It is now 4:30PM! A bunch of the guys have these air powered guns that shoot little yellow beads. They've built trenches out of cardboard boxes and are having full-out battles with the hall as the battle zone. I got back from lunch today and had to duck into my suitemate's room to avoid being shot. Once I crossed over to my room Jon informed me it had been going on for a while. I took a nap for a couple hours and woke up to people yelling in the hall. Yelling things like: "Kyle stop it!" "Ow! I didn't shoot you at freaking point blank range!!" "Run for cover!!" I couldn't believe it was still going on. I just now walked down the hall to empty the trash and saw that on my R.A.'s (Jeff) dry erase board someone had written "Jeff's gone! 96-hour gun fight!" Jon informed me that Jeff went with Chorale to the Gaither Reunion and won't be back 'til Sunday. Needless to say the gun fight has barely begun. I may have to drop by Dunham's and pick me up a gun :) In other news the ladybugs from Hades are finally starting to let up. I've only seen about four of them today. That is VERY good news! I have to write about a recent internal dilema I had. I recently saw a piranha feeding. My R.A. has a tank full of piranha and yesterday at 12:15AM, I witnessed for the first time in my life a piranha feeding. About 10 guys from my hall gathered in Jeff's room and huddled around his tank which contains about 6 piranha. I was right up front with a great view. For those of you who are like I was and have no idea what a piranha feeding is like let me tell you in the way it was explained to me: they drop in live goldfish and the chase begins. This was very intriguing to me and I had to be there to witness this first hand. As we all huddled around the tank Levi (our R.D.) made the first comment "We're all sick, do you realize that?" I was reminded of our ancestors and their gross facination of killings. From the entertainment the Romans enjoyed by killing Christians with tigers to public hangings in the early years of our own country...we have always been facinated with watching things die. We would like to think we are above that these days, but, the showing of Timothy McVeig's (spell?) death to those related to the victims proved otherwise. And on a much smaller scale, the piranha feeding did too. The first goldfish hit the water "Splash!" It swam for only a few seconds before the piranha laid eyes on it...then it was only a matter of seconds. The piranha (plural) pounced on it and tore it to shreds. Floating scales were all that was left after the piranha devoured the fish from fin to head. We all stood there cheering with excitement in amazement at what we had just seen. More, MORE, MORE!!! We wanted it again! Our taste for death had been whet. Fish number two: "Splash!" The fish darted for the bottom of the tank. It hid in a big piece of wood on the bottom. Smart fish. I started to feel...what was this feeling? Compassion. I felt bad for the fish. This wasn't supposed to happen. It was all entertainment afterall. I know it's just a fish. It has no soul. It's an animal. But, for some reason I felt this internal struggle between compassion for the fish and the pulsing desire for it to be torn to shreds. Eventually it swam out of it's shelter in the wood and a piranha bit off it's tail fin as it tried to get away. Then it pitifully tried to swim with it's remaining side fins but didn't last long. The prianha (plural) tore it to pieces. All that was left was the head. One piranha snatched the head and tried to swallow it with one bite. Another piranha tried to pull it out of it's mouth though. A tug-of-war for the fish's head began until the smaller one won. It was the most brutal, raw, carnal thing I've seen in a very long time. I have no answers for you about this internal struggle I experienced, only questions. It did make me think though. I mean I like fish...well that is I like to eat fish. Ok...in sharp contrast to that story on with the REAL news...I saw Five Iron Frenzy last night!!! Laura, three of her friends from back home, and me all made our way to Anderson University last night to see FIF for the last time. For those of you who don't know FIF is a music icon. They are truly the last great symbol of my youth. They became "big" during the whole ska era. They have been the one band that I have liked since junior high. Such good memories... Anyway, they are breaking up next month and this is their farewell tour etitled "Winners Never Quit". Cameron Jaymes opened. Then Holland rocked the stage. Next up was Bleach. And then...the great Five Iron Frenzy. FIF put on an amazing show as usual. It was a ton of fun. It was a little emotional for me though, as I think it was for a lot of people. I had tears in my eyes a couple times I have to admit. FIF represents an entire sub-culture. A lot of us "kids" grew up on them. I talked to the girl next to me who was kind of in the same boat as me. She admitted to me that she didn't listen to FIF a lot anymore but she grew up on their music. It was crazy at the show because it was mostly college kids like me. Five years ago the show would have been made up completely of junior and senior high kids. It was the same kids at the show last night...but, we were all grown up now. Last night was the marking of our sub-culture as having finally grown up. As FIF died for us last night so did our youth. I realize this will sound really dumb to a lot of you out there so for that I am sorry. I guess you have to experience what I'm talking about to fully grasp it. Oh well. Five Iron Frenzy will be missed greatly.
R.I.P. Five Iron,
-Kevin

10.08.03 Our campus has recently come under attack by small winged creatures. We have these crazy laybug things that seriously are out of control! They are everywhere!!! First off I need to start by saying that I hate bugs. They gross me out a lot and I can't take them. I know you're thinking, "C'mon Kevin, it's a frickin' ladybug" but no, you haven't seen these things (well unless you go to school here). These are not just ladybugs, these are flying blood-sucking demons from the pits of Hades. I kid you not. Today already I've had at least three attach their vampire-like fangs to my neck as they tried to render me powerless so they could use my carcass as a breeding ground nest for their offspring. I swatted them away left and right just now on the way to my room only to think I was safe inside. That's what they wanted me to think. These things are heartless however. They're not content with staying outside, they've begun to slowly invade our dorms. As I was sitting here typing just now another one appeared on my wrist. I threw it in the sink and over-powered it with water down the drain. I think that may have been a bad idea however. I am now afraid it will start a new colony in my sink drain. This is actually very plausable. I've learned not to underestimate these things. Their tactic is to make you think they're gone. That way while you sleep they can come suck your tasty human juices as you lay helplessly unaware.
Sleeping with one eye open,
-Kevin

10.06.03 So, last night as I sat in my room reading for World Lit. the phone rang. Jon, in his ever-ready mindset jumped up, ran to the phone and got it in only one ring. He seriously would make a great minuteman. Anyway, it was for me. On the other end was a nervous girl who, with a shaking voice began to speak: Umm, you don't really know me but umm, I know you a bit. My names is uhh...Jenny. My friends have told me a lot about you an ummm they pointed you out to me and um...you just sound really cool and uh, I was just wondering if you'd want to get a ummm....get a meal sometime? Thinking it was a prank phone call I asked who had told her about me. We just got the school directory the other day so anyone can prank call anyone now and know their name. So I thought that's what this was. I was testing her to see if she really did know anyone I knew. She said that Leslie had told her about me. Since I do know Leslie I began to think that maybe this was a real call. Anyway we decided to meet for lunch today. Still pretty skeptical I wondered the whole morning if it was real or not. I thought it was a prank until my class right before lunch. I finally began to think, what if this is real? She did know Leslie afterall. None of Leslie's friends would prank call me. Maybe it was real. I got to the student center for lunch and saw Hannah, one of Leslie's friends. She struck up a conversation with me and began to ask me if I was eating with anyone etc. I told her the whole story. Then she extended her hand to shake mine and said, "Hi, I'm Jenny." Hannah, sweet inocent little Hannah had pranked me. I never saw it coming from her! She's too nice I thought. She said her and Leslie wanted to get me for Jon and my pranks lately. Well, it worked. I had started to believe it was true just before I found out it wasn't. Good one girls :) Anyway, after lunch I got a letter in my mailbox!!! I was so excited! It was from Michelle. It had the raddest stamp ever! It is a film reel and says "filmediting" and on the side it says "filmmaking". The back of the envelop is all decorated with Michelle's scribble work. Anyway once I finally got over the outside I finally opened it. The inside of the envelop is all decorated too. The actual contents were even better! She wrote me a cool letter that she had written me in Europe. Due to a lack of paper half of it was written on a napkin she got on a train. That letter has the most character of any letter I've ever gotten. Sorry to write so much about a letter but hey, I missed her a lot and I never get mail, this is a big deal! So yeah, that was the hilight of my day. In other news Brad and I are finally making Vinmark Productions a real company! Brad is heading it all up and I am the head of the film part. He's working on a rad website right now. It will be www.vinmarkproductions.com when it is all said and done. So, that is very exciting! In other other news my Twins lost to the monopoly last night. The Yankees that is. The Twins amazing season came to an end last night. I am a bit bitter about it. Don't bring it up around me. The Yankees simply have millions upon millions of dollars so they simply sign every great player in baseball and ensure themselves the pennant before the season even begins! It's such a freakin monopoly that...ok...let it go, let it go...Ok, I am ok. Baseball really needs salary cap. Anyway...I get to see Five Iron Frenzy on Wednesday!!! This is their last tour before the break-up in November and the last time I will get to see them. It is so very sad but I am so very excited too. Ok, I need to study for my Com. test tomorrow. Peace.
Dreaming about providence and whethor mice or men have second tries,
-Kevin

10.05.03 Good week. It's now Saturday night and I finally have a few moments to update this here blog. I had a few tests this week...aced a couple, struggled on a couple but I survived (I only write about academic stuff 'cause my family back home gets upset when I don't, so, for everyone who's not in my family or simply couldn't care less about my academic life you may skip to the more interesting stuff a few lines down). I have another test this week, on Tuesday. It is for Com. and I think I should do well on it. Anyway, so this Thursday night we had what is called "Press Your Unit" here at Hodson. It's a bench-pressing competition between units within Hodson. I benched 130lbs, but seriously should have tried a lot more. 130 was pretty easy. My unit got second-place. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, Michelle came home from Europe this day and we talked after Press Your Unit. It was soooooo nice to talk to her. I had missed my conversations with her so very much! We talked for over five hours (until after 5:00AM)! It was so good to talk to her again. Her Europe trip was amazing! She got robbed in Rome and lost pretty much everything, from her Passport, to credit cards, to money. She lost it all. But through it all and through her whole trip God provided and God did amazing things in her heart. It was so awesome to get to hear about it all! Anyway, so I ended up getting a mere two hours of sleep that night. But, for whatever reason I wasn't even very tired in classes...pretty crazy. Later Friday Mike came down with Marcy and Kate Marshall. It was so good to see him again. We went to Steak 'n Shake with Chris Demarse and later all of us went to see School of Rock at the theater. We also stopped by Virginia's townhouse for a while. While we were there Benji Zimmerman was outside and Brian Bradford was backing his car out, didn't see Benj and ran over his foot. Beji's foot turned like blue right away. It was pretty crazy. Later that night Mike and I went over to Reed where Alli had made us some really good cookies. Then Alli, Mike, and I went to Wal-Mart and Alli and I bought pumpkins. It was a fun night. Today...Saturday I woke up a little after 1:00PM, only because Mike woke me up. We then watched the Twins Yanks game in which the Yanks beat the Twins...again. The series is 2-1 now. Tomorrow might be the last day for my Twinkies :(. Later Mike and I went to the soccer game and watched IWU win. This week is homecoming weekend by the way and Nate Kingsbury was here with his friend Noah. They didn't have anywhere to sleep so they stayed in Hodson's t.v. lounge last night haha. Anyway, Mike left this evening. I will miss him. It was fun hanging out with him again. Later tonight Alli, Beth and I went to Ivanhoes for dinner. It was so good! Afterwards the girls came to my room and we watched the original Annie movie!!! I hadn't seen it since I was a little kid. Alli found it on DVD the other night and bought it. It was awesome to see again! After the movie a bunch of us went to a bonfire out in the middle of nowhere. It was really cool. We sang a little Dashboard Confessional around the fire. I didn't get to stay too long though...stupid 1:00AM curfew. But, on the way home I stared out the window as The Juliana Theory softly came through Alli's car stereo. It was the most beautiful thing I've seen in at least a month. The sky was cloudy with the full harvest moon peeking through to shimmer on the yellow corn stalks standing proudly in their sea of golden fields. Dang, it happened. Tonight I fell in love with Indiana. Ok, it's 4:15AM and time for me to sleep.
So hold me, light a candle in the window pane tonight,
-Vin