May 23

Today's Monday. My second Monday at work and everthing's going smooth so far. This summer is my third summer to work for my dad, and is also the best summer working for my dad. Before I was a nobody, a gopher, and replaceable hirling who was, by default, somewhat indolent (there was not much I could do). Not this year. I've been in the cabinet shop apprenticing and masteringe the art of millwork (the pay is mucho better too, but after 20% taxes there's not much left!) Must go. - Josh

May 11

YES! I just took my last real final. I just have a little CAD drawing to do tonight. I'm pretty confident that I'll get a 4.0 this semester, so thank you God, really. It's a fight; everytime I go into a new semester I never expect to get an A, but I just do my part and somehow it works out. I know that prayer for every test helps. I was accepted to UTA yesterday so I'm about to sign up for classes for my fall semester there. I'm a UNT right now and pretty dolorous. I'm about to go to the greatest rec center in the nation for the last time. I'm walking this beautiful campus for the last time, and it just had to be such a beautifully sentimental day. The sun is shining, but not too bright/the birds are singing, it all feels right. I like UNT and I'm going to miss it, but I know what I'm suppose to do and there is no stopping. Peace - Josh

Call Me Boone

I'm about to take my English final so I only have a minute. My last final is tonight, that would be CAD. After today, I'm a free man, until Mon. when I start working. Call me Boone, Daniel Boone. Monday night at around 9:00 that little dog we got started barking in the back yard. I went out there and I didn't see anything, but I knew there was something out there. I went to my room and got my .22 rifle. The dog was looking up the tree; he had treed a raccoon. I had Amy get a flashlight, and I found the 'coon in the tree. Amanda came out and spotlighted her (It was a female coon) for me and I shot it right in the face, perfect shot. I shouted to Amanda, "Run!" We were standing almost directly under it and it was going to fall, and I didn't know if it would be wounded and angry and try to tear our legs off. But, she just fell and that was it. Next step, skinning. It took over an hour, but I got a decent fur off it. I was real proud of Amanda staying out there and helping me cut into it and pull its skin off, not many girls can handle that. It's on a board now drying out. - Josh

The Pic

This new picture of me is a little retarded, but has a substance to it. The substance is cars. We have four drivers at our home, so we each have our car + the family van. Also, the camera went off at the wrong time, that's why I am in the rather awkward position I am.

May 4

It drizzled all day today. Rather pleasant really. Nothing eventful, except I have a fair amount of pressure with my trig. final coming up, spending a lot of time studying for that. Just one more week and all my classes will be over. So, about May 16 I'll start working.
Oh, one thing did happen today. I was shooting some hoops in the rec center, and there was a basketball game going on the court next to me. I was half-way watching the game when I heard a loud "SNAP." Just like a very brittle stick broken in half, only it was a kid's shin bone (is that the Femur?). He was a pretty built kid, and you wouldn't think that someone coming down from a rebound and landing on his leg would snap it, but it did, and how. He stood there on one foot holding his broken leg like he was stretching his quad for about 2 minutes before he really started to yell that he needed help. The other players laid him down on the cushy chairs where spectators sit, and I ran to the front desk for a medic. I don't think I conveyed the urgency of the issue the first time (I didn't really realize it was totally broken myself) so the rec staff took their time getting there. After a minute of waiting no one had shown up to help yet, so I ran back and put a fire under one guys kiester and got him over there. About five minutes later the medics from the ambulance and fire department arrived, they took over and that's when I left to go work out my bi's and tri's.
#1 That kid really broke it. Like, you held the lower part of his leg up and his foot would fall.
#2 I shot a few more hoops after I learned he had broken it, and every time I came down I was aware of the pressure on my shins and was hoping they wouldn't break. That would hurt.
- Josh

May 2

It's been a while. Well, on Wed., five days ago, I recieved news that sent me into a state of euphoria. I felt weightless, like I was on a drug that released from the heaviest cares of life. I was exempt from taking my Physics final! Totally a God thing. If people hadn't been praying I never would have made an 85 on the second test which directly resulted in my exemption. So, I just have a poli sci final and a trig final, which are both pretty big deals, and then engl and CAD finals which should be relatively simple.
My grandparents came in yesterday to go to Abigail's ballet recital tonight. Also, this stray mutt which looks something like a dachshund maundered into our vacinity and wouldn't leave. After much turmoil and conversing my dad caved in to the pleas of three young girls and his wife. The dog stays. I got a flat tire yesterday, one more problem to deal with, but I don't really have that many problems except for when it comes to money.
Ask anyone who knows me well, and they'll tell you that I'm always behind the times, but I eventually catch up. While living in a world where every Jr. High kid has a camera phone, I, at the age of 18, just now got a cell phone. No camera, but I don't care. Phones are power.
- Josh
P.S. 817-401-5236

April 23

Happy Saturday. I mowed the lawn today and it was exhilarating; maybe not, but it wasn't bad either. Put a couple hours in on the guitar, about half an hour skateboarding and spent this morning working on an 8 page research paper that's due Mon. I think we're about to go out to eat somewhere. Let's go back a few days:
Fri. - Normal school day, except I missed Physics for the first time ever. I got in the class room, sat down, and said to the guy I always sit next to, "Why am I in here? From here on out he's not teaching anything that's on the final and attendance does not affect my grade at all. I'm going to go get a sandwhich. I'm walking out of here, going to Chick-fil-a and getting a chicken sandwhich." So that's what I did. At 4:30 I played ultimate frisbee like I have for the past four Fridays in a row.
Thurs. - fairly uneventful. Navigators was awsome; we went to the Chapmans who are missionaries.

Movie Review

I do not watch TV, except the four or five times a year I go to my grandparents house. However, I do watch a few movies every week; it fluctuates unpredictably. At any rate last night I finished studying for my poli sci test and caught up on my vegetating. First, I watched Garfield. Hilarious, immature, and predictable. I was not tired yet, and it just so happened that I had rented another movie. So I watched 'Finding Neverland'. Yes, good old Johnny Depp. It was a very different type of movie. It was basically like literature, intriguing and interesting but slow and uneventful. I was fairly bored throughout, and my blood overheated when I realized that they were portraying Depp abandoning his wife and finding emotional fulfillment in widow with four little boys in a positive light. But I was glad I watched it. It was a philosophical and thought provoking movie with no garbage. Also, last week I watched the Ten Commandments for the first time since I was like 6. That was cool. God bless John Wayne and Charlton Heston.
- Josh