Technical Difficulties

There has been a lot going on this summer, but one thing my roommates and I have been dealing with is one annoying technical problem after another. First the house flooded, then we found out the washing machine was broken, the air conditioning broke a couple of times, there have been various major and minor car problems among us, I briefly had technical difficulties turning in assignments for my online class, a tree in our yard is falling apart and damaged the house, and a power-line cable was hanging down loose one morning. Fortunately no one was hurt in any of these and damage on all but a couple of them turned out to be pretty minor in the scheme of things. Still, it's been a little stressful at times for us to have to deal with all of these things in a little over two months after moving in together. Even Chuck's had to deal with some technical difficulties this summer as you can see in the video bellow:

Chuck Returns With A Public Service Announcement

It took a little longer than I expected, but my puppet Chuck has finally settled into our new place enough to start working on a new video with me. So here he is with a public service announcement on a subject near and dear to his heart. Enjoy!

Photo Album: Emergency Shut Off in Case of "Pleasure"

Just what goes through everyone's mind at the gas station: "You know what would make my experience dealing with highly flammable fuel sources even more enjoyable: going into the convince store and buying products which are designed to purposely set on fire. At only $3.33 how can I say no?" At least the emergency shut off is well marked. That's pretty thoughtful of them.

Wayne Allwine (1947-2009)

A very familiar voice has been silenced. You may not recognize the name Wayne Allwine, but for over 30 years he’s been the voice and heart behind Walt Disney’s most famous creation, Mickey Mouse. On May 18th, he passed away at the age of 62 with his wife, who is coincidentally the current voice of Minnie Mouse, by his side. His voice can be heard in such beloved films as "Mickey's Christmas Carol" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and has recently reached out to the next generation of Mickey fans through the Disney Channel preschool show "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and the "Kingdom Hearts" video games, not to mention his presence in the various Disney theme parks and traveling shows. For more information about his life, click here.

My initial reaction to hearing the news was shock. It's hard to imagine the prospect of a new Mickey Mouse cartoon or theme park show without his cheerful, ever-youthful voice. I never got to meet him and really only knew him through his work and the occasional interview. However, as a life-long fan of Mickey Mouse and Disney in general, his voice has been a consistent and welcome present in my life. There is some comfort knowing that Mickey will live on both through the re-watching of the many wonderful projects Allwine and his predecessors took part in over the years and eventually through the selection of their inevitable successor, a process that, according to rumor, has been going on for some time and that Allwine had fortunately been very involved until the time of his passing. But the genial, funny, and modest man behind the familiar falsetto I grew up with has sadly been silenced and he will be missed.

The Arrival of Summer

Summer has arrived and, after a fairly full couple of weeks (at least by summer standards), I'm beginning to settle into it. First came moving out of the dorm and turning around and  heading up to the mountains of North Georgia the next morning for Intervarsity Chapter Camp. It was great to be able to spend a week away from it all focusing on how awesome Jesus is as well as hang out with some of my friends in such a beautiful setting (such as the mountain stream pictured above). The day after I got back, the house I just moved into had a slight plumbing problem that flooded the whole house. For all the hassle it caused all of us living here, it could have been a lot worse and I'm thankful for all of my neighbors, friends, and family members who helped us clean up afterwards. Then Yesterday I finally got my own bed, and now it's starting to feels like I'm actually moving in and not just crashing on my friends' couch. So, things are starting to settle down a little, but after such as busy couple of weeks I could use some time to chill.

Photo Album: Moving Right Along

Well, today is the day that my brother and I (and Chuck) will finally be moving off-campus for good. While I'm going to miss the convenience of being so close to all of the facilities here at USF in the upcoming Summer ad Fall semesters, I think it's time to move on. I'm a little nervous about this new experience (as both Chuck and I tend to be about all new experiences), but I know it will be good for me in the long run to take this next step after all these years. Now, if you excuse me, I have some last minute packing to do.

Photo Album: Break at Busch Gardens

Here's a picture I took last week during a quick visit to Busch Gardens that I used as a break between writing papers. I decided to pass on the rides this time and just focus on wandering around a couple  the animal exhibits and taking a few pictures. It turned out to be a good call since some of my favorite animals (including several fairly young ones like the baby zebra on the right side of the above picture) were pretty active and hanging out close to the viewing areas. Since I wasn't trying to do any rides I could really slow down and observe the various animals and what they were up to (which is one of my favorite things to do at the park anyway). It also made for some pretty nice pictures as well (which is another favorite activity of mine as well). All and all, it was very enjoyable yet all too brief way to break up a day of paper writing and research.