A few pictures

I don't really have anything great to report. I am anxiously awaiting wedding news...also my baby sister (who consequently is no longer a baby, since she herself has one, who herself is growing up very quickly) has a birthday tomorrow. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!! and CONGRATULATIONS JASON AND JOANNA!!!

Nothing has really changed here. Still studying arabic, trying to win the nobel prize in physics, and make as many friends as I can. Eventually I need to start thinking about moving to Lebanon, which makes me sad because I don't like thinking about leaving my friends here in Jordan and restarting my social life...but so is life...
Last weekend I finally got out of Amman. First time in like 6 weeks. I have a book with various historical and geological sites in Jordan, and most of the time the book gives the GPS co-ordinates. There is a system of caves in northern Jordan, that almost nobody knows about. So, I got a few guys together and made a day trip out of it. It was AMAZING. The caves are in the jordanian mountains, which this time of year are just starting to fill up with blooming wild flowers of all colors as well as the apple and apricot blossoms on the trees. It almost feels like you are in a different country. It is very pretty up there in the spring. Anyway, we walked through the mountains for about 3 kilos to find the cave (using the GPS). We spent about 3 hours in the cave. There are tons of cracks, crevices, and caverns to explore. There were bats all over the place too...so COOOL. The caves are believed to have been used throughout history for people escaping persecution. Probably used by Christians during the time of the Romans. Overall, it was one of the nicest trips I've done in Jordan. Plus we had a great group of guys. Here are a few pictures.

The Bat Cave!

my little friend

The Guysa blooming apricot tree

wenak ya ghayib?

That means...well actually it doesn't really translate now that I think about it, but approximately it means, 'where have you been, you've been absent'
Anyway, no real excuse for the absence, just been busy with work, study, and life in Jordan. Also, a few friends came over from Lebanon for a few days so I was busy with them.
I don't even have any kind of exciting news to share, or news that I feel free to share anyway. Life is going pretty normal, or as normal as life might be able to be for an alaskan living in the middle east. I actually met another alaskan a few days ago. She is a girl who just started studying Arabic at the University of Jordan. She is from Eagle River. It felt pretty strange to meet a fellow alaskan here...it also felt oddly comforting. I don't understand why there seems to be a connection just cause we grew up in the same state, but honestly I felt like just that single point made us instant friends. I mean, it is not like I know her any more than any one else in this world...nevertheless, there it is. I don't think I like the idea of preferential treatment based on a person's homeland, seeing how that is the cause of so much struggle and strife in this part of the world....anyway, I guess I am rambling.
By the way, 27 feels much older than 26 (and sounds much older too). Maybe it is because I realize how old I am, and how little of my life goals I have completed. I mean, I still haven't stopped world hunger, saved the whales or the rainforest, issued in world peace, traveled to Mars, eaten one of every animal on the planet, invented the perpetual motion machine, sufficiently explained ALL of Zeno's paradoxes (though I've solved the majority of them), or write a book longer than Tolstoy (of course none of those are really my goals, except the eating one of every animal, that one is real).

OK, I am done with my tirade of random comments. Til next time

Another video, of greater importance

I created this because some time back I visited a refugee camp, and still think about it. I am not making any kind of political statement with this. Some people may cite all kinds of reason why people in this world live in such abject conditions...this video is not about reasons. It is about results. Please realize that this could have been your life...

As Christians we ought to be the first to have compassion on the suffering...and do what we can to heal them.

The video is a compiliation of other videos with some added pictures and comments of my own. The video needs editing still, but Windows Movie Maker keeps crashing when I open it...so I guess this is kinda as far as it goes. There is some repitition, but try to focus on the message, especially the last 3 minutes or so. The music is Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, quite possibly the most powerful music ever written.

Please let me know what you think

Book made into a movie?

So this friday I decided to a take a few hours off of the normal routine or work and study and watched a movie with a couple of friends. The movie was called Seven Pounds, with Will Smith. I am not sure if it is a new movie or what (I am so far out of touch with movie/entertainment news...) I wasn't sure about the film, it didn't look to great, and it started out kinda slow and strange. In fact, for the first half of the movie things didn't really make sense, however things started coming together. I won't give away much of the plot, but by the end of the movie I kept thinking about Silverstine's book the Giving Tree. The movie is about a guy who makes a terrible mistake, then spends the years after trying to do good to people. The thing that separates this movie from other "do good movies" is that this guy doesn't just give his money and time to be a feel-good philantropist. He gives himself. I mean real sacrifice. To what extent? you should watch and see. The movie makes you think (or it made me think) about what we really have in this life, especially since an old friend of our family recently passed away. It made me remember a quote I heard "the best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away". I have to ask myself, how much am I willing to give of myself? do I really see other people's lives as greater than my own? I am really willing to sacrifice myself for others, even people I don't know? Is that not the example that Christ left us with? He who gave all he had, even his own blood, not to his friends (only), but moreso for his enemies.
As long as I live I will never know any greater Love or higher Virture than what I find in Jesus Christ. All I know that is good in life I find only in him. My first and final and only true goal in life is that I might find the grace to reflect even the smallest gleam of that Love to a world full of pain, suffering, and sorrow.

مُحْتَقَرٌ وَمَخْذُولٌ مِنَ النَّاسِ رَجُلُ أَوْجَاعٍ وَمُخْتَبِرُ الْحُزْنِ وَكَمُسَتَّرٍ عَنْهُ وُجُوهُنَا
مُحْتَقَرٌ فَلَمْ نَعْتَدَّ بِهِ. لَكِنَّ أَحْزَانَنَا حَمَلَهَا وَأَوْجَاعَنَا تَحَمَّلَهَا.
وَنَحْنُ حَسِبْنَاهُ مُصَاباً مَضْرُوباً مِنَ اللَّهِ وَمَذْلُولاً.
وَهُوَ مَجْرُوحٌ لأَجْلِ مَعَاصِينَا مَسْحُوقٌ لأَجْلِ آثَامِنَا. تَأْدِيبُ سَلاَمِنَا عَلَيْهِ وَبِحُبُرِهِ شُفِينَا
Is. 53:3-5 (I am still amazed by this verse)

My First Video

Here is my first attempt at making a video. It is a pretty simple picture video of Alaska. Only about half of the pictures are mine, the rest I downloaded from the net. The song is by Chris Rice.
Anyway, let me know what you think.