But that lasted for a whole 2 days before things went even further downhill. I still wasn’t consistently hitting my nap times, most of it due to the fact that I had a bajillion things to shoot, and I never had time in the evenings to consistently fit in my naps. It was spotty, at best. By the end of the week, I was sleeping at 3 and waking up at 8:30, with barely enough time to shower, eat breakfast, and scoot to class. No time for devos or working out. Bleh.

Anyways, Friday and Saturday night I decided to sleep semi-normally in hopes of resetting my sleep clock. Friday night I was super cranky while I was shooting the Parent’s Weekend Block Party. Part of it was due to the fact that I hate going to large events with no central focus and horribly cheesy MC’s. The other part was due to the fact that I never had any really consistent good sleep the entire week. So at about 9:30ish I took a nap with no alarm. I woke up around 1:30ish, and did some work until 4. I slept until 8:30, which felt good for once, and went on to shoot for the entire day. I had a camera in my hand from 10 until 6, with maybe a half hour break for lunch. Talk about intense.

And after going to the Ken Davis / Choral concert I dumped the photos and went to bed at 11:30. Yes, you read that right, Timmy Huynh went to bed before midnight. I slept almost a full 9 hours until 8:30.

So I guess here goes the restart. I’ll probably try going to bed at 2 for now, and trying to get 4.5 hours of sleep. If I can get up at 6:30ish, that would be fantastic. If not, I’ll probably wake by 7:30 which will give me more time for my regular morning duties.

And off we go again…

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So the first day I got in my lunch nap, but skipped my dinner nap. When I took my late night nap at 12, it ended up being my core sleep. I slept for 5 hours, and when I woke up I felt horrible. Probably worse off then I had gone to sleep. To top it off, I had a 1200 word paper due Thursday which I hadn’t really gotten started on. I ended up half writing the paper, half taking 5-10 min naps to try and get that rested feeling. What a bad start.

Thursday I only got in my lunch and dinner naps, and I ended sleeping for another 5 hours during my core nap.

Friday I only got in the lunch nap, and I slept for a whopping 7 hours. I woke up at 10AM, which as completely unexpected. I didn’t even remember 1 of my 3 alarms going off. But what else do you expect when you skip 2/3 naps?

Saturday I think I took one 3 hour nap from 4-7, and then slept for 5 hours last night. Which brings us today.

So this morning I went into my schedule and wrote in nap times, and hopefully I can stick to it. I know on Tuesday I don’t have time for a lunch nap, but I’m hoping I should be alright. Saturday will be interesting as well, with me shooting from probably 11 to 6, straight.

One thing I’d like to see is whether getting more sleep before a day with naps skips helps, or if you need to get more sleep after a nap skip day. I guess it comes down to whether the naps are a preparative measure or a reactive measure by your body to account for the sleep lost.

So here goes Everyman, the restart.

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In short, the Everyman sleep schedule is a form of polyphasic sleep. Polyphasic sleep is just what it sounds like, sleep in multiple phases. The most extreme form, Uberman sleep, is made up of 6 20ish minute naps spread out through the day. The Everyman schedule is a modified version of that, and is less extreme at about 3-4.5 hours of core sleep each night, with about 3 naps of 20 minutes throughout the day.

I’ve decided to try getting 3 hours between 3AM and 6AM, and getting my 3 naps at meal time. Depending on how I feel, I might switch the morning nap to late night.

Some of you may be asking, “Timmy, why the drastic change,” and I will reply “Friend, this is not drastic at all. My life has been sort of like this already, and I am just formalizing it.” Generally my life consists of 6 hours of sleep, and a nap during the evening. Sometimes I will be working, look at the clock, and exclaim, “Holy skamoly, it’s 3AM!” Then I’ll sleep for about 4 hours, wake up, and take 2-3 naps during the day. So it’s not that big of a change for me. I just have “scheduled” nap times. So if I tell you that I can’t fit you in at a certain time b/c that’s nap time, I’m not lying.

So here is to day 0 of the Everyman sleep schedule. And every good action needs goals. Here we go:
1) Get more HW done in a quality manner
2) Look through more photos
3) Professionalize website and various other online presences
4) Start to work out regularly.
5) Read the Bible / pray more

We’ve got a plan, we’ve got goals. And off we go…

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Which brings me to this week. When I contacted my boss before coming back to Austin for summer, he told me he probably wouldn’t have work for me the entire summer. I told him I’d pretty much work anywhere, upon which he referred me to the project manager for the construction part of the company. I’ve been working there for about 3 and a half weeks, but this week I get a break from all the physical work to do a week back in desktop support, filling in for a guy who’s on vacation.

Today is only the third day, but I’m almost sick of it. I essentially sit around, keeping his seat warm and making sure his computer works. I read a ton, listen to music, sort through my photos, and occasionally work a ticket.

I was talking with a friend yesterday, and I made a comment that the grass seems to always be greener on the other side. I noticed the same thing this morning. I was thinking about how much less boring my construction job would be right now. But while I was working construction, I always thought about how much less labor the desktop support job would be.

Sooooooo kids, the moral of the story is that you’ll always want what you don’t have, so enjoy where you are because once you leave that’s what you’ll be longing for.

But all joking aside, I really need to work on being more content with what I have, be it possessions, personality characteristics, or just the situation God has gifted me with. I think it’s a slap to God’s face when he presents me with a perfectly good situation, and all I can do is think about how much better I would be doing something else.

I figure, if I make a list of the things I would like to get done by the end of the summer, and rotate between things throughout the day, I should keep myself occupied when I’m not doing work, and make good use of my time.

Here’s what comes to mind:
1) Work on new site design
2) Finish picking out photos to upload to flickr and upload them
3) Keep looking into med schools
4) Start rating photos for potential art show/photo-book.

And off we go.

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(via To Darrin Hudson)

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This photo makes me laugh so much. It ran on the front page of the NY Times, and shows Specialist Zachary Boyd of Fort Worth, TX fighting in Afghanistan in his pink boxers. He had been sleeping when the compound he was in was attacked, and he ran out to help fight in his boxers.

You can read more about it here and here. (via PDNPulse)

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Right now I’m up at a class in MI taking Ornithology (I’ll explain it later), but I was taking a nap during our afternoon break.

I dreamt we were out walking and looking for birds, and I dreamt I took a nap. I woke up from my nap early, and continued to look for birds. As we were walking, a hawk and a falcon flew over us, and were about to go at it. And then in the dream, my alarm goes off. Everyone gets a bit agitated, since it will probably scare off the birds, and wonder who’s it is. I respond saying it’s my alarm from my nap, and go to turn it off.

And that’s when my alarm goes off in real life. So I wake up, turn it off and go back to class.

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On Tuesdays I usually have nuclear lab from 8-10. But today the lab got moved back to 9. Last night I went to bed about 30 min later than I had hoped, but still set my alarm for my usual wake up time of 7:30. I briefly woke up then, but saw that my roommate was in the shower, and was still tired, so I decided to nap a bit more. Big mistake. I sleep in cycles of 90 min, so the moment I shut my eyes, the next cycle began.

My dream starts off with me taking photos at a golf tournament, presumably the Masters. At one hole, there’s a dip before the hill where the flag is, and a bunch of water has been gathering up there since its been raining a ton. There’s like a medium sized puddle. One of the golfers just hit his ball into the puddle, and it’s just floating in the middle there. I have the genius idea of crossing the puddle at that moment. So not only do I get wet, but I move the ball. Everyone in the gallery gets pissed at me, and starts to boo. So I try to move the ball back to its spot, but every time I get back out of the puddle, the waves from me getting out move it back to the edge. All this is happening while the other golfers in the group are teeing off and balls are flying towards me.

I eventually make it out, and while I’m drying off begin talk with one of the girls in the gallery. She’s medium height, long brown hair, and very pretty. We go back and fourth about the previous incident, and crack a ton of jokes. I’m wondering if I’ll make it onto sportcenter the next day. She’s very engaging, and apparently finds the conversation enjoyable enough to continue it.

I then make my way to a farm house, and in there I find Hannah Baur (now Hannah Jetter) getting ready for her wedding. I ask her where the ceremony is going to be, and she says out in the fields somewhere. I ask her if she’d like me to take pictures, and she says she really doesn’t care either way.

As I’m leaving to go to my aunt & uncles house, I get a text saying that the girl I talked to earlier is a friend of Hannah’s, and was wondering if I was going to the wedding. If so, she’d like to go with me and hang out some more. I then get a call from some rapper, I think TI. He’s wondering if I took any pictures while at the farmhouse, and if so, could he take a look at them. I brush him off, and hang up.

As I’m loading the photos onto my computer, I see in the background of the photo through a window TI just beating the crap out of someone. I quickly load up the photos and hide several copies through my hard drive, thinking the police will need them in their investigation later. I get another call from one of my other aunts, wondering if I know where Hannah’s wedding is going to be, and if I need a ride there. I say I don’t know where it is, and I’m already in the area, so I won’t need a ride. I don’t say it, but I’d much rather spend the wedding with the girl I met than with that aunt. The aunt I’m staying with asks me if I can help her bring over some cakes she’s made to the wedding, and I check my phone to see if I’ve got enough time to bring them over and come back to meet that girl.

Then I realize it’s 9:15 and I’m already late to class. Eff.

—–

Here are some notes for the dream that you may find humorous:

- I was listening to PTI last night and they talked about the Masters a ton.
- It’s been raining a lot lately. Like all day yesterday, and through the night, and even right now.
- While I haven’t shot golf super recently (2 weekends ago), I did get a new camera bag last night. So the combination of listening to the masters and the new camera bag probably stirred up some ideas.
- I am a very inconspicuous photographer. The fact that I would just tramp through a puddle in the middle of a golf tournament, while the golfers are still going at it, is super weird.
- I just realized where the puddle probably came from. Bergwall bridge has been closed for construction yesterday as they installed a drop ceiling. So to get to the DC we’ve had to go underneath it. Yesterday, with all the rain, there was a ginormous puddle between bergwall and the donwstairs DC doors. Like probably 10 ft wide.
- Since when do golf balls float on water? And since when do golfers hit floating golf balls?
- I am not charming whatsoever. I don’t think I’m very funny, and I feel like most girls wouldn’t want to spend an extended amount of time talking to me. There are some guys who are great at interacting with girls, and I’m not one of them. The fact that a girl wanted to hang out with me later is some sort of miracle, which probably explains why it would happen in my dreams.
- Hannah Baur’s wedding was last year. And I didn’t even go to it. How it ended up in this dream is beyond me.
- I didn’t take pictures at her wedding. I did shoot a wedding 2 weekends ago though. But if I wasn’t shooting her wedding, why was I taking photos at the farm house where she was getting ready? Just for kicks?
- Why she was having her wedding outside in a field is beyond me.
- Also, if it had been raining enough for puddles to accumulate on the golf course, why would she be having her wedding outside?
- I remember going through Last.fm profiles, and I think I saw somewhere that someone likes anything TI is in. So that’s probably how he got into my dream.
- Since when does TI hang out at the Masters?
- Why would he be beating up someone outside of a farmhouse on a golf course?
- Why are my aunts baking cakes and going to Hannah’s wedding? They don’t know any of my Taylor friends, much less know Hannah well enough to bake cakes for her wedding.
- Where is Tiger Woods in this dream? How do I have a dream about the Masters and not have Tiger Woods make an appearance?

I figured I needed to write this dream down, and thought it would be entertaining enough for the inter-webs.

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The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

1 Kings 19:11-13

Today God continued to remind me that He is in control of this trip, and I need not worry about what does or does not happen. He’s already thought things through.

We started our day (Thursday) off as usual, circling up in the parking lot and then rolling to Sun Splash. Set up the nets, lathered up and then got settled. I did a lot more prayer and reading the bible. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but one thing about this trip that is different from last is that we have to be a lot more intentional with who we speak and what we’re doing. We have no free food to attract anyone, so we have to approach them for conversation. And if we don’t feel called to speak to someone, there’s really not much else to do. Last year, you could hide behind the grill or the food tent and just serve away, and not feel bad about not talking. But this year, you’ll either have to play volleyball, take a seat next to the van (where you’ll end up talking to someone) or just go off and read the bible and pray. I ended up doing a lot of the latter. A LOT. I don’t think I’ve ever read the bible so much in the span of a few days.

While the results haven’t been quite as evident as the previous years for me, it’s still been good. In the last few years of high school I really struggled with prayer, taking it for granted and even not praying at all. Coming to college has helped me a lot to re-ackowledge the power of prayer, and this trip has really pushed me far. At school, it’s easy to get caught up in the hub-bub, but here, on spring break, if I’m praying, that’s first and foremost on my mind.

I was able to talk with Henry a bit today. I caught him just as he as about to leave. But he sat back down and we chatted for 15 min or so. I listened a bit, and then directed the conversation towards a discussion on fulfillment and purpose in life. I wanted to ask him what made him happy, and if it really lasted. But he avoided the question a lot, and spoke more of what he saw made other people happy. He never gave me a straight personal answer. At the end of the conversation I asked if I could give him a book, and he wouldn’t let me. He told me he only reads the newspaper. So we’ll see if today (Friday) I can get him to take it.

Just pray for me today when I talk to him that God can truly speak towards me. Here’s a man, 88 years old, who in terms of the world has had a pretty good life. Long life, successful, lots of material possessions. He’s admitted he’s on death’s door, and I’m not sure how I reach out to him so that he can see that he needs something more. If he were to die tonight, he’d probably go to hell. And if you told him that, he probably wouldn’t mind. So just keep me in your prayers so that the Holy Spirit can lead me to speak to him in such a way that would affect change in his life, if it’s in God’s will.

Other than that short conversation, my day on the beach was pretty chill. I only talked to one more person, and older lady who was taking pictures. Everyone team member who saw her knew that I probably should be the one to talk to her. It took me a while, but I did muster up the courage. The conversation never got really deep, but it was enjoyable. I learned about her life, and where she had worked and what she was doing. It was a reminder to me that not every conversation has to get straight to spiritual things, and just to show God’s love in everything I do.

Earlier in the day, I had a conversation with Brent, and we discussed how his trip had gone so far, and how to make the things we learned on this trip sustainable. I was reminded how I always look for this really deep and spiritual conversations, hoping to share Jesus with everyone I speak to. But many times, that’s not in God’s will. Sometimes, he just wants me to show people that I care, and that there are people out there who are not bitter and angry and selfish. I need to stand as a lighthouse to the world, both in my speech and actions. Like the drunk guy last night. He obviously was in no place to hear about Jesus, but even in his drunken stupor, he could tell we were different, and doing something that most people don’t do.

For dinner, we went to Aunt Catfish’s. It was alright. Good experience, but my food was a little bit less than satisfactory. I got steak, and it was a little overdone. So it ended up being dry and ashy. But I know some other people got some exotic stuff like alligator and shark and frog’s legs, and just watching them was enjoyment enough.

At night, I went out with Lauren Bournique and Daniel Rodman. It was an interesting experience since they haven’t gone out at night quite as much as me, and I’d say they weren’t quite as adventurous at night as I usually am. There weren’t many people out at night, and we ended up praying a lot. Which is ironic, b/c the last thing I wanted to do that night was pray even more. But I think that’s where we needed to be, b/c one of the things we ended praying for was Lauren Vriezema and Danny Loudermilk while they were talking to what they later called the “biker gang.” I ended up hearing later that more people showed up, and they eventually split up 1 to 1, which was great b/c all of them had great conversation. We talked to one homeless man later, who ended up yelling at us before wandering off. He most likely had some mental problems. Later we chatted with Gary and Josh, who we’ve managed to see every night on the town.

So we’re about to leave for our last day on the beach now. Pray that God can continue to use us in the ways he’s used us this week, and that he can also start to bring closure to this trip for us. Help him to give us the words to say, and also the contentment to leave things in God’s hands. There will always be things we wish we could have said, or people we wish we could have talked to, but in the end God knows everything that’s going on, and has already planned out everything.

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Starting off the day, I woke up on one of the couches in the conference room. Apparently last night I had just passed out from being so tired and just slept there. It’s wasn’t that uncomfortable, since I usually sleep on a couch in my dorm room.

Walked back to my room, made breakfast and took a shower. We met up in the conference room again around 9:30, and then headed down to the parking lot to circle up. We prayed it up, and then rolled to Sun Splash.

When I got there, I helped to set up the net on the beach, and then wandered back up to Sun Splash to find some people to talk to.

I wasn’t in the best of moods, so I just went down to the other end to read the bible and pray. I don’t think I’ve ever read the bible and prayed so much in the span of 3 days. I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone, or didn’t see anyone I felt like I could connect with. All I saw were old people or creepy men who were there just to stare at girls. I even had some time of rest and meditation (could also be classified under “nap”). I walked around a bit more, and then went back down to the beach to chill.

I was in a pretty nasty mood. A crappy mood would have been a gross understatement. I just felt like it was useless to talk to people, b/c I wouldn’t be able to make a difference. I knew it was all in God’s control, and nothing I did or did not do would help. I knew God would work out his will, with or without me, so why bother. I was also half wishing God would just come back so that all those creepy old men would just go to hell. I felt a lot like Jonah. I don’t think the two (my attitude and my mood) were related causally, but the combination made for a lethal mix. Gabbi tried to cheer me up, but that didn’t work.

I walked around a bit more, and eventually I wasn’t in such a bad mood. I wasn’t necessarily Mr. Sunshine face, but I wasn’t Debbie Downer. As I was wandering, Gabbi motioned me over really forcefully. She introduced me to Reynaldo, who was a Jehovah’s witness. I was thinking, “Oh boy, here we go.”

So I tried to talk to him, but personally, it was pretty frustrating. He would agree with anything I said, but when I asked him for specifics, or to clarify stuff, I wouldn’t completely agree with him. But it just went around and around in circles. It also didn’t help that he didn’t know his supporting scripture passages very well, and could identify the address of only about 50% of them. By the end, I think we ended up just praying for him, and leaving it up to the Holy Spirit to convict him. Walking away I was frustrated and sort of angry, but surprisingly did not sink back into my super bad mood.

I ate a quick lunch, and then decided it was time to take some photos of the others on the team ministering. Thus far, my photo intake has been far inferior to other years, both in quality and quantity. I’d probably blame that on my bad mood.

As I was walking back to the far end of the park, I saw “Robert,” the 88 year old man from the day before. I sat down and started talking to him again. He told me he had just been thinking about me: “I was just thinking about you; how I had never seen you before, and how I probably would never see you again. But here you are.”

So we sat and talked. The day before I felt like the conversation was there, but not that meaningful. I never really got to tell him why I was there, and explicitly mention Jesus. I’m not the type to shove religion down people’s throat’s, but if I’m talking to you for at least an hour, I feel it’s pretty easy to work spiritual stuff into the conversation. So today I was constantly looking for an in.

Today it was less of us talking, and more of me learning about him. I learned more about the prostitute situation, and it made a bit more sense when I heard more about it. She actually was living with someone else in the apartment complex, and apparently got kicked out. She’s into older men, and apparently picked him up, and not vice-versa. She’s also a drug addict, and pretty much was using him for money. But regardless, sex is first and foremost on his mind. Like I mentioned yesterday, he thinks marriage is 85-90% about sex. While I don’t disagree that it’s a major part of the relationship, it definitely isn’t 85-90%.

I learned about his weekly routine, how he rides his bike and talks to a judge and real estate guy on a regular basis. How he watches civil courts on TV (Judge Judy and the like) religiously, and how he’s seen most of the space shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral. I learned more about his wife (apparently, the 3rd one) who died 7 years ago after battling the after effects of a stroke. There I saw my in. I asked him if he ever wondered what happened after death. He told me the earth was created by a higher power, most likely UFO’s, and how after we died we would become part of a giant puzzle. Yeah, it didn’t make much sense to me either.

Then I asked him if he wanted to hear what I believed. He said he would, and I explained to him the entire gospel message. How when I died I would go to God and would have to answer for all the sins in my life. And how he would not let me in b/c of my past sins, but b/c Jesus paid for them all, I would then proceed to heaven. We didn’t really discuss that at length, but I made sure he heard it in its entirety. For me, that was such a burden off of my back, b/c I felt like the day previous I had been quite timid in my conversations with regard to the gospel message.

I had my camera with me, and he commented that if he had money, he’d give me some so I could send him a picture of himself. I told him I didn’t need any money, and proceeded to take his picture. He didn’t have any pen and paper with him, so I had to go down to get mine. When I came back, I was really excited to show that I remembered his name. When I said his name and asked for his address, he told me to forget what he had told me before. He then proceeded to tell me his real name and address. Apparently, the day before, he wasn’t sure about who I was or what I was up to, so he gave me a fake name. I’ve never had that happen to me, or even heard of it happening to anyone on the trip, but it makes sense. Why would a young guy like me approach an older man like him for some random conversation? Oh, and he thought I may have been gay and approaching him for “other” reasons. It makes sense it you take into consideration that he’s probably thinking about sex and women 75% of the time.

At the end I even got to pray for him, which I think he appreciated, even if he didn’t completely understand the concept. So please keep him in your prayer, so that I can see him again later this week and give him a bible to read.

By that time it was pretty close to 5, so we packed up and headed back. Dinner and debrief were pretty ordinary, so I’ll just fast forward when we went out at night.

There were 6 girls in the group, and 4 guys. We ended up doing an awkward split, b/c 3 girl’s wanted to get Cold Stone first. Lauren and Danny, Dan and Christine, Brent and Gabbi, and then me with Heather, Stephanie and Katie. I personally didn’t like it, since I think 4 people is a real awkward group, esp when approaching 1 other person, but I didn’t want to inconvenience any of the other people, so I just went with it.

While the girl’s were getting cold stone, I got a chance to talk to my dad, which was really nice. I probably haven’t talked to him for over a week, so it was good to tell him how the week went so far, and about how I was feeling. I had called him the night before, but he had gone to bed early b/c he had had an allergic reaction. Even though my mood had improved since the previous night, it was still good to talk with him.

After the girls came out, we walked towards where the clubs were. The girls talked to a bouncer at one of the bars for a bit, but it didn’t go very far. On our way back they talked to a man sitting on one of the benches at a bus stop. He said he was sobering up a bit, and on his way back to his hotel room. Randy was a carpenter working on a house in Daytona for about a month, and had a pretty rough life. He had two daughters, both of whom were in prison. He knew about God and Jesus, but seemed to think he’d done too many bad things in his life. With 4 of us and 1 of him, it was awkward, as I mentioned before. I stood off to the side, leaving most of the conversation to the girls. Heather did most of the talking, with Stephanie and Katie to support her. We ended up reading him the story of the prodigal son, which I think really hit him hard. He may have had some alcohol in him, but I think he heard that story and it really made him think. After Heather finished the story, he was just silent, and then told us he had to go. It was pretty abrupt. As he walked away, we were contemplating whether we should follow him, since he was still swaying a bit.

But God had some other plans for us. During our conversation with Randy, a different guy had stumbled past us. At first I thought he was faking being drunk to be funny, but by the time he got to the traffic light pole, Katie pointed out that he really was gone. We got him to sit down for a bit, but he got up again and scampered across the street. Let me tell you, that may have been one of the most amazing things I’ve seen all trip. The fact that he didn’t trip in the street, much less the curb was utterly astonishing. He wandered down the street and out of view.

By the time we were finished with Randy, the drunk guy, who we would later find out was Charlie, had stumbled back into view. He faceplanted onto the concrete pretty bad, which shook up Heather pretty bad. He was on the opposite side of the street, and I personally had no idea what to do. Heather was pretty concerned for him though, and wanted to get him somewhere safe before he ended up splattered all over the street. So we ran across, got him to stop walking, and tried to figure out where he needed to go and who could come get him.

We tried calling the person who he said he was with in Daytona, but she didn’t pick up. He told us he was staying at the Silver Sand Beach Resort, but at the time couldn’t tell the difference between his silver and surfer. At this point I had gotten really tired of keeping Charlier steady, so I told him to lean against a chain-linked fence behind us. Heather tried to get him to drink some water, and we sent Stephanie and Katie across the street to find out where it was. Lo and behold they found a group of Taylor students in there shopping as well. One of them lived in Daytona, and though he didn’t know where it was, got us the address of the hotel. We really didn’t know how far it was, but knew which direction our new friend Charlie needed to go.

So we started walking towards where we thought his hotel was. He had his arm around my shoulder, and I had to not only help support him, but prevent him from swaying into the street. Considering I was the only guy, I didn’t really have any other options. We walked him down past the Hilton, and at the point I got really tired. I’d say he was at least 200 pounds, if not 250. Not to mention he was super sweaty, and had the stench of alcohol on him like no other. I honestly can still smell him know. We had walked about half a mile, so we sat him on some steps so I could catch my breath, and figure out how far we needed to take him.

Luckily, there were some hotel workers on break, and one of the security guys helped us out quite a bit. He called up an ambulance to get Charlie checked out, while I went to get the van.

I came back with the van, and we picked Charlie up along with the rest of the people who had gone out. We found his hotel, and as we were taking him up the elevator, he kept commenting on how nice we were, and kept asking us why we were helping him out. We just told him that Jesus loved him and so did we. I doubt he’ll remember this tomorrow morning when he wakes up, but I think one of the girls may have slipped a track into his pocket.

Anyways, that’s the end of my exciting day. I then went to 7-11 to treat myself to a slurpee, which ended up being super disappointing b/c it wasn’t quite slushy as I expected. But it’s kept me awake, as I realize I’ve spent over an hour typing up this post. But I’m sure someone out there will enjoy reading it, if not me in a year or so.

Continue to keep us in your prayers as we make it down the home stretch. I know in previous years, this is where people start to get worn down, both physically and emotionally, and burn out. Pray that the weather can remain nice, and that people will return to continue all these great conversations we’re having. I probably should go to sleep now, since it’s 2:30.

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My days haven’t seem to gotten drastically better. But that’s just from my perspective. I have no idea what’s really going on down here in Daytona, b/c only God knows. The sun did come out to play today though, and the temperatures, while not amazing, were comfortable and warm.

After getting the lunches packed and the vans loaded, we headed to sun splash. One van parked in the parking lot, while the other rolled down to the beach so that we could set up and have lunch easier.

We set up the volleyball net in the sand, and then I just relaxed for a bit. After 5 or so min a beach patrol truck pulled up and told us that we needed to move the net to the other side of the traffic lane (closer to the water) b/c we were taking up premium parking spots. While it did make sense, it was sort of stupid. We did end up moving it anyways.

I then went up to pray and read the bible. There were no trumpets, so blatant revelations, so I just tried to continue to trust God.

One thing I’ve been struggling with is just all the dirty old men that come to sun splash. There’s just there to look at the girls on the beach. It’s pretty depressing. Especially when you talk to them, and they know it’s wrong, but don’t care. That’s just the way they live their lives.

So I just sat and waited for the Spirit to lead me to talk to someone. I noticed an old man further down the park, and decided to try and talk to him. I took it real slow, sitting next to him first, and then slowly working up the courage to talk to him. The conversation was real choppy and one-sided at first, with me asking, and him responding. But he soon warmed up, and moved from facing the ocean to facing me.

The guy I thought would be a nice little old man wasn’t quite so nice. Not that he was straight up mean to me, but his lifestyle wasn’t quite what I expected it to be. He’s 88, and lives by himself. He’s retired, married twice, but his last wife died 7 years ago. He pretty much does whatever he wants, reading a lot, or going to parks and such. But the doing whatever he wants part relates to his sense of morality too. Whatever feels good, just do it. He’s even got a 30 year old prostitute. I never really took the conversation in a blatantly spiritual direction, but we did discuss marriage, and his definition of marriage was just sad. He said it was all about the bedroom, and it was just about a piece of paper. He seemed to think that those relationships where all about sex, and the commitment to working through problems and such wasn’t quite that important. While I was saddened by that, I continued to talk to him. The conversation wasn’t exactly a failure, but it wasn’t what I envisioned when I sat down.

After that, my view on the male sun splash attendees wasn’t improved much. Especially considering the fact that every 30 seconds or so he would take a look at some of the sunbathers below us.

I went back down to the beach, talked with Erika about it a bit, and then got a drink of water. I noticed 2 girls seeing how high our net was, but by the time I started walking towards them, they had walked away. Liz decided to go after them, and we played for about a game. They were from MIT, and on spring break. They left, but told us they were getting the rest of their friends.

When they all game back, there were about 8 or 10 of them. Most of the guys were from the same frat, and played on MIT’s volleyball team. Two of the girls were also on the women’s team. We played a couple games with them, and then sat down to talk. We were in a pretty big group, and while trying to move it towards a spiritual direction, they would just sort of ignore it. They were your typical college spring breakers, just down here to have fun, relax, and not really think. It was pretty disconcerting at first, but after they split up to go in the ocean and get some food, we were able to have some more personal conversations. Laruen, Dan and I were able to talk with Eugene, and while he tried to avoid our spiritual questions, they really pressed him for his beliefs. For me, it was really encouraging to see. I had already sort of given up on them, not wanting to press an issue they weren’t interested in talking about. He warmed up a bit, and did respond honestly to some of them. We didn’t get really deep, but I’m sure we have him some food for thought. They may or may not come back today, but I’ll leave that in God’s hands.

My prayer request for the rest of the week is that I won’t be so discouraged any more, and that I can continue to trust God in his all perfect will. I’ve lost some faith in humanity, and yesterday I just felt like it was all hopeless. Also pray that I can have a spirit of power and love, not of one of timidity in fear.

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Anyways, onto the important stuff. We awoke yesterday morning to a pretty cloudy day. We were a bit apprehensive for what God had planned for us. We unloaded the food vans when they pulled up, and then made about 15 sack lunches for the group that was going to be headed downtown.

We circled up, prayed and then rolled out. One van headed downtown to find homeless people, talk to them and hand out some food, and the other 2 headed to sun splash. By the time we got to Sun Splash, it was raining pretty hard. I know that Erika and I were pretty discouraged, seeing no one out in the beach or even at the park. There were a few homeless guys there, and some members struck up a conversation. Liz went to go make him a sandwich, only to find that Ross & Christine had left the bread back in the hotel. Whoops.

Heather and Danny went across the street to talk to some of the people at the halfway house, but the Mortlands decided we should maybe try out some other sites. We went back to the hotel, picked up the bread, and then went to the mall further down the strip. Seeing that our prospectives weren’t much better, we were about to head to the indoor mall near the speedway when we got a call from Liz saying that people were starting to show up at the park.

We went back to the park, had lunch and began to set up our volleyball net.

From that point on, the day seemed to be more of a “normal” day at Sun Splash park for the people who had gone before, sans the large tent and free food. We had people down on the beach playing volleyball, others walking the beach striking up conversation, and some at the park chatting it up with whoever they saw.

For the veterans of years past, the day was a bit rough. We’re pretty set in our ways, and were used to the way things were last year. Beautiful weather, long lines, and free food. At sun splash, we had none. And we had to really rely on God, especially when we would try to compare our current experience to those last year.

—–

My story today is a bit on the boring side. I was pretty disappointed when the rain showed up, and even going to the mall felt sort of weird. I was glad when the sun came back and sun splash was repopulated.

There weren’t many people, and I ended up spending most of the afternoon in prayer. I opened up the bible in hopes that God would speak to me like he did last year, and he did. I read fro Isaiah 55, which was a great encouragement to me. Here are some of the highlights:

Verse 5:

Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”

Verses 8-13:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.

Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
which will not be destroyed.”

And for me, having seen nothing but rain and clouds the entire morning, I was really touched by the 12th verse; “the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees in the field will clap their hands.” It was just a great reminder that God would continue to use us in great ways, whether we felt great or not.

At night, I went on the town with my bed mate, Dan Swartz. I knew he had had a rough day, so I was hoping for a really moving experience. Last year, Justin and I went out to town the first night, and ended up talking to 6 or 7 people, only having to sit at a park bench. They literally walked up to us wanting to talk with us.

This year, it wasn’t quite the same. One our way to the area where most of the clubs were, we stopped to talk to a homeless man. We ended up walking with him to a pizza place, buying him a slice, and just talking to him. He had been in the Navy, and then lived in New York as a construction worker. He then moved to Vegas, and was now in Daytona. He told us he was headed back to Vegas in 12 days, which I’m not sure if I believed. As another member on our team has said, it seems like all homeless people say that they’ve got their life in control and are headed to someplace to do something in the near future. Regardless, he has hungry, and something that we could offer him right there and then was some warm food and a listening ear. I know that it didn’t seem like the ultimate Daytona Beach night experience, but I have a sense of comfort that that is where God wanted us that night.

—–

Prayer:

- Please pray for our new members who have a sense of fear and apprehension as they begin to witness to people, some for the first time in their lives. Not that the veterans don’t have those feelings, but it seems to be sometimes overwhelming for the newer members

- Please pray for the older members who have the urge to compare this years trip with last years.

- Please pray for the girls on this trip. Daytona has a darkness about it, and no lie, sun splash is dirty old man central. Numerous guys will go there with binoculars, just to chill and enjoy the “scenery.” These are the guys we will be talking to, so just pray for the girls so that they can feel safe and protected.

- Pray for continued warmer weather

- Pray for people to continue to come out to sun splash

I’ll post some stories later.

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Dan Swartz rockin’ out in the parking lot after our arrival:

Jim Baker playing guitar while enjoying the new scenery:

Katie Fore and Heather Murphy showing off their new “tans.”

Apparently Ben Waterman starred in Psycho:

My dinner at Woody’s Bar-B-Q, the sloppy woody. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that great.

Some photos from team prayer on Saturday night and team worship on Sunday morning:

Some misc photos from free time:

Future photos can be viewed at my flickr album here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thatkidwithacamera/sets/72157615767223190/

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So after lunch most of the team headed outside to enjoy what we thought would be beautiful weather. Instead we were greeted by cloudy skies, high speed winds, and mediocre temperatures. And it just started to rain. What a way to enjoy Spring Break in Florida.

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- My van probably had the fewest people in it out of the 3. It seated 12, and we had maybe 6-8 the entire trip. Starting off, we had 2 full benches the people could lay out on. Which was really nice.

- I slept a ton on the trip down. I’m one of the drivers, so I slept so that I wouldn’t be tired when it was my turn to drive. But Steve Mortland apparently never feels tired, so I didn’t get a chance to drive. Not that I’m complaining though.

- Villanova absolutely smooshed UCLA today. It wasn’t even close. I wouldn’t even call it a game, more of an exhibition.

- Our rooms weren’t ready right away, so some of us had to wait until 1 to move into our rooms. I was watching the end of the Villanova game and partly napping when some of the guys came back from the beach. I gave Dan the key to our room (1305) and he went to take a shower. He came back with a puzzled look on his face. He told me that there was already stuff in our room, and how there was a ton of food in the fridge along with a case or two of bud light. I was about as confused as he was, because Erika had told us that that was our room.

So I told Steve about the situation and headed down to the front desk to see what the problem was. While I was down there, the 2 girls who were residing in the room were in front of me getting their keys reactivated. When I went up to ask about it, Erika had called down. They looked over their records and realized they had given us the keys to the room next to us, and our room was really 1306.

Just imagine if they were already in their room and Dan had accidentally walked in on them. That would have made for a much much more awkward story.

- The first place a couple of us went to for lunch was a pizza place across the street, Stavro’s. Two years ago on the first night we were here there was some sort of incident there, and like 5 police cars showed up. So I already had some preconceptions that this place was a little bit sketchy. We walked over, and the doors were locked, so we were about to leave. A woman walked out from the back, and unlocked the door, and let us in. But after that she just walked back into the kitchen. She didn’t say anything, didn’t give us any menus; she just left us out in the front. It was really weird.

- I’m so glad our shower nozzle is strong. I hate taking showers where the shower head flow is just a trickle.

- I like our team a lot this year. Not that there was ever a Daytona team I didn’t like, but I feel like this year’s team will get along quite well with each other. On some of my previous years there have been a person or two which has sort of been on the fringes of the group, but I don’t see anyone like that (yet) for this year’s team. That’s going to help us a lot, considering we’ll be working a lot more closely with each other in smaller groups, as opposed to one large group in the past 2 years.

- UConn is having a field day with Texas A&M as well. It seems like the games thus far today have not been close, or surprising, as last night’s games.

- One of the popular activities of this afternoon has been napping. As of right now, there are 4 guys laying on the floor or couches in the main conference room. Countless others are probably sleeping in their room as well. That’s probably what happens when you don’t sleep at all on the ride down.

- While we are Wendy’s, Liz Chang wanted to take a group picture of the 6 of us that had chosen to go there for lunch. One of the guys in front of us asked if we wanted him to take it, and we gladly agreed. He asked us where we were from, and if we were on our spring break. He seemed pretty talkative, but we kept the conversation short. Back at the hotel, I realized that that would have been a perfect opportunity to carry on a meaningful conversation, and see if maybe we could plant some seeds. We were in line for a good 15 minutes or so. But we missed the opportunity and chose to talk amongst ourselves.

With this having been my 3rd year, one problem that arises is the sort of outreach mode mentality. When we’re on the beach or out at night, we feel like we’re in outreach mode. We care for people and want to hear about their lives. But when we are maybe out eating, or taking some time for ourselves on the weekend, it seems like we’re content to keep amongst ourselves. Even when perfect opportunities are presented to us on platters, we sometimes chose to ignore them, wanting to stay in our bubbles. I’m one of the first to admit that I’m part of the problem, and I just pray that the Holy Spirit can work in his powerful ways to divorce us of our selfish and scared mindsets. So please continue to pray that we can live our leaves in a meaningful and intentional way so that others can see and hear of God’s love.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
- 2 Timothy 1:6-7

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We rolled out from the DC around 6ish. We had to make a temporary pit stop to fill up the tires on one of the vans at Handy Andy. It may have taken 3 guys to figure out how to do it, but it got done.

The drive down was relatively uneventful. Learning from last year’s experience, we left at night, to cut down on the amount of bathroom breaks we had to take. Last year we left in the early afternoon, and ended up stopping almost every 2 hours for bathroom breaks. This year we mostly stopped to switch drivers, about every 3 or 4 hours.

We arrived at our home base, the El Caribe at about 11. Since then, we’ve had lunch, with several of us going to Wendy’s, and then most of the group members are out enjoying the beautiful weather on the beach.

Thanks for everyone’s prayers. We had a safe trip down with no accidents or incidents whatsoever. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we prepare to minister this week in Daytona.

—–

For those of you who have not heard yet, our Spring Break ministry will be a bit different this year from years past. The park where we had served food at for the last 2 years, Sun Splash, did not allow us to make a reservation. I’m not 100% sure about the details, but it has some to do with the amount of people we draw in, specifically the homeless.

So we’ve decided to continue to minister, but in a different form. We’re going to split up into a couple different groups. One group will go to where the homeless tend to hang out, with some bag lunches and possibly toiletries. Another group will set up a volleyball court and just hang out with whoever wants to play with us. And we may send a 3rd group just to talk to people at sun splash, sans food. But that’s just a tentative plan. Who knows what God has in store for us.

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The Washington Post has this pretty sweet time lapse video of the Capitol Building the day of Obama’s Inauguration. Check it out.

⇒ Timelapse: Inauguration Day from the Capitol (Washington Post)

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1 Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.

2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.

4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,

6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,

8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.

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I rode back to Taylor with Austin Beer, a friend who graduated a couple years ago and now works for Taylor in the IT department, and catching up with him was nice. But apparently over break the locks are changed, so I wasn’t able to get in right away. My roommate, who is a manager for the basketball team, was still on his way back up from a game they had against Marian. So I had dinner and watched the end of the Cardinals – Falcons game.

When Craig got back, he let me in and I sort of got settled. And by got settled, I mean I dumped all my stuff on the ground and began to make a mess in front of the couch, as usual.

We watched the Colts drop a heartbreaker to the Chargers, which was really disappointing. Both of us are pretty big Colts fans, and it was just sad to see their season end. They had won 9 straight, and Peyton had received the MVP award, and to see their season end in OT was just not fun.

Of course, I updated my FB status after the game, and proceeded to be mocked by my numerous friends, most of whom were cheering for the Chargers. Oh the joys of technology.

Woke up at 11 this morning, and did a lot of nothing for most of the day. I was able to hang up signs for the books I was selling, and riding around on my scooter was pretty fun, but tired. You’d be surprised how much work it takes to scooter all over campus.

I made it back in time for the start of the Eagles game. That was a lot less stressful to watch, and the Eagles had the game in hand for most of the time. It wasn’t pretty, with Akers having to kick a bunch of field goals after the Eagles couldn’t convert in the red zone, but hey, points are points.

Had the usual DC back from break dinner, which was cold cut sandwhiches. While the food was not very satisfying, my meal mates, Kyle Holloway, and some girls from 3E, were pretty fun. Afterwards, I went to pick up my team gloves from Kyle’s room, and talked with him for a bit.

Went back to my room, finished the end of the Eagle’s game and watched some SNL with the roomie. After that, I just hung out, meeting up with people as they slowly moved back in. It’s such a great feeling seeing all my friends coming back to Taylor. Especially the ones who’d been away for first semester, such as Words and Kirk.

—–

Just sitting here on my couch typing away in the dark as my roommate sleeps, I am just reminded about how much I love Taylor. I know it’s not perfect, and it’s got lots of flaws, but it just seems like right now, this is the place for me.

With my parents moving after graduation, my definition of home is a little hazy. I grew up in PA, but my parents live in TX. I go to school in IN, and if you want to make it even more confusing, I was born in NJ. But for now, I call Taylor home. It’s where I spend most of the year, it’s where all my stuff is, and it’s where all my friends are.

—–

And finally, planning out tomorrow’s schedule has made me a little nervous. For j-term, I’m only taking 1 class, CPR. It’s from 9-10 every day, and besides chapel at 10 on MWF and lacrosse late at night, I don’t really have any other responsibilities. I know I’ve got a ton of plans for the semester, such as studying for my MCAT’s, selling my shoes and other stuff, sort through photos and cleaning up my iTunes. I’m just scared that the end of January, I’m going to look back and realized I wasted all my time away on frivolous little activities.

I’m a great planner, but I’ve got this habit of getting distracted and not focusing really well. Especially if there’s no pressure. I check my email, browse facebook, eBay, and before you know it, 30 minutes are down the drain.

So this j-term, and year, I just want to be focused, and do what I plan. Plain and simple.

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But in all honesty, I have no recollection of what happened before the summer. I think of my life in terms of school years, and thus why New Years is never a big celebration for me. It just seems like another day. There’s no noticeable change for me between December 08 and January 09, whereas there is a huge change between May 08 and June 08 or August 08 and September 08.

I actually had to open Aperture to see what I did before the summer. Here’s the rundown of some of the major events for Mr. Huynh in 2008:

Daytona Beach Spring Break Trip – God never ceases to amaze me when I go on this trip. Going on it for a second time, I couldn’t imagine that it would compare at all to the previous year. The group was mostly young, and I didn’t know many of them. But God, in his infinite wisdom knew exactly what he was doing. The trip was incomparable to the year before, just b/c everything was so different. That was nice, b/c I couldn’t say the 07 trip was better than the 08 trip or vice versa. They were just completely different.

Summer tech support work – My first real 8-5 job. And boy was it interesting. I started going to bed early, and waking up early too. I worked normal hours, and took lunches like most people. It was just weird. The job wasn’t the best, but it paid. And that’s what matters right now. A pretty big milestone nonetheless.

Bed bugs – I still have yet to write out the entire saga, but boy was it epic. I didn’t get to move into my room until halfway through the semester, and for a solid month or two I freaked out every time I even thought I felt something crawling across my arm. But it was an experience nonetheless, and another story to tell my kids one day when they ask about how college was way back when I was still in school with the dinosaurs.

Photographic expansion – Fall of 08 had me do some new and different things in regards to my photography. I started to train some underclassmen on campus, and I started to shoot portraits. Both were (and still are) quite difficult for me, but I enjoy the challenge and the new sense of “fun” that it has introduced into my photography.

—–

Looking back on 2008, I have an overall sense of slight disappointment. There was so much potential for greatness, for me to really set myself apart from others, whether it be in academics, photography, or just living my life as a Christian. And in hindsight, I did a decent amount of planning, and just executed extremely poorly. Not that I regret anything I did or didn’t do, because regret is a waste of brain cells, but this year could have been so much more than what it was.

I think a big thing for me was just I spent too much time planning, and not enough time or concentration on the execution. I thought that just b/c I knew exactly what I needed to do, everything would be alright. So I slacked off after I finished planning, and that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

But that’s that, and it’s time to move on. Farewell 2008, I’ve got bigger and better things to move on to.

For 09, I think I’m going to focus a lot more on simplifying my life, whether it be in big things or even in small day to day things. Distractions and extraneous activities will be kept to as much of a minimum as possible.

So my big 4 things to do:
1.) Grow into the person God wants me to be. This is going to be both spiritually and socially, intra- as well as inter- personally. I want to grow close in my walk with God, as well as developing and further strengthening my friendships with others. Quality, not quantity, is the key this year I’ve been in a rut, and I need to get out of it and move onto the bigger and better things he’s got planned for me.

2.) Step up my game academically. In HS, I was the stuff. Straight A’s, the whole packaged. I could have gotten into any college in the US. But since coming to Taylor, my game has dropped off, and I’ve dropped down to mediocrity. It’s time to get back to what I was doing before, and show Taylor what kind of stuff I’m made of. That means dominating the MCAT, and applying, as well as getting into Med School.

3.) Continue to innovate and excel in photography. This is my third year shooting at Taylor, and I can’t keep shooting the way I shot before. That was fine then, but I’ve moved onto a different level. Looking through photos online, I realize how much more I need to grow. So I need to keep my eyes open and keep shooting, looking for that different angle which no one else has seen yet. Going along with this, I need to start training underclassmen, since helping them is going to shore up my skills as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to have an art show and be able to make a couple photo books.

4.) Simplify my life. I realized during the whole bed bug incident that I have way too much crap. So during January, and the rest of second semester, I’m going to be selling most of my shoes online, as well as various items I no longer feel I need. I also need to stop getting distracted by stupid small stuff, like facebook, or checking my email at the most inopportune times. I need to focus on the task at hand, and just execute.

I’ve got big plans for 2009; j-term already has its list of goals. Let’s just see if I can execute this year, unlike the last. Here’s to a year (or half-school year) filled with simplicity, excellence, and accomplishment. Happy New Year!

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I love looking at NY Times photos. They have a certain sophistication, a sense of subtlety that is matched by few other publications. It’s a testament, not only to their photographers but also to their photo editors. That is the kind of photography I would like to see myself doing in the future.

⇒ 2008 – The Year in Pictures (New York Times, via A Photo A Day News.)

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Across the nation, the ultimate symbol of suburban success has become one more reminder of the economic meltdown, with builders going under, pools going to seed and skaters finding a surplus of deserted pools in which to perfect their acrobatic aerials.

In these boom times for skaters, Mr. Peacock travels with a gas-powered pump, five-gallon buckets, shovels and a push broom, risking trespassing charges in the pursuit of emptying forlorn pools and turning them into de facto skate parks.

I remember seeing some of this in “Lords of Dogtown” a movie on the early roots of skateboarding. It’s interesting to see how the recent economic downturn has brought them back to it.

I also find it intriguing how they have their own set of rules.

⇒ Skaters Jump In as Foreclosures Drain the Pool (New York Times, via Daring Fireball.)

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