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essentialm2
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Name: matt
Country: United States
State: Pennsylvania
Metro: Lancaster
Birthday: 3/29/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: summer flings, under-water tatooing, extreme whaling, cellulite, upside-down snorkeling, suffocation, SIDS, wireless communication, the "boxer" affair, and "inside edition," the movie, not the show ;)
Expertise: kinfolk, the dobro, the song "machinehead," buttwiping, festering open-sores, dungeons and dragons, dharma and greg trivia games, piracy, navigational theory, umbilical cell genetics, dr. kinsey's research, and being "the guy"
Occupation: Military
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message me
AIM:  machmil19
Member Since:
1/15/2005
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| so this xanga thing again. i didn't want to be left out of the denver posting extravaganza. sorry to get all janelle-like but i decided to list the most memorable events in my mind. feel free to add comments if you think that i forgot an important event.
- stepping off the plane into heaven (actually it was more like a dried up rusty gulch of a dust bowl)
- mike crushing joel's crotch in an improntu 5 sec. wrestling match
- all 14,264' of mt. evans
- kara and jess passing out at high altitudes, and the subsequent trips to the hospital
- wading through each freezing body of water on mt. evans
- viewing elks
- jimmy the toothless "american pie" singer guy
- michael the formerly homosexual co-founder of HIVcarelink. (this was the best / most challenging speaker that i have heard in years)
- hugging janelle @ rocky mtn. nat. park
- rock climbing @ rocky mtn. nat. park
- leaping over a a waterfall @ rocky mtn. nat. park (this was a very scary 1/2 second)
- complaining to cheryl about going to denver "hard rock"
- complaining on the way to beaujos (edit) pizza (this was really funny)
- generally complaining / whining to cheryl
- eating at burger king on the way home from rocky mtn. nat. park (ultimate whopper baby)
- running in the rain to the state capitol
- driving directly into a curb in a parking lot, after convincing the rest of the members of the explosion that i was a good driver.
- rolling around denver in suvs w/ names like the armadillo and explosion
- finding adult oriented reading material while painting a low-income apartment
- the happiness that i saw in the homeless
- conversating w/ the driver of a 2004 explosion
- cleaning dead mice and mouse crap out of the soup kitchen (this was disgusting)
- eating at teds
- 3 straight nights of wild rook until 1:00 a.m.
- being older than everyone, including the staff
- crapping on the door staff w/ my evaluation
- crapping in general
- the girl's general lack of crapping (what is up here?)
- finally getting to the "hard rock"
- getting a window-seat on 4 straight flights
- donnie bashing the largest object that i have ever seen on a roadway, aside from a car
- coming home
of course there are many things that i missed, there is no way that i could include each and every memory, but i think that this is a fairly good list. feel free to add or subtract from this list. out.
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| so yes another post. i am forced into this one in a way, b/c i blew up my ankle again. blast! it is not as painful as the last time, but it is huge. so i need to ice it. instead of watching the mind-numbing perversion known as television, as i often do, i decided to have a ginger ale, and write another xanga entry. work so far this week has been rather enjoyable despite the hellish heat and humidity. today there was a spell of halarity when amish david and myself tried to claw hammer and wield the largest objects in sight. david's object was a 16' 2x6, while i claw-hammered a saw-horse. while both of these objects were rather unwieldly they were humorous. im not really all that bummed about my ankle. the two worst parts of it are: 1. waking up in the morning w/ it ultra-stiff 2. not being able to work my fastest. i think that since i rode my motorcycle home from soccer it put me in a better mood. like, i hurt my ankle, but i still get to ride my motorcycle home, so it isn't a complete loss. speaking of feeling good and being happy, everyone should check out and post in response to the question on andrew's (alicewould) xanga. this weekend is going to be super busy for me. on saturday i'm going down to the phillies game to watch them take on the spike-nosed fish, and on sunday i'm going to hersheypark w/ my sunday school class. i'm not sure if i'm going to get a chance to relax, but i think next week my work crew is going for our annual boating day. this year "going to the river" is being mentioned with greater frequency than other years. i think it is becoming quite the event. hopefully the figurative expression, "writing is like a medicine," becomes literal and heals my ankle. i guess thats it, i hope you all enjoyed my rather short mid-week post and remember to leave me comments, and check out alicewould's question. peace out.
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| so i guess it is sunday night and time for another post. the past week was a good one. we had off monday as i indicated in my previous post. tuesday the rain forced us into an early quitting time, wednesday we started at 6 to make up for the previous day, and thursday we worked a bit late b/c we knew the remnants of the typhoon would be with us on friday. so i guess we had a short week. thursday at our soccer game, we played 7 against the other teams 10+2 subs. we did awesome. i was playing 1 against 3 or 4 defenders up top, and holding my own. i finally worked for a goal w/ only 7 minutes left to play. we packed it in after the goal, but unfortunatly they scored a cheap, freak goal w/ 10 secs left in the match. their goal was such a kick in the teeth. though we had pulled off something rather incredible, (a tie playing 3 men down) it felt like a loss. i also tweaked my ankle a bit which bummed me out. friday, after sleeping until almost 10, i worked all afternoon in the home repair department. friday night i hung out w/ suzanne and mattie at donnie and cheryl's house. we did some extreme swinging which resulted in fierce motion sickness for mattie and i. as it turns out mattie is a very good rider, and i actually enjoyed bombing around w/ a passanger. i would have enjoyed it more but i could not find my clear-faced visor and was forced to wear my tinted visor at night. it is hard to see in this situation. hopefully mattie enjoyed her ride. saturday i slept in and then did some more home beautification, and went for a jog. (maybe it is pronounced w/ a soft "j", but apparently it is just running for an extended period of time -ron burgandy) in the evening andrew and i rode up to red robin and bombed some whisky river bbq burgers. they are like the best burgers available. we came back to my house then and watched matrix I. that movie is so awesome. we also watched and attempted to understand battleship gallactica. im not sure what exactly happened, but i think that good guys defeated these bad guys called the cylons and won some rocket fuel. it was pretty sweet. after andrew left (12:40ish) i decided to start working on my sunday school lesson. i was teaching on salvation. a statement that i read while studying for the lesson that i thought was particularly insightful was:
"if you think it is not worth the effort it takes to walk in the light, you do not wish to have god's gift of eternal salvation. if we try to make it through this life on our own without any help from God, we follow the ways of the world rather than the ways of our Lord. in this way our own free will determines whether we are going to keep our salvation or give it up. God allows our eternal future to be in our hands." -my paraphrase
this statement is a real challenge to me, because sometimes when i do, or plan to do, something sinful i think to myself, "it is alright, jesus will forgive me," but what i am telling jesus is that i think my way is better than his. this is not a smart place to be. remember, "if you want to hear god laugh, just tell him your plans." -van zant i am taking advantage of his promise of grace, and there is nothing worse than someone taking advantage of you. i'm not sure if anyone got much out of my lesson, i hope it was beneficial to at least one person. i know that i learned a lot preparing it. teaching sunday school to a group of believers that have heard the stories of the bible since they were infants is a tough task. i feel it is hard to challenge them, or teach them anything new, mostly i just attempt to get people to look at an idea or issue a bit differently and dig deeper into their personal relationship with the lord. i like to teach, but i dont know how effective i am. anyway, after sleeping all afternoon i attended suz's and mouser's combined b-day party at my grandma miller's. it was a good event and maintained all the normal traditions. we picked black and wine-berries, and i blasted golf-balls into a cornfield. i returned home and decided that i should post early so i can whip up work with my new title of "ceo" tomorrow. as long as there is blastin' loud third day music i should be firing on all cylinders. ok, everyone have a good week. remember third day rocks and give me some sweet, sweet comments. this means you. | | |
| my ankle has improved 16-fold since the last time i posted so i will not complain about it anymore. i got 2, 2-3 mile runs in and a 20 minute sprint work-out since the trauma. it is still super swollen but it feels good. i had kind of a hurried three day weekend. i keep thinking that today is sunday, but it isn't. on friday night i got together w/ some gentlemen with whom i lemented the unequal girl/guy ratio of our various engagements. we quickly solved the problem with: fast driving, motorcycle talk, ps2, shopping for homes, and off-color humor. i think one of the issues w/ guys and girls just randomly hangin' out w/ each other is that each sex expects to have the same kind of fun that they do with their same sex friends. unfortunatly, the humor that the different genders see in situations is not the same and this leads to a level of uncomfortability. "level" is the best word ever b/c it is perfectly balanced. the "v" bisects the word perfecty making each side weigh exactly the same. soo sweeet! friday was a good and funny night. saturday i went with andrew to trans-am, where it was my job to distract dan the salesman while andrew tried to cipher his dicision. he ended up buying a very clean, canary yellow, honda vfr 800 interceptor. we then spend a good portion of the afternoon riding about the county. we stopped in at mean boss carl's house and blasted his alchohol-burning micro-sprint car up-and-down stone road. while driving i spooked an amish man's horse and it started to back up into the amish man's lap. the amishman looked really angry, but his religion kept him silent. keep storing up them treasures in the sky amish guy. i'll keep on forcing your horse off the road. all of the commotion woke up young isabella, which we were told earlier was an unacceptable act, but naomi did not seem too bothered. saturday night i went to the buck for some up-scale entertainment with the youth-group. it was a rather short running of cars, and was over around 10:45. i had ridden my motorcycle down with suzanne, and no-one would allow the motorcycles into the exit traffic. finally two guys on harlys blocked the traffic flow and allowed all the bikes to exit. riding on stones sucks w/ one person, let alone two, but suzanne and i made it out safely. she is becoming a much better passanger. this is my best riders list.
* EDIT- Mattie is actually the best rider that i have ever had- she holds on tight, stays alert and leans properly.
1. mouser- we have actually ridden a good bit together and she really holds on tight.
2. tie. jenn martin- jenn had never ridden motorcycle before and showed no fear despite my eratic driving and her freezing fingers.
2. tie. rebecca esposito- beckie survived an inadvertent wheelie and highs-speeds after telling me that she "wanted to see what this thing could do."
4. suzanne- though at one time she leaned out on corners and refused to hold on she is now doing well and is a very well balanced rider. she is even getting the hang of putting her visor up to talk at slow speeds.
5. my mother- i rode with her right after i got my bike, this is prob the reason for her mid-level ranking. she will always be #1 in my heart.
6. andrew- andrew is a male and a lug, but he does help lean and is smart. also we almost tipped while speed-mounting on stone road.
7. mike- mike is a lug.
that is the list. a sweet one too. today i rode the sweetest wheelie of my career so far, so as brooks and dunn say "it's getting better all the time." sunday i slept at church and went running and riding afterwards. that night i went down to the phillies game, and watched them lose. the highlights were the two incidents on the fan-cam and making up dumb stories about dick. today i arrived home at 2:30 from the phillies game then awoke at 9:30 and painted all day at my house and then rode up to my aunts house in berks county. i returned around 9:30 and decided to write on my xanga. my goals for the week include getting out of my summer class, smashing out some work, hitting soccer training hard in the teeth, getting a beach trip planned, hangin' out w/ some chicks, and planning a meaningful sunday school lesson. ok i am going to start punching that soccer training, so give tons of comments and read my previous post. it was a good one. rock on.
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| so it has been a bit since i last posted. i usually post on sunday nights, but i got home too late on sunday to do it, and have been too busy this week until now. i am sitting at my computer and my left ankle is the size of a softball and feels like a water balloon. i sprained it for the eleventy-billionth time of my soccer career. i find that the best medicine for a sprained ankle is to go about your daily activities as you normally would. this way your ankle can loosen up and move the excess fluid out. i find that sitting around and resting simply makes the ankle tighter and more painful. also i got this herbal cream crap that a mexican referee named marco told me would work miracles. i'm not sure if the herbal remedy is working, but i did go on a 2 mile jog tonight to loosen up the ankle and felt good afterwards. i have another game tomorrow night but im not sure if i will be able to play. hopefully suzanne does not see this post b/c she thinks that i am a crybaby, b/c i mention that i sprained my ankle. she gives me no breaks, mom doesnt seem to care either. what's up with that? o well enough whining. i am going to the buck on saturday w/ my youth group so if anyone wants to come drop me a line. monday i was at a barnstormers game w/ my grandparents. it was a good time. also if anyone wants to go to the beach on an upcoming weekend, let me know, b/c i really want to go down sometime soon. the more the merrier. i really want to go waterskiing since we have had all of this hot weather, but our boat crapped out on us last week. i havn't gotten to go yet, and may be losing my edge. (get it) it's a pun on the word "edge". i was at bible school tonight. not to teach or help or learn, just to show up. i love the enthusiasm for everything that little kids have. they are all out all the time, and wear there personalities on their sleeves. they have not yet learned how to act "acceptably" in public, and exhibit ernestness and energy. i wish more adults could be this way. many adults hold back their true feelings and opinions for the fear of what other might think of them, or how their ideas may be misunderstood by others. there are few people that are as unguarded as the youngsters that i saw tonight. i really wonder where we learn to guise our true feelings. it is probably latently passed from generation to generation by virtue of gossip about other people and families. we would like to think that if we fit our opinions to our surroundings that we will be better accepted. another, probably more plausible, reason is that we, especially as christians, try to hide the imperfections in our lives from other christians because we do not want to be judged. since we all hide, or at least try to hide our sins, it leads to living a guarded, almost double life. if we would be honest and open w/ our sins we would realize that everyone struggles with the same things, and we, as a christian body, would be a closer more unified body, and ultimately a better church. non-christians would not have as much trouble coming to church, if everyone wasn't trying to be fake and perfect. what if on the front of the church it said "home of liars, cheaters, gossips, murderers, slanderers, adulterers, and theives"? that is what the church is. at least it should be. if this isn't true you have no reason to attend church. it is because of jesus' death that any of us can claim salvation, and i believe unless the church can get real w/ eachother, we have no chance of attracting the unchurched. we are the body, lets not cut ourselves down. rock on. give me e-props. | | |
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