Stats.

Back in the day when I used to play video games,* I always enjoyed one thing the most. At the end of certain games (like Jak and Daxter, for instance,) they would offer you a glimpse at your stats throughout the game. These stats included "Enemies killed," "Enemies spared," "Shots fired," "Specials collected," and so on. The game kept track of almost everything you did during play, and then after the final cut scene you could look over it all and marvel at your awesomeness.

I was thinking the other day, what with the end of my first year in college drawing to a close,** about that feature in video games. What if we had that feature in our own lives? What if, at the end of big events like high school, for instance, we could look back over our stats. I wonder what stats I would be most interested in? I've decided on a few that I would want to know in regard to this last school year...

-Number of books read
-Hours of TV watched
-Time spent reading the Bible
-Time spent surfing the internet
-People I've encouraged
-People I've put down
-Money saved
-Money spent on entertainment
-Hours spent doing homework/studying
-Hours spent watching movies/internet cartoons

I wonder what those stats would be. I wonder how I'd feel about the answers. I wonder what I can do this day to improve them...


Thanks for Reading,

-Daniel K



*Now I'm much more sophisticated, what with longboarding and gallon challenges.
**WHAT?!

New Discoveries.

It's strange how much you learn in doing even the most trivial of tasks. I'm making a cardboard standup of myself for no apparent reason,* and in doing so, I've already made so many new discoveries. I thought I'd share some with you;

1. I stood the cardboard up against a wall and sized my psuedo-self up. Wow, I never knew how tall I was...

2. Printing off a large picture of my face to adorn the cardboard neck, I discovered I am not too good at shaving.

3. Drawing shoes on to the feet, I wondered how I balanced on those little appendages so well.

4. Even though I sometimes consider myself to be out of shape, I spent well over a half hour trying to cut myself out of a refrigerator box. What a shape that was!

5. Hands are weird**

6. Clothes make the man. Especially when he's a cardboard man

7. The silhouette of my fist looks remarkably like a hamster



Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K


*Yeah, I'm totally not ditching an extremely important WOW meeting to go to Texas this weekend and so trying to make a standup of myself to fill in for my absence....
**Hans is, too, but that's a different story.

The Best.

So I just got back from a HUGE snowball fight* and I think I had an epiphany. I'm pretty sure it happened somewhere between my first snowbath and when I got full-on pegged in the eye from across the volleyball court. It was as follows: "Wow, I'm not good at a lot of stuff."

It's depressing to think about, really. I knew, coming into the fight, that I'm no good at throwing. But that was okay, because I could just run around a lot and get into a close-range fight, then do alright (except I also have terrible aim.) So I wasn't too put-off whenever I threw a snowball to have it land a few feet short of my target... I'm better at other stuff, anyways.

Later on in the fight, I decided to utilize something I consider myself good at - wrestling. So when we charged a group of my friends, I dropped the snowballs I couldn't really use too well anyway and tackled a guy. It was an okay little skirmish, and we both kinda got tired and backed off after a while. Then about ten minutes later, while standing on the volleyball court with some friends and lobbing an occasional snowball, I was suddenly blindsided by Vahn running full-force. By the time I had recovered from the initial shock, he was already on top of me and shoving snow in my face. Lovely... beat at my own game.

But that's all okay, right? I've never been too much of a fighter anyway. What I'm really good at is taking charge of a situation that needs taking charge of. Yet when a girl from the Sandlot stairwell came into some misfortune and fell to the ground pretty hurt, I just kinda stood there with the rest of the people and looked. It was Chad who stepped forward right away and made sure the situation was taken care of.

Hmmm. Alright, alright, but I mean what I'm really, really good at is school, right? What I can beat anyone else at is excelling academically, right? Then I remember the fact that once again, there are so many people a whole lot better than me at that, too.

It's depressing to think about, really.

I guess I can take comfort in the realization that it's not so much what one thing I'm good at, but more of the fact that I'm made of so many different talents. And when you really think about it, there are very few people who can ever claim to be the best at anything.

I think the moral of the story is that I should spend less time comparing myself to others and more time focusing on who I am.


Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K



*Yeah... It's mid-April and we got 10 inches of snow today. Go Colorado...?

Favorites.

My current favorite...


Song: "How He Loves," by John Mark McMillan

Book: "Sophie's World," by Jostein Gaarner

Class: Philosophy, with Professor DeVore

Place: The Ghetto (the stairwell, mind you)

Activity: Biking to downtown and sightseeing from high places

Food: Dill Pickle flavored sunflower seeds (I know... weird, right?)

Drink: Dr. Dew. (Half Dr. Pepper, half Mountain Dew, courtesy of Dan the Man)

Movie: Watchmen

Passage in Scripture: 2 Chronicles 32:20-21

Time of the day: 5:30PM, when I go to dinner with the Ghetto

Time of the week: It's a tie between Wednesday nights when I get to meet with my Junior High Boys' small group and Tuesday nights when we have Stiz Tiz*

Person to randomly talk to: Tiffany Harris

Person to hang out with: Scott Bollen

Person to be challenged by: Cooper Pasque

Memory from this semester: When we snuck into the library and spent the night masquerading around with Nerf guns and All-Campus Communion to kick off Spiritual Emphasis Week

Discovery: That people will give you lots of money if you can entertain them with a bucket and some drumsticks

Thought: 1 John 4:4

Thing to do when bored: Write in my blog or play Desktop Tower Defense**

Professor: A tie between the aforementioned Professor DeVore and Dr. Buzzel

TV Show: Pshh, TV?

Band: Caedmon's Call

Phrase: "What the (insert applicable word here)!"***

Game: Running Man

Feeling: When I get a big essay done on time (only four more left this semester!)

Sound: Thunder

Smell: Incense (any kind, really...)

Time to do homework: When I'm 'working' at the Admissions Office

Time to end this blog: Now


Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K




*Stiz Tiz is our weekly stairwell meeting where we share stories and get announcements and such
**Super addicting and fun... Google it sometime and give it a whirl
***Examples include: "What the heck!" when frustrated, "What the text!" when perplexed by a text message, or even "What the prank!" when you realize you've been had.

Makes You Think.

Austin, Vahn, Dustin and I were just out exploring campus* a few minutes ago when suddenly all the lights (except for at the Student Union and Waite Hall,) went out. Lucky for us, we had all brought flashlights anyway, so we continued to poke around all the nooks and crannies for treasure.

It was strange with all the lights out, really. I had never seen the "Academic Side" of campus without the street lamps and other types of illumination, since they always came on by sunset. Walking around the eerily quiet, uncharacteristically dark buildings turned out to be extremely fun. It reminded me of an excerpt from a book I'm reading for Philosophy Class, entitled Sophie's World. (Forgive me for not quoting it directly, because I'm typing this in the dark as my roommate sleeps, and my battery is too low to leave my desk and go to the livingroom.)

Anyway, in the book, Sophie's Philosophy teacher is telling her about Hume and his staunch empiricism. The teacher makes an interesting statement regarding nature's laws. According to Hume, natural laws such as gravity weren't able to be proven, because the only evidence we had was the fact that every time we drop something, it falls to the ground. Yet since Locke only believed what you experienced was certain, gravity was not certain because we can not experience things ALWAYS dropping. We can only assume that if we let go of a rock, it will drop because hat's what has always happened

Furthermore, what was brought to my mind because of the dark campus, was the next little bit of philosophy. The philosophy teacher gave the following example (again, excuse the lack of direct quotes... I'm paraphrasing.)

"Imagine you were in a room with a one-year-old, and a rock was dropped but it didn't fall. Instead, it just floated in midair. How impressed do you think the infant would be?" He asked.

"I suppose it wouldn't be too excited," Sophie answered.

"Why?"

"Well, it hasn't experienced a lot of things dropping, so its expectations were not set in stone."

"Good. Now, imagine you are at a magic show with the same infant, and you both observe a magician as he causes objects to float in the air. Who would be more impressed, you or the child?"

"I would be, because I have experienced things dropping so much that I would better appreciate how impossible it all is."

The philosophy teacher then went on to explain the danger of possessing these preconceived expectations for things. He suggests that perhaps we miss a lot because we always expect with certainty what will happen. As I strolled around the pitch-black campus, I realized that in a small way, I had the preconceived idea that campus would always be lit up at night. After all, it always was.

Yet tonight it wasn't. I wonder what else "won't." I wonder how much I expect to happen and in doing so miss the simply beauty or enormous complexity of it. Makes you think.


Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K


*We were looking for storm drains, basements, or access to roofs. Anything fun, really.