I just feel...

...really good.

Why?

I have a Spanish test tomorrow that I will most likely do badly on.

My room is a total mess-- I'm out of clean clothes, and I can't see my floor.

The economy is crashing.

I still don't know what to do with my life.

But somehow, this feeling of hope just came over me... the knowledge that everything will be okay. Something big and wonderful is coming, and I can feel it. You must think I'm crazy. But something is coming! I just know it!

The LAST thing I want to do right now is study... maybe I'll just embrace this feeling, spend some time with God, and call it a night. I can always wake up early tomorrow to study.

I think that's precisely what I'm gonna do...

:)

Bailout fails, stocks plummet: A lesson in cause and effect...

Wall Street's worst fears came to pass Monday, when the government's financial rescue plan failed in Congress and stocks plunged precipitously — hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 7 percent. The almost 780-point decline was the largest one-day point drop ever for the index.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 777 points Monday, its biggest single-day fall ever, easily beating the 684 points it lost on the first day of trading after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As uncertainty gripped investors, the credit markets, which provide the day-to-day lending that powers business in the United States, froze up even further.

At the New York Stock Exchange, traders watched with faces tense and mouths agape as TV screens showed the House vote rejecting the Bush administration's $700 billion plan to buy up bad debt and shore up the financial industry.

As a digital screen in the House chamber recorded a cascade of "no" votes against the bailout, Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley of New York shouted news of the falling Dow Jones industrials. "Six hundred points!" he yelled, jabbing his thumb downward.

By 1:42 p.m., the decline was 292 points. Then the bottom fell out. Within five minutes, the index was down about 700 points as it became clear the bill was doomed.

Activity on the trading floor became frenetic as the "sell" orders blew in. The selling was so intense that just 162 stocks on the Big Board rose, while 3,073 dropped.

Analysts said the government needs to find a way to help restore confidence in the markets.

"It's probably fair to say that we are not going to see any significant stability in the credit markets or the stock market until we see some sort of rescue package passed," said Fred Dickson, director of retail research for D.A. Davidson & Co.

(Adapted from various Yahoo News articles)

Before I even knew Him...

Something just reminded me of this, and I feel like I should share it.

As many of you know, my family is not Christian. I am the only one. I didn't become a Christian until I was 16, but I have always felt that God is real, Jesus is real... ever since I was a little kid. I don't really know how or why.

When I was in 6th grade, my friends and I were very interested in the supernatural, and were learning about Wicca. We were serious about this, and were planning on forming our own little "coven," casting spells... everything.

Well, my mom overheard my friends and I talking about this one day. Later that day, she came to me and said "Why are you doing this? Don't you believe in God? You can't be Wiccan and also believe in Jesus. It doesn't work."

I obviously didn't know this. We didn't have one single Bible in the house, and I had never been to church, so how could I have known? So I said okay. Of course I wouldn't want to turn away from God. I thought I could do both, but as soon as I learned that was impossible, my brief flirtation with Wicca immediately ended.

Now, tell me. Tell me God is a joke. Tell me I put my faith in myths and legends...

...and I will tell you that he loved me and pursued me from before I even knew a thing about him!! He used my non-Christian mother to teach me one of the first things I ever learned about following Jesus, and to change the path I was heading down.

God is amazing... I can't believe I almost forgot about this story!!

The Space Olympics!

No words do this justice, other than "Andy Samberg at his best!"

And maybe... "YOU'RE A WINNER!!"

Wow.

So I seriously almost killed my computer yesterday.

After two system restores, a defrag, a search for the hidden IE browser, and re-installation of Firefox, everything seems to be working fine.

Man, what a pain though.

Gonna run my antivirus and antispyware programs next. Hopefully everything will be fine after that.

Don't let me down, Rivers!!

ugh.

Electric bill for this month-- $150.75

That's a lot of money... and we did so well in July, too! :(

Hopefully it will only get less from here, now that the month of doom otherwise known as August has passed.

I hate money.

Robin loves...

...a good book.


And this one looks to be pretty exceptional-- "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical."

I actually stumbled across the trailer for the recently released documentary, "The Ordinary Radicals." I googled the title to try to find out more about it, and found that one of the people featured in the documentary wrote this book of a similar name about two years ago.

One glimpse at some of the quotes from this book, and I was hooked. I definitely agree with them, and I'd love to hear more of what this man has to say, and learn about the so-called "radical" ways he lives out his faith.

“While the ghettos may have their share of violence and crime, the suburbs are the home of the more subtle demonic forces — numbness, complacency, comfort — and it is these that can eat away at our souls.”

“As I’ve heard my old mentor Tony Campolo say, ‘If we were to set out to establish a religion in polar opposition to the Beatitudes Jesus taught, it would look strikingly similar to the pop Christianity that has taken over the airwaves of North America.’”

“We live in a world that wants things bigger and bigger. We want to supersize our fries, sodas, and church buildings. But amid all the supersizing, many of us feel God doing something new, something small and subtle. This thing Jesus called the kingdom of God is emerging across the globe in the most unexpected places, a gentle whisper amid the chaos. Little people with big dreams are reimagining the world.”

Seriously. Does anyone have this book? 'Cause I would love to take it off your hands for a week or so.

Sarah Palin = Tina Fey

This skit opened the new season of SNL, and it was SO friggin' hilarious!! Tina Fey has Sarah Palin dead-on!

Sarah certainly looks like Tina. If only her smarts matched up a little better... maybe I wouldn't be so nervous about the upcoming elections!!

See for yourself.

Here it comes...

...the incessant laziness that I can't ever seem to get away from. I don't want to do anything producticve. Study... homework... work... nothing.

And I certainly don't want to think about my future.

But here are the options I've been presented with lately. Length of time left means AFTER completion of this year, how much more school is left.

• Nursing school-- USF Tampa-- 3 more years
• Prosthetics/Orthotics-- SPC-- 2 more years.
• Pharmacy-- SPC (hopefully, since technically it's thru UF and I could end up in one of 3 places by chance)-- 2 years.
• Physician's Assistant-- Somewhere in Ft. Lauderdale (I think)-- 2 years?? (still need to look into this more)
• Mississippi Teaching Corps-- U of Mississippi-- 2 years (but get a Master's and AWESOME experiential training... for free!!)

So that's where I stand right now, since everyone seems to be SO dang curious. "Robin, what are you doing next year?? You really need to figure that out..." I KNOW, I know... Sheesh.

Everything has its plusses and minuses. MTC seems AMAZING, but it's in Mississippi (I don't really want to leave), and it's SUPER competitive. 25 are accepted each year, but about 600 people usually apply. That's less than 5%. Nursing still seems cool, but changing majors this late, I'd spend just about as much time becoming an RN as it would take to go through med school. Those are my top 2 right now. The others are pretty much fillers just to keep myself with more options, at the moment.

...So. now you know as much as I do. Which isn't much.

I wish I was more motivated...

Victory

for the Bulls!

Very exciting game. I'm glad we stuck out the brief rain and the immense cloud of stagnant humidity that then settled upon the stadium. It was rough at first, but we made it. And I watched it with some of my most favorite people ever. What could be better??

Sleep would be nice...
I think that's where I'm headed now.

And then home tomorrow (today)? I think?

I hope I can come back for Underground this Sunday...

Buzz.

I can't believe that Sennit has a brain tumor. Seriously. When Mel asked me to pray for a friend of hers, I had no idea it was him. Finding out that I know him too was more than a little shocking.

I probably know him the least out of any of the people on here who know him. He may not even remember me. But I sure remember him. I met him at FBC when I first started going to youth group. I was really nervous and awkward then, and I never knew how to get "in" with people, so we didn't talk much. But I always thought he was really cool... and I was always impressed by his ability to beat me at Seven's Buzz, without fail. Every time we played, everyone would get eliminated but me and him... and then he'd win. No exceptions. :)

So Sennit, you may not remember me, but I remember you, and I am praying for you, hardcore. I am also praying for strength and comfort for all the people in your life who are much closer to you than I am. And I am passing the word along for my friends to pray for you as well.

Anyone who knows anything, please keep me posted if you can.

Quick...

This will be short and sweet, since I'm utterly exhausted.

-Found out that due to the timing and rules of the USF nursing program admissions, that's pretty much out of the question. Hm. Scratch that option.

-Also found out a seemingly perfect solution... in the realm of education.

-Well, almost perfect. I would have to spend 2 years in the Mississippi Delta. Which is, strangely, a place I feel somewhat drawn to... but the fact that I'd have to leave FL for 2 years... yikes. What a conundrum.

-First Bible study tomorrow (today)!! Alisa and I had a really good prep session, found a fantastic resource online, and had a successful cookie-baking/people-inviting afterwards.

-My bro chilled at my place tonight so I could help him with chem. Good times. He's pretty much my favorite person ever... in case you didn't already know that.

-Anyone who didn't already know that is living on a cloud.

-I estimate that I will be asleep in exactly 1.470 minutes.

Inspired... by a giant mushroom.

Church today was really great, and I'm glad I decided to go. We had a showcase of all the micro churches and sub-ministries that the Underground is comprised of. So first off, because all the groups were there to showcase, the place was PACKED. Worship was super powerful, and I actually ended up sitting on the floor because of the amount of people there. (I actually prefer the floor, to be honest.) Any time there is a large group of people passionately worshiping God, I can't help but be moved. And plus, I love Melyssa's voice. :)

Brian's message was fantastic as usual, so I won't go too far into that. The message about seeking God's call for your life, and not being sucked into the "mob mentality" of complacency was really good. It struck a chord with me, as I am trying to discover God's call on my life, and fight my always-persistent laziness that tries to take over and be happy with doing nothing.

But the showcase afterwards was so inspiring. Exciting. I had an idea of how many micro-churches there were in the network... but I seriously underestimated it. Just between the Tampa and St. Pete areas, there must have been 20. More than that if you count all the chapters of InterVarsity separately, since there are about 6 or 7 chapters in this area alone (USF, UT, HCC, SPC, USF St. Pete, and Eckerd). You can learn about some of them on our website, but it doesn't have anywhere near all of them listed right now.

I had heard it said before-- the Underground network is larger than you think-- but today, I saw it with my own eyes. Because the most amazing thing is that each of these 20 or so micro-churches/missions is reaching out to the people around them. Every single group. They all reach the poor and the vulnerable, and they all show love in the name of Jesus, and they all fight the evil that tries so hard to grip our cities. And the thing is... it works. Really well. People are having their lives transformed constantly. People are being freed to live the lives for which they were created. And these people then turn around to love the people around THEM. It's an awesome concept, and it works amazingly well, because every person involved draws from God's never-failing supply of love and compassion.

The Tampa Underground reminds me of a mushroom. On the surface of the ground, you have this visible mushroom, which I guess for us is our Sunday morning service. But connected to a mushroom is this network of branching roots, called the mycelium. The mycelium is the actual bulk of the organism, and it's never seen. It stretches out farther than you would believe, and thrives under the surface without anyone being aware of how massive it actually is. That's what our micro churches are. They are this interconnected network of people who you may not see from the surface-- but they're there, and they're growing, and they're changing the very landscape of the city I live in.

Knowing that this network is here makes me feel so secure. I know that no matter what I go through, I will never have to be stuck struggling on my own, and it makes me feel freer to pursue whatever call God places on my life. I am so, so excited for the amazing ways God will continue to use this network of people who serve in His name... including little me!!

Don't knock "community organizers..."

Lauren found this, and I just had to share it.

(Adapted from a blog posted by "BonnieSchlitz")

After watching the malicious speeches last night mocking Senator Obama, and by proxy, cynically attacking all of us who support our local communities, I thought it would be prudent to educate the Republican Party on the historical role of community organizers. For a quick reminder, let's recap Giuliani's snark:

He worked as a community organizer. (Laughter) What?...Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing, nada.

And Palin's vacuous follow-up:

This world of threats and dangers, it's not just a community and it doesn't just need an organizer. (Laughter.)

That these bastions of the GOP would denigrate the importance of community organizers on the same night their party nominates its first female vice presidential candidate shows an utter disrespect for the people of this country and a laughable ignorance of the power we wield. This is what community organizers do...

They change the world. Block by block, city by city, state by state, nation by nation...

So, GOP, meet community organizer Susan B. Anthony. She helped guarantee women's suffrage in the United States by giving public speeches and uniting with fellow advocates of change.

Meet community organizer Martin Luther King Jr. He helped end racial segregation and discrimination by inspiring a nation to come together and realize their dreams.

"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."

Meet community organizer Cesar Chavez. He helped farm workers secure labor rights and fair wages. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy called him "one of the heroic figures of our time."

Meet community organizer Dorothy Day. She helped found the Catholic Worker movement to help the poor and homeless, and promote social justice.

Meet community organizer Jane Jacobs. She helped rebuild and revitalize city neighborhoods and made people consider the wide-ranging benefits of supporting our urban cultures.

Meet community organizer Mohandas Gandhi. He peacefully led the people of India in efforts to acquire labor fairness, women's rights, and ethnic tolerance, and he helped secure the freedom of a nation.

Then there's this guy. Meet community organizer Jesus of Nazareth. He advocated for the poor, for the sick, for the socially excluded...and continues to help provide people solace during their "quiet storms." His community helped found the religion known as Christianity. He said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

When you disparage community organizers, Republicans, you evince a complete ignorance of the fact that organizers do more with their words than just speak them. They remind people of their shared humanity, of their responsibilities, and of their power as a unified force to face injustice, and oppression, and inspire them to be the change they've been waiting for.

And now meet community organizer Senator Barack Obama. He worked with congregations and registered voters on the South side of Chicago to help them improve their neighborhoods and hold politicians accountable for their actions. Along with Senator Joe Biden, he currently leads the largest movement for change in the history of American politics.

If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.

So you see, Republicans, it's never really about the organizer, it's about the community...

Remember that on November 4th. Remember the power of the people.

WOW

Anyone who knows me knows that Thursdays are crazy busy (classes, leadership meetings and Common Ground!), especially this first Thursday of the semester. So I was, of course, not watching Obama's acceptance speech at the Dem Convention.

Me and Ryan watched it tonight online (we actually began watching the Rep Convention on TV, and couldn't stand it any longer... lol). All I can say is... WOW. What a speech. What a leader. The speech was close to an hour long, and we watched the whole thing.

Listening to him made me very excited to see where this country can go. I need to look into his platforms more carefully to see details of where he stands, but I could clearly tell from his speech that I agree with the majority of his values. He would be a fantastic leader for this nation. I can see it now... He made me really excited about the upcoming election. I can't believe it's only 2 months away!!

If you haven't seen his speech, and you've got some time on your hands, check it out.

Reminiscing...

Ever hear a song that just takes you back?
Brings you to a time and a place and a feeling you used to have?
Taking Back Sunday pretty much always does that for me.
I wish I could see them live...



Go on just say it,
You need me like a bad habit,
One that leaves you defenseless, dependent, and alone.
Go on just say it,
You need me like a bad habit,
One that leaves you defenseless, dependent, and alone.

I hold my tongue use it to assess,
The damage from way back when it mattered,
But nothing seems important anymore,
We’re just protecting ourselves from our self,
And I don’t think I’ll ever come back down...

Are you ashamed to say what you want to?
Tell me you want to.
Are you ashamed to say what you want to?
Tell me you want to...
Come on just say it, come on just say it
Come on just say it, come on just say it.

I’m making the difference,
It just seems pointless,
With all the obvious lines all out of focus.
Why can’t you just be happy,
Why can’t you just be happy?
And I don't think I'll ever come back down...

Just come back, just come back...
Go on just say it,
Come on just say it,
Well I’ll just say it,
I’ll just say it,
I need you defenseless, dependent and alone.

She says live up to your first impression,
Well my best side was your worst invention,
Can't you live without the attention?
Can't you live without the attention?
Why can't you live?
Why can't you live?
Why can't you live without
Live without...