whatever

peace out blogspot

tumblr is better

nicholas david welch

http://www.myspace.com/mccoyband

frenz

Everyone should be thankful for their friends.

Everyone should get to know their friends better.

Everyone should invest more time in people, and be thankful for people who invest time in them.

Everyone (me) should stop being selfish. Everyone (me) should be a better friend.

nicholas david welch

what

This was taken from my good friend Adam Paul Cooper's blog. If you can explain how this is done, please do so.

nicholas david welch

liberals

nicholas david welch

We're gonna show this town how to kiss these stars

I hate it when somebody needs help and you can't do anything about it.

I want to be little again making snowflakes out of coffee filters, and running around my house pretending like I am a cowboy.

I want everyone to be like me.

I want to trust everyone.

I want everyone to be trustworthy.

I want to be trustworthy.

I am scared that someday everyone will realize I am not as smart as I try to be. (Don't tell anyone)

I want habits to be activated by a switch, that way I could do the things I am supposed to do without thinking about it.

I wish I was famous.

I wish I had money.

I hate facebook.

I wish film/developing/printing didn't cost so much.


nicholas david welch

Beg for mercy, promise it help, worship, anything.

For a few moments they have no idea anyone is watching them. The primary concern in their life is water, that is to say, how exactly to behave themselves in the downpour from heaven and pools collected on the earth.

The conservatives opt for umbrellas, and since one cannot run with an umbrella, they find themselves unconcerned with the dryness of their feet. The only exciting thing about these people is the color of their umbrella, which is often not too thrilling.

The agricultural students sole responsibility is to their fine leather footwear. Doctor Martins. The tops of their feet are covered by faded, baggy and frayed denim pants with excessive pockets and a loop for a hammer they will never use, much less store on their pants. They are left caring for the 1-2 inches of leather directly above their soles, they do so by prancing, very un-ag student like, across puddles making more of a mess for the well groomed aggies directly behind them to fight through.

There are the upset individuals who quickly grimace their way through the rain, as though water miraculously falling from the clouds is the worst thing that has ever happened to them. I assure you it is not.

There are those who, like myself, discovered upon exiting their homes that it is in fact raining and that sandals were not the ideal decision. These unprepared few have simply given up hope and pace themselves on their way to class, or to get coffee.

Then there is my favorite sort, the ones who believe that every drop is a present to them and that the only way receive these gifts is to save as many as possible from the earth. They do this with a smile and wet hair plastered to their faces.

nicholas david welch

Leave your familiar alone, you damned magician, and attend to me.

Why do people in ministry (i.e. churches) place so much value on a degree? A piece of paper. You can almost get nowhere without a degree. You will not be taken seriously, as if whatever idea you might have will magically become validated after you have 30 more hours of classes under your belt.

Let me tell you what those 30 hours will do for me... nothing. I will learn how argue more/better. I will learn a few more big words, how to write a 60 page paper. I will learn that some professors are terrified of the emergent church and know nothing about it. I will listen to the thoughts of terribly arrogant people. My dreams will be stifled by papers, reading the same things repeatedly, judgement, lack of movement, lack of interest, lack of creativity, and boredom. I will be surrounded by a few friends who inspire me and encourage me, aside from those friends, I will grow stagnant and bitter.

I wish these were not the case, but thus far, they have proven themselves time and time again. I wish that I was a person who could look at negative situations and see the positive, and I am trying to become that person, but I am not him yet.

So tell me, church, do you really want to wait a year to hear the things I have to say, and follow through with my ideas after I go through all of this? Sure I will have a few more credit hours under my belt, but I will have absolutely no more ministry experience. I suppose that experience isn't really what you are after is it?

It's that stupid piece of paper.

nicholas david welch

She stole my karma

I have been enjoying my classes this year. Well, two of them. My ethics class is pretty interesting, and people in the class having pretty narrow mindsets makes it all the more interesting. That and the fact that today my professor told a girl that without a DNA test there is no way of knowing whether or not he is her father.

My C.S Lewis class is really good. I always thought it was strange that there are professors who have devoted their lives to studying what he has written, and how he lived his life. After reading excerpts from essays he has written and some of his allegorical writings, I can understand why there is so much buzz around the man. I think Lewis is the most original writer of the christian faith that we have seen in a while. There are men like N.T. Wright, Os Guinness, and Dallas Willard who have an impressive resume up their sleeves, but it amazes me how much Lewis stands out.

That being said, there are two guys in my class that just say the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. It amazes me that they can speak so many words, but say nothing. If, when getting into serious conversations, your voice becomes slightly lower, your speech becomes significantly slower, your brow becomes furrowed, and your words become drastically larger and more impressive than ones you typically use... you are probably just like these two young men.

"An embryo can experience rejection, and by the same token, experience love."

1. You stole that line straight out of page 79 of our book.
2. Nobody talks like that in real life. Especially not baseball players.


My good friend Benjamin thinks that one of these guys looks like the robots in iRobot and I agree.

On a slightly more positive note, I feel like I gained a great deal of tolerance in my life the past few days. That is great because I dislike disliking people.

If you have not met Katie Ann Kindler you need to not only do so, but ask her about her life. It is the coolest thing I have ever heard. Seriously.

nicholas david welch

Lord you know, I'll be there laughing

As the ruin falls
All this is flashy rhetoric about
loving you.

I never had a selfless thought
since I was born.
I am mercenary and
self-seeking
through and through;
I want God, you, all friends,
merely to serve my turn.

Peace, reassurance, pleasure,
are the gods I seek,
I cannot crawl an inch
outside my proper skin:

I talk of love - a scholar's parrot
may talk Greek-
But, self-imprisoned, always end
where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me
(but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything
you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which
I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And
now the bridge is breaking.
For this I bless you as the ruin
falls.

The pains
You give me are more precious
than all other gains.

As the Ruin Falls
Clive Staples Lewis





nicholas david welch

oh my sweet carolina

Ok blog world, we are going to pretend like that whole thing didn't happen. Moving on...

Summer ended and I am not happy about it. I am enjoying Manhattan, but home is home. My girlfriend is home too. That sucks alot.

Since I've been here the only things I have eaten are fruits and veggies from the farmer's market. Why are there even grocery stores? Farmer's market food is: a) ALOT cheaper b) ALOT better.

I have also been riding my bike almost everywhere, which is awesome. Except my legs are about to get really muscly which is weird.

I have been listening to nothing but Ryan Adams and Kings of Leon the past 2-3 weeks. That rules so much.

I have bittersweet feelings about being done with my internship. I miss students and stuff, but there is alot that I am glad to have behind me.

I found a woman that rains.

Jon if you happen to read this, quit being lame and just make a blog. You know you want to.

In attempt to win you over after this uncalled for pause in blogging will put up some pictures I have taken of good stuff that I have been around.






nicholas david welch

from a mountain of cliche

I had forgotten how much I like Elliot Smith. If you want to here a good album, you should listen to "From A Basement On The Hill".

Lately I have been having a really good life. I have a lot that I need to do in the next few days, but I am really excited about it.

This lady just walked into the coffee shop that I am sitting in, wearing spandex everything. It's probably underarmour or some other glorified version of spandex. I would feel weird walking around knowing that everyone that sees me knows basically exactly what I look like naked.

If you ever get a chance to do stuff in the rain, do it. Trust me.

It's weird that how one person lives their life can be enough to make you want to change yours.

The following is an excerpt from my good friend APC's blog (regarding starbucks):

"how about you tell everyone why your stock is doing so well? who wouldn't want to buy shares of a company who pulls a 60% profit margin? SIXTY percent! one would think a company like yours could afford to slip a little more dinero to your farmers in central and south america, africa and indonesia. and what's even worse, you try and play it off like you're doing the world a service by selling Fair Trade coffee, but what the world doesn't know is that you're only investing about 4% of your total coffee purchases in Fair Trade.

side note: Fair Trade is rather frustrating for me. there is Fair Trade, and there is "fairly traded" coffee. you already know and understand this, you shades, but let me explain my frustration. let's say there are four major coffee farmers in Brazil: Farmers A, B, C and D. let's say Farmer A grows the best coffee in the region, so he gets paid the most money. Farmers B, C and D cannot compete with Farmer A, so they call up Fair Trade, pool their beans, and have FT pay them more money for an inferior product. That is how Fair Trade works, so even though Farmer A might have a significantly better product, they're not getting a payment to match it. "fairly traded" coffee eliminates middle men without a label and directly pays Farmers A, B, C and D the money they deserve for the product they're farming. it's simple economics.

while we're at it, one might wonder why an establishment with such a mighty profit margin can't afford to make better coffee. selecting between "dark" and "charred" is not something i enjoy doing. the "smoky" finish you boast is not something to be proud of - i highly doubt that it is even intentional. why don't you take that extra money and dabble in the best coffee there is to offer while paying the farmers the price you're forking over to the FT label for that average business. heck, why not even pay more? its better coffee right? why not splurge a little? invest some money that will increase the quality of your product instead of building another location across the street from the one that's already there."


nicholas david welch

APC

My friend Adam Paul Cooper knows every lyric in every Kanye West song. That is impressive. And he is also talented at skittles. I take it back Adam, there is skill required for that game, and you have it.

nicholas david welch

noone's gonna love you

I have a sunburn. I love that.

Today at a middle school pool party a 13 year old boy asked me if "Christ's pain on the cross was derived from the sins of mankind, or the Son's separation from the Father". In case you don't understand how abnormal this is, my next most stimulating conversation was this:

Mitchell: "Nick, can I have a dollar for skittles?"
Me: "No"

Also, I have been leading a group of 4th graders in VBS this week. Jedidiah calls me his "hairy homie". Charlie calls me his leprechaun, and rubs my stomach. They like me because I let them steal the decorations that line the hallways of the church. They respect me because I told them I ate cowballs. They fear me because I accidently threw Louie into a wall. He is so little, and so mischievous.

Why does gas cost so much? Why don't I have a scooter? Why is my room always messy? Why am I scared of the 4th grade girl that sits in front of us in morning assembly and throws hard candies? Probably because the candies that she throws are hard.

Alan loves BBQ.

nicholas david welch

We bought some wine and some paper cups

I have been rereading The Irresistible Revolution for my job this summer, hoping to maybe do a book study with some guys. If you have not read this book, I greatly recommend it. He speaks alot about being friends with poor people. I realize how much I suck at it. I don't have any friends that are homeless or that don't live in nice houses. I think the way we live would be changed alot if we actually knew people that were poor. I don't think we would buy as much dumb crap. I don't think we would get as caught up in wondering what the person next to us thinks about us.


I don't think that we would worry about ourselves as much. We should start caring more about our friends and people we haven't met. We should care about the environment, and not blow people that do care about it off as liberals or whatever. We should stop buying as much crap. We should stop drinking soda as much (that might just be me). We should start doing everything excellently, not half assed (everything I do is perfect).

Anyway, I have been thinking about alot of things lately, I am just choosing to not put them on here. But I would love to talk about it, so just ask.

I have great friends. My mexican coworker Alicia wants me to tell you that she is awesome. The people that work at Hillcrest Covenant make me believe in alot of things.



nicholas david welch

You're just as boring as everyone else

I have been in Arizona since... yesterday. And I don't understand why people wait until I am out of town to call me to hang out.

I have discovered that Arizona has a remarkable amount of wealthy people, or at least the area that I am in does. Yes, I realize that I am from Johnson County, but... whatever. Arizona has things like QuikTrips, Chick-fil-a and In and Out Burger. So I like it. It also has a whole lot of "bro's" which I don't like that much.

We drove through a church CAMPUS the other day. The church is called CCV which stands for something I am sure, I just don't remember. This place is huge. They have baseball fieldS and soccer fieldS. There are at least 12 buildings on the campus, all of which dwarf most churches in America. I realize that I know nothing about the church as far as theology goes, but when they bring in celebrity Jesus (Jim Caviezel) and other things like this, I can't help but think that they could be spending their money on... more important things. But who am I to say? Maybe seeing a paid celebrity in church was exactly what someone needed.

Moving on. I love Kansas City. Arizona is cool, but it makes me realize even more how much I love Kansas City.

Let's hang out starting Wednesday May Twenty Eighth. Two Thousand Eight. Naturally.

nicholas david welch

Bluebirds on our shoulders

This summer has been good so far. I have not been very productive, but I think that's ok. I have 1 week between school and work, and I intend to take full advantage of the break.

I was able to buy a backgammon board for my good friend sam yesterday. I was really happy when I found it, because I had been looking for quite some time. The board I found was in great shape (which is rare) and ONLY ONE DOLLAR!


I also made a friend, his name is Tim, and he is really small. He came to broadway to watch us play backgammon, and watch us do everything else too.


I gave up facebook forever. I have never been happier with a decision. I really have not missed it at all, so if you want to get in contact with me, my email is thelightandthesound@gmail.com or my address is

4611 w 101 terr
Overland Park KS, 66207

I have a surprise for everyone that I will reveal at the end of the summer. Some of you already know about this, but alot of people don't.

If you guys have never listened to the band The National please go do it. You will not regret it, I can promise you that.

No take backsies.


nicholas david welch

Grapevine Fires

Sigur Ros
Who's with me?


Greek food rules.


For Shanna.

nicholas david welch

dear we better get a drink in you before you start to bore us.

I was tagged by Adam.

here are the rules:

1. the rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
3. at the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. ten years ago I was doing...

Ten years ago I was finishing up 5th grade, about to compete in my first track meet, in which I would win both the long jump, hitting about 12 feet, and the softball throw with a whopping 150 ish foot throw. It is this victory in softball throwing that would prove to launch me into a lucrative javelin throwing career.

2. five things on today’s to to list...

1. Get my statement of faith started for Doctrine II. (not due till next monday holler)
2. Put together a study guide for my Minor Prophets test. (not until friday holler)
3. Read more of "Jesus for President"
4. Figure out flight information crap (not holler)
5. Clean my room

3. things I’d do if I were a billionaire...

If I was a billionaire I would do nice things for people. Alot. I would buy an entire restaurants meal for the night. And I would give money to my friends who work really hard and still don't have enough money. I would pay for college for myself and my sister and people who never the opportunity to go to school. I would own a pretty nice car, that was reliable and got good gas mileage, and I would own a huge house with lots of rooms with lots of beds so that lots of people could stay with me. And I would finance drug addictions for homeless people.

4. three bad habits...

1. Laziness
-I realize this is somewhat broad, but it affects most of my life, so I would really like to figure out how to get rid of it.
2. Popping my knuckles
-I have always wanted to stop, but I think it might be impossible
3. Obsessive compulsive behaviors
-This isn't usually a bad thing, just things like routines that irritate me if I cannot fulfill them.

5. five places i’ve lived...

1. Kansas City
2. Bartlesville, OK
3. Manhattan, KS
4-5. I have not lived anywhere else.

6. five jobs i’ve had in life...

1. Referee supervisor/trainer for Leawood parks and rec
2. Youth intern for Hillcrest Covenant
3. Barista for Edesia's bakery
4. "Stick boy" for the Kansas City Foundation surveying team
5. Snack Bar at Prairie Life Center

7. tagged people

1. Julie Settje
2. Dustin Patrick
3. Blake Russell
4. Becca Parsons
5. Tom Krap (even though I know he won't do it)


I would like to add at this point, that the following people need to get blogs, because I really want to read things that they are thinking.
-Sam VanBuskirk
-Paul Utzman
-Alan Keller
-Shanna DiPaolo (the tumblr isn't enough)
-Taylor Lareau
-Mara Cavallaro
-Barret Hunstad
-BEN EGGERS (seriously dude... come on)
-Stan Welch
-Kate Welch
-Amy Welch

I love everybody. And I want to hang out with all of you. A good place to do that will be at City Park in Manhattan KS this friday. If you have any questions about that just ask me.

God is love and love is real.

nicholas david welch

This is gonna be a long one...

I should say that I have been listening to these albums alot lately:

I don't know how many people will read this whole thing, but I am sure there will be at least a few. It is going to be kind of long and I know that long posts can be somewhat tedious. So I am sorry if this bores some of you, as I'm sure it might considering none of this is groundbreaking information.

The other day in my lifegroup a girl mentioned how she had heard the phrase "Christianity should be one beggar telling another beggar where he or she found bread". This isn't really anything profound, but for some reason it has been on my mind quite a bit since she said it. She mentioned the person who said it, but I had forgotten who it was, and was kind of upset because I would have liked to see the quote in context. Then earlier today I was reading the May_June 2008 issue of RELEVANT magazine, specifically the section dealing with "7 burning issues". They basically took 7 semi hot topic questions and asked some popular leaders in today's christian culture what they thought about them (Steve Brown, Shane Claiborne, Chuck Colson, Cindy Jacobs, Brian McLaren, Nancy Ortberg, Jim Wallis, and N.T. Wright).

The first question that RELEVANT posed was this:"Is our focus on social justice out of balance?"

My first reaction to this was "Isn't dealing with social injustice kind of what we are supposed to do?" I felt pretty good about myself when I read on and found that almost all of the responses confirmed my reaction. So much so that I am willing to bet that whoever asked the question felt a little bit dumb. They shouldn't feel dumb though, because I think that to an extent, that really is how social justice is viewed. It is almost as if it is something we should address when we get done with work, or get out of class, or when we are less busy. People are struggling now, and they are hurting now, why would we think that showing them that the kingdom of God is available now can wait until we find ourselves with less to do? Christ teaches us to pray "May your kingdom come here to earth. May Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven."

Shane Claiborne makes the observation that "People are hungry for a Gospel that embodies a social, political alternative to the patterns of our world." The term "Gospel" simply means "good news", people are hungry for "good news" about political situations. No one can argue against that, people are hungry to know that it is even possible to hear "good news" regarding politics.

This naturally takes us to evangelism, and what it should look like. Which coincidentally brings back the aforementioned (good word usage nick) quote regarding beggars. In context the quote reads as follows: "When a Christian sees someone who is physically hungry, a Christian feeds the hungry person. Why? Because hungry people can't understand the plan of salvation? No. Simply because that person is hungry. That's what Christians do. And if a person is spiritually hungry, a Christian becomes 'one beggar telling another beggar where he or she found bread.' Why? Because that's what Christians do." (Steve Brown)

I don't think the idea of beggars telling other beggars where to find food needs to be explained in great detail. They need food. Really badly. When they find food, and become satisfied or fed, and go on their way, they will see other beggars who need food really badly. When they see them, they will know what the other is going through and will eagerly share with how they found food.

"Justice and evangelism are things which have to go on through the work of the Church simultaneously." (N.T. Wright) I am not going to go into a long discussion about my thoughts on evangelism, because I already have. But evangelism is not this loud, wordy, forceful form of "worship" that it is often made out to be. It is simply telling others where you found food.

I hesitate a little to come up with posts like this, because I think Christians sit around and talk about Christians too much. But on the other hand, too many people never talk about anything that matters. I don't mean on their blogs, I just mean in life in general. I don't know whether it is due to insecurities, or thinking they are smarter than everyone. I wish that I had conversations like this with more of my friends, Instead of always talking about stupid crap that won't matter in 10 minutes. I hope that people aren't afraid of looking stupid when they talk about things that they have questions about, or things that they are passionate about.

This really didn't end up going where I meant for it to, but whatever. I hope you guys have a good weekend.

If you live in Manhattan KS, you should go to the Manhattan Arts Center sometime between now and May 23rd. My friend Tom and I have some photos on display.

LUH U GUYZ!

nicholas david welch

Blog Pressure

I apologize for the second consecutive blog dedicated to blogging, but there is something that I think I need to address. Which coincidentally, again is about blogging frequency. I feel pressured (most likely from myself) to update my blog about every two days, but sometimes I have nothing to say... and I don't want to waste your time, or mine. On the other hand, I enjoy reading about your lives, so I would appreciate it if you did not follow my example in sporadic blogging.

Next, I would like to talk briefly about professionalism. I just sat through a presentation given by a fellow student, this presentation was supposed to be around 20 minutes in length. We were given the whole semester to prepare for this presentation, so clearly it will be a large portion of our grade. In the first slide of his speech he spelled the word "salavation" which should have been "salvation". Once he noticed that he misspelled the title of his presentation he informed us that "once he was finished writing his paper, he was too tired to care about putting his presentation together". You wouldn't think that the presentation could go downhill from there, but believe me, it could, and did. There were a minimum of 3 misspelled words per slide, and the slideshow lasted about 10 minutes. His project was an exegetical one, but he spent the majority of his time discussing his opinion, which shouldn't really even be discussed in an exegetical research.

I couldn't help but be a little bit annoyed by it, I mean, we are in college, and the majority of people graduating from my school will be working in a church within a few years. It just seems as though we should display a certain level of professionalism. Or at least a certain level of intelligence. Not that I am all that intelligent or professional myself...

Anyway... have a good weekend everyone. My semester is easy starting now, so let's hang out.

nicholas david welch

Stuff this christian doesn't like... excessive blogging.

There is a semi popular blog floating around: "stuff christians like"

First of all, "prodigal jon", apparently you stuck too many f's in the URL of your blog. Fix that.

Second... you have written 70 blogs so far in the month of April. A couple of them were humorous, but not enough of them were.

I took the liberty of doing the math, on my calculatorwatch, and this means that you have written 3.5 blogs a day this month. This means that you are spending at least 5 hours a day writing your blog (2.5 spent actually writing + 2.5 thinking about what to write). 5 x 20 = 100 (minimum) hours this month (which isn't over) that you have dedicated to your blog.

If you were this guy which is to say, hilarious and brilliant, I would be alright with the number of hours you spend doing this. I have not even calculated in the other 2 websites you claim to run. But your posts are a little hit or miss. I just feel as though you probably have family or friends that are being neglected whilst you stare at a screen thinking upon every church memory you have.

My suggestion? Pace yourself. One a day, maximum. Make them count. Then go outside and play frisbee or something.


Some retard at Wal-Greens scanned my negatives wrong and flipped them all, and preview won't fix it. If you know why this is happening to me, let me know.

nicholas david welch

oops

What started out as a realization that I was out of this stuff I put in my hair, soon led to me realizing I don't really want to go out and buy more product. That soon led to me realizing that I don't care that much about my hair. Which soon led to what you see above.

The good news: it took me longer to dry my beard than it did my hair.

The bad news: I may or may not be going bald. Time will tell.

I wrote a blog earlier today when I was in a bad mood. I was told that I swore too much. So I deleted it. But I will give you a basic rundown of what I said:

1. If you are a professor and teach an easy class like "intro to personal computing", don't make it hard. Thats stupid.

2. If you sit in the back row of my Doctrine class, there is a really good chance I want you to shut up.

3. I don't remember what else there was... but it was mostly stuff I shouldn't say on here.

I love you all.

nicholas david welch

DCFC Video

Please take eight minutes and thirty one seconds of your life and watch this video.

Oreos and OJ

I have been trying to be healthier lately, so I went to bed at around 10:30 last night. Then at about 1 in morning I woke up extremely disoriented, and apparently made my way into the kitchen. Judging by the empty orange juice bottle (found laying in my dirty clothes basket) and half empty box of chocolate covered mint oreos (found next to my pillow) my subconscious does not wish for me to continue any sort of healthy eating streak.

Apart from that, my car is fine. It wouldn't start yesterday, but it does now.

We have some shows coming up that you should go to. Auntie Mae's in manhattan tonight, and Tyler Bottles' house on Saturday.

I want to live in Kansas City. I like Manhattan, but I love Kansas City too much.

The Royals own. Enough said. Let's cross our fingers and hope this streak of playing well lasts for a long time.

nicholas david welch

Kansas Summer

Today I drove to Kansas City. I had a few reasons, but none were really that important.

I love KC.

I want to live here this summer. Good thing I am.

OK here's the deal guys. My summer is going to rule. If you are going to be in KC this summer, I want to hang out with you. We will make it rule even more together. We will go to Royals games, and go on picnics, and roadtrips, and go to Quicktrip at 2 in the morning, and sneak into public pools, and ride bikes, and go to Quicktrip, and play with dogs that don't belong to us, and have barbeques, and go to concerts, and do stuff in the rain, and go to Quicktrip, and play music, and take pictures, and sneak onto roofs of tall buildings, and you can smoke some hookah and I will watch cause I won't be allowed to.

Unfortunately tomorrow we have to go to school. BUT... after enough "tomorrows" we will have summer. And we will do all those things I just talked about.

nicholas david welch

unique new york.

Does anyone want to join a bowling league this summer? I think this could be a fun idea.

I decided that I need to do a lot more sit ups and stuff (I just watched 300).


I got new glasses today and they look like this:



Me and some friends are playing some music in the next couple weeks.
Thursday April 10th @ Auntie Maes (Manhattan)
Saturday April 12th @ Tyler Bottle's house (KC)
Saturday April 19th @ KSU Union (Manhattan)

It would be great if you came to any of these.

nicholas david welch

but in a language that you can't read - just yet.

Lately I have been thinking about salvation. If you ever went to youth group or anything like that you have probably handed out tracts in some form, or you have given food to homeless people with the intent of telling them about Jesus. This "evangelism" is told to be what Christ expects of us. "We need to go out and evangelize to people". Which we do. However, this is not evangelism. Maybe you will plant a seed in their life, but more than likely (if you don't annoy them) these blunt tactics will achieve nothing more than a reaction. Christianity isn't a reaction. I don't think that salvation is achieved by a few moments in someone's life. It isn't the prayer you said when you were with your parents/youth pastor/friend timmy whilst battling G.I. Joe style. It isn't even the prayer that someone might say when they are 20 something, after thinking about Scriptures for years. Christianity is the way you live, it's loving people, trusting in Jesus, doing things for others (amongst other things).

Do you really think that can be achieved in a 5-10 minute conversation with a homeless guy you met on a street of Chicago with your youth group passing out sandwiches in the "dangerous part of town". I would argue that it is accomplished by moving to the "dangerous part of town" and sharing life with people like them. And I don't think evangelism is bringing some random kid you met to youth group and never speaking to them again. It isn't blasting someone with your religious words that you picked up while attending various church services. Guess what, people that aren't Christians don't know what those words mean, and probably don't care. Christianity isn't listening to christian music, or boycotting movies because they are rated R.

My good friend Barret Hunstad and I were talking last night and he brought up how the whole "Having a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" thing is overdone. What he meant was, these stupid cheesy words that we use, and the simple concepts we put behind them. He went on to say that these things are overdone because there is truth to them. There is. We do have a personal relationship with Jesus. But stop leaving it at that. Think about things. Why did he have to die on the cross? We just take these simple concepts, and run with them. We don't try to gain a further understanding of anything.

I want to say to people who don't think they are good enough at evangelism, you are good enough. Because it isn't most of the things we think of (tracts, TALKING about Jesus, whatever). It is living like Christ lived (which isn't too complex, he loved people and treated them like good people) when others see that, in my opinion, you have evangelized.

Basically, I dont think I act like I love Jesus enough. And I don't think I am the only one.

nicholas david welch

The drop claw bad ass.

Let me begin this by saying that you will find an endless assortment of people at Wal-Mart. I wish to discuss with you my newfound favorite genre of shopper.

You know how in the entrances to many a Wal-Mart you will find an assortment of amusement devices? I.e. a horse/car that you can ride for 50 cents, or the ever popular drop claw machine. It was at one of these claws of entertainment that I noticed a pair of young men. These men were slightly older (25 ish) than the acceptable age for playing one of these games, but since the games are so fun, we usually let this rule slide. I would have been willing to ignore them, except for the fact that the one who wasn't playing, was leaning with his back on the glass cage of excitement, toothpick loosely dangling from his dirty mouth, which was muttering obscenities about God knows what. It was a mix between a western (the toothpick) and pathetic (everything else).

The young man who was clawing the stuffed animals was not responsive to the ramblings of his cohort. Probably 8 seconds into his 32nd game of the day, I do not presume him to be innocent in all of this. One can only deduce from various scientific laws (guilty by association) that he, also, is hilarious.

The tandem were wearing baggier pants than I thought were even made, and black t-shirts. probably with some "face melting god slandering" metal band emblazoned upon their breasts.

Do I have a reason for sharing this with you? Of course I do! It is this:

If you ever feel as though you have "arrived", the place to display your greatness, apparently, is at the drop claw machine in the entrance of your nearest Wal-Mart.
nicholas david welch

moovees

Spring break was short lived, and unproductive. I should have worked on my research paper, alot, and I didn't. I should have made money, and what little money I made, went straight to paying my parents off, for different things.

I like Wes Anderson movies, I think you would too if you watched all of them. Almost every scene in his movies are incredible.

iTook a 3 hour nap earlier today, and iStill feel like iCould fall asleep right now. Supposedly you can "over sleep", and obviously you can "under sleep", but why can't I just sleep somewhere in between there? I am always tired. Maybe i have mono.

You know what was great? Comedy, back when Chevy Chase and Bill Murry's style was funny. Nowadays we just have these idiots like D.L. Hewgleee or whatever. And what is with these Martin Lawrence movies? They are all the same? And even if there is a funny movie that comes out, it is absurdly inappopriate, to the point that it almost isn't funny (i.e. superbad).

DO YOU KNOW WHAT MOVIE RULES?! King of Kong! Seriously, if you have not seen this, go watch it immediately. I am serious. While I am at it, here is a list of movies that you really do need to see:

Into the Wild
I dont even know where to start, but this movie is awesome. The message it delivers regarding family, and community is great. Good father-son film.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
This movie is a slow burner, if you need to be entertained by non stop action car crashes and crap like that, get over it. Because this movie is awesome. Casey Affleck. Enough said. I think he probably played the role of Robert Ford perfectly.

Life Is Beautiful
If you have never cried in a movie, you will cry in this one. If you don't cry in this one, you are an awful person. Basic gist: family is put in a concentration camp, and the father keeps the son alive and hidden by pretending the whole thing is a game. Watch it.

Juno
A friend of mine, Mark, wrote a review about this movie, and he made the observation that Juno is so cool to us, because she just is who she is. I would also add that she is cool to us because she is in a movie, and funny, and since we are watching the movie, we give her a chance, and we get to know her, and realize that she really is funny. If she actually went to your high school, she might not be so popular. Nonetheless, it is a good movie. Michael Cera PWNS.


MOVIES TO BE EXCITED FOR:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(in theatres may 22)
Is Harrison Ford old? Perhaps. Will the newest installment of Indiana Jones PWN?! yes.
Another good father-son movie.

That is all for now. Watch all of those.

There is a video that I recently saw, of two nickelback songs that were played on top of each other, and (surprise) they are almost the exact same song musically. I suggest you go find that video, it's worth it.

McCoy's. 8 oclock tonight. be there.

nicholas david welch

It's ok, I found my brown hat.

Have you ever been convinced that you have lost something forever? You look in every possible place, with no luck, and you just know that you will never see this thing again? Yesterday I looked in my laundry basket that have looked in at least 100 times in the past week, and found my brown carhart hat. I am so happy about that.

If you have not ever listened to the national, you need to start.



You need to watch the whole video, it's so good. The violin is incredible.

The North Carolina/Virginia Tech game was so good the other day. And the KU/Texas game right now is really good. MARCH MADNESS R00LZ!



Two things that I like are: my dad, and Jimmy Johns.



nicholas david welch

3EB!

This post is dedicated to Third Eye Blind, and their self-titled album. Every song on the album rules. I don't care if you do not think that they are cool, do you know why I don't care? Because they are.

I played soccer for 13 years of my life, thus I generally enjoy watching soccer matches on tv. However, I just watched the fourth game in three days that tied at 0-0. A soccer game is 90 minutes, plus halftime, is probably about 100-110 minutes. That rounds out to about 1 hour and 45 minutes per game, times four is about 7 hours that I have spent watching soccer matches. Matches that had no conclusion to speak of. That makes me understand why most people in America do not like soccer, I still do though, and I miss playing it sometimes.

Today the lockring on my bike slipped a little bit whilst I was traveling at a very high speed. I almost pulled one of these:


Of course there would have been no attractive scenery, and I was not wearing a helmet. Ok I will be honest with you, I was nowhere near crashing, but I wanted to incorporate this photo somewhere into my post.

If you have nothing to do you could go listen to some music that some friends and I made.

I am sitting in a coffee shop, listening to an older couple make small talk. So far they have spent about 20 minutes talking about why the contestants on the price is right can never see the words that are so evident to television viewers. The gentleman seems to think that words with a "J" in them, are painfully obvious, almost always.

Have a good saturday, if you want to hang, gimme a call fsho.

nicholas david welch

Man, that's just the pits!

That is a picture I took of a park in Portland Oregon. Who wants to move there with me?

I know what you are thinking, "2 posts in 2 days? What am I dreaming or something?!"
You aren't, I just don't feel like studying the minor prophets right now. If anyone is noticing that I am using proper grammar/punctuation/capitalization, feel free to congratulate me.

Let me tell you something, if there are two games that God put on this earth to make me happy, they would be backgammon and scrabble. I am only decent at backgammon, scrabble on the other hand... let me just say that in a coffee shop today an elderly woman, named Vivian, informed me that I was "pathetic" upon observing my lack of scrabble skills. I am not making that up.

I have been browsing some other blogs (stalking) and I have noticed that my posts are significantly shorter than the average post. I would like to point out, that I do not wish to raise my own standards, rather, I would like you all to lower yours. Resist the urge to write everything you feel is necessary, because I assure you, it is not. Most days I do not have the courage or gumption to read your post in it's entirety, even if it is very spiritual. This is not entirely true, but it is fun for me to be cynical when I write.

I don't like it when you are friends with people, and then all of a sudden, you can't be. That sucks, trust me on that one.

If anybody is good at making these blogs look cool, please alert me that you are, so that I can enlist your services.

Here is a list of dogs that I want, if any of you were curious.
Bulldog- named Cassius, Cash for short, naturally
Weimeraner- named William, not Will
Great Dane- named Mitch, because that's my uncle's name
Bloodhound- named Clark, because that is an intelligent name, and bloodhounds don't look intelligent.

Also, this is the most important part of my post today, I still really want to hold a koala. If you know anyway of making this happen, shy of writing a letter to a zoo and telling them I am dying of cancer, then please let me know.

nicholas david welch

phew.

today was real good, finished a paper on time (always a good thing) and my test was open note (also always a good thing).

also, i got a calculator watch, and i love it.

i want to start to get better at some things. like grammar/capitalization/punctuation when i do things like write on a blog. ill start next time. i have picked up a few other nasty habits lately that i need to stop, but i dont want to talk about that right now.

if you own a baseball glove, and a baseball, go out and play catch tomorrow. if not, sit inside where it is dark and play video games.

my bike will be fixed by tomorrow, which means i can ride it, which means i will be happy.

i like kansas city.


nicholas david welch

i am watching david letterman and adam cooper is my only friend.

i literally have nothing to say. but adam cooper is so good at blogging, i feel like it is my duty as a human to strive for the example that sets in front of mankind.

mike huckabee is actually kind of funny.

i have to be honest with you, if i do in fact have anything to say, it is probably a little bit too serious/depressing to write about on here. and let's be real here, nobody wants to read a blog that isn't funny. not even the fact that an air supply (band) infomercial is on tv makes me want to write happy things.

i have just had a shitty two weeks. for real. worst ive had in a while. when people ask me how i am doing (in a round about way) and i say "not too well", why dont they ask "how come?" if you ask someone how they are doing, i think you should actually want to know.

damn.

nick

i suppose blogging is the thing to do on january first.

maybe coming up with some resolutions isn't such a bad idea after all. i have always been somewhat opposed to making new years resolutions. why not february 11th resolutions? i guess it's the idea of starting over fresh, or something sappy and along those lines.

i am at a point in my life where making some resolutions might not be a bad thing.

i am watching austin powers on tv. that movie used to be so funny to me. its not anymore.

does anybody else love the movie chitty chitty bang bang? man i miss that.

does anybody else think i should leave mcc and find a different degree at a different school without pointless rules? i sure as heck do.

i hope everybody had a good christmas, and also new years. and i hope that when i move back to manhattan we get to hang out. because i like manhattan.

nicholas david welch