Ohno Takes the Silver!

Wow, what a great race!  Apolo Anton Ohno won silver in the 1500m men's speed skating race on Saturday.  It was a very exciting race that wasn't decided until the final lap.  Very surprising.  This is Ohno's 6th Olympic medal--and there's something special about that...he's now one of the winter Olympians with the most medals...?  Or something like that.  Google isn't very helpful sometimes and I'm too tired to keep looking.  Anyway...congrats Apolo, keep up the good work and I'll keep watching.

Snowboarding Once Again

Guess what I did again today?  Snowboarding!  I tried a different hill that was much less steep and it worked a lot better--as in I fell down less.  I felt like I had gone from a black diamond to the bunny slopes!  It was fun to try different techniques and experiment with steering and stopping.  I'm excited to watch snowboarding in the Olympics.  Go USA!!!

Tonight

TobyMac's new album, Tonight, came out yesterday.  I've been listening to it and it is quite good.  TobyMac has such an original sound and (like BlueTree) all his songs are seek to glorify God and give Him the praise.  You just can't go wrong with TobyMac.

Snowboarding

We got about 6-7 inches of snow here in central PA last night, so this afternoon, my siblings and I went outside and enjoyed it.  I tried snowboarding.  It was pretty fun.  Where my family lives, our backyard is one big hill.  I've never skied and never snowboarded before (okay, I may have tried it once or twice previous years) so I didn't quite know what I was doing.  My brother recently got into skiing and snowboarding so I saw a few youtube videos on how to do it.  I guess I was okay at it.  I fell down a lot and got snow down my coat more than once.  But it was fun to try something new.  Each time I started down the hill, it was like starting an adventure (a very short one sometimes) because I didn't know how far I would make it and if I would possibly hurt myself.  But it was really fun and I'm really glad I tried it. 


And by the way, the above picture is nothing like what I was doing.  More like this.  But I wasn't quite that epic.

BlueTree

Secular music is filled with wrong messages, subtle hints and bad language.  Trying to keep your mind pure can be hard when it comes to music.  That's where Christian music comes in.  There are so many varieties of Christian music, it's easy to find your style.

BlueTree is an Irish, Christian rock group from Belfast, Ireland.  They have their own, unique sound (complete with Irish accents) and each song is filled with worship for God.  Currently they only have one CD, God Of This City, but they are in the process of working on a second.

The name BlueTree probably strikes you as odd, but it actually means something.  The lead singer, Aaron tells it like this: "The whole idea of 'bluetree" is that if you're in a forest...and you're walking along and boom, there's this tree.  Everything about it is blue leaves, bark, just everything that exsists on this tree is blue.  It would stand out and it would be different.  And that's the simple message of what I believe as Christians we're called to be something like and to stand out and be different.  Not be different for differents sake, but to be different with the right motives and the right attitude.  So that's what a blue tree is."

Runelords

I recently started reading the Runelords books and they are really good.  The books are in the same genre as LOTR or Eragon, with mythical creatures and magic, swords and bows, princes and princesses.

In book one, The Sum of All Men, "Young Prince Gaborn Val Orden of Mystarria is traveling in disguise on a journey to ask for the hand of the lovely Princess Iome of Sylvarresta. Armed with his gifts of strength and perception, Prince Gaborn and his warrior bodyguard stop in a local tavern along the way. Immediately, they spot a pair of assassins who have their sights set on Princess Iome's father. As the prince and his bodyguard race to warn the king of this impending danger, they realize that more than the royal family is at risk, the very fate of the Earth is in jeopardy."

From there the adventure continues, but I won't spoil the story for you. :)

The only thing I could complain about these books is that although the story is compelling, the writing could be a bit better and there are times when I'm a little confused about what's going on.  But still, these books are very good.  Runelords is right up there with Eragon; and if you know how much I like Eragon, then you know that's saying a lot.