ok... well after much bothering by Jourdan, I am posting a new post on my blog... Yay... well not really yay... Some maybe be excited, most not so much, they probably thought I died, and were happy. No such luck...

Well today I am posting about old friends... Old friends as in the people I used to work with. Why is it that when you get together with old friends, its like it hasn't even been that long?

You start talking, and re-acquainting with each other, and then its like there was never any time lost. Still joking around, horsing around, talking about the good old days, where people are today... Its seems like only minutes, but actually hours have gone by...

Truthfully I am very fearful of people and social gatherings, but once I get to know someone(s), its hard to keep me quiet... You may not like what I have to say a lot of the time, but thats what you get for letting me get comfortable with you.

So when I see/visit someone I used to be fantastic friends with, there is no nervousness involved, even if it has been a few years... It feels like only yesterday we were working together.

I may not seem like it sometimes, the way I treat people, but I really do enjoy conversing and talking to people. I may be a jerk a lot of the time, but hardly ever is it seriously directed at someone... I may call you a Jerk, or make fun of something you enjoy doing, or even hassle you about your job/school. But all in all its just my way of making conversation.

Sorry this post jumped around a bit, not really a focus. I just had a fantastic conversation with an old co-worker and it inspired me to possibly write something... Hope this counts as a satisfactory post.

I am definitely going to try and post more often, mainly to keep Jourdan off my back. Because quite frankly, she scares me.

Have a great day ya'll. Pray Education Celebration goes well, and someone hears the gospel and takes advantage of God's free gift of eternal life. I know I'm glad I did.

Hey sorry again for the lack of posts. Hmm... two and a half weeks... Thats quite a while...

Anyways, since Brendon called me out, on the 4th of July I got this:

It is a 1983 Honda V65 Magna 1100CC. I got mine from the same guy as Brendon and it came with a parts bike as well. It doesn't need any real work done on it. It works great. I have been riding it the last few days as much as I can. Even just riding around the church parking lot.

I plan on using it as my main means of transportation to and from work and stuff.

I do plan on changing the oil and filters to Amsoil. This oil is kind of a family tradition. My grandpa sold it, my father sold it, and now my sister and her husband are selling it. Amsoil was the first Full Synthetic Motor Oil to meet API service requirements. If you are wanting to help relieve dependence on foreign oil... Go Full Synthetic. If Amsoil interests you, let me know... Its really not that much different cost wise, and the benefits are a lot better.

So for those of you who didn't know I got a bike... SURPRISE!!

Thanks for reading guys. I'll try and post more often if ya'll desire... but no promises...

First off, I am sorry for not posting in almost two weeks... Brendon complained to me on thursday... So my apologies to those who are desperate to read my ramblings...

Anyways today I was talking a friend about how some Christian Bands were unbending in their faith of Jesus, they didn't care who knew... But then there are so-called "Christian" bands that try to distance themselves unless its beneficial to themselves...

Those who don't know, I really like music, I can't sing, I can't play, so about all I can do is listen... And I had for a few months gotten into a lot of praise music. I like it, but not as much as more rocky type music. So after a few months of listening and enjoying it, I decided to see what Christian bands were similar to the secular bands I like. Supertones came up... I think I really like the horns in unison with the rest of the music, it almost makes it bouncy. They sound a lot like Reel Big Fish, but not secular. Almost every song I have of them singing is about Christ. I especially like this song: , and this one too: , and this one:

well anyways... I am really feeling blessed by this music, Audio Adrenaline is another one I am currently liking.

Well me being one to want to listen to new music, I had heard of a band, The Fray, that my boss liked. I didn't particularly like the songs they sang, not that they were bad, just not my taste... well one day I heard someone say that they were Christian, I was like cool... Maybe I misjudged them... So I went looking around the interweb. and saw an article on Christianity Today, I was reading it and then I didn't want anything more to do with The Fray... Here's why:

The band avoided Christian record labels, saying God called them to the secular market instead. "I feel he would be disappointed with us if we limited ourselves," Wysocki says.

Slade says he used to "write all Christian lyrics" until he had an epiphany while working a shift at Starbucks: "None of my friends outside the church understood any of my songs; we had a different set of vocabulary," he says. "So I went home and threw away all those songs."

He adds, "If I handed somebody a double grande mocha latte and told them, 'Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,' they might throw it back on me. (So what! At least you tried).

"If we grow up in the church, it's easy to think it's our Christian duty to preach to every single person because God is the most important thing. And he is, but I'm a musician first. This is my job. We're not pastors. We're not preachers. We're not even missionaries."

Slade likens his job to any other. "If you're a painter, paint, but you don't have to have Jesus in every picture(Why not?). Paint well, and if you paint well enough, they might ask you why you do that."

See how this would make me upset... What they are saying is totally opposite of what we should be doing. We should make Christ part of everything in our lives. Not just do it when we are comfortable, or when it is convenient. That way people aren't just wondering "Why do you do that?" Making Christ the focus of everything you do, People will ask "Why do you do this for Jesus? How can Jesus work through me? How can I have Jesus in my life just like He is in yours?"

Why would you claim to be followers of Christ and then hide your faith when you have the greatest opportunity to share it? This angers me, but also shows how I am a hider of my faith when it is inconvenient.

I dunno why this made me angry... I'm not even a fan of their music... its too sappy...

Stop ripping off Nikola Tesla!! It's getting annoying.... see what I mean, Brendon will agree... jerks...

Today I was driving around for deliveries and started thinking, for me this can be dangerous... I am not very good at doing too many things at one time...

I was thinking, "You know how people ask you, 'So who's you hero, and why?'" I thought to myself.

My grandpa(passed away January '06) is my hero. He was a man who found God in everything. Taught that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That no one goes to the Father except by believing in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. He taught Sunday School, he helped my grandma in the church library, he used his engineering talents to build and fabricate many different things around the house. Everything he did he gave to the Glory of God. At Christmas Eve every year he would read from the 2nd chapter of Luke, then would explain the scripture and what it meant/means to us. I regret never really listening, I will never hear it again. But thats alright, he is in heaven having a fantastic time. And one day I hope we will both be there to praise God together with all the others who have gone home to be with Christ.

Then I was thinking, "Gee... Grandpa was a lot like John the Baptist. He proclaimed God's grace and mercy and forgiveness, all that was needed was repentance and faith." Then I thought, "John the Baptist is my hero." John's unashamed proclamation of salvation in the coming Christ. He didn't care how he was dressed, how dirty he was(but with a name like Baptist, he was probably pretty squeaky clean, and pruney), he didn't care that he couldn't cut his hair, ate locusts and honey for food. He didn't care that he was blunt and to the point, no dancing around it... I admire that. His only goal was to reach the people to get them to repent, and to realize the Messiah was coming(and had actually come).

I want that unabashed faith in God, to proclaim His plan for our salvation through Christ Jesus. I want to be more John the Baptist like in my ability to talk to others about Christ. I want to be bold for God. Unwavering, unashamed and shouting God's grace and mercy to all those around me.

If any of ya'll have actually talked to me, you know that I am very much the opposite of John the Baptist in terms of openness to others about anything.

So today my prayer is that God would give me the strength to overcome my fears of others, and my fears of expressing my faith, and give me the strength and knowledge to share with others.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a difference in a hero and The Saviour

So am I allowed to have two heroes? Grandpa and John the Baptist?

I only want one Saviour.

Thanks for reading.

For those who don't know yet... Yesterday I was arrested...

Yes that is correct finally Paul was arrested. Except that it wasn't for doing anything wrong... Here goes...


Yesterday I was writing an e-mail, and all of the sudden I hear my mom screaming bloody murder in the backyard, "Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam!, etc...(about a thousand times)" I'm in my room which over looks the back porch where she was... and can hear her loud and clear. I thinking she has hurt herself... So I go running down the stairs, Sam is right in front of me... Then I hear "Paul get your cat out of the window..." I thinking, "Whats wrong with my cat?" so I go back to my room and snatch my cat out of the window... Well turns out there is a hole in the screen, and my mom thought he was going to jump 15ft to his death, so at 7:30 in the morning she starts screaming bloody murder... about a cat... a cat that has in the past done, what she saw him do, a million times before... a cat that is over 15 years old... But apparently she had first called my brother Sam on his phone to remove the cat from the window. He said he would but didn't. Reminds me of this.

Well anyways... after all that I look at the clock, I had forgotten I was supposed to deliver something to Buena Park at 8am. So I run back to my room shut the window, grab most of my stuff... and run out to the truck and drive off. Well, about halfway to the freeway on-ramp I realized I left my Bible and cell phone at home. So I turn around and go back home, park halfway into the driveway. And run up and get my Bible and phone. As I am heading back down the street, I see a cop. Cops are not my friends... They tend to single me out. So I make sure I am driving correctly, not speeding, etc... as I get closer to the corner he pulls his car out in front of mine blocking the street. Then he jumps out and points his gun at me telling me to turn the truck off...

Once I see the gun, my hands are in the air... He tells me to put my hands out the window and open the door. Problem is the outside door handle of my truck is non-op. So he was yelling at me to open the door and keep my hands up out side. I had to open it. I used the inside handle. I didn't get shot. Yay!

Now I am outside the car and he tells me to turn around, and walk backwards... I shout to him, "What did I do?", he says "Get on the ground now!" Keep in mind the gun is still pointed at me... I get on the ground and he says "Cross your legs!" I cross my legs. He says, "Put your legs out to the side!" I uncross my legs, and spread them. He yells "I said cross your legs!" I say to the asphalt, "But you just said spread your legs." This goes on until another cop arrives with gun drawn on me. I finally get it figured out that he wanted my legs crossed and my "hands" out to my sides... Buffoon.

heh... take that jerk. Now face down on the street, legs crossed and arms spread out to my sides. The new cop that just arrived moments ago, comes walking over to me, still with gun drawn... I say, "What did I do?" He says, "We'll tell you what you did, you (expletive deleted)." Ok, I stopped talking, they were being ridiculous. They cuff me and then roll me over on my right side. And start searching my pockets... In my left pocket were two packets of Pop-Tarts, like I said I was late for work and grabbed food and ran. Well, as he is about to reach into my pocket I say, "Wanna Pop-Tart?" So then they stood me up and walked me over to the cruiser, and finished searching my pockets. I thought it odd they never asked if I had anything sharp in them... And they only searched 4 of the 7 pockets the shorts have.

After groping around in my pockets they decided to ask me some questions...

"Where are you going?" I'm late for work.

"Why in such a hurry?" I said I'm late for work.

"Whats all the screaming about?" Now, I am totally lost, I had forgotten what had just happened 20 minutes ago. Then I remembered and told them, "It was my mom screaming because she thought the cat was going to jump to his death."

They said "That's it?" Yes.

"Is you mom home?" I see her car and say Yes.

"Will she verify that thats all that happened?" I hope so.

So one goes down to the house and I look in my corner neighbors window and see she is on her phone watching this whole thing... Nice. They stuff me in the back of the cruiser, and I say, "This is the first time I have ever been in the back of a cruiser with cuffs on." The first cop, says to me ,"Lets hope you're not lying about the screams." I say, "I assure you I am not." Then he takes my info, and then has the nerve to make small talk with me...

"Oh... you have a motorcycle license?" Yeah...

The cop who went down to the house called back and said, no one is answering, does he have a key to the house? We are going to have to "make entry." I say try calling her cell phone... They call my mom, tell her the deputies are at the door and she need to speak with them... Turns out she was in the bathroom before they called.

Back to the car, after hearing them talk to mom the guy has the nerve to make small talk with me again...

"What kind of bike are you gonna get?" I want a Yamaha V-star 1100, but will take what I can get...(jerk)

"Your not gonna get a Harley?" No. (jerk)

Then some fat cop comes over and says, "I've never pulled Pop-Tarts off a guy before, hee- yuck hee-yuck." (jerk) Got all your giggles in on my behalf?

Anyways they call back saying my story is legit... So ten minutes after I hear them say to let me go, they finally decide to let me go. As they pull me out of the car I say to fatty, "Mind taking a picture?" He ignores me... Maybe hes eyeballing my breakfast... They un-cuff me, and say "Your stuff is all in your hat. You can leave now." Alright... no apology, no sorry about all this but its standard procedure.

Nice job guys... you really made me like the LA County Sheriffs Dept.

So apparently when my mom was waking the neighborhood, people called 911, then someone saw me run out to my truck and take off, Then I guess the same person saw me comeback. People thought I had hurt her and ran off then came back.

So here's what I have learned from this, mom needs not to scream bloody murder over a cat. Possibly murder, but not a cat. Sam needs to do what mom tells him to do in the first place. Not just go "uh huh". And I need to leave the house at a more reasonable time... If I had left sooner maybe they would have arrested Sam instead...

Ok, thats the arrest story that I will pass down to my kids and grandkids (Lord willing).

Thanks for reading.

I was out at an install today (those who don't know I am a Sign Installer, ask me later and I'll try and explain), and was talking to one of the underlings of the person I was supposed to meet. As she was trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing (I already knew what I was supposed to do, but they don't want to listen to the sign monkey), She finally told me what trucks I needed to work on.

I said to her, "Ok, so those two trucks that have no decals on them(just humoring her, it was pretty obvious which ones needed decals), well ya'll have all the leftover decals from the time we did the 20 other trucks, so I'll need those."

And she says, "'Ya'll' huh? I don't know anything about the decals, I'll go check."

So I walk back into the lobby, and she walks past and says, "I'll be right back. Where are you from?" I said, "America's Instant Signs." Thinking she needed to know what company I was with, typical question. She says, "No, like what state were you raised in? Why do you say 'Ya'll'?"

That kinda flustered me... I dunno why I say "ya'll", I was born and raised in Long Beach, CA. Just about as far away from the country one can get, and yet some of the words I use are very much not "SoCal lingo". Like some times I'll say "woursher" instead of "washer" or "'wourshing machine", or "couple three" instead of just three.

I can speak normally(if you think what I say is normal in the first place). I can say "The washer is done washing the washables, I'll put more washables in for washing.", I can say "You all need to stand here", or "Can I have three days off work in August?". My parents are from the mid-west, but moved out here when they were middle school aged. You hear a little bit from them, mostly dad, but I think I may use it a bit more than them.

Is it bad to talk like this? Does it make one sound "slow" or "dimwitted" or even just "plain lazy" for not attempting to pronounce the words correctly. Everyone knows I'm the first person to hassle someone for misspeaking. Its all in good fun though. Should I try and stop? Would I even be able to stop? Or would stopping be me denying where my family has come from? Would that be trying to distance myself from the mid-west in which my grandparents were raised?

I'm not embarrassed of my family, or where we come from. Dad's side is part Russian, part Swedish, living in Missouri, moving to California. My grandpa explained it to my dad in a great way when he was growing up.

Your quarter Russian, quarter Swedish, and all the rest is poor white trash from the south.

And my dad was proud as can be with that explanation. And I like it to...

Mom's side is... who knows a little bit of this a little of that, in know some Irish is in there, I looked it up. My grandpas great, great, great grandpa(follow the Clark line) was born in Ireland. So there my red headed sisters. You can no longer say you are not any part Irish. The green eyes and red hair had to come from somewhere. I wonder if he fought in the Revolutionary War. He lived forever too... 88 years... basically the same age as my grandpa when he died.

So anyways... I don't think I'll stop. If you don't like it, tell me, then get over it. There are more important things to worry about.

Like the coming onslaught of killer ladybugs. They eat babies you know... Think about it.