tube light

this thing is kind of strange. its a desk light, but when closed you can't really tell what it is, it just looks like a white tube. i dont remember where i got it from originally, but i always thought it was kind of cool. i thought it was something i had in my dorm room in college and it seemed like somehting i would have gotten when rex and i lived together. we always

seemed to accumulate the strangest things! my one faint memory of this item lead me to give it to rex instead of just throwing it away.

when i gave it to him he didn't recognize it though. oops! i guess my vague memory of it is actually wrong. oh well, he liked it and took it anyway.

old time

i got this clock as a gift from someone who meant a lot to me. when i used to live in utah i had it sitting out on a shelf in the living room. one day i came home and saw in the trash with the face broken off. i never asked sean what happened, but i assume he or rachael bumped it and it fell and broke. they figured it did was broken, so they threw it away. i got it working again, but had to set the faceplate on it because it wouldnt go back on right. since then it died for good, but i've still been holding on to it. i guess there is some deeper meaning there about the person who gave it to me... finally i did what i should have done all those years ago: i returned it to the trash and left it there.

africa

in college i was in charge of a dorm building. one of the RAs who i worked with was a guy named OT. he was from kenya originally. one time during the year his mom and sister came to visit him, it was the first time they had ever come to america. they came and checked out the campus and really loved it. they also brought gifts for some of his friends. they gave me this wall hanging of traditional african art.

chop suey

my friend from college, trixi, loved china. she went there at one point during college and loved it! after we graduated she ended up moving and teaching english there. she stayed for several years before returning to the states, but i think part of her heart is still over there...
anyway, after coming back once she gave me these authentic chop sticks. i have actually used them on many occasions- the work quite well!

dordt id

these are three of my old student id cards from when i was at dordt. we would need them all the time for meals, you just swipe and eat! we would need them sometimes for different school events too, that way we could get the student discount. the one pictured on top was from my freshman year, and boy does it look silly! that was before i started growing my goatee, i'm sure you can understand now why i refuse to shave it off, right? for some reason i never got a picture retaken for the following years, so even when i had a huge beard and foot long hair, i still looked like this squeaky clean kid in the yearbook!

congrats grad

ah yes, the ol' graduation cap. one of those things that can only be worn once and if you try and wear it at any other time you are considered a freak. who thought of these things, really? a square piece of cardboard on top of your head? really?!? this one is from when i graduated from high school. maybe i should wear it out in public...

backstage pass

in college a few buddies of mine and i put on a music festival. it was called 'fire & ice' and this was the backstage passes we had for those who were in charge of running it. and featured about 20 bands on two stages, it started around 1:00pm, and went till about 11:00pm. it was a big day, and we were actually able to get a few nationally known artists to come and play. they weren't really big bands, but they were known among the christian college scene. the headliners were all star united, along with silage, rich young ruler, everybody duck, eric champion, common children, and the normals. there were a bunch of other bands who were local to the area, or just local to the college. it was a really great time and an amazing show. as one of the people behind the festival, i got to spend some time with the different bands. almost all of them were really cool with only one or two exceptions *cough* all star united *cough*. the best part, by far though, was hearing and getting to know the band 'the normals'. they were amazing, and went on to put out two more incredible albums. their lead singer, andrew osenga, is still making some truly moving music. it was a ton of work and took a lot of time to set up, but it was all worth it just to meet the guys from the normals!

fire and ice commerical

back in college a buddy of mine, joe, and i organized a music festival. strange, i know, but we were involved in the campus radio club, and that lead us to get involved with some strange things... well, we had originally created it to be an event to just get a couple campus bands to play, but it kind of snowballed into a full-out 12 hour festival which included a dozen bands, some of which were on a national tour and stopped by Dordt to perform. our festival was called 'fire and ice', and among the bands that performed were endorphine, the normals (with lead singer andrew osenga), silage, rich young ruler, eric champion, and many more.
at the local radio station they were willing to play a commercial we cut for the music festival. this strange looking thing is an old school loop cartridge. you could pop this thing into the machine and it would run its 30 second spot, and it wouldnt have to be rewound for the next play.