une histoire pour mes amis
Lloyd has been notified by a few people that he needs to update more often. So, gather 'round, it's story time. By the way, for those of you who actually read this thing, Lloyd wants you to know that it's very flattering that you'd care to know what goes on in his life, and he thanks you all for sharing the love : )
The weekend after his 25th birthday, Lloyd traveled with his parents up to Henderson, Tennessee to visit his brother, Leslie. Leslie is engaged to marry a fantastic girl named Sara(-h), and that girl's fantastic family also happened to be there. By this visit, it was determined that the families would get along just fine, and also that 8 people can unpack a minivan in approximately 15 minutes with all the belongings of 2 college girls. Sarah(-h)'s sister, Christianna is plotting with Lloyd for fun things during the wedding. Oh yes, there are plans. They often rub their hands together and laugh maniacally thinking about them. (Secretly, Lloyd thinks his new sister-in-law might be just as crazy as Leslie):
On the last Saturday of August, when the heat lingers on and children lament the return of school, Lloyd found himself in Nashville visiting old friends. Early Saturday morning, he accompanied his very good friend, Melanie Harkabus to a concert by a group named Plumb. Strangely, they did not sing about fruit at all, but they played well, as did the other bands there. Afterwards, they made a long and perilous journey to acquire a treasure for which Lloyd had waited many years. They wandered through obstacles, even to the dangerous trainyards and factories in the deep of the city. Fortunately, Melanie finds a way to laugh in even the scariest of situations, and this was no exception:
In the end, it was worth it, for the treasure sounded of warm, deep tones, and smelled of thick rosewood inside. Lloyd was sure it would bring him happiness for years to come:
That evening, Lloyd went with his friends, Nick (known in some kingdoms as Jabroni or the King of Pimps) and Hope (you will likely be hearing her on an album someday; she has a fantastic voice and is learning to play violin) to a concert played by Dave Barnes. It was the most fun Lloyd had enjoyed in a long while. The music was incredible, Dave was hilarious, and spirits were high. The End.
Actually that's not the end, I'm just done with the third person deal for now. So last week Christopher got married. I'm very proud of him, Amy was a great find. The wedding was one of the most fun I've attended. I don't know why I love dressing up in a tux so much when I hate dressing up for work or anything else. During the night me and Daniel might have stolen Chris' keys and copied them and then let Jessica do her thing. The result was pretty fantastic, although they will be cleaning out the car for awhile. Jessica says that's her love language. I imagine involuntary decoration covers a lot of her languages in terms of expression.
I have also met my twin, Amy's cousin, Sara. She likes dead baby jokes and eats sushi. We totally owned everyone else walking during the wedding. I doubt if anyone else had synchronized steps. Here's the interview:
The next week I drove the Church van (I'm allowed now that I've reached the ripe old age of 25...) to Crestview for a youth rally. It was so encouraging that the kids actually wanted to go and made an effort to set it up. That made me really happy, and of course the drive was hilarious. If I find an internet-worthy clip of that, I'll put it up later.
That brings us almost current. On Saturday I headed up to Montgomery to hang out with Amy's cousin for the day. We watched a decent football game (the refs were blind, but the bad calls and lack of calls were evenly distributed... Huntington won) and ate some Japanese food. Also, I saw Amélie, which is a very cool french movie minus a couple of unnecessary scenes.
So, this week, some very, very exciting news... I'm going to Guatemala!! I'm so excited its like Christmas when I was little. I'm going to visit my close friend Mafer, back from my Harding days. We've kept in touch by e-mail over the last few years, and I thank God for her friendship. I'm still trying to convince her to come to Italy with me, but no luck yet. We've been talking about this for years, and now it's finally happening. I'm going to see if she'll go with me to Tikal to see the Mayan ruins, and I'm very much looking forward to her showing me around Guatemala City. I will definitely have my video camera (and I'm planning on purchasing a new digital still camera just for the trip), so I will share when I return, Lord willing. Also, if anyone would like a postcard, send me your address and I'll be sure to send you one. Please pray for me that it will be a safe trip, and that I will be a light for God while I'm traveling.
Last order of business... SEE THIS THIS (looks like stage6 is gone for good) VIDEO. Honestly, it may have changed my life. I love this guy, and I so wish I could take credit for his project here. I already had this Guatemala trip planned, a Quebec trip in January after my brother gets married, and in the works a very long trip I'll talk about later, but this video just reminded me how wonderful God's creation is, and what a blessing it is to celebrate it. I can almost guarantee I will plan to do more traveling as a direct result of seeing this. I love you all, give yourselves hugs.
the way things were (since last time)
It's been more than a little while since I last posted. I've been busy -- here's the short version:
- 7/21 - 7/23: Nashville
- 7/28 - 7/29: Navarre
- 8/4 - 8/5: Conquerors
- 8/7 - 8/15: Leslie visited P'cola
Now for the long version... settle in. A few weeks back I took a trip up to Nashville to see my good friend Melanie "is there a Doctor in the house? why, yes there is!" Harkabus. I was considering being lazy and not going, but she kept telling me I was coming, and eventually I believed her. It was good times, I must say. Nashville is a really cool town, if you ever get the chance to go. Me and Harkabus assembled a computer desk in *well* under the 90 min suggested serving time. I also rid her computer of spyware and junk. I love fixing computers.
I also got to stay with Mr. Pimptastic himself, Nick Howell. He has been kind enough to open his couch, shower, and fridge every time I've come to Nashvegas. Saturday night we went to Dave & Buster's. If you've never been, it's basically like a grown-up version of Showbiz Pizza. (If you're old school you'll know that is now Chuck E. Cheese's.) Anyway, it was a whole lot of fun. I got to see some friends I haven't seen in a very long time. Hope Huckeba from HUG was there, Toasty from King's Men, Jaime (Wanda) Boone from OLC, and my very good friend Nivia Snowden (well now she's not Snowden anymore, she's married to a really cool guy named Marlan who I finally got to meet.) It was really good to see Niv again. We used to be like peas and carrots, as Forrest would say, but it's been awhile. It was great to reestablish that friendship.
One other cool thing that happened that night was playing a game called "In the Groove" (basically a Dance Dance Revolution knockoff). I will admit, i beat both Harkabus and Nivia, though the fact that they were wearing some sort of heels probably had a lot to do with it. Anyway, I liked the game so much that I went home and ordered my own pad off the internet for my computer. This is what it looks like:
I play it on an open source (source code is available and legally free) program called stepmania. (This program works on Linux and Mac, too. W007!10101) One of the cool things about it is that you can import your own songs in mp3 or ogg format and make your own steps. I have almost completed a step routine for Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie". (yes, i bought the album) A video of me doing this nonsense is going to be appearing here very soon. Those who don't think they can take the gayness should probably not watch.
Back to the story, on Sunday I went to church at a large congregation (I don't remember the name) in Nashville. During one of the songs (they have powerpoint lyrics), a message popped up for the parents of child # 168 to please come to the classroom area, as they were needed. Either that congregation is so large that they have begun to number their students, or some poor mother has birthed more than 167 children and is now numbering them rather than naming them. Either way, I've decided I will also number my children, using either Fibonacci sequence or prime numbers.
The last weekend in July, I am sad to say my friend Sarah Todd left Gulf Breeze for greener pastures. Actually she is moving to be closer to her grandparents and to start nursing school. Head over to the images section to see some photo goodness. Also that weekend, Jarrett at Church helped me and some other guys at Church trim trees for one of our members who can no longer be climbing around to do it. (p.s. I can climb trees in sandals, no problem.) I was really thankful to have Jarrett's help and also to spend some one-on-one time with him. He managed to down one of those quadruple burgers at Burger King in a pretty short amount of time. It was a sight to behold.
The weekend before last was Conquerors. It's a youth rally here in Pensacola that Scenic Hills Church of Christ holds annually. If you read my post about Focus, you'll remember the name Wiley Lowe. Well, he spoke at this and did a great job. I was so suprised and happy to hear that he was speaking. He mostly talked about getting rid of the old man, because the old dead earthly body is not something we want around us. Once again, see the images link above for pics.
Last week, my brother came to town for a visit. It was really great spending time with him. He is a very spiritually mature guy, and I'm proud of him for all he's doing, and very excited that he's getting married. To my surpise and delight, he actually tried the DDR thing with the dance pad. We both did a lot of that over the course of the week, as it's super addictive. He left on Tuesday, but I'm going up with the family to see him this weekend and to meet his fiancé's parents. That should be lots of fun. Oh yes, the pad is coming with me.
In other news, today is was my birthday. I am officially a quarter of a century old. 30 looms like an ugly beast on the horizon. I'm going to walk backwards til I get there so I don't have to look at it. Other than having to work, it was a fun day. My parents took me and my family to Zea's tonight. It was fun, and it is great to spend time with family. I wish my brother had been here though. I've saved up some money, and combined with the birthday loot I'm planning on buying a really sweet guitar when I go up to Nashville in a couple of weeks for a concert (Dave Barnes is playing, going with Hope and some other folks... it should be a blast). There will be photos and probably some video of that guitar once I get it.
Finally, it's been a long time coming, but as promised, here are a few videos from Focus 2006. You can grab all my videos (including high definition 720x480 videos) here. You will need the Divx web player to play these. This is also available for Linux and Mac. Alternately, you can use VLC and VLC mozilla plugin to play it (you can use VLC with Linux, Mac, and almost everything else).
Colton dancing to Thriller... priceless.
Macaroni & Cheese Pizza.
Musical Genius.
~~~~
Enjoy, and keep an eye out. it won't be long before I update again.
new toy
My video camera came in on Thursday. So far, I'm having fun. Many things that have no real need of being taped have been recorded. Par example:
Lloyd driving (I removed the embedded player, it's been there long enough, but you can still use the link.)
You're going to need the divx codec to play this video, or you can use vlc as it provides a codec which will read divx, and just about anything else. (Both of these can be used in linux, by the way. I just finished watching the video using Firefox and Ubuntu with the VLC web plugin. Apparently, the divx for linux solution also works.)
Do you like it?
peaceout.
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