My Thoughts on the Rob Bell Thing

For a guy that has made Christianity look pretty cool in the past, that is an ugly cover.

Back In The 417

I started my training as a Mister Manager at the Student Union on Monday with a team building activity at a place called Medieval Fortress. In short, we helped by building a wall out of hay, sheep poop, mud, and water.

Good experience. Not at all what I was expecting.

Throughout the week we have been learing about the goings on of the Union and what our role is in it all. It has been good, but very long. After today I will have put in 38 hours this week! Wowzers.

Work isn't worth blogging about. Here is what has happened this week that is fun and hopefully more exciting to read about.

Rewind to Saturday. Midnight bike ride with my best friends through the beautiful Kansas City. A tradition that must be upheld. Such a good time of reuniting and reflecting on what God has been doing. Sounds like things at YouthFront were amazing (as usual). My brother got to TeenStaff quite a bit this summer, something I wish I would have done. The people that run that place are incredible.

Sunday Chase and I went to Jacob's Well to hear the Word get BROUGHT! It was awesome. 50% of the appeal of Kansas City, I would say. That community is beautiful, and it has always been something I have been on the outside of because of my location. We'll see where I am this time next year, but I hope there is opportunities to build community that is intended. Something that was said at JW was a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer that went something along the lines of "don't let your dreams for community get in the way of the community you are in now."

That hit pretty hard because for the past year or so I have had ideas of how I want to live after I graduate and not focusing on the community I am in now that is an incredible God-fearing, loving and accepting one. I hope that this year can bring me to realize that and I do not discount where I am now.

Later Sunday afternoon we celebrated Grammy's 70th birthday! She does not seem 70. It was good to see the whole family and lay some smackdown on them in ping-pong. Yes, you are reading the blog of the current family champion (formerly held by Grammy herself). We then headed back to Springfield for the beginning of training and getting settled down.

Last night (Wednesday) we had some people over for a little dinner party. Hosting is probably my favorite thing to do. I'm not the best cook, but last night's meal wasn't anything to sneer at. We also played some Killer Uno, thanks to David. That game is insane.

Now, I'm rockin' my first Building Manager shift on my own listening to some Michael Gungor Band. Pretty good stuff. "Beautiful Things" is by far the best track I have heard thus far, but I will have to listen to the rest of it a few more times. Things are super slow around the Union tonight, but it is a good first shift. I think I am getting the hang of things around here.

Sleeping in tomorrow for the first time in a while, but not too late... Sufjan Stevens tickets go on sale at 10! This is monumental.

Portland and Such

The 23 day journey ends today.

Our last night in Leadville ended at the Leadville Hostel where we slept in a real bed for the first time in a while. For about $25 a person we got a bed, an option for a shower (I'll let you decide if I took advantage of that option or not.), unlimited hot breakfast, and WIFI. Not a bad deal, I guess. It was nice to stay somewhere that wasn't the ground.

The day of the 29th we drove into Denver where Zach insisted on going to REI to pick up this baby, which I found in the woods a few days earlier. Ballersauce.

We also checked out Denver and went to the original Chipotle. Nomfactory*. Hung out with his aunt and her grandchildren, Axel and Thor. Real names. Cute kids.

Friday I flew to Portland and couldn't stop smiling the entire time. I was so anxious for this trip, I can't even explain it. I landed at 8ish and got to my hosts house at 10:15 or so.

Dennis was the best possible host I could ask for. Friday night we rode bikes around town and he showed me some of his favorite places to go that were relatively close to his house. In the end, these ended up being some of my favorite places in Portland.

Saturday, we woke up late and he let me take his bike downtown to see what all was going on there. It turns out there was a festival called PDX POP NOW! going on that was pretty cool. It was a super hipster scene, but the crowd was scattered with families and old guys as well. I somewhat regret not staying for the last couple bands, but I was getting really tired so left after a band called Hosannas. There were a couple good bands playing throughout the night, though. My favorite being Brainstorm. They were a pop duo with great vocal melodies. I probably should have bought their CD or something.

The festival told me a little about Portland's music scene, and it is basically the opposite of anything you have seen in the Midwest. If you are wondering what it is like, check Pitchfork's highest rated music. Filter through what they've got and it is the stuff that you can't really listen to more than a song or two of before switching back to the comfort zone of BSS or The National.

This being said, Monday night we went to a place called Doug Fir, for a show featuring Nathaniel Rateliff, Pearly Gates Music, and another guy but we missed him. This was a more typical show that you would see anywhere else. Fleet Foxes Bon Iver style tunes and a pretty typical crowd. The only Portland factor was the venue. It was swanky. Lit floors, microbrews in spades, and a kind of log cabin feel. It was very cool.

While we were in Portland we checked out places to live, work (haha, turns out they don't exist), and "where it's all going on".

Living- there are cool houses all over the place for similar prices, so it doesn't really matter where you live. You sleep there. That's all there is to it, in my opinion.

Working- I would love to work in Portland. So would everyone else living in Portland. We'll see how that plays out in the future.

Where it's at- I admit. Everywhere you go in Portland is not where it's at. While there are some very cool parts of the city, there are just as many parts that don't really have much going on. Where at any given time of day you may have to walk half a mile to find a coffee shop, and it's a Starbucks in a Safeway. There are however some awesome parts that are like all of the best parts of Kansas City on every street. Some of which being...

• Most anything on Belmont, Burnside, Hawthorne, and Stark between 39th and 23rd.
• Thai Food! The best meal we had all week, for a pretty reasonable price. (14 bones.)
• The Pied Cow. While we didn't go here, it looked to be a pretty awesome Hookah bar in an old Victorian style house.
• Breakfast places. They are everywhere. 95% of them are really good and usually under 10 dolla.
• Foodcarts. Again, nomfactory.
• Bike friendly streets. EVERYWHERE! I was never yelled at or called names (sometimes very original) for promoting the one less car movement.
• Public transit. Usually great. Not having known the city, there were times where we missed our stop or got on the wrong bus. Oops.
• Imago Dei. The church I checked out Sunday. It was essentially Jacob's Well in Portland. It probably would have been more like it had I gone to the later service.
• My personal favorite. Parks! Specifically Laurelhurst park. Located right in the thick of all the "cool streets" aforementioned, this place has got it going on. Redwoods, pond, leash-free area, music, and enough trails for a greedy walker.
• Generally speaking the green-ness of the city. Not so much the recycling friendly atmosphere, but the color green was everywhere. People's front and backyards were covered in gardens and trees. Truly beautiful.

Overall, it was a great trip. I would absolutely love living in Portland! There are a ton of things about it I could definitely get used to.

The trip did help me realize that there are more places to live than just Portland, though. I really think that where ever I end up has the same potential as anywhere else for a great life. A good city is made up of good community. Good community is created by surrounding yourself with those that you love being around. People you know you can live with for a long time. Right now, I am in good community. I plan on being in good community as long as I possibly can. Portland would definitely be a great place for good community to take place. So would a thousand other places. I don't care where I live, as long as the community continues to grow. More on this later.

Also, be looking out for Club is a Place.

*Nomfactory is a food cart I plan on opening sometime in the near future.

Road Trip 2010

Thursday July 15th Zach and I started our drive on what has been the best 2 weeks of my life thus far, and are sure to be just as good in the coming week and a half.

The plan was to drive to Yellowstone National Park (the nations first national park! who knew?!) backpack for a while then go from there to Colorado and see what there is to see.

A little background on the trip. Around December we said, "hey, lets go backpacking this summer with us and Austin!" "Okay, where? ...Yellowstone!"

Months passed, with little to no planning, until May came along and we decided to "plan" the trip. This basically meant verifying that everyone was still on board for the trip and we made sure it is possible to backpack and do backcountry camping in Yellowstone.

It was. So we assumed there wouldn't be a problem if we arrive in July and tell a park ranger what we want to do. Things worked out well.

I really could talk a lot about all the events that took place from May until now, but I'll save everyones time (everyone is used very loosely in this context. Being that I haven't blogged since November 29th 2009, I imagine no one will be reading this. I lost all of my blog cred.)

• Most importantly, LOST ended. This changed nothing for our trip plans (that I know of), but man... I loved that show.
• Zach and I, along with a slew of other 20somethings began working at Camp War Eagle.
• 4 days into Orientation, I broke the ol' collarbone (now coined as the cambone) playing sports and being an athlete and stuff. Surgery, sling for 6 weeks, not as much pain as you'd think.
• Upon receiving the news of the broken cambone, our good friend Matt assumed the trip was off. So he made other plans. :(
• Doctor Cooper said I was still good to go. Wootsauce.
• Austin got a job. A real job. Jorb. So he couldn't go anymore.
• Zach and I drove to Texas to pick up Kate. This Kate.
• Stay for a day, drive the longest drive of our lives (2 cars TX to MO).
• Leave for Yellowstone!

Blerg. That's a lot of words.

Day 1

Drive to Rapid City. Do the Wall Drug thing. See Mt. Rushmore. Camp at a campsite called "The Wolf People". They sure have gotten a lot of business since the whole Twilight thing. Props to my girl Stephanie Meyer. Ugh, gross.

Day 2

Drive to Yellowstone. Well, just outside of Yellowstone. We got to the gate at 6ish and every campsite was filled. All 2000. This place is crawling with Asians and other variations of tourists. But mainly Asians.

Day 3

Moment of truth. Meet with the park ranger to discuss backcountry camping and hiking. Thank goodness, no problems. We secured 6 nights worth of camping over 40ish miles. Easy enough. Northern Y-rock. Out of the Park, into the National Forest. Gallatin National Forest specifically. Out of Wyoming, into Montana. Begin the trek today. Hike 2 miles or so to the beautiful 2H6.

Day 4

Hike 4 or 5 miles into Montana and arrive at the even more beautiful 2H9. Only complaint thus far: mosquitos. Barf. Much hammocking. This trip is a little easier than I was expecting. I have no problem with that.

Day 5

Hike 6 or 7 miles into Gallatin National Forest (Absaroka wilderness is the cooler name). Not too bad. More mosquitos though. The National Forest runs on a "find your own campsite" basis, which could potentially rule, but in this case water is getting scarce and the conditions are getting a little less comfortable.

Day 6

Preface. We are supposed to hike about 7 miles today and camp once we hit the river. We get to where we are supposed to camp around noon only to find it is the marshiest place on earth. At this point we decided to hike the heck out of our lives and get to the car and figure something out from there. Best bad idea ever or worst good idea ever? Hmm... We make it back to the car at 5:30 and do around 20 miles by the end of the day. We treated ourselves to some noms at the Roosevelt Lodge and decided to sleep in the car. Worst bad idea ever. I slept until 2:30 AM then laid there until 5:30. (today didn't even deserve a picture.)

Day 7

Drive up to Mammoth Springs at 5:30 and see what there is to see. Meet some British blokes planning to swim in the springs. They ask "Is it a myth that you can't swim in these?" We reply "Well, we touched the water and it was warm, but the sign at the bottom says it can melt through boots." ..."Well I guess we just won't wear our boots then!" Banter.

We then drove to "Old Facefull" as the Asians say. Twas pretty cool. I wish it were louder, though. Our plan for the evening is to drive to South Grand Tetons and camp. We took a quick look at the atlas and decided it was out of our way to go there, and it was rainy anyway. So we drove to Estes Park to stay with some guys from Mizzou Zach knows. Along the way we pass through a prospective town for the commune. Fort Collins. That's a topic for another post though. We arrive in Estes at 9ish.

Day 8

We hung out in Estes Park with Chuck and John and others. Played some disc golf. Most importantly we saw Inception. Again, worth an entire other blog post. In short: best movie of the year. Todays picture is just cool. Not from Day 8, though.

Day 9

Wake up at 2 to hike Meeker and Longs. A 13,900' and a 14,200' mountain. 15 or so hours of hiking, but so worth it. Go to sleep at 6:30 and sleep until 9:30. My kind of night.

Day 10

Late wake up. Laundry. Boulder REI and oil change. Drive to Leadville aka Best Small town ever. Free camping for everyone! The way things should be. There aren't any pictures from here on because we don't have the little cord thing. Bummer Ted.

Day 11

Wake up and go to the local Episcopal Church. 28 person congregation. Pretty weird... But they do have a community meal 4 nights a week. Once again, the way things should be. Today we discover Provin' Grounds. Wi-Fi, coffee, and Zach has found a little lady he likes to call leggy. Or Katie. The name we think she has introduced herself as to other customers. Not us though. Neither have the guts to say anything, but "one refill please."

Day 12

Provin' Grounds and the newly discovered bar called "The Scarlet". Check it... 2 for $1 PBR from 3-7 every day. The thing about Pabst here is old men drink it because they like it. Hipsters don't drink it because they act like they like it. Mondays: $1 micro-brews. Plus a free concert. That's all that really needs to be said on The Scarlet.

Day 13

See day 12. Minus half the time being spent at The Scarlet. Plus scoping out our hike for day 14. Also, we decided to hammock through the night tonight due to our 2:00 wake up. It decided to rain but luckily we had the rain fly over us. Things didn't work out as much in our favor as they could have.

Day 14

2:00 AM wake up 3:00 AM hike start. We hiked the 2nd highest peak in the lower 48 and the tallest in Colorado. Pretty cool, but not nearly as cool as Meeker or Longs. We were up and down in 6 hours. And we went slow up. I am a grumpy hiker before the sun comes up. We made it back in time to catch a breakfast deal at this place called Tennessee Pass. Noms. Now we are at PG relaxing, reading, blogging, and planning out the next couple days.

Side-note. There is an 8 year old kid here who is probably the coolest person in the coffee shop. Reading Calvin and Hobbes, drinking an all-natural soda, and sitting in a wicker rocking chair.

He is going to grow up to be a ton cooler than anyone I will ever know.

Next stop Denver. Then Portland! Hopefully, more posts to come!

The Sunday Rundown

Thanksgiving 2009 just happened. 'Twas a very relaxing break, but I didn't do anything anywhere closely related to school. Blerg. Now the next two weeks of school are going to be filled with projects and finals preparation. I emailed my teachers to see if I can take finals early so I can go home a little early and see Lisa as soon as she arrives. I have been semi-successful thus far. 2 yeses and a no. Unfortunately the no means I will have to stick around most of Wednesday (the day Lisa returns). But I am still going to do my best to pull some charm out of my pockets and see about leaving earlier still.

Thanksgiving break, as I said earlier, was pretty bodacious. Hung out with old friends, new friends, family, friends families, etc. I think my favorite part was seeing my grandparents and playing ping-pong with them. They are late 60s and early 70s, but they can still whoop me in ping-pong. That may be that I am bad at the game, but I think I can usually hold my own but Grammy always finds a way to beat me. It's become a tradition since they got the table to have everyone play each other. It is tons of fun.

The food situation this year was ballin' as well. I believe we brined the turkey this year? I'm not entirely sure of what that entails, but it was scrumptious. Then of course we had rolls, casserole, stuffing and all that other good stuff. My Aunt from Oklahoma came in town too. Always good to see her!

We saw The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and that one country singer. It was pretty good. Definitely a Thanksgiving hit for the ol' box office. I have yet to see Fantastic Mr. Fox or The Road, but I am anxiously awaiting a day where I get to see them both. They look wonderful.

In other news, my great grandpa turned 92 today. Crazy. I can't imagine being alive for 72 more years.

I listened to Death Cab For Cutie's "The Photo Album" probably 7 times through on the drive back today. I freaking love that band. I will see them in the next year. That is a goal that will be met.

Okay, I can't write anymore of this because all I can think about is school and how I have so much to do. Next blog will be better. Promise.

Back2TheBlogosphere

After a long almost semester of hibernation from the blogging world I have decided to crawl out of my underground hideout/beaver dam/nest thing. (I have been in no such hideout, literally that is. Figuratively, I may have been in hiding. That is beside the point.)

I'm not* going to update you on what has happened since I have been gone, but I will however give a normal update just like I have in the past. Hopefully Sunday I will give a "Sunday Rundown".

This past weekend I went hiking/camping with my good friend Aaron Robinson. I hadn't done either activity in quite some time. This time it was on public property and we had no run-ins with local law enforcement. If you remember my blog about my last camping experience, you know it didn't go so well.

Aaron and I embarked on this journey Friday afternoon/evening and arrived in Compton Arkansas around 8P.M. We set up camp at the trailhead to Hemmed-In Hollow trail. Not too adventurous, but it was dark so we didn't have much of a choice. We slept alright, but did wake up around 2 and talked 'til probably 4. This is mainly attributed to the truck that pulled into the parking lot around 1:30 and shined their headlights in our tent. That's what we get for camping at the trailhead though.

Anyway, the next morning we woke up and made some breakfast and got on the trail. The hike was pretty relaxing and very downhill the whole way. About 3/4 of the way down I realized we would have to hike back up, which was less than exciting for me. But, we got to the bottom and saw the largest waterfall between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. So that was a pretty incredible sight. Except there hadn't been much rain in a while, so it was a little more of a "watertrickle" than it was a waterfall, but very cool nonetheless.

Hiking back up provoked both Aaron and I to start eating healthy and perhaps start a "getting in shape" regimen.** So far I have stuck to it and even went grocery shopping at Mama Jean's natural market. And it has been 3 days since I drank soda. So far so good... We will see how long this lasts though.

Day 2 got off to a bit of a slow start. Everywhere we went either looked like Disney World in that there were tons of people there or the road to the trailhead was a little too extreme for Aaron's '98 Civic to navigate. We ended up just doing a short hike that went along some bluffs for most of the way.

Since it was so short, we decided climbing around on the bluffs would be fun. After an hour or so of climbing and joking around, the inevitable happened... I, Cameron Wiley, a very accident prone person fell. Smacked my head, but not until after most of the rest of my body hit the rock below me. So we headed back early and once we got home and I had taken a shower around 5:30 or 6, the wound on the back of my skull was still bleeding. So, reluctantly, I went to the ER and got some staples in my head. 2 to be exact. Surprisingly, the process of getting chunks of metal in my head was not nearly as traumatic as one would expect. The anesthesia however was pretty painful. Needles do not belong in my head.

So, I am alive still and sick of typing now. 29 days until Lisa comes home. Thanksgiving break is going to be so relaxing. Finals are not going to be nearly as relaxing.

*The crisp air and looming possibility of snow made me type "nog" instead of "not" when I first typed this. I could definitely go for some egg nog sometime soon.

**I really hope I used this word correctly. If I am wrong, please let me know.

The Sunday Rundown

Today's post is going to sum up most of my summer.

Let's see if I even remember how to do this...

Alright folks, this summer was primarily spent at Camp War Eagle in Rogers Arkansas. It was truly incredible. I spent 100% of my days with kids and outside. Everything at camp revolves around the kids, and I love it for that reason. Also, everything is very open and in creation. I found this summer that is where I see God the most. In creation. God shows who He really is through other people. I spent all of my time with other people, so I saw a whole dang lot of who God is in them. And to top it all of I was in some of the most beautiful creation in America. Unfortunately, about 4 months ago my camera went missing, so I don't have a whole lot to show you "webbers". I did get a little disposable camera 6th session and I will have to upload some pictures at some point.

Music I'm digging on. Jordin Sparks- Battlefield. Jonas Brothers- Burnin' Up. Hannah Montana- Hoedown Throwdown. Matisyahu- One Day.

Books I enjoy. Hosea. It is great. I like it a lot, but I am going to have to do some reading and re-reading. Also I really want to start reading some classic literature. If you have any suggestions let me know.

Movies. I haven't watched any good movies lately. I just know I did not like Transformers 2. Talk about suckfest. I am however going to see 500 Days of Summer tonight. I'll report back later.

Nothing is on T.V. although I am going to commit to watching seasons 1 and 2 of Weeds this week with Zach.

I don't want to write anymore favorites and similar type things.

Lisa is in India. I have yet to actually talk to her. She did however leave me a message the other day on my home phone. Things are going well, but I am very anxious to actually talk to her, even if it is for only 3 minutes. But it sounds like things are going great and she is really enjoying herself. I miss her more than I could have imagined though.

Part of me wants to flash forward to December. But I am also really anxious to see how the separation goes and how God changes us.

But when it comes down to it I miss her like nobody's business.

In other news, I got an unlocked iPhone. Woot.