Amazon.com just confirmed my order and it might be here as soon as Wednesday. I also ordered 2GBs of RAM to upgrade it and a CF memory card reader since I don’t have one. Now I don’t have to plug in my camera directly anymore, yay!

I guess this means I’m really committed to this YWAM trip since I had to sell my car to Israel just to buy this thing. Who would have thought Is would be driving my car, much less, in love with it?! lol

I’m still excited about the whole process gearing up for YWAM. And I have plenty of dumb questions like, “What’s my proof of health insurance and do I even have that?” Yeah, I’m kinda clueless sometimes. Maybe if Facebook had a tab for you to enter in all your health records and bank account statements I could keep everything in one place. Ooh, there could even be a manager for my credit card and social security numbers! (I’m not sure if I’m joking or not though. On one hand that sounds way more practical and easy to use but, on the other hand, it’s only one step away from “the Anti-Christ” as Dad would say.)

In other news:

• I think I’m going to try to see the island a bit more before I leave. We’ll see if that develops or not since I sort of need a driver.
• TJ and I decided that we’d be better friends if we didn’t live together and I think it’s for the best! Sometimes there’s just a bit too much over-exposure to someone when you live with them.
• House of Heroes is an awesome band and I’m really glad I bought their latest album: The End is not the End.
• I also died near downtown Chinatown on Saturday. There were some locals who didn’t like the idea of me being a tourist and taking pictures around them (a block away). Luckily God sent me an angel and she gave me a heads up. Something along the lines of, “Hey, you see those guys over there? They don’t like you taking pictures. They’re going to come over here and beat you up and take your camera. You better start walking up that street.”  Mmm, ok, thanks!
• The pictures turned out great though. A special thanks goes out to Lightroom 2.3 and Andrew Shinn for making that possible!
• Someone told me the other day that Kona is way hotter and has less rain than Honolulu. At first that didn’t sound so bad until they clarified and said it was just as humid. Now I have all the joys of Fresno weather with the one thing it lacks, intense humidity! (Speaking of weather conditions, the sarcasm on that last line should be palpable with an 80% chance of anger on the horizon)
• I’ve maxed out my 8GB Sansa with music and kinda want to get a new one since I’m in such a buying mood these days. Did I mention I made the switch from WMAs to MP3s? Amazon.com gets all the credit for that since the albums I buy online come in that format. I guess I can live with it…
• And lastly, on a more serious note, God has revealed to me that I can’t live in a board game free environment. It’s just not healthy. I need to roll some dice or steal someone’s cards soon or else I’m going to die!

Also, going back to my whole YWAM process, my next step is to send out support letters to all my friends and family. I’m even going to try to but a bit more focus on doing things electronically. Something along the lines of nice letters via email and a link to a PayPal account. I’m not sure if that will help more people out or not but it’s sure less of a burden for me, especially since I don’t have to deal with shipping fees or actual real life paper. I also want to put an emphasis on regular, weekly communication. The goal is to have new pictures and stories every week for people to read about. After all, people aren’t just praying for and supporting me for the short time leading up to my leaving but for the entire journey. I have a few special other features in store too. I think I’ll hold the rest of my hand close to my chest (also saves me an apology if I don’t follow through on them too).

Thanks for reading guys, you’ve been awesome. Don’t forget to tell all your friends and family about my site. Hopefully you can remember my first and last name and the complicated .com as well.

• I’ve finally fallen in love with one of those special program specific keys on my keyboard. This one happens to be the music player button. For some reason I’ve never used any of them before, aside from my occasional fling with the volume and mute keys. I guess they never held much significance until now.

  Which leads me to my next bullet…

• I’m obsessed with Relient K. I have their three latest cds and they’re simply amazing in every way. Their lead singer and song writer, Matt Thiessen, has a great deal of both lyrical and instrumental maturity. In the endless flood 0f generic, uninspired Christian bands, Relient K remains a shining star. (Before I throw every other band under the bus I also want to save: Needtobreathe, Anberlin, recent Jars of Clay, and some Newsboys, oh… and Coldplay!… wait a minute, huh?)

  Which, incidentally, also segways into my next bullet…

• The Christian music industry needs to either: A) wake up from their coma, or B) switch off life support and just die. What? Too much? Seriously though, even in the simple things they seem to be trailing the world. All the popular secular artists have their entire album collections online for people to stream for free, whether it be on MyPlay or Myspace. Now switch gears and check the artists on Christians music labels,”Umm, why are there only four songs? Are we still living in 2004?”

  Ok, originally I was intending to segue nicely into a new topic but this has just been so much fun and I’m recalling tons of things I want to mention annd/or rant about…

• In technology terms, 2004 roughly translates to the early 1800’s. With that said, I’m so glad I live in 2009. “What’s one of the benefits of 2009?” you may ask. Well, in a word: cloud. The quickest definition of cloud is that all your  information is stored online, probably on some server farm in Arizon, and you can access it via any device with an internet connection. Examples: box.net, my.yahoo.com, google mail/documents/calendar, facebook.com, etc. Because of cloud I know longer need a laptop, a jumpdrive, a day planner or even Microsoft Office. I can access my information from any computer I use, not to mention I can receive updates and reminders as text messages on my phone. Did I mention every single one of these sites and features is free? (Standard texting rates apply) lol. But the key difference with cloud based information and systems is that they only get better. You don’t have to purchase new software every year and upgrade. The internet is becoming more powerful as a tool (yay for firefox and add-ons!).