Lost

Melissa and I have recently started renting and watching the show Lost in preparation for the start of the new season on Sept. 21st. The show, so far, is excellent, and I would recommend it to anyone. I really enjoy some of the themes that have come up in the show so far, such as fear, destiny, fate, and friendship. A recent development in the show has led me to a curious question. A scouting party has just found a source of fresh water in the jungle far away from the beach where their plane crashed on the unknown island. The survivors are forced into the decision of going to try and live in the cave at the water source or staying on the beach where there is a better chance for someone to see and rescue them. At this point, they have been on the island for over a week without any sign of rescue. At the end of the show, the group splits in two with some staying on the beach and others going into the jungle and the water supply. So, my question is which place would you go? I think I would go into the jungle because it would be easier to set up a camp there and work from that. Do you hold on to a frail hope or do you take advantage of what you have and see what you can do from there?

Fledgling Mechanic, Part 2

Wow, it really has been a long time since I've last posted. The college life will do that I guess. If you all remember, I made a previous post about trying to fix Melissa's car and the absolute hilarity that ensued. Well, last week I went to get my oil changed and discovered that my brakes were worn down thin, and I was in critical need of new ones on all four wheels. Much to my chagrin, this was going to cost approximately 400 dollars (400 dollars we don't have, of course). Well, in my indignation, I said "it can't be that hard and I've got some friends who have done it before." So I called up Lucas to see what he was doing on Labor Day and we decided to get together to fix the brakes along with Luke's dad. The front brakes were no problem. We were done in less than 10 minutes per wheel. The rear brakes, however, were a different story. The rear brakes are shoe brakes and Luke's dad had never done shoe brakes before so we were on our own. We had to go borrow parts from another church member and even with those parts, it still took forever. The most interesting part about it was watching Lucas and his dad get frustrated with each other. We got them fixed, and they are working so far which is great because it saved us 300 bucks.

After this event, I was contemplating my recent surge of mechanical activity and realized that a person can really do anything when hard-pressed, especially if you know the right people. If I had had the money, I would have payed the mechanic no problem. But, desperation is a powerful force. It has worked twice for me now, at least with cars.