All is not lost, Greenspan's still here!

One thing I realized during my year as an RA as I walked through all the old abandoned rooms at the end of the year: you never know what treasures you'll find!

Long live the hidden treasures!

611 Online is dead. Long live 611 Online.

So is everyone moving to Dusty's site?

Traber 611 online ....again

This afternoon I was playing around with my server and I set up a Traber 611 website. The domain is www.WheatonThunder.com . There is a private closed floor forum that only T6 members can access. Everyone else who we allow registration to will be able to access the rest of the site, and forums which are "open floors", meaning they can interact with us. You also find photo galleries to upload your favorite digital photos to, a chat room, messaging system, shout outs, and other things. The entire site is protected from search engines, so you don’t have to worry about the rest of the world finding what goes on inside Traber 611 Online. I hope this can help fix some things and cultivate a better community. -- Dusty

Hey Dusty

Is your email down? I tried writing to you but my message came right back to me... anyway, someone I know at Wheaton wants to know if your brother still has the old forum kicking around on his hard drive or something; he wants to have it so he can bring it back to life.

Are guys getting short changed?

Here is an article that suggests that the books for children, especially in US school systems are disproportionately discouraging boys to quit reading more than girls.

http://www.washingtonpost.com
/wp-dyn/articles/A33956-2005Jan24.html

Bring It.

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Open floor or not?

Okay, I will ask the question. And I suppose I am the fitting one to ask it, considering my long-held feelings on the open floor policy.

Why don't we open this conversation to a select group of faithful visitors (or otherwise beloved friends/romances of ours) to room 611? And I am thinking in particular of females! If we assume that none of our conversation would drift into "inappropriate" waters (to which I think we can all agree we have been keeping each other accountable) then why not enjoy the immeasurable benefit of the female voice? Especially those voices from which we have derived such great lessons and companionship in the past.

I absolutely see the great benefit of keeping it to the boys, but seeing as it's a public forum, regardless, maybe we might as well include the other half of our T6 friendships. Wasn't T6 famous for our good relations with the sisters?

I'm happy with our beautiful site the way it is. But I'd also love to have open these conversations to the spouses, soccer players, Alias watchers, etc. who are important to us and would like to be a part of it. Thoughts?

The Entity Formerly Known As Mr. Satan (TEFKAMS)

I didn't think it was fair that our friend would be so rudely censored and shunned without publicly displaying his obvious distress, and so I boldy post his visage for all to behold and d...e...s...p...a...i...r.

Submit to Alan

By popular demand...or at least Coye's demand... and in honor of Mr. Strauss's career move.

Taking the position

I'm going to officially accept the Federal Reserve job tomorrow, barring something unusual.

Wheaties

It’s always funny how you find Wheaties in random places. As some of you know, I attend a church that was started in 1999 by Michael W. Smith. He leads the worship and other various aspects of the church. Anyhow, after church today we were talking about some of the theology at the church and the background of its members. Debbie, his wife, asked where I graduated from, and it turns out that she is an ’80 grad from Wheaton. This church has been the answer to many of my prayers. I wanted to find one up here that was dedicated to serving the community, and one which provided for great fellowship and discipleship within the church. I think there are about 300 members in New River Fellowship. If any of you come to the Nashville area, I will be happy to bring you along. The worship is fantastic and it’s always a plus to be singing new songs that have not hit the mainstream market yet. You might also run into other favorites such as Third Day or Chris Rice!

A House Rule

Please be mindful of the fact that this Blog is 1) public access and 2) based off wheaton relationships: what you say about wheaton folk will probably be read by those wheaton folk at one time or another. So please be respectful and courtious in the way that you refer to people you may have known or known about at Wheaton, especially people of the opposite sex.

I'd expect this of all of us in any case, but especially so in that this is an open access community.

I hope this suffices to get my point across.

BookMark Collection

Hey, I wonder if there is a way we can post our bookmark files to this blog. I would love to see the cool/informative/fun/indispensible links you all have found in your browsing over the years.
I'll look into it...but does one of you already know a way?

gainful employment and other rumors

Gainful Emplyment: that elusive hind we hunt through the forrest of "I just got out of college". How often it escapes us. Well, that's strange...anyways, as I posted earlier, I haven't really had a steady job since August, and all I've done in the last two months is a little editing work for a doctor I know. Since the people at Sallie Mae don't really care about the difficulties of finding a job in Amarillo, I was beginning to get a little worried about the lack of any reliable income. Well, I finally got to do an interview today at a youth shelter I applied at almost two weeks ago. The interview went pretty well; actually, it went so well that I am starting tomorrow night. I'm excited to have a job and to have a job that I feel like is meaningful (I was dreading the possibility of returning to a waitstaff position). I really feel like God's planning and timing have been at work here because this is pretty much the absolute last week I had to look for work before I had to break down and wait tables. I finally told Him, "Hey, look, I've done what I can and this is Your thing now," and then this job opens up. I am a little nervous about starting out, though, because working with these kids is going to be a lot more important than making sure someone's steak is cooked medium rare. But I feel like God got me into it, so I think He'll help me through it. I would appreciate your prayers. I'll let you know how the job is once I get a chance see for myself.

Also, I was watching a joint lecture at UCSB given by a Jewish Rabbi and a Muslim professor, and I realized that I know even less about Islam than I do Judaism. If any of you have come across any good material/venues for learning about the third Abrahamic monotheism, I would appreciate you pointing me in that direction. I would really prefer firsthand sources if you know any, but right now I'm kind of clueless.

One more prayer request: my great-grandmother died this week, and we had her funeral today. I hadn't seen or talked to her in more than a decade, so it's not exactly hitting me hard, but I know that it's hard for a lot of my mom's family (it was her mom's mom). She was 93 and had 37 great-grandchildren (including me). That's a lot of people to be the cause of.

Love you guys! Especially you, Dusty, in that fantastic flight suit!

Another day at the office 

Moving on up (or sideways)

Some of you already knew that this might be coming, but I got an official job offer from the Federal Reserve System (the Greenspan group) today. Please, pray that I will make a wise decision that pleases God. I have to make a decision by Wednesday and will likely tell my current boss about the offer on Monday. Yikes!!! Have a good weekend everybody, unless you're already there (Ryan and Steve).

OH MAN!! YOU GUYS HAVE TO SEE THIS!!!!

Japanese Ping-Pong Matrix

I was channel surfing here in Japan, and happened to stumble upon this little variety show gem. So I recorded it and posted it here. Enjoy. This is so funny and talent-requiring.

George Bush' inaugural address

Does anybody else want to talk about how much they love George Bush? I could hardly contain myself after his inaugural address today. He has got to be one of the wisest men in power today, among our politicians, judges, bureaucrats, celebrities, and media figures. He reminds me of Solomon. He is my hero (one of them). And he is from Texas. And I have his autograph. Yeehaw!

I guess it's time for my update.

I guess there are enough people on board now that I can post my "major life update" because I know you were all losing sleep, wondering what I'm doing now. This may end up being very long...

Well, as most of you know, I dropped out of Wheaton after my Sophomore year. If any of you are wondering why I did that, well, I am too. I have some theories, but I don't think I'll ever figure out what led me to leave. Alienation from my major was part of it. However, looking back I view it as a huge mistake, mainly because I missed out on a great opportunity to continue my friendships with all of you guys. Many of you were the best friends I ever had, and I don't think I'll ever find that kind of friendship again. It's my fault for squandering that. It was especially painful when I would come back to visit, and I got to see what I'd passed up...but you had all moved on and I hadn't. I Still haven't.

Since leaving Wheaton, I've maintained my long-standing job at Meijer, the Wal-Mart wannabe of Michigan. I'm working on completeing my ninth year as an employee there. I was considered for promotion this summer, but was ultimately passed over due to the rampant cronyism and politics that go on. I can't say that I enjoy my job at all. I've been trying to quit for the last three years with no success. It is a steady income, which has been nice, but the job is terrible and takes a lot out of me, so it's not really worth it.

Aside from my job, the only relatively consistent aspect of my life has been my pursuit of recording music. I continue to get more equipment, which ends up sitting unused because I'm not good enough to write music that I feel like recording. The Aeijtzsche & H magic is gone. Grady and I record occasionally as he mentioned, but our opportunity to do that can be rare and short-lived, so we have yet to do anything substantial. If anybody cares, I now have Three electric guitars, four electric basses, four acoustic guitars, a piano, an electric piano, a full drumset, a bag full of percussion instruments, six microphones, a flute, a trumpet, a violin, and I experimented with a tenor saxophone this summer. As I mentioned earlier, I have managed to record only about 5-7 original full songs in the last four years, I just don't have a muse.


When I'm not working or buying outrageously expensive musical equipment for which I have no use, I'm generally going through a series of obsessions.

When I first left college, I decided to join the local Rugby side. I was pumping a lot of iron and became quite the athletic person. I was enjoying playing rugby and was looking forward to moving up the ranks on the team. Then one day, I lost interest.

I moved on to my Australian football phase, then an Anime phase, then I sort of had a golf phase. Currently, I'm obsessed with Beach Boys trivia and history, and have become one of the leading Beach Boys experts in the world. If any of you haven't listened to the Beach Boys beyond their surfing and car songs, I encourage you to do so, starting with their 1965 work "Today!" and going through their mid 70s LPs.

As for future plans, I really don't have any ambition, so I suspect I'll live out my days working at Meijer. It's a living. I've been trying to move to Chicago or possibly back to Los Angeles, but I don't have any sort of drive or resources so I've given up.

So there it is. The cookies have been spilled.

Lung Capacity and Other Such Musings

so Rudy....

Five Guesses

Who can guess who our newest member is? --->

TV turns your brain to mush, and other rumors

Some time ago, during one of our many conversations in the front room of the Graham House, Steve, Ryan and I wondered to ourselves whether there was scientific data to support the notion that television makes you dumber, but we (perhaps due to our television-induced shortened attention spans) never followed up on the question. Perhaps this article can revive the conversation, and serve as an opportunity to reflect on our experience of technology (topic of mutual interest #2).

Christine Rosen’s article, “The Age of Egocasting,” appears in the most recent issue of The New Atlantis.

Excerpts:

Meat powder made Pavlov’s dogs drool; TV affects our brains like that. And now with TiVo and iPod, we control the meat powder...

TiVo, iPod, and other technologies of personalization are conditioning us to be the kind of consumers who are, as Joseph Wood Krutch warned long ago, “incapable of anything except habit and prejudice,” with our needs always preemptively satisfied. But it is worth asking how forceful we want this divining of our tastes to become. Already, you cannot order a book from Amazon.com without a half-dozen DVD, appliance, and CD recommendations fan-dancing before you...

Benjamin feared that our impatience would eventually destroy the “aura” of art and eliminate the humility we ought to bring to our contemplation of it. But we haven’t destroyed art’s aura so much as we have transferred it to something else. Aura now resides in the technological devices with which we reproduce art and image. We talk about our technologies in a way (and grant to them the power over our imagination) that used to be reserved for art and religion. TiVo is God’s machine, the iPod plays our own personal symphonies, and each device brings with it its own series of individualized rituals. What we don’t seem to realize is that ritual thoroughly personalized is no longer religion or art. It is fetish. And unlike religion and art, which encourage us to transcend our own experience, fetish urges us to return obsessively to the sounds and images of an arrested stage of development.

Enjoy.

To: Adam

Adam,

It's been a while since we've heard from you; I know you have very little time on your hands... but I wanted to start a little "blog-card," you know, from all of us, so that when you do read this blog, you have a little something for you.

So, we can use the comment space to say hi to you. I know we could always use email, but emails boring.

A Vote

I can change the template of the blog at any time. Personally, I'm ready for a change in look--anyone else? If I get, ummmm, four :) or so yeses, I'll cange it straight-away.

Coye told me to, so I did

an act of impulsive following.

Can you guess which one is Quentin Tarantino?

If you can't tell, click on each picture to get a closer look.

hm...

so, i've got some gift certificates to spend... what should i get?

1) iPod
or
2) digital camera?

thoughts?

A Topic of Mutual Interest

Writer and theorist Stanley Fish wrote a column on Friday for the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled One University under God, which has a little bit of everything, and as such might serve as our first non-Dusty "topic of mutual interest": political and economic theory for our friends in DC, literary and cultural theory for the academics, and even references to Law and Order and Die Hard for anti-PhDeezzz like Aeijtzsche. I'd love to hear responses.

An excerpt:

"As we entered the last decade of the century, it could still be said that the wall of separation was pretty much in place. But in the last 15 years a lot has changed, and by 2000, observers were alert to the change and commenting on it. Peter Beinert, in the midst of the Bush-Gore election campaign, predicted that 'religion will increasingly replace electoral politics as the realm where battles for the national soul are fought.'
"We now know that he was not quite right: What we saw in the election of 2004 was the inter-penetration of religion and electoral politics, with professions of personal faith becoming as important or more important than the announcement of policy positions. "

and just one more:

"When Jacques Derrida died I was called by a reporter who wanted know what would succeed high theory and the triumvirate of race, gender, and class as the center of intellectual energy in the academy. I answered like a shot: religion. "

Discuss among yourselves.

it's me! 

Custer? indeed...

so, for those of you who are wondering what custer is up to, here's an update. he's in fresnillo, mexico right now working at a mission down there doin' stuff. he sent out an update a couple days ago with this newsletter attached. why he didn't just put the two pages of it in one file, i'm not sure, but it's custer, so i've learned not to ask...

Page One

Page Two

A Parable for Pedagogues

Well friends, it is the first day of the semester here at the unnamed Midwestern university at which I am pursuing those three small letters so coveted by many of us (are just three letters really adequate compensation for so many years of toil? Are they? Discuss.) and I have already perpetrated my first pedagogical error upon my unwitting freshmen. To those of you who may one day find yourselves in some variety of classroom, heed my tale of woe and seek a better path.

The first day of my classes is fairly painless for all parties—in fifteen or twenty minutes I run through the syllabus, highlighting course policies and generally intimidating my students with the sheer volume of writing this course requires. I also read through the roster to determine who has shown up and who has not, and it is at this point, admittedly an easy step in the class period, that I recognized the folly of not reading through the roster before class begins. Things started off well, with the Stevens, Megans and Davids who populate the early half of the list not posing much of a problem. And then my eyes lighted upon “Phantthavong, Bountthaivanh,” and I knew I was in trouble. It only took a moment for me to recognize that I would not be able to sound my way through this name. The very length was daunting, to say nothing of the unexpected contiguity of consonants, the unclear geographic origins, and the roomful of students eyeing me nerviously as they went about forming their first impressions of their instructor. I decided to punt. I skipped the name on the list and then asked at the end if there were any names I had not called. Right on cue, this student raised his hand, pronounced his name, and disaster was averted. However, you would be well advised to prepare more thoroughly than did this hapless graduate student, should you find yourself in similar waters.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear

hey guys!

so, i finally got on here... thanks to coye and dave. i suppose that i should give a quick update as to what i've been doing with myself.

well, after leaving wheaton 3 days into my senior year, i went to live with my father who, along with his wife, moved to northfield, mn (st. olaf and carleton are here). i needed some time to figure out what i actually wanted to do with myself and to "de-wheatonize".
so, after a year and a half of doing various jobs and looking at finishing college, i'm going back to school tomorrow. i'm only taking one class this spring (algebra - hehehe). i'm currently enrolled at metropolitan state university in st. paul. but, in the fall i'm planning on transfering to the university of st. thomas, and i'm looking at majoring in accounting... seriously.

so, i'be been making friends, hanging out with family and keeping myself busy as of late. i'm excited to actually go back to school and make good on the first three years toward my degree.

profs

I'm not sure if you all have subscribed to the Wheaton Record, but it seems that more profs are on their way out in similar fashion to that one Anthro prof we had...Dr. Bolyanatz (or some spelling?). Also that prof that was also the pastor at Church of the Great Shepherd is leaving.

A Topic of Mutual Interest

Not long ago, a certain Mr. Logemann suggested that we attempt to strike up a conversation on, and I quote, "a topic of mutual interest." Hmmmm. Anybody got any great ideas?

Comments for Dusty's Story

C'mon Dusty, you didn't thing clicking a little no box would prevent us from making comments, did you?

Comix

yum.

Futbol v. Football

The times they are a changing. Luke Armerding, Andy Strauss, David DeGroot, and Brett Swearingen have been rounding up former Wheaton students for Sunday afternoon football games. We initially tried to do soccer but got little to no interest beyond us. The December game was fun; holidays have stalled us. We're hoping that the games can be a regular event, but we still love soccer. I'm trying to get my fix by going to an indoor soccer facility on Thurs. nights and filling in for teams short on players. Luke and Dave are relieving a small part of their soccer craving by playing FIFA at my apartment on the weekend sometimes. I think Brett still prefers Asteroids over any video/computer games from beyond 1985.

Here's a post for everyone

Hi guys. I guess it's been awhile since I've seen, heard or talked to most of you but I have to say that it's been great to read and to catch up on your lives. Major thanks to Dave for putting this blog together and to Strauss for sending me the e-mail. I've missed the T-6 gang.
Well, lets see.... I'm still living here in Missouri. I stay with my family which isn't as bad as I thought it might be. It's actually allowed me to grow a lot closer to them and it's let me be a lot more active in the lives of my three younger brothers (the last of which just started driving!!).
I'm pretty involved with music at the local college where I've been studying voice for the last two years. Ryan, you might get a kick out of me singing opera now. Especially after all of those debates we had freshman year about praise music vs. classical music as an aid to worship. Dr. Leon Burke III, my voice teacher, has become a really great friend and mentor to me over the last two years and has introduced me to some really great musicians including his teacher James Uselmann who teaches here in St. Louis and at the Uselmann/Klein studio in California. Jim is also really great about giving me advice and I never thought I'd become friends with someone who used to sing for the Met! I don't know where I'm going with my music yet, only that I love
to sing. Maybe a combination of private teaching and some performing will be where I end up. I guess we'll see.
Now, what I do to pay the bills is somewhat less glamorous. I started working for a McDonald's near the college almost two years ago. This was only meant to be a short term job so that I could pay the bills, but they were really good to work with and within one year I was promoted to assistant manager of the store and placed on salary working for the owners (we're a franchised store, not corporate). Being manager is a lot tougher and more stressful than I ever would have thought. I have about 75-85 employees working for me, I put in about 45-50 hour per week and I handle all of our purchasing (not too easy for a store with yearly net sales of over 2.5 million). Sometimes I think my head is just going to explode right off of my body!
Currently there is no romantic interest in my life. I had a really serious relationship with a wonderful girl named Nichole until she dumped me a month ago. I'm still trying to work my way through a lot of emotional turmoil related to this one. Two weeks after she left me she got drunk and tried to find me because she was suicidal. I found her and stayed with her and convinced her that she had to get professional help. I drove her in to a hospital and stayed with her while she checked herself into their psych ward. It felt like I was abandoning her when I left her there. I went back to visit her three times in the next week and a half while she was there. They diagnosed her with clinical depression and said that she is probably also manic depressive which explains most of the unexplainable problems that occurred in our relationship. But when she got out she didn't want anything to do with me, it was almost like having her dump me a second time. So I think I'll try being single again for a good long while.
I go to church at the same church I grew up in, Trinity Presbyterian, but conversely my family has left and is helping to start a new church plant twenty minutes west of our home. I've visited the new church several times but I just don't fell called to go there. Luckily my family understood that and hasn't bothered me about not going to their church with them(except on holidays).
I think that's enough about me for now. Further questions are certainly welcome. Oh, also, this year I get two weeks of paid vacation and I don't have clue what I'm going to do with them or where I'll go. Can you guys give me some good suggestions? I have to put in my requests in the next week or so. I write more later. Peace to you all.

Prayer Requests, Praises, and Answered Prayers

Pretty self explanatory. It's the virtual floor fellowship.

Brad Kaspar

Dave, has Brad Kaspar asked for permissions to the site? For those of you who don't know him, Brad was on the floor in 1999-2000. He was a beast on the football pitch who joined our soccer ranks in soccer on the tennis courts and later played on the Warsqw Pact among other things. For those of you who do know him, I know he would like to catch up with those of you whom he has lost touch with. His email is ghost42880@yahoo.com.

I don't want to steal all of his news and thunder in case he later posts himself, but he is hoping to leave soon to do full time missions in the Czech Republic. I'm sure he would gladly share updates on his preparation with you and welcome any support that you wish to give him through prayer or finances. He has to have all of his monthly support pledged before his missions agency will let him leave.

Hobbies

What are people doing with their free time besides blogging? Surely, somebody has some fun hobbies to share. Feel free to use the term hobbies loosely.

Did this die already?

No new topics in almost a week...are you all too busy becoming P-h-Deez?