Merry Christmas

Greetings.
I do realize that it's been some time. I apologize for the irregularity in my posting, but I have again been somewhat busy in my studies. Now it's Christmas time again! Consequently, I felt the necessity for a holiday update on my life.
Short version: It's been fine.
Alternate version: School's been good. I've really been enjoying Greek and Biblical Interpretation. My other classes have been fine if not amazing. Next semester I'm required to start my internship. I'm not exactly sure where I'm doing that yet. I'm contemplating (due to the recommendation of some of those over me) either Palm Avenue Baptist Church (which I've been to once) or The Well (which I've never been to.) I'd appreciate your prayers regarding both the reduction of my anxiety and for clarification regarding God's will.
In other news, I'm very happy to be home. Zachary, Brenda, Emily, and Nanny are all here and Katie Ellyn and Justin will be here soonish. We've been having a good time just hanging out thus far. Zachary and I have been playing around with Linux lately (I'm actually working on this post in Mint Linux) and we've also been working on the Jeep's brakes. Good times.
Ted Dekker update: Amazingly enough, I didn't win the contest. Even so, I did my part and I have you, my faithful readers, to thank for it. Just to alert you, The Gathering (think the Star Trek Convention for Ted Dekker fans) is on April 20somethingth. It is this year to be only $25 and in both Chicago and Dallas. Those who go will get to listen to Dekker speak to his fans about his books and will receive a free copy of his new book The Bride Collector. It would be fun.
Uncle Randy, we watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy last night. I'm pretty sure that I was the only one who actually would say that I enjoyed it. It's possible Lauri enjoyed it, but Dad, Zachary, and poor Nanny are all convinced that it was the dumbest movie they've ever seen. I'll agree with them that it was incredibly stupid, but it was strangely entertaining. I'm still interesting in the book.
Substantially switching topics: 'tis only four more days until Christmas. Here's one of my new favorite songs.

I've been thinking about our (corporate) tendency to sing through songs and not think about the words. For me, this temptation is even stronger with Christmas songs. We know the tunes so well (we've been singing these very songs nearly all of our lives) and miss the intensity of the messages of the songs. If you feel like it, read through select lines to these songs without singing the tunes in your heads.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee,
Born this happy morning;
Jesus, to thee be glory given;
Word of the Father,
Now in flesh appearing.

Good Christian men, rejoice,
With heart and soul and voice!
Now ye need not fear the grave:
Jesus Christ was born to save;
Calls you one and calls you all,
To win His everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save.

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.
Merry Christmas.

The Adventures of LoLo*

*(Also known as, "The Beginning of my Second Year of School.")

It appears that I am now back at school. If you've talked to me about this year of school and believe you know all that I'm about to say, you're misinformed. Most of everything I've told you is incorrect. I am not rooming with one of my fellow classmates from last year. I am not in a studio apartment with just one other guy.

All of my thoughts were incorrect and not due to anything the school did or did not do. I simply didn't pay attention to the email confirmation that I received that told me that I would be in Lancer Arms instead of University Place. Anyway, I am in Lancer Arms 232 with four other guys: Ryan (a Christian Studies major), Randy (Ryan's brother and an English major), Matt (a volleyball player/business major), and Tim (a German exchange student who's not here yet.) I'm sharing a room with Matt and Tim and I'm hoping to take a video of the place when my roommates are gone. I'll then attempt to put it on my blog for anyone who cares.

Classes start on Thursday and until then I suppose I'll listen to my new David Crowder cds, visit with my sister who returns tomorrow from her new student retreat, and read The Hobbit.

In Ted Dekker news, I did get Green and have already read it and the Circle Series. I won't give any reviews here since some of you are unaware of the story, but I will tell you that if you go here then you can download a free copy of Black in e-book format. If that doesn't suit your fancy, you can also get the audiobook free from iTunes. Either way, I would highly recommend downloading the e-book and putting 7445 in the blank. It doesn't count as a recruit, but I do get 100 points a pop.

I would say that I'll be posting again soon, but I'm not sure when you'll hear from me next, either way: Elyon's Strength.

Hijau

Greetings recruits. Per the suggestion of one of your peers, I present to you my report as one from the upper echelons of the Forest Guard:

Name: calebawalker

Rank: Captain

Recruits: 40

Green Advertisements Distributed: 10

Family Members Who Are Reading or Have Read the Circle Trilogy: 7

Total Points: 5425

Comments: Technically I only have 38 recruits because one of my eager though less than brilliant participants chose to register thrice under very similar names. You'd think that if you're going to cheat, you might as well do it well. Whatever.

You may be asking, what can I do with this information? Well, the way I figure it, if every one of you that has already signed up gets one other person to read Green, I can have eighty (or seventy-eight) recruits. For those of you with blogs, get some non-family members who read your blogs to sign up! Those of you with friends, tell them to sign up! Those of you with jobs, tell all of your co-workers to sign up! Just imagine what we can do together!

In other news, I'm sorry that Uncle Randy's comic may soon be finished. I suppose you could start a COVwiki and have folks edit the different articles thereby providing you with new plot ideas. Either that or you could feign divine intervention forcing you to cease production of the strip. OR you could make a comic about reading Green. I'm not really sure what the punch line could be, but maybe you could make some strange sort of flashback cartoon in which the protagonists reminisce about the good old time when they first read the Circle trilogy. How you would manage that having not read the books yourself might be slightly more difficult, but I have faith in you.

I'm glad to be up here in Redding again with B, E, J, K, and Z. Lauri and I will just be hanging out for a weekend before we go to school. Emily's still the sweetest little girl ever in case y'all were starting to wonder.

Speaking of school, mine starts on the tenth of September. Should be more fun than a barrel of coasters. I am looking forward to the course material, but not to the returning of the campus. The sacrifices one must make...

By the way, the title of this blog post, as you might have guessed, is Green. Without cheating, can you guess which language it's in?

Verde

Well, here I am yet again. As you'll likely note, I've changed my background image. If I were more html savvy (or hteemulsavy) then I would make the image actually look nice, but alas. I cannot.

To begin, I'd like to thank all of you who are now recruits. There is a great likelihood that you do not yet know how excited you truly are. Am I right? Well, I have got some good news for you! There is a website at which you can all find out more about the book that you have so excitedly signed up to (read). It is http://teddekker.com/green/. Though y'all probably already think I'm slightly nuts regarding these books, I figured that I'd seal my fate with my next statement. When you go on the website, don't watch the opening video until you've read Black,

Red,

and White.

As you're all shaking your heads at my stupidity, read on. As I've told all of you whom I've talked to personally about the books, I can't reveal anything about the plots. To do so would be to spoil them slightly. This video on the website says some stuff about the first three that would rob you of some of the enjoyment (at least in my opinion.) However, you still ought to go on the website, if only for a couple of minutes, to look around and find out a little more about the books.

Regarding Forest Guard activity, I found out that they will no longer accept the reports of people saying that they've email friends about the books. Every time a member of the Forest Guard (a lieutenant in my case :) ) tells someone else about the books, they receive points toward the ultimate goal of a lunch with Ted Dekker and a sword inspired by the books (does this sound more and more like something I would like or what?). Anyway, that requires a cussload of recruits that I'm not even planning on aspiring for. However, to become a captain (my ultimate goal if you'll remember) you need 2000 points. Every time someone visits the website, I get 50 points! While I'm not really sure how they can verify this (or any of the other activities) for that matter, they're still accepting them.

All this to say, if you're bored to tears or you're really excited about Green, meander on over to http://www.teddekker.com/green/ and leave a comment saying you've done so. I trust you to tell the truth.

By the way, for those of you who've not yet signed up, (Granddad, Lindsay, and Justin Ward), you still can! Just go on over to www.teddekker.com/readgreen and my number is 7449.

Elyon's strength.

Green

Well, it's been a while. I went to Zachary and Brenda's house and had a blast. I do not have any pictures since they are on the cameras of both Dad and Brenda. I had fun. You can think in your mind how amazing such photos would be. Brenda's blog is the best site to see for yourselves.

I must admit, this blog post has been spawned more than slightly from ulterior motives. As many of you know, I have recently been raving about some new books that I have read and have already convinced more than one of you to read said books. They make the Twilight series pale in comparison. (Okay, so I've never read those books, but I have no doubt that this is true.) The greatest books I've ever read are written by Ted Dekker and entitled Black, Red,and White. They are part of the Circle Series: currently a Christian fiction/thriller trilogy that everyone would benefit by reading. I own all but five books written by Dekker and have liked all that I've read thus far (I haven't read all of his books but I own all but five.) The reason for today's post is to advertise for his newest book: Green.

I've been checking the Ted Dekker website much recently and finally, today, they've released information on The Forest Guard. Pretty much it is a campaign to get people acquainted with the Circle series. All the people that sign up are exhorted to let all the people they know about the books and encourage them to read them and to sign up on this website for updates and discounts on Dekker's books.

While I would encourage this anyway even if I weren't a part of the forest guard, you know have an extra incentive: if six people sign up for being a "recruit," then I am assured that my name will be written under the "lieutenant" section in the next Ted Dekker book.

Just think about it, my name could be in a Ted Dekker book! My name! In a Ted Dekker book! That would be, quite simply, one of the greatest things ever.

All that you, my faithful readers, would have to do is sign up for a few emails and say that your friend, number 7449, told you about this. Just think! Less than five minutes and you could be on your way to making Caleb Walker one of the happiest boys in Nevada!

So again, I would highly encourage all of you to read the Circle series and to go to http://teddekker.com/readgreen/, type in your name and email address, say that number 7449 told you about this, and get on your way to becoming as much of a Ted Dekker fanatic about this as I.

Update!!!

I just found out that if you get fifteen recruits, you can get your name printed in the "Captain" section of a Dekker book and get an advanced copy of his next book. Huzzah!

Dark Fours Rinsing

That's the second book in Timothy Zahn's trilogy.

I bet y'all thought that I'd forgotten about you concerning our fun trips. I realize that it's been a while since our vacation, but I might as well post the pictures that I was planning. The delay has been caused by our Village Missions conference and my presence here at Zachary and Brenda's house. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of this fun soonish, but until then, without further ado, the unveiling of our Seaworld pictures.

I'm a big fan of the Orcas. They are much more majestic than their cousins: regulation orcs.

I was pretty sure, beforehand, that whaling was illegal in most states these days, but I certainly enjoyed my portion.

There's a likelihood that I was a bigger fan of the Belugas than of anything else. For whatever reason, the all-white whales (or the all-black Pilot Whales which I have no pictures of) just greatly entertain me. Perchance my monochromatic preferences reflect my worldview?

Here's a good pic of Emily and her Grandma looking at said whales.

The shadowing in this pictures is a little bit of a bummer, but it's a nice one of both Emily and the polar bear.

And here's a great one of Emily, her parents, and her favorite animals in Seaworld, the Commerson's Dolphins.

Ere to the Imp's Ire

I didn't really have a good title to my post, so I decided to massacre the title of one of my favorite Star Wars books.

As you may have noticed, it has been more than a month since my last post. I had some intentions of updating my blog shortly after I returned from school, but I have not gotten around to it until today. The last month of school did indeed go well. I gave all my reports and took all my tests. I got pretty good grades on the stuff that I did and now I am glad that I have to do no more of said assignments until the end of August.

This past month I have been reading and playing video games. Pretty good summer so far. I know, in your mind you are saying, "What, this bum hasn't yet gotten a job?" To that I say, "I'm too pretty to work!" Well, actually, as y'all might have noticed, the job market is not extremely good right now. There is very little work in Pahrump, and even were a position to open up, it's tough because I know that there are a number of guys and gals in the church who need jobs to support families. If anything opens up, I'll probably let you know, but until then, it's helping out in the new building at the church and reading books.

The other thing we did this past month has already been revealed to you through both Brenda and Pop's blog. I thought that I'd just give you all the pictures that I'd like you to see in one post, but there are quite a few of them. Therefore, here's the first half of the festivity pictures.

I know this technically doesn't present any of the festivities, but both this picture and the next shows the old and new orders of the Expanded Universe canon, respectively. I thought you might like to see them.

This is a pretty good picture of Emily (and of her parents, I suppose.)

To begin with, Emily and I were playing on Mom and Dad's bed after church. She was telling me to "sleep good" (which she does with some regularity. Maybe she doesn't like to hang out with me whilst I'm awake?) Though I'm not completely certain about the order, eventually Emily invited all of us to come "sleep good" at the same time.

I do realize that, to place Legoland pictures here would be to present our vacation out of chronological order, but, since there are fewer of these than there are ones from Seaworld, I'm going to do it anyway.

I own the movie that that poster is advertising through legos. The only thing not made of legos in this picture is the stroller. Legoland is pretty amazing.

I was going to go on this roller coaster. All day long I was saying how much I'd like to ride it, but someone had to stay with Emily and keep Mom company. Who was in a better position?

It would seem that Zachary would be a little quicker to help while his daughter is being eaten by a shark. Strange.

This last picture is mostly entertaining. There's one thing I would fix, but it would seem unwise to crop so much of the picture. There is a picture with all of us looking at the camera and smiling, but you didn't come to my blog for good pictures, did you? That's what Brenda and Dad are for.

By the way, I just figure I'd remind you, Uncle Randy, that folks still read your blog. We just don't really know what to say most of the time.