New URL

2006-01-24T15:20:00.000-05:00

I have moved this blog to www.ghoti143.com.

Back in Black

2006-01-12T17:13:00.000-05:00

I hope the famed AC/DC song is running through your head right now, as that was my deliberate intent. If it is, please enjoy. It's a good song. But alas, the title also holds weight as I have officially moved back to the small Southwest Virginia town where I attended college for the past 6 years -- Blacksburg! It was a four year degree by the way.

I have moved back for various reasons: the friends, the small town life, the lack of parental influence, and a job. My job is shaping up to be pretty sweet. I will be working for a friend named Abe who owns his own custom website development firm (www.essejnet.com). The pay and hours are a little low right now, but I expect both to be improving with time. I am more in it for the experience, though. I will learn some sweet new skills and can wear flip flops to work. Since I'm not rich, though, I will have to find another job in the interim. Although I am opposed to it (moreso because my friends are opposed to it than any other reason), I will hand my application to the local (haha!) Starbucks manager tomorrow morning. Cut me some slack...they give health care benefits to their part time employees!

I love my parents, but I'm sure many of you can attest to the oddity that is living with your parents post graduation. It's just not natural.

I like the fact that I can ride a bike anywhere I need to go in Blacksburg. And they have a farmer's market.

I still have some really amazing friends here, and I am looking forward to the snowboarding trips, the climbing, the drinking of good beer in biblically acceptable portions, and the late night discussions.

Update

2005-12-05T19:25:00.000-05:00

I guess I should let everyone know what I've been up to since graduating last May...

About a week after graduation, two fine gentlemen with the last name of McFadden accompanied me on a monumental road trip to Alaska. We had been planning this journey for about 6 months, and I cannot express to you the feelings as we pulled out of the McFadden driveway at 1AM finally underway. Of course we forgot something about 15 minutes down the road and had to turn back. I don't recall what we forgot.

The next 2.5 weeks was amazing. We stopped in MO for a few nights and stayed the night on a horse farm. I fell off a horse. Then on to Guffey, CO where we stayed a few nights with relatives of the Brothers McF. Then north to Yellowstone, where we admired fields full of Bison and scoffed at Old Faithful as we embarked on a 30 mile backcountry adventure. It was supposed to be 20 miles, but we got lost.

Next was the Icefields Parkway which runs north through the amazing National Parks of Banff and Jasper...words cannot do the beauty that God has created up there justice. Then onto Dawson Creek, BC and the start of the Alaska Highway. Everyone wants to know two things. 1) what kind of wildlife did you see? and 2) what was the condition of the road. For no reason in particular, I will answer the questions in reverse order. 2) The road was in excellent condition...only a few miles was gravel, and these were in construction zones. We didn't have even one flat tire. 1) The question should really be phrased, "What kind of wildlife didn't you see?" And then the answer would be: "elephants, giraffes, and kangaroos." With the exception of those three, we saw pretty much EVERYTHING!

Our first planned stop was in Skagway, AK. It is a little (pop: 800) city at the northern most crevice of Alaska's famed Inside Passage. We had planned on stopping here because an elder McFadden brother was stationed here for the summer driving tour buses in order to save money for seminary. So our plan was to stay for a few nights, eat all of his food, sleep in his bed, and then press on into the interior. Well, upon arrival in Skagway, we were taken aback. The weather was BEAUTIFUL (67 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale), and the trees were leafed. Up until this point, all we saw were coniferous forests, but the low altitude and relatively mild climate permits deciduous varieties in Skagway.

Well, long story short, we stayed. Ken and Colin stayed until the beginning of August and I stayed until the end of the tourist season in late September. It must have been the most amazing summer of my life. We met such quality people. I could talk forever about the beauty of the surroundings, but in reality, it is the people that kept us there. Bill McFadden (patriarch of the McFadden clan) asked each of his sons and myself what the best thing about Skagway was, and we each independently replied, "the people we met." There is something about the place, but it draws a certain type of person that can be found no place else. Friendly, outgoing, giving, kind, intriguing, and intelligent are a few adjectives that immediately come to mind. And above all of that, there is also an amazing community of Christians there as well. God blessed me this summer with some absolutely amazing fellowship.

So, I worked as a crazy old prospector, teaching tourists how to pan for gold, and loved almost every second of it. Of course there are those occasions when you are in the thick of things that you don't necessarily love it, but looking back on it, I have such fond memories. I got to carry around 4k worth of gold nuggets, and pretend to be a drunk old prospector all day. Pretty much my perfect job.

At the end of September, seven of us piled into my van and a Jeep Wrangler, and headed south. We retraced my original route through Banff and Jasper, and then headed west to Vancouver. In Vancouver I got to see Ian McFadden again, and attend a few seminary classes with him. It definitely sparked an interest in me to pursue an M. Div. degree. Then south to Seattle where I had a few days to check out the sights before myself and 4 others embarked on yet another journey...this time to the east.

Our first stop was Minneapolis, MN where we attended John Piper's annual conference. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. I was very blessed by some amazing speakers, and it just left an awesome sense of how good God is -- even in the face of some horrible sufferings. It was good preparation for our next stop, which was New Orleans, LA.

We got set up with Samaritan's Purse and started tarping roofs, removing trees, and tearing down drywall. We met some of the most amazing people down there. These people had just lost everything that they had -- which was not much in the first place -- and yet the still continued to give God all the glory. It was phenomenal. I complain when something goes bad at work, or I fail a test. But these people have lived through a class 4 hurricane, and yet they are just as cheerful and thankful as I imagine they were before.

The highlight must be the Baptist church we attended on one Sunday morning. The 5 of us were the only white folks in the place. Oh man...they were swaying and clapping and singing. It was the most amazing worship I had been a part of in quite some time. After church that Sunday, we had the day off, so we drove east to check out the damage that had occurred along the Gulf Coast. What we found is indescribable. It was like the beauty along the Icefields Parkway, but different. It was breathtaking to stand in what used to be someone's kitchen. There were no longer any walls or accessories, but you could see the black and white checkered tiles that signified the history of food preparation and consumption that likely occurred here. And you survey the land, and all you see are these foundations. Large foundations. Likely multi-million dollar homes. All just completely destroyed. And then to know that you worship a God that has control over waves such as the ones that caused this destruction.

After LA, it was back to VA. I visited with a few friends in Blacksburg, and then headed home to live with my parents. Humbling. I decided to live at home, get a decent job, and pay off debt and that is what I am currently doing. I am training to be a Tech Support dude for some local computer company. The pay isn't great, but the work is interesting. I get to talk to people everyday, which I love.

It's pretty boring around here since I have 0 friends here. The last time I have had any roots in the area was 8 years ago. So any friends I had have moved on by now. I am visiting a PCA church in Hampton, VA and hopefully God will start blessing me with some fellowship there. I have also decided after talking with a certain Kenneth McFadden to pursue flying lessons. My current dream is to become a MAF (Missions Aviation Fellowship) pilot and fly small prop planes around 3rd world countries supporting missionaries, delivering supplies, and transporting sick/injured people to and from the missions field.

If you have read this far, thank you! And if we haven't talked in a while, hit me up. I'd love to hear from you.

Well, here I am

2005-12-05T19:16:00.000-05:00

I thought I would never do this, but here I am writing my first blog entry. I feel like a sell out. But I've got too many thoughts in my head, and it feels good to get them out on paper. I guess this isn't really paper, but you get the idea. I realized that I should probably start one of these things after sending two massively long emails to some person I don't even know. It just felt good to write my thoughts and have someone else read them. So now I will let the internet at large read aforementioned thoughts. That really begs the question, "Who in their right mind will want to read my blog?" I guess I'll find out...

I am the Haggerty

New URL

Back in Black

Update

Well, here I am