[profound ramblings]

Isaiah's House

2006-11-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Went to Isaiah's House again tonight, it was so awesome.

The highligh of the night was the first that happened when i first walked through the door. This kid named Santos saw me coming and started sprinting across the back yard and seriously like leaped into my arms, the whole time screaming - "david!!!!!!"

It was so cool - i didnt really think that anybody would remember me.

I love life.

Behind the Music

2006-10-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

New segment number dos - where the little known facts about david come to the surface for all to see. This one is not so much stories and memoirs; more of random facts and such.

(in case your wondering, yes - this whole thing will be in third person... its more dramatic.)

Lets get it started.

Did you know that david ulrich has not been inside a barber shop slash hair salon since he was in 7th grade? That's a good 5ish years ago... he realized after mean mister barber butchered his haircut in a hideous deformity of a bowl, that he could no longer trust such an evil power with his faithful tresses. Poor, innocent, 11 year old davey sat in the chair and kindly asked the old man for a trim - and mean mister lazy-face decided that it would take to long to use scissors so he pulled out his trusty easy-shaver... which in some foreign countries is considered a WoMD.

(weapon of mass destruction)

A few years and a handful or mom-hair snips later, davids hair was once again getting to the point of, as some call it, too long. We wanted to get his hair cut - but his poor old mum wouldn't be home for at least a few more hours - and david was tired and needy of sleep. So, david took in hand his freshly sharpened scissors and looked in the mirror and went to work. A few minutes passed, and before he realized what he had done, david realized that the once mopish hunk of hair on his head had now become an ameturely sculpted faux-hawk, which worked out great because back in those days - cheap, choppy haircuts were all the rage.

Since that day - david has continued to cut his hair with an integrity and loyalty that no mere barber could match.

(definantly not david - but i would not be suprised if this person cut their own hair as well.)

Caught Red Handed V 1.0

2006-10-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

welcome to the new segment of my life.

(this is not a drill.)

I thought i would start out with the most pathetic chunk of my youth-hood. Everyone has a thing or two from back in the day that turns their face red just thinking about it - well... whatever yours is - i can almost guarantee you mine is worse.

If your reading this - that means you probably know me, and you probably know or even share my passion for music. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself "say david, where did that music thing come from?"

Well lemme tell you about it, when I was in fourth grade - I went to my first "concert." I say that in satirical quotation marks because looking back - a couple of unplugged instruments and an entire lip-synced set doesn’t exactly qualify as a concert.

Ok – here it is… the moment of truth, "who was it david?? who was this horrid mockery of music?"

I like hanson.

Yes... it’s true - and yes, I am probably blushing as you read this. Back in the day - I guess I was just naive and couldn’t see through the stage lights and air-guitar solos... but for some reason, I just thought these guys were soo cool. It was Taylor that first inspired me to play the piano; I knew when I sat there in the back of that packed stadium, surrounded by sweaty girls with braces and creepy old dudes... that some day I would grow up and become a musician.

Well... here I am - thank you Hanson, I couldn’t have done it without you.

Sabbath what?

2006-10-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

Wow - week two and i am yet to have decent sabbath/sleep in/do little to nothing day. I havent really slept in past 7 in the last two weeks... im pretty tired, on the verge of exhaustion, and semi-approaching burntouthood.

Wednesday is going to be a great day - thank you saddleback valley school district for inventing late start days. Thats a whole two hours extra. Love it.

Its gonna be a long week.

Isiah's House

2006-10-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

im sorry...

2006-10-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

im heaps busy lately - i havent had any time to blog - but a good one is to come, i promise. Its gonna be a picture - interactive exploration of Isaih's House, so stay tuned for more details.

MLA = My Lame Assignment

2006-09-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

I just finished writing a 17 hundred word essay for my english class that i probably could have summarized into blog form in ten minutes... but instead i spent the last 6 hours of my life slaving away on microsoft word.

Let me just start by saying - i hate everything about MLA format, all it does is limit your creativity and force you to follow someone elses writing stlye instead of just writing your thoughts.

My enlgish teacher last year was a genius, i developed my writing skills more in his class then i ever have - because he didnt go by the book. We wrote one MLA paper the entire year, only because we had to or else he would loose his job... but besides that, we basically had no writing guidelines to writing. He would be like "write a paper about an experiance that changed your life, turn it in next week" then our right brians would take over and write a brilliant paper.

Now... this year on the other hand isn't quite as adventerous. We got our first writing assignment over the course of the last week and a half - and i was the most painful thing i have ever written. He handed us an outline on the first day of the process, and it seriously had every single sentence that we had to write on our paper, it was like.

Paragraph 1 - 2 sentences on something that happened that changed you
Paragraph 2 - Indent 1 line, start 4 spaces over. 16 words about how you liked it...
Paragraph 3 - Write 3 1/2 sentences about what you look like
Paragraph 4 - 7 sentences on the topic using only pronouns...

Yes... maybe i exagerated a little bit but it was seriously RIDICULOUS. I am writing a paper about this worship night we had in florida and instead of getting to write about my experiance with God and what i learned, i had to write about what color the carpet was and what brand my jeans were...

Please - if you share my same concenrs with MLA and ridiculously formatted papers, express your opinions via comments, i would enjoy your thoughts.

Once upon a time...

2006-09-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

i decided to add a new segment where i tell stories from my past, or maybe somebody esles, or maybe ill just make up stuff, but either way - its sure to be worth the read.

Edition 1.0

Lets start back in grade school, how about third grade? I was a pretty average third grader; average height, average age, average intellegence, and an average haircut (back in the day, all we had were bowl cuts... which we so kindly referred to as 'step cuts'). I never really liked school growing up. I didnt really start hating school until about 7th grade, but thats not what im talking about right now.

During my elemtary years, i went through the same phases that every other kid did. I played soccer for a little bit, tried my harders at meet the masters, tried to skateboard (gave that one up quick), went through the pokemon thing, then i bought a razor in 5th or 6th grade.

Like i said... average.

I usually grew out of these various aspirations over the course of about a few months... but there was only one thing i kinda stuck to.

In the summer between my third and fourth grade year - i tried something that was still kinda ordinary, but a little more underground; music. Taking piano lessons is almost like a right of passage for a young boy that can turn his life down a totally different path if you decide to stick with it; or you can just give up as soon after you finish playing mary had a little lamb for the 4 hundreth time and your fingers get tired of practicing the same scales over and over again.

Well, i am some sort of combination between the two. I took lessons for about 2 years, then gave and didnt play again until high school. I had a crazy piano teacher named Mrs. Sears who had a talking parrot and a psyco husband that collected insects for fun... pretty weird.

But that leads me to the highlight of this feiry tale... the beautiful maiden who i met in another time who was to some day be returned to her noble knight. Crazy old sears made me do a duet to this dumb song called dinosaur romp... or something. I had to go every day after school to some random girls house and play this stupid song so that we wouldnt look stupid when we got to our recital. A few weeks later - the recital came and we played our little duet, and all the deaf old people clapped and we assumed we would never see eachother again.

Little did i know at the time, that the same girl who i played a piano duet with in the third grade would one day become one of my closest friends. Her name is alli reinhardt - we have been good friends since 7th grade and it us all the way until we started playing music in HSM band to realize.... hey, this seems awefully familiar. Have i played with you somewhere before??

Small world eh?

Well like all fairy tails, this one has a happy ending. Were still friends and still play together to this day - and probably will for a great time to come.

Thank you alli for being a part of my past, present, and future.

philio-photos

2006-09-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

[ if you break it down, that means the love of pictures
so i thought i would share some of my favorites ]

if a picture is really worth a thousand words... then this is by far the longest blog i have ever written.

Four Corners

2006-09-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

So, today i had the wonderful oppertunity of dining with a good friend of mine named kevin reeves at the court de la food. (thats food court in spanish... in case you were wondering)

He had daphnes and i had delicous chow mein, then after we ate we walked over to wall mart and found some old pictures of his... but obviously im not just gonna write a blog about my magical trip to wallmart.

How silly of you for even thinking such blashphemey.

Anyways, after our arrond running adventure, we walked back to the food court and sat down in a relativly plain looking bench. The thing i didnt know - was that this was no ordinary bench. Oh no. This bench was planted square in the middle of a magical world where dreams come true and destinies are made. Ever corner turned a new adventure awaits.

At one point while we were sitting, i head a noise behind us and turned around to find two kids, probably like 7 or 9 years old (definantly not 8 though) who were appearantly spying on us. One was making his way up a little palm tree to get a view of the strangers in their homeland.

Then out from the bush ran 3 more boys, probably 8 years of age - all wearing black and white striped baseball uniforms, recently muddied from a game. Then ran in front of us and started formulating some sort of battle plan as it looked like. I couldnt really tell what they were doing... the starting picking positions at some light poles with a little water drain in the middle. What i didnt know but soon figured out when the middle boy - who was appearantly the captian of the group, shouted out for 2 more of their friends to come join their expeditions.

"four corners!!! Lets go, hurry up!!!"

(then came the ever infamous anthem of childhood)

123... NOT IT!!!

It was one of the coolest things i have seen in quite some time - and trust me, i do see a lot of things, so this was a pretty sweet deal. This group of 5 boys managed to turn a couple of infrastructural lighting-fixrues and a sewage drain pipe into a full fledged game of four corners. I probably have walked by those lightposts thirty times and never even seen them there.

This is the kind of creativity and enginuity that our society - or schools, our jobs, our churchs need today - leaders that can take the overseen and turn it into the focus point. Creativity like this can change the world in all the ways we never even realized.

I was watching finding neverland yesterday - absolutely incredible movie, highly recommended. There is a part in it that i think really applies to all this. The main character - a playwrite and imagineer is talking to his "nephew" peter and trying to explain how to be an author. It went something like this...

"But... i dont know what to write about?"

"write about the talking whale."

"What whale?"

"the one thats trapped in your imagination and dying to get out"

This is how we need to look at the world today, not as i gaint corperate system where we dont have a say, but more as a magical place where the impossible and outrageous become the tangible. A place where we see the invisible and transform it so everyone else can enjoy it with us.

Well, i guess its time to play.

123....... I'm it.

Think Happy Thoughts

2006-09-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason - Peter Pan came on my mind today whilst i was talking online with one of my dear friend alli.

Peter Pan had it pretty good didnt he? He just flew around all day having fun and fighting bad-guys, and just dwelt on all his happiness.

And he wore tights.

Maybe if we just all had a little fairy dust all of our problems would go away and we could just be... happy. Sounds pretty cool I guess, but sometimes im not so sure.

I wonder how Peter ever learned anything. I mean - he never messed up, he always won, and he didnt have anybody bigger then him telling him what to do. Maybe Tinkerbell just told him what to do... but then again - what does she know? All she can do is sneeze and make people fly with her nasty fairy boogers.

It got me thinking about growth. I mean - the whole philosophy of the Lost Boys was to "never grow up" and such. I wonder if this was because they didnt like the fact of getting old and having responsibilities... or if it was just because they couldnt live with themselves knowing that they dont have it all figured out. Have you ever noticed that about younger kids? To them, they have this entire world figured out, they dont really need anybody telling them how to live, they can get by just fine on their own.

The bummer is - i find myself thinking the same way a lot of the time. How many times a day do I do something stupid and ignore it and convince myself that I have got it all together? I was talking with my friend one time who was taking this class at school where the teacher started the year by saying "my only goal for this class is for you to leave realizing that you know a lot less then you thought you did when you got here."

It made me realize how little we know - and how we are so hopelessly stuck in a spot of not wanting to move forwards in our lives - being content with where we are and not looking to whats right in front of our faces. Every time I think I have got myself figured out - I blow it. Every time I finally think I have got it - I soon come to find... I dont.

Maybe its time to open our eyes and fly so we can fly out of neverland and into whats going on right now.

Fall Session

2006-09-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe that school starts tomorrow. I think its funny how easily our views of "forever" can change.

Have you ever noticed that when your in school, you feel like its been going on forever and you just cant wait to get out of it? But then turn it around and a few months later your in summer just wishing it would last forever.

Kinda an interesting thought.

This is going to be a revolutionary year, i can just feel it.

[Every dawn a new day to live]

Easy Cliches

2006-09-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

I was just talking with one of my friends - and it wasnt exactly a "lifes great" converstion. We talked for a bit then ended with a simple "goodnight".

I was thinking about how cliche that is just now, we always tell people goodnight, even if its not a good night. Even on movies and stuff - the couple will yell at eachother for hours, then it will end with the girl turning and saying for the last time to her (ex) lover "goodnight ____".

Im sure that he isnt going to go home and have a good time. Crying yourself to sleep doesnt sound very fun to me - staying up let regretting what you did during the day doesnt make it any better.

I think from now on I'll just skip right to the bedbugs part - cause you cant really tell someone to forget their emotions and sleep tight.

But you can always show your friends you love them by telling them to watch out for those nasty little critters.

Stupid bedbugs.

Spontaneity

2006-09-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Sooo... i know ive been talkin about it for a long time - but i finally did it.

Ladies and gentlement, whithout much further adue, i give you...

A junkie father in a broken family, acholic and crack addict... until one day...

He met a dude named Jesus and decided to turn his life around, and the passion that was so strong within him started showing in every part of his life - the fire in his soul took over his whole body starting with the top, and here he is today!!

(thast just a fancier way of setting up a "before and after" bit. The views expressed in this commentary are entirely opinionated and do not reflect the views of our producers and excutives.)

Crikey!

2006-09-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

Today is a sad day for animal lovers and discovery channel wathers alike, animal icon Steve Erwin, founder and king of crocodile hunting - animal enthuiast and enviornmentalist had his last animal encounter.

Steve was swimming off the coast of the great barrier reef fimling a new short film about the worlds most dangerous animals, when he got stung right through the heart by a giant sting ray.

They tried to rush him to a hospital - but he died before they go there.

Rest in peace steve, you will always be remembered as the true king of the jungle.

Oh praise God.

2006-09-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

So... stupid blogspot finally decided to remember my password.

I had it right the entire time... it just wasnt working for whatever reason.

For those of you who missed out - lemme fill you in. The "remember me" button got un-clicked so it decided to forget my password... then i forgot my password... then after weeks of intense soul-searching i finally remembered it, only to find that i was locked out from the system for trying to many times... and when i sent them an email about it - they sent me back a link to get it back.... but of course as soon as i clicked the link - a screen popped up that said "please log in to continue..."

Whatever. All that matters is im back not - im sure ill get back into the swing of things in no time.

Florida Video

2006-08-18T14:09:00.001-07:00

This is what i did in florida for 2 weeks.

Full video documentary of just us coming soon to a theater near you.

Editors Picks

2006-08-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

Leeland - Sound of Melodies

If you appreciate anything good at all, then you need to buy this album - just came out, you can get it at borders.

www.myspace.com/leelandmusic for a sneek peek

Eisely

A must have for anyone with a heart that pumps blood through their bodies.

http://www.eisley.com

(just thought you'd like to know what im in to.)

Am i the only one?

2006-08-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Does it bug anybody else that every time you click on a link on your blog - it turns purple forever?

I dont know why, it just drives me crazy.

Stupid purple...

Sucky Bands

2006-08-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Ugh - im so sick of lame bands sending me friends requests on myspace - i went through my friends request box today and had like 10 band requests... said yes to one.

If your a sucky band and your reading this... either get better - or give up tryin to make friends on myspace, cause im sick of you.

[probably a sucky band]

Swings.

2006-08-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

I dont know what i like about swings so much, i just really like them. Its kinda like flying, and every time you fall, it just lifts you higher.

This sounds like some set up for a deep extended metaphor about how we are shaped from our problems and stuff - but just know so my concience is clear - that wasnt my intention in writing this.

I just really love swings.

to be - or not to be?

2006-08-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

Kinda an itresting thought. Im not really a fan of shakespere - but i was sittin here thinkin and that line came in my head - so i figured id share my thoughts.

I was thinkin about it just now - "be" is one of those words we have kinda just always said and no one really thinks about what it really means. I looked it up - its defined as "To exist in actuality; to have life or reality."

What is our reality? What do we define or actuality as? What do we live for?

Theres something i've always found funny. On movies and stuff - people are always throwing out lines like "i would die for you."

Wow.

Thats legit.

I think its pretty lame. You see - choosing to die for anything doesnt really take any action - until you actually die, yet its made so glamorous and huge.

I think theres something bigger. Maybe there is a better why to prove yourself.

I think love isn't just shown in death - but in life. Anybody could die for something - but few people ever truly live for anything. death is inevetible - its the one thing that every one has in common - but living, thats the one thing that makes everyone unique.

Its funny that two things classified so hand in hand are really so different.

Maybe its time to start really living.

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
__Luke 9:23

Hume Lake

2006-08-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Holy poop-smif, im tired

Its been like 6,000 days since ive posted, dang.

Oh well... ill do it later

Useless Facts

2006-07-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

Mal Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny was allergic to carrots.

Crickets are used as burglar alarms in a small town in Japan.

The statue of liberty was bronze until acid rain started to erode away to its original color, green.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

All polar bears are left-handed.

In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.

There are around 178 sesame seeds in a McDonald’s big Mac.

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months, and 6 days you would make enough sound energy to heat coffee.

An average of 56% of your left hand does the typing.

It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

You can’t fold a piece of paper more than 7 times.

Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza everyday.

“Go,” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

If the population of China walked past you in a single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, but dogs only have about ten.

No word in the English language rhymes with, “month”.

You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than a poisonous spider.

Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food FROM freezing.

If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you would have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

When Heinz ketchup leaves to bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per year.

The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

35% of people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

Five Jell-O flavors that flopped are celery, coffee, cola, apple, and chocolate.

Dueling is legal is Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It to Beaver".

Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

The Bible has been translated into Klingon.

A shrimp's heart is in its head.

In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.

The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out.

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles?

In every episode of Seinfeld, there is a hidden Superman somewhere.

23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.

Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

fall.

2006-07-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

Ok... before we get into this, i need you to do a little something for me. I need you to get out of your chair, stand up, and walk around. You don't really need to walk anywhere in particular, maybe just walk to the nearest wall an back or something.

How crazy was that?

Have you ever thought about how much coordination and thought it takes to move your legs? Just standing up and walking takes the cooperation of over 200 muscles throughout your body.

Absoulutely nuts.

The funny thing is, its completely normal to us. Your average, healthy person walks over 1000 steps a day; that is 200 muscles woking 1000 times a day...

Thats like 20,0000 muscle movents in a day.

Its funny because we dont even think about it. What about back when we learned how to walk? We would stand up, move a bit, and fall.

I read this statistic that says the average toddler falls 750 times before he (or she) learns how to walk.

Hmm... it takes 750 falls, but then eventually we are doing 1,000 steps a day. Maybe if we just spent the whole day falling, we'd eventually get it.

Lets talk about our lives, becuase im pretty sure that there are no toddlers reading this in need of encouragement.

We fall a lot. We screw up, we do that thing we promised we wouldn't. We lie to our parents, we say something stupid to our friends, we go on that one website we promised we would never go to again.

Thats a lot of falls... but think of how great walking is going to be! Maybe if we just tried a little hard, stood up a little stronger, put one foot out a little further.

Maybe the last time you fell, was your 750th time...

Its your choice,
...why not choose walking?

obsessed.

2006-07-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

I decided that im obsessed with God, and i can't get enough of Him.

Let me explain.

Most obsessions are unhealthy, everybody knows that. "Obsessed" actually has a very negative connotation, when you hear that word you think of kids smoking pot or drinking or something, you never really thing of anything positive. I looked it up online - just out of curisoity, and the word actually means "To preoccupy the mind of excessively." On a different website, it says "influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a strong emotion."

Thast how i am with God, He's just so much in my mind, i cant get Him out - and i love it. Just knowing that theres a God who is so already preoccupied with all the worlds problems, like the war in Iraq and the AIDS epidemic worldwide, poverty and sadness... but knowing that He still has time for me? He sill has time to talk with me, to get to know me, to love me.

When you first realize this for the first time... well theres really no way to describe it. I was thinking about it today, all my little problems, that are so minute and seemingly meaningless, but the God of the universe still has time to help me out?

Wow.

Ever since I have been realizing that more and more, God keeps revealing Himself to me in so many amazing ways - mostly through nature. For some reason - every time I'm feeling bad, God always finds someway to tell me its ok, like today, i was walking home from school and i was really down, and i started to pray about it, then when i opened my eyes, right there in front of me was this flower. It was just an ordinary flower, those yellow ones with the black lines in the middle that grow mostly everywhere.

But this one was special.

I think it was the single most beautiful flower on the face of the planet. I picked it up and it was just like God was saying - david, dont worry, everythings going to be ok. So i kept walking home and kept looking at my new flower.

Its a really long walk home.

I got a lot of time to think on that walk home, and thats when i realized that im obsessed with God, and i was planning on just ending it there, but as i was just typing this - i realized something even better.

God is obsessed with me.

Thats why He sent his Son to die for everything I've done, thats why He loves me - no matter how much i mess up, thats why whenever I need help, He will get my attention.

Thats why God made flowers.

I mean really, whats the point of a flower? Its not really big enough to make a huge amount of oxygen. We cant eat them. They really just are there ---- for us.

Im obsessed with God, and He's obsessed back.

Pretty cool, huh?