The Broken Radio Paradigm Part 3 (Not really)

Due to being away from my laptop all weekend and then having to suddenly go into work today I have had no time to type. I also work a ton the next few days but will try and type stuff as soon as possible. this is my formal apology for not having finished this story days ago as initially intended and also official oath that my task of finishing my story will be completed as soon as I get more than ten minutes of free time.

The Broken Radio Paradigm Part 2

Looks like this will most definitely be split in three parts. Possibly even four. For now you have the events of my Saturday to entertain and enthrall you... or bore you to tears.... whichever floats your goat.

Part 2

Where were we?.. Oh yes. I had finished up with Friday as being everything Rebecca Black promised it would be. On to Saturday now.

That night the youth had decided to start the movie Inception up at around 1:00 at night so Saturday morning no one wanted to wake, But awake we did as we had to leave the house we were staying at around 10:30am. In my car I had to actually drive youth this time which wasn't too bad but nonetheless uncomfortable. We got to the venue and it was already packed. I split from my group ASAP so I could go see Aaron Gillespie play his solo act. This, by the way, was amazing. Not only was he playing his solo act, but his current band The Almost was scheduled to play later, and his former band UnderOath was there as well. For those who are die-hard Almost fans this concert represented a huge event in music. While underoath were playing Aaron was visibly standing back-stage and I honestly thought he would join his old band for a few tunes, but alas he did not. For those who don't know why I love Gillespie I will post a link to a video he has called True meaning of being a Christian. All three Gillespie related groups were fantastic, but Gungor stole the show. If you don't know who Gungor is then seriously go look them up right now as they are a fantastic praise and worship band from Denver itself that also delves into some amazing ambiance and folk type stuff. They played with a Glockenspiel and a Cello which added so much to their live sound. 

Switchfoot was the headliner. I have been a fan since their sophomore release (two albums before anyone else even knew they existed). I have seen them before and was just as impressed with their new live show as I was three years ago. Despite many of their songs being much to mainstream for my taste their first three Indie records and their most recent two indie records should have a definite place on ones shelf of amazing rock music. 

I also go to see my long lost brother as he resides in Fort Collins currently so that was another plus to this weekend. I honestly could write show reviews for several of the acts of the concert, and could write album review for most of the act's entire discographies but I have found that most people get irked when I ramble about my love for music too much so I will simply end with saying that most of the acts seen at Heavenfest were quite superb.

After it ended we returned to the house and immediately the high-school guys and girls decided to, for lack of better term, "hit on" each other as loud as possible, but I came armed for battle this time. My brother has this weird knack for always having packs of ear plugs with him wherever and whenever, so I got a pair before he left the concert to go home. So with silence in my ears, joy in my life from the past two days, and hope in my soul for the next day I fell asleep.

The Broken Radio Paradigm Part 1

-NOTE: This was only part 1 of this post. I will hopefully be posting part 2 either tomorrow or the next day. Depending on how my writing process goes there might even be part 3 but we will see. I would have just written this all in one piece but this post is a lot bigger than just my road trip and just the sheer length of such a post seemed to ginormous to be climbed in one sitting. Also the story takes a rather drastic shift in tone and writing style and I figured it would be easier on both me and my readers (I like to pretend they are numerous) if I split it up into parts.  

Road Trip

Ah. Summertime... The time of heat, trees, bees, and large outdoor music festivals. At least that's what the last few month have consisted of for me.

Although I have been out of the "youth group" age for some time now I still accompany my church's youth on many a journey. Part of this is under the guise of being a "helper" but the truth is that I genuinely enjoy going on most of these trips. We had already been to "Night Vision Festival" earlier in the summer and that was all good fun. So even though "Heavenfest" was only two weeks later I was determined to get the days off work to go. 

The plan was set and I was to drive half of the boys in my car while my youth pastor would take the other half in his, with my mother driving the girls. Then all of the sudden one of the youth canceled so I would be driving myself. Once my father stumbled upon this knowledge he decided I should take a bicycle up to my brother in Fort Collins since I had an empty car. Almost all of these changes happened the day before I was to leave so it was nice to try and rearrange my entire travel plan last minute. However, I was determined to still make this an awesome trip regardless of how sporadic these changes had been. So I contacted a childhood friend who lived in the Denver Metro area to see if I could possibly meet up with her and her family on my way up. She said it would be fine, so once again my plans were slightly altered. Everything was set and packed so I left early Friday morning full of anticipation for the upcoming weekend. Little did I know it would be quite a bit different than expected. (that last sentence sounds much more dramatic than it should, but doesn't the world need more drama?)

I was driving in a 90's Buick LeSaber that had no AC, no radio, and no CD player. Also my iPod had recently passed away so I was forced to used a small SD card to listen to music through my phone. Even though I had put 8 GB worth of music on this card, only one album was actually playing and it was Dance or Die by Family Force 5. Now I am not one to be hating on the Family but I can't sanely take 6 hours of them repeating over and over, but I had no other option so I killed brain cells one by one for the 348 miles. Not to worry though as the trip was about to take a change for the better. 

When I got to my old childhood friends house I was quite nervous for multiple reasons. Firstly I wasn't entirely certain on the address as there are about three streets in the surrounding area with almost identical names and I didn't fancy having to knock on an incorrect door as that leads to awkward social interactions and unnecessary hot beverages. Nevertheless once I pulled up to what I thought was the right address I summoned my courage and walked towards the door. 

It was the second I first rang the door bell that I encountered my second fear that I hadn't even thought about until that instant. What if this family can't stand me? I had only reconnected with members of this family less than a year ago and even that was just through facebook. I have found over the years that getting along with people over facebook and getting along in real life can be two different thing. Shortly after entering the house it was clear that the reasoning for this fear had absolutely no basis. It was like slipping through the space-time wormhole encountered in Enterprise season 2. It was as though no time had passed and I was back at their house with my childhood best friend.This family was leaps and bounds more awesome than any group of people I had met in a long time and it was refreshing to be around people than were equally as nerdy as I am. Seconds turned to minutes, which in turn became hours and soon I found my phone bursting with angry text messages from my brother wondering why I hadn't been at his house hours ago, but I honestly didn't care. Eventually a great night of catching up, and singing about how we hate the homeless...... ness problem had to come to an end as my mother was convinced that I was hours behind the rest of my youth group (which were now in Fort Collins even though they left about 6 hours after I did).

I caught up to the rest of my group within only a few minutes and all was good. Thus ended a great day and perfect prelude of the awesomeness to come....

Blog time

I am not here to make excuses for why I never post on this as regularly as I originality claimed. I have come to realize that this blog is more for my own benefit as a place to store memories and thoughts and, on rare occasion when I get the nerve, to post these writing. I have many posts I have written this summer but most will forever remain for my eyes only. I used to go back and try to polish and change them enough so I would feel okay posting them but eventually I realized that I was becoming a slave to the one thing I had started as a way to relieve slavery (that is to say slavery to my own thoughts). I will still post stuff for readers as I will in about 20 second from when I post this one, but I will not promise weekly or even monthly postings in the future. This blog is for me much more than for others. If there comes a time when I do get the urge to post more frequently it will be because I wish it. No more looming guilty thoughts of "Bennie, you haven't posted in your blog for about two months... you suck!". Not that anyone really has complained, or ever cares, but by posting this I am freeing myself of blog-guilt.

Live Long and Prosper,
Bennie Renfro

I love Harry Potter more than J.K. Rowling

Do you remember that time Bennie convinced himself that he would write once a week on this blog? Well that never happened. I have a couple of posts I am still working on, but between work, sleep, and being awesome 24/7 I never seem to work on finishing them. The only reason I am writing right now and not off destroying walls of prejudice is that I just now realized I have yet to write a post about Harry Potter. So here goes....

Most people reading this are probably wondering why I need to devote an entire post to HP, but very few people actually know how much my life tends to hinge on this series. 

When I was much younger my mother had forbade me from reading the Potter books as they were "satanic". Apparently she had read some article about Rowling's supposed real-life witchcraft that inspired her novels. Let me state up front that any such account is false. J.K. Rowling has stated on multiple occasions that she does not, and never has, believed in magic. She HAS stated that she believes in God. Any tabloid that says otherwise is plainly false. Anywho, around my sixth grade year she told me I was free to read whatever I wanted as she firmly believed I was old enough to form thoughts and opinions on my own apparently. I actually read in a jumbled order my first time as my school library had only books 3 and 4 on the shelf. Now I don't want to brag, but  I finished book three and four within two days as I had absoliutely no life back then apart from reading. Side note: I actually still held the school record for reading three years after I left midschool; it may still hold but I am far to lazy to go check at this point.... The main point of all this was to simply explain that from the first moment I started reading the books I was in love. This was not fleeting teenage crush. No, this was something much deeper and heartfelt.

Shortly after I started the series the 5th book came out so it was not a long wait at all. I think this is why I never made a huge deal out of the release. However when HBP came out it was a much different story. At this time in my life I had many "friends", but none that I would "hang" with on a consistent basis. Due to this I spent most of my summer days at home. My sister was always too polite and quite to bother me much, but my older brother liked to make it his life goal to ruin mine. This was no cute sibling rivalry; so get nice pictures of joyful teasing out of your mind. My brother emotionally and mentally manipulated and abused me simply for the sheer knowledge that he could. I hold none of this against him now, and I don't even think he knows how bad he was, but my parents and sister were witnesses to this. Due to this abuse I would usually stay locked away in my room reading. I could relate to Harry in this way as his summer months were usually spent in similar ways. Harry had a few things up on me though. 

First, and most obviously, he had friends at school who deeply cared for him. Even though I had "friends" that I would occasionally joke around with, I never really had true friends when I was younger and even up into parts of high school. The people I considered my friends would usually let me eat lunch with them, but when they would go do what normal kids do after school (have fun) I was never invited. So even during the school year I really just had my books. 

Harry also excelled at various things. These included quiddich, Defence against the Dark Arts, coming up with witty retorts to bullying, and having courage to stand for what's right. I did cross-country and track, but was almost always last. I was so bad at music that I was the first student ever not to be allowed to march in Bayfield. Whenever someone was mean to me I always ended up looking the less intelligent at word-play. And my faith was very far from being my own. 

At this point I realize this sounds much like a whiny sob-story, but it is about to turn around.

After reading the final HP book something clicked in my brain. I finally realized the point of it all. I finally figured what made Harry such a likable character, and it was just that: his character. Though far from perfect Harry exemplifies what it truly means to fight for what is right. To hold love, honor, and equality above ones own selfish agenda. I  could go on for hours about how the inner/overarcing themes of HP are the perfect example of altruism, but for your sake I wont. I finally realized how petty I am, and how much of a waste of a life I had been. It revolutionized my way of thinking. Not overnight mind you. This process has been long and still may never be completely finished, but it was the Harry Potter series that helped me start. It was this series that made me strive for perfection in music, which after only eight months of playing drums I was not only marching with the band, but I was drumline captain. By another four months I was outplaying the top drumset player who had been drumming for close to seven years. I say none of this to brag, but only to make an example of what determination can do. Also for the record my mile time is close to two whole minutes faster than when I last did track.

I have the HP audiobooks and now have listened trough the series close to twenty times (no joke). I have also ready through the series 8 times. I listen to these books at work, in the car, at home during Christmas, and virtually anywhere I can. I am so emotionally tied to this series that every time I finish book seven's epilogue I go on the verge of tears for about two days straight. I become so emotionally impassioned that I have twice now packed up all that I own in an attempt to simply just leave my town right then and go devote my life to doing good and bringing down evil wizards. 

I know there was little point to this post and the thoughts are very scattered, but it was about time I wrote about this. Also I had been meaning to write on this blog for a few weeks and this just seemed like the easiest topic to write on as my other works (aka. my written testimony) have just been to mentally difficult and draining to write, as that post I am trying to make perfect. If you haven't read the series then please do as it is amazing beyond proper explanation  I hope you enjoyed my rant on Harry Potter. If you did not enjoy it then I apologize for wasting your time... Actually that was a lie. It's your own dang fault for reading this.

Live Long and Prosper,

Benjamin Renfro

Working as a professional geek.

It has been quite a while since my last entry and it really has just been due to laziness on my part. I have typed up many entries for this blog but have just simply been too lazy to edit and post them. I ended my first full year of higher education about five weeks ago and immediately after that I took a trip. My trip, though overdue, was kept short because my job had told me to "be back by Tuesday". Well long story short I didn't actually work until Thursday... Two and a half weeks later. If I had known this while on my trip I could have done so much more with my free time. Instead I spent my time watching TOS of Star Trek and perfecting my game at table tennis. As I had gotten out of school weeks before any of my friends, in either college or HS, I quite literally had nothing to do. I wrote another entry about my two weeks of boredom, but this will most likely get posted first. 

Anywho, I finally started work for my company after two weeks. First off I should give some back-story/explanation as to what it is that I do. Summer after my Senior year of HS I started this job as it payed extremely well for the amount of effort the employee must put in. My technical position is that I hold a stop/slow paddle for a control safety company in road construction. Even though this is what I was initially hired for last summer, I had told the company up front that I was only working for three months until school started. Because of this I got to go and do special projects and travel around the state for free. This was all fine and dandy as I love getting paid good money to simply drive to a project, on company dime, and then return the next day. I had no permanent project last summer and I liked it that way. 

This summer, however, was a different story. Due to the economy my company had laid off about half of their employees during the winter. Because I had been such an exemplary worker last summer they were still eager to hire me back on. I should explain that most of their employees were ex-cons and other such types to the point where I, who am nothing too special, was considered a diamond of a find as far as my company was concerned... getting back on track now. I was hired back on but didn't work for two weeks straight. 

Once I had work they put me permanently on a project. I like mixing it up as much as possible so being stuck on the same road for three months didn't sound very appealing to me, but nonetheless I trudged on. I was situated on the south side of the project right around a corner so none of the other workers could see me. The road was also pretty scarce as far as vehicular numberage goes. This was great because I listen to my iPod all day on the job and like to punch-dance my rage as much as possible. Aside from music I also have every Harry Potter book on tape and enjoy acting out scenes as they are read to me. 

Now at this point you must be thinking, "This job sounds like an absolute delight", but trust me it isn't all peaches and unicorn fluff. I have to leave my house at 5:30 am to get to work, and I return around 8:30. I literally got home, ate dinner, made my lunch for the next day, and then went to sleep so it could all repeat. The only day off I got was Sunday and I usually just went to church and then slept the rest of the day. The hours were plenty, but at some point 60 hour weeks are just too much. Plus being in the sun literally from dawn till dusk is EXTREMELY draining. 

Back to the plot at hand. I love my Harry Potter time dearly and getting to scare passing cars by shooting stunning spells is always fun. I will confess that I am truly in love with the HP series. I read through the entire series at least once a year, and listen through it about three times a year. Over all I would guess I have gone through all seven books about 20 times in my life and can quote a good portion of most the books by heart. As far as getting to listen to the tales and woes of Harry, Ron, and Hermione,  I do love that part of the job. Unfortunately there is no amount of Firebolts or Nimbus 2000s that can keep me content when it gets around 5:00 in the afternoon and I am just dead tired. So at that point I just try to stay awake by having enormous amounts of fun. Here is a list of things I would do to entertain myself.

-Shout "'ello Govna" to passing cars.

-Pretend to be a dinosaur.

-Engage in long conversations about the differences between river and sea otters with the front car in my stopped pack. (This one rarely went well).

-See how many times I could flip my walky-talky without dropping it. Record: 482 flips

-Whenever I would talk on the radio I would strain my voice in different ways to convey opposing messages. I.e. I would say "received and sending" as though I were an Australasian man who was very anxious about an unforeseen doom.

-When cars were stopped I would just stare at them and softly sing the Poke'mon theme music.

-Make approaching cars think I was a very talented tap-dancer. Note: I am NOT a tap-dancer.

... As time, and days, wore on my stunts grew increasingly strange and absurd. Luckily no one reported me to the supervisor. Although as a non-smoking, non-alcoholic flagger I don't think they would have been mad at all considering that, unlike my other flaggers, I don't show up to work drunk.

During my two weeks of boredom I had started to apply at other places as a last-ditch effort. about three weeks after I finally got work with my traffic job I ended it with the company on very good terms. I now work a simply perfect job at a tee-shirt shop on Main St. were I get to sell people tee-shirts while impersonating a British person. I always try to make the most fun out of everything I do, which usually lands me with almost everyone thinking I am very strange indeed... Oh well, that's life I guess.

Live long, and Prosper,

Benjamin Renfro.

How I spend rainy Mondays

So due to both bad weather and yet another day without hearing from my job about work I found myself in my kitchen experimenting with food. I decided to fix pancakes. Keep in mind I was not intent on "making" pancakes so much as "fixing" the whole idea of pancakes. I tried small pans, large pans, different consistencies of batter, different temperatures, different cook times, and finally experimenting with using different foods as filling in some of the abnormally large pancakes. After much conclusive research I have finally perfected the ultimate food, and because it is so different from the so-called "pancakes" you mere mortals are used to, I have decided to call my creation "(insert insanely awesome food name here)".

1.)You get a 3 inch diameter, 1 inch deep pan and fill it to the brim with pancake batter.

It will rise to about an inch above the edge of the pan so be very careful. Eventually you will have a reasonably hard shell on the bottom and on the sides of the "pancake" with the center still being liquid. You will want to have the stove on very low heat so it may take some time to reach this bowl-like state. The overall shape will looked almost like a ball so don't be discouraged if what you are making looks nothing like a pancake.

2.) Insert 3-5 Double Stuff Oreos into the liquid center and push them down into the cake until there are no visible corners left.

Once cooked these Oreos will be very soft and warm because they absorb some of the still-liquid pancake batter.

3.) Flip the spherical monstrosity so the other side can cook.

You might be thinking to yourself, "This guy is insane! You cannot flip this thing because it is still half liquid". Your complains, while well reasoned, are invalid. There is no easy way to do the flipping, but after flipping two in a row without a mess I can proudly say that it is possible.

4.) Continue to cook at extremely low heat for as long as possible without burning. Remove when done.

The lower the heat the better. Because the cake should be almost a sphere it is very hard to cook thoroughly. Surprisingly adding Oreos helps the heat spread to the middle. There is no foolproof way to tell when the middle it done. the great wisdom I have as a cook helps me determine when it is ready, but obviously not everyone can be as gifted as I am at cooking. (That last bit was intended as sarcasm)

5.) Eat your new favorite meal and then never admit to anyone that you actually enjoyed this revolting sounding dish.

Note: After eating this you will most likely get extremely bored, watch a few lonely hours of Doogie Howser MD., and then feel the sudden need to post about this dish on your blog... or at least that's what happened when I ate it...

... dang I hate being home alone on days too rainy to go outside...