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A Return of the Blog (Sort of)

James — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:50:28 +0000

One of my reasons that I stopped blogging is that I wanted to start designing website. Well the site I had been working on for the last 8 months is almost done which is giving me some time to start working in my own site. So this has been 2 hours of design sorry you can’t comment quite yet. still working on all that stuff.

Summer school

James — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:46:27 +0000

So 4 days into summer school. It’s pretty fun I have 9 second and third grade students that i’m instructing in math and reading and some language as well. I only work from eight to non so it’s a really quick and enjoyable day. The kids are fun and I’m learning how to balance struggling students with more brilliant ones. Especially becuase I have two classes together.
Renae And I are settling into our new place Tuesday we got our bookshelves set up and yesterday and today we are working on finishing cleaning our old place so I’m in for a busy afternoon. We I got to get back to the playground. I’m loving my iPhone.

-hold nothing back

Famous Dave’s Field Trip… and more

James — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:19:54 +0000

I know the what more important is the “and more” so I’ll start there. About 8:45 this morning I was told I needed to call my father at home. In my mind I immediately knew what I was going to be told. My Grandmother was just recently diagnosed with Lung Cancer and had been under some chemo which helped. About a month ago her doctors told that there wasn’t much more they could do, and gave her about a year. My parent had seen them on Saturday; they enjoyed the time. So I called my father and my dad told me that she had passed away last night in her sleep. They think the cause of death was a heart attack, however since she was a sleep the hospice nurse said she probably didn’t feel a thing. I went and found Renae and relay the news, and then talked with Pastor Davidson who was very comforting.

This afternoon, I had planned to take my yearbook class to Famous Dave’s in celebration of finishing the yearbook. None of my five students had ever been so we were in for a treat. The food was GREAT! the student’s loved it. I had the 2 meat combo with the beef brisket and a hot sausage link, with the sides of potato wedges and mashed potatoes, along with the cornbread and corn that always come with it. Here is some pics. Not going to do a restaurant review here, sorry.

-hold nothing back

-praise God because He’s active

Entirely Way Too Long

James — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:20:13 +0000

It has been a long time since the last time I blogged, especially since I said I was going to blog the day after my previous post. I guess I should make promises I cannot keep. I will admit I have been working on redoing Bethel’s website. Although the final version still maybe upwards of a month away.

Iron Chef was fun. The secret ingredient was cocoa powder. The game plan ended up to make stuff shell noodles with a spinach, cream cheese, ricotta cheese, and cocoa powder for the main dish. It turn out pretty descent. Our appetizer was cocoa biscuits, nasty things… we didn’t have baking powder and the girl helping out substituted it with baking soda nasty nasty nasty. For dessert we picked a winner going with a chocolate pizza… Topped with chocolate cream cheese, and chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, drizzled with chocolate. My group got second place…. oh well. if it weren’t for the nastybiscuits…

Everything else is going well. I’ve been able to keep up with the giants more this year than previous years, I have been listening to games on the radio which in great. they are doingok, 14-13 today. Second place in their division…. That means everyone else in the division with the exception of the blue team is doing horrible. The giants are 6.0 games back and have a 3 games series in LA this weekend… BEAT LA!!! BEAT LA!!!! Sweep the series and we’ll be only 3 games back. Which brings up an interesting topic. Manny… that’s rightManny Ramirez suspended for 50 games for taking a banded substance. Now is the time for any team in the NL West to capitalize on the blue team losing their star player. LET’S GO GIANTS!!!!! LET’S GO GIANTS!!!!!

To Jay, This next Tuesday afternoon I’m heading with my yearbook class to Famous Dave’s Restaurant in Long Beach. Totally looking forward to it.

To Everyone: Don’t forget to wish your mom a “Happy Mother’s Day” this Sunday!

-hold nothing back

here are some iron chef activity pics

Spring Festival and Iron Chef

James — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:50:26 +0000

Last night was Bethel Baptist School’s Spring Festival 2009. It was a blast. We had a 30 ft. inflatable slide, a jump house, a splash zone, can knock down, ping pong ball toss, dunk tank, and a ton of food. I was asked to volunteer for the dunk tank, so why not… just 15 minutes… It was pretty fun. I had told my class all week to be saving up there money to get me wet. At least 8 of my students tried to dunk my and several went 4 and 5 times if not more. I did the first 15 minutes of the festival just to get it done with; but I had a blast. Once I was out of the water I was helping supervise the dunk tank. About 2 hours later there was an empty block so I jumped in it again for another 15 minutes. My students all came running back to dunk me. This time I didn’t get dunked for like the first 10 minutes. still had fun though. One seventh or eight grader who had been trying to get people dunked all day, got up to try and get me in. I told him if he missed with all his throws I would jump in… so I had to jump in. after his third miss. By the end of the day, I was tired and exhausted. We went home; I forced myself to stay awake until the Giants had finished their games, beating the D-backs 5-1. And then Sleep.

Today is an event I have been looking forward to for nearly two months. Are youth group is having a “Iron Chef” style of event. We’ll meet at the church around noon. Pastor Matt will let us know the secret ingredient, and then we have about 3 hours to go shopping, go to our designated kitchen and make 4 courses which each contain the secrete ingredient. After the time is up we meet back at the church and have potluck with the prepared dishes. Each dish is judged by everyone and the group with the most points wins. I will probably write tomorrow to let you all know how it went. Complete with picture I hope.

- hold nothing back

Three 3.0+ Earthquakes

James — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:17:34 +0000

Probably my first memory as a kids was an earthquake. The Loma Prieta Earthquake 10/17/1989, I was not even 4 years old yet. My mom was cooking dinner, my Dad was doing some work in a library, and my older sister and I were probably playing. And it shook hard. Nothing broke in our house but there was a lot of damage throughout the Bay Area. Earthquake have always facinated me. I think it’s quite the sensation to fell the ground quaking beneath you.

Tonight there were three earthquakes magnitude 3.0, 3.8 and 4.0 just some 20 miles from our apartment. I felt the 3.8 and the 4.0 for sure; the 3.0 followed the 4.0 by only a minute so I may have felt that one too. It got me excited and I thought I should share with all of you.

Spring Break

James — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:20:12 +0000

So this week has been spring break. A chance to just relax before the last 8 weeks of school, yes it’s coming to an end quickly. Monday Renae and I picked her brother Tim up from the airport, and then hung out with her parents for the evening and had coffee with ruth a little bit later that evening. Tuesday morning I got up and went in to Bethel to work on the new youth ministry room. I was going to hang a shelf but things weren’t going quite right so after a few hours of frustration I went home and spent some time with Renae. Tuesday night Renae and I spent back at Bethel doing some work on the computer and helping Spencer work on his weddding invitations. Wednesday we ran errands and prepared for the Beach Blast that the youth group was having. Some plans changed we still had the activity but becuase it was so cold and windy we didn’t stay the whole time. This morning I went back to Bethel and sucessfully finished hanging the shelf and set of speakers. This evening holds a quiet evening at home with my beautiful loving wife; I’m going to cook her dinner too. Tomorrow evening I have a youth leaders meeting, that i’m excited about. I’m not sure what I’ll do tomorrow morning, we’ll see.

On a side note this is post number 100. My first post, published on March 7, 2007. With is exactly 770 days ago. That was slightly before I purchased the domain. I have averaged a post about every week. that’s not to bad. I’ll have to try a bit harder to fill you in on some more stuff, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll put some more recipes up… hmm….

Have a great day.

hold nothing back.

Strawberry Chocolate Pizza

James — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:03:52 +0000

So this last Saturday Renae and I were going to a get together with several other young married couples from our church. It was going to be a potluck were everyone brought a separate course of the meal. I was given the responsibility of bringing the dessert. This is quite the challenge, I make some pretty good desserts if I can say so myself, but there was an expectation given that I was going to bring something amazing. So I put my thinking cap on and the dessert pizza crossed my mind. I’ve never made a dessert pizza before and so I went in search of a few recipes. Many of them looked the same, some added different things or another. I finally found a simple recipe that had what looked like interesting flavors from Diana’s Desserts: a Strawberry Dessert Pizza. Here is her recipe:

For Crust:
1/2 pound (2 sticks/1 cup/8 oz/226 g) unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

For Topping:
8 oz. package cream cheese
1/4 cup strawberry puree (about 4 fresh very large strawberries pureed in a blender)
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 pints fresh strawberries (medium to large size strawberries)

Basically what you do is cream the butter with the sugar, (works best if the butter is already at room temperature). Then blend in the other ingredient saving the flour until last, to make the crust; make sure the batter is smooth. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes to let the batter thicken. Place the batter on a greased cookie sheet or pizza pan. Get your hands dirty and make it looks like a pizza crust. Not super thick but not cracker thin either. Place it in a pre-heated oven at 350 F for about 20 minutes the crust should be golden brownish. Now you have made a giant sugar cookie for the pizza crust.

Now the filling,put the cream cheese, pureed strawberries, sugar and honey and blend until smooth. Don’t spread it on the crust until that has had time to cool off. Slice the strawberries to get them ready as well. Once the crust has cooled spread the filling all over the crust (evenly please), then cover with the sliced strawberries. Now this is were I veered from the reciped

I rarely follow the recipe to the “t”. In fact improvisation in cooking like my favorite pasttime. I wanted some chocolate on my strawberry pizza so I found a recipe for a chocolate glaze in one of my at home cook books. It wanted 4 oz. of melted chocolate (melted with 3 tbls of butter), 1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and 2 tbls of hot water. Mixed until drizzling consistency. (If necessary add a little bit more hot water. (do this right before you are ready to use it other wise it will harden and not drizzle correctly).

So I had the pizza all ready to go, snapped a picture and took it to the get together. We had salad, bread, enchilada, and lasagna. all of which were amazingly delicious. After dinner we had a bible study and then it was time for the dessert. There were 10 people there and everyone enjoyed it, There was none left over for me to take home even. It tasted delicious. The crust was a little on the hard side as we cut it but we really didn’t notice that once we started to eat it. It was an an awesome recipe, that I found; and I considering trying other stuff with it too.

Ooops I crashed my site

James — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:49:25 +0000

ok this is is a temporary flash back to an old theme while i fix the mistake I made on my other theme. did i mention i don’t really like this theme so i hope it won’t stay this way for long.

sorry

Field Trip

James — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:25:57 +0000

On Tuesday, March 24, the fifth and sixth grade classes went on a field trip to the California Science Center (CSC) in LA. (It’s right next to the Memorial Stadium, home of the USC Trojans and I believe the 1980 Olympic Games. Correct me if I’m wrong.) It was a lot of fun. There were 30 total students and 8 adults. The CSC has hands on exhibits that help make science fun. They currently have a CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) exhibit based on the hit TV show. The are three crimes that have been committed and your group is assigned to one of them to try and solve it. It was exciting and the kids really got into it once they understood what they needed to do. There were other many other exhibit also: transportation, structural design, sound, the science of life, etc. It reminded me of San Francisco’s Exploratorium (another hands on science learning museum).

We wandered the museum from 10 to about 12:20 then we went downstairs where they have a McDonald’s, a Taco Bell Express, a pizza place called pizza π, and a Rose Garden Cafe (a soup, salad, and sandwich place). The lines were long but we finally were able to eat.

After lunch we let the kids explore the gift shop, for about half an hour and we headed out and back to Bethel just before 2:00. I definitely enjoyed the trip as did the kids. However when I got home I took a two hour nap. I really didn’t think I was that tired but it has been a long few days. Here are some pictures from the trip. Renae has a post up about the trip too if you want to know more.

- hold nothing back

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

James — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:33:08 +0000

For as long as I can remember I can not stand eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Yes that is right I utterly dislike the classic PB&J. All of my family including Renae can attest to this. Growing up, for lunch at school I would just have a jelly sandwhich, until after a few years of that I could not eat it that anymore becuase it was just to bland. So I back away from jelly all together. Ham and cheese seemed to suit me much better as long as there was no mayo or mustard on it, but that’s a different story since we are talking about PB&J. I honestly could not remeber that last time I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, until tonight when I got a suddent urge to eat a PB&J sandwich. I have no idea what brought it on. Renae was out hanging out with friends so there was not a need to cook a big meal, I thought about doing grilled cheese but I used the last of the cheese yesterday. Then the urge hit, “I must have PB&J.” So I pull out our Peanut Butter (chunky) and Jelly (Strawberry) and made a sandwich. Honestly it was not that bad, slightly bland which I probably why I disliked it as a kid. Well Renae just came home and she brought some food back for me, awsome. I Love You, honey.

Oh on a side note my little sister, Ruth, decdied to move away from here wordpress.com site and go self-hosted. She is still running a wordpress installation. Her new web address is http://thehonestruth.com Yes, it’s a play on word the honest truth, the honest ruth, pretty clever. Renae’s cousin Jeremy thought of it. Make sure you go visited her site and give her some comment love.

-hold nothing back

Barbecued Chicken

James — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:22:46 +0000

So for a month I’ve been trying to barbecue some chicken. Tonight I was finally able too. It has been a busy week. A WASC evaluation committee came and visited the High School, from Sunday through Wednesday. Also on Monday through Wednesday of this week my class has had a 2 hour drama practices for the our play. Then on thursday we practice for 4 hours and had our performance at 7:00 pm. Friday was a normal day of school but then we had a youth came and worship night. So I was really tired by the time we got home last night around 10:30 I was ready for bed, and I slept till noon. I felt so much better. When I got up we ran some errands and had in-n-out for breakfast well it was the first meal of the day. (3:oo) I had a 3×3 animal style no picles, fries and a dr. pepper. We then ran to the apple store, and stater bros Once back home I played on the wii for a little bit and then I decided to bbq some chicken. here is was I did.

2 pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast.

spiced with garlic salt, and McCormick’s barbeque seasoning

and some Famous Dave’s sweet and sassy sauce.

A Famous Brother

James — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:23:41 +0000

Okay so he doesn’t have his name on the walk of fame in Hollywood. but he is featured in an article on his school’s website. The article is called Scool in Pajamas?. My brother was really excited. He goes to Maranatha Baptist Bible College and is majoring in Math Education with a minor in Digital Media (Something like that (yes I’m jealous (not about the math part))). Any ways I thought I would just spread the word a little bit. Make sure you visit Daniel’s site, DASH Prod, and congratulate him. Have a great day.

-hold nothing back

Rascal Flatts Unstoppable

James — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:52:05 +0000

Spencer and I recently heard about a design contest for a Country Music Band name Rascal Flatts. The contest was to design their next album cover with the title “Unstoppable.” So we decided to try our skills at the contest. We came up with this design.

Rascal Flatts Unstoppable Album

The contest is being run through the People Choice Award Web-site, and when we checked today the four finalist were finally announced. They stink! The one with the four colors and the worst font in the world “papyrus” should have never made it into the finalist, ours is a million times better than that one for sure if not a few of the other ones. So although you cannot go and vote for our album, here is the link to see the four finalist that the “panel of judges” decided were the best submissions. Click Here.

25 Random Things About Me

James — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:20:15 +0000

The follow list contains things you may or may not know about me.

I became a Christian on February 11, 2006.
I am married to the most beautiful woman in the world.
I enjoy video-editing.
I never thought I would be a teacher.
I promised myself at age 17 never to own a red truck.
I have never have gotten a ticket, even though I should have.
I grew up in the city by the bay.
I’ve broken my arm repelling (off my bunk bed, I was 5).
I’ve also broken my wrist and ankle
“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” has more meaning to me than most people.
I am not right handed.
If I could be a movie character, I would be Jason Bourne.
For my 18th birthday I got my wisdom teeth taken out.
I love to cook.
I hate doing laundry.
I have been a counselor at Camp Ironwood for one summer; and worked two other summers in their Leadership Institute Program.
I would consider myself a “jack of all trades master of none.”
I worked at McDonalds for 3 months and hated it, unlike my brother who enjoyed it.
I have a BA in Missions from Pacific Baptist College.
I graduated 7th in my class in High School with a 3.77 (there were only 14 people total in my class).
I enjoy drinking coffee, and am doing so right now.
I rented a Mustang Convertible for my honeymoon.
Mario Karts is my favorite Wii game.
I love the San Francisco Giants
I have an orange bike.
I wonder why this list has to be limited to only 25 things.
I am a fan of the Houston Texans although I’ve only watched a handful of games.
I think “The Empire Strike Back” was the best of the Star Wars movies.
I am a fan of the University of Michigan, becuase my wife like the team.
I love to light candles.
I love my family- parents, siblings, etc.
I often wonder who actually reads my blog.
I think list like these are a waste of time, mine and yours.
The last movie I watched was “Fireproof”.
My favorite song is “Stain Glass Masquerade” by Casting Crowns.
I would like to go back to school to learn web design another technology degree.
My favorite dessert is Apple Pie.

Looking Forward To The Main Event

James — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:32:09 +0000

Tomorrow is Bethel’s annual Main Event. Our youth staff has been preparing for this for nearly a month. Main Event has always been a activity where the spiritual tone for the year is set, and life-altering decisions are made. We have fun watching the game but right in the middle we take about an hour and have our service. Matt for the first time has not planned the entire service, which with as much responsibilities he has this year it’s not a surprise. However Trey, Spencer, Luis, Eric, and I have jumped right in at assisted Matt, thus allowing him to focus on the message that he is going to bring to us. So if you happen to read this post before the end of the game, pray that everything would go well and God would work in the lives of the youth who come.

hold nothing back

It’s nice being a trend-setter

James — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:16:43 +0000

So about two and a half years ago unlinked media was born as a blog becuase i didn’t like the .blogspot that I had. About the same time Tim at http://unsoundtransient.com got his blog too. Renae got her blog about a year and a half ago. Now, at least 13 other people that I know have personal blogs. Not bad for trend0setting. Any one interested in getting your self a blog and not wanting to pay for it should go through wordpress.com they are the best.

Psalm 24

James — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:25:36 +0000

I read this Psalm this morning and really enjoyed the passage. Read through it and let me know what you get out of it.

1. The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 2. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. 3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

Good Morning

James — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:14:06 +0000

So this is my first blog post since I have turned 23. It’s going ro be random since I have nothing specific to talk about. We on Januaray 1st, Spencer let me know that he had finanally recovered our honeymoon pictures from the corrrupted SD card which excited both Renae and I, and it’s so nice to finally have them. School is going well, this week is spirit week at bethel and yesterday was crazy hair day, so I went to school with a mohawk. Today is red, white, and blue day. Bethel’s Main Event is just around the corner on February 1st so that begs the question who do you think will win the Super Bowl.

[poll id="2"]

Renae has her first volleyball game today, so after school gets out I’ll be heading to the gym to watch her team play. Maybe I’ll put some picture up tonight or tomorrow of spirit week. We’ll see.

hold nothing back

New Year and Everything That Comes With It

James — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:49:56 +0000

Happy New Year. Welcome to 2009. Last year is gone and there are only 365 days until 2010. I have never been one to make New Year’s Resolutions, but have have decided to set some goals for my life that I would like to work on this year. But before I start this year I would like to look back over the past year and hit some highlights.

2008 started of a little tough, Spencer my best friend, headed off to marine corps boot camp two weeks into the year with the promise that he would still be able to be my best man at my wedding, that same week I had to have some major dental work done and Renae had her wallet and computer stolen from her while she was at work. Latter in February we had a scare, as Renae thought she might of had an infection in her feet, but fortunately it turned out to be nothing. In March my parents visited during spring break and we went to visit Disneyland. On April 30, 2008 I graduated from college. I began working at Bethel Baptist School soon after graduation and God quickly lead me to an apartment in Garden Grove about 5 miles from Bethel. On June 14, 2008, the love of my life became Mrs Renae Ashton. Oh, and Spencer was able to make it to the wedding, barely. I spent the summer working with the summer school program at Bethel and in September I began teaching 5th grade. Renae and I are doing very well having just celebrated our 6 month aniversary of our wedding, we definatly enjoy married life. For Thanksgiving we spent at Renae’s parents and Christmas with mine. It was nice to have my whole family together for almost a week.

Well that was last year… So this year what will be different? What will be the same?

I have decided to set some goals some will be public, others private. I hope that this will help me keep focused on the important things so here is a list of my public goals:

Grow in my relationship with God
Grow in my relationship with Renae
Read my Bible all the way through this year
Become consistent at journaling
See at least one unbeliever come to know Christ
Loose 10-15 pounds
Stop being a procrastinator
Read at least 4 Miscellaneous books
Visit 2 MLB stadiums that I have not been to yet.
Watch the SF Giants win the World Series.

So I think that will be my list. So although I have never been one to make New Year’s Resolutions it appears that I have just done so.

hold nthing back.