The Best of 2011 (In the life of this Blogger)

Here are some of the best moments and events in my life this year worth mentioning publicly. I want to mention people so bad, but I want to be able to ask people first, and it would be hard to get 30 or so people's permission to mention them. But So many things in my life this year are worth mentioning. Here are some milestones.

**All things written below are subject to amendment of any sort at any time**

Top Reasons to be Motivated to Enjoy Life

1. 1 Colossians 27

2. Frodo to Sam in Return of the King: "There is so much for you to be, and see, and do."

3. Freedom

4. Creativity

5. Energy (Light, Strength etc)

Top Things that I got to do this year.

A Glacier. You had to be there (alaska).

1. Deep Conversations with close people in my life (you all know who you are)

2. Small Group Coordinator with InterVarsity

2. Began Dancing and Working on a Film

3. Alaska Trip with My Family

4. Movie Nights

5. Worked at this pretty cool Tea Shop

6. Found this cool Coffee shop

7. Began reading/writing again

8. Drive people and participate in Chapter Camp

9. Help friends in need

10. Sing/Play/Listen to music of all kinds

11. Watched some great movies (Top films coming soon)

A fatter Andres in May 2010

Things Accomplished

1. So much Wellness and Emotional Healing (A healthier sense of Identity and God's Presence in my Life).

2. This Blog

3. Working on a Documentary with some cool people

4. Dance

5. Lost around 15-20lbs since summer 2010 (REALLY?!?!) ----->

Rugged Andres changing flat.

Key Events

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

2. Alaska-Fishing

3. Alaska Visiting/flying in by myself

4. Fiddler on the Roof

5. Christmas in my hometown with the monks

6. Salsa Dancing on Halloween

7. Chapter Camp

8. Flat Tire on the Way to Chapter Camp :)

9. Birthday Party

10. Forgetting to Graduate

Yes, really Harry Potter. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Really.

Best Worst things that happened to me (Worth mentioning)

Socorro, NM

1. A very forward and unappealing 45 yr old lady asks to date me while I'm working

2. 4 whole driving tickets all at once

3. Headache in a packed car with 5 family members who are just like me (practically) for about 10 hours.

4. Insomnia in Socorro

5. Transitioning out of InterVarsity

6. Changing 3 flat tires in one month's time

About this BLOG

This blog has functioned as an experimental public journal. It updates people on events in my life, and it attempts to share valuable experiences. So far, based on viewership, it has been a success.

Most Viewed Posts

1. How to Make the Most out of your Insomnia in Socorro (~74 page views to date)

2. A City by the Sea (~65 page views to date)

3. Coffee in Albuquerque Part I (58 page views to date)

4. Fellowship of the Ring AGAIN?! (47 page views to date)

5. The Gospel According to Boxes, Sam, and Andres (38 page views to date)

Please continue to Read more and Click the above links if you missed any posts.

Top Search Keywords

1. the one ring (5 referrals)

(others not worth mentioning)

Money made this year from the Blog

Around 30 dollars based on around 700 page views

Page Views by Month

1. November 341

2. October 315

3. December 281 (So Far)

4. September 196

5. August 174

6. June 192

7. March 104

8. July 59

9. January 16

10. April 12

11. February 5

12. May 4

So MUCH progress! Thank everyone who visits. Your comments are valuable. There has been so much growth in this blog this last year. Here's to hoping that next year will be better for blogging, photography, dance, and film. I think it will.

What to expect when you're expecting

First of all...MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!



This is not helpful advice about having a baby unfortunately.  It is about an age old thing we all have: expectations.  The general kind, not the baby kind.


In light of the holidays I will post on something about God's peace and sovereignty in our lives.  Because of God's incarnation on this earth, we are free and need not control or expect things.  We need not allow fear into our lives.


I posted this on FB the other day.  I've been thinking a lot about expectations.  

‎"If you expect things to go a specific exact way, you'll be super unhappy all your days. Expect the unexpected and appreciate things and people for what they are. Let God be in control."--lots of wise people probably

This is not the way God sees us.  Rather this is the way we think God sees us a lot of the time.

You see, many of some of my most valuable relationships were painful for me because of my ideas of how people should behave and treat me. My own construction of who they "should be" has messed things up big time.  


I hate seeing this happen to people, and mostly I hate that it is happening to me.  


The fact that God is in control is Huge! It is so refreshing.  It means that you don't have to be stuck anymore.  But you are.  

It is because of our fear that we want to control others and the situations around us.  If we just stepped back and let things unfold we'd be a lot happier.  If we just let people be who they are and stop trying to dictate their actions for our own benefit we'd be better off.  

It's best to realize that we have everything we need. "The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing." 

On this day our savior was born.  Let us remember all he did for us and why we can sit back and let him be in control of our lives.  Let us remember that we are free from bondage.  Free from sin.  Free from guilt and shame.  We are free to be the men and women that we are.  


Because of Jesus, you are NOT what you do.  You are not what you are guilty of.  You are not those thoughts.  You are not those actions.


You are something worthwhile.  You belong to the King. 

This is more accurate. God delights in his people.

Stuff you could have been for Halloween

I didn't participate in anything Halloweeny this year.  I had my reasons.  I went to a dance studio that night and wanted to wear my bat man undergarments, but I didn't want to offend anyone.  I camped out at some of my buddies house and watched the Office.

"I'm a little sleepy and hollow."

My friend Bryant--who has a great Twitter page btw--and my friend Stephen and I were at an art gallery listening to superhero poetry when I introduced my idea of being just an obscure thing like a "search engine" for Halloween.

His funny twitter account:
http://twitter.com/#!/kinderschema

My original idea for the search engine was to walk around with white tights (like any normal halloween costume) have some green, red, and yellow colors lingering about me, and have a keyboard with a box of junk that would represent what the person would search for.  I didn't follow through with it like many of my ideas in my life, but here's to hoping that somebody takes my amazing idea and does it next year.

We then noticed that you can be anything for Halloween which I'm sure you know.  But seriously anything.  An idea, a vitamin, a mineral, the thing you ate last week.

Some of the things we came up with:

• A search engine
• A poem
• The economy -- you wear a white T-shirt with a declining graph with an arrow
• Your lost sense of humor.
• That fifteen minutes you could have spent saving fifteen percent or more on car insurance.
• Maine. (yes the state)
• Murphy's Law
• The Pythagorean Theorem (whenever you need to solve triangle equations I'm there for you)
• Lost-(just a person who was lost) "Where am I? Who are you? Why do I exist?"
• Lost (the show)- you would tell stories with cliffhanger endings with multiple universes and never give a conclusive ending to anything you say.
• The wit of a Mark Twan novel
• The humor of a Jane Austen novel
• That coupon you never used
• That bill you never paid
• (Yeah it starts to get real scary and real personal)
• Those songs you never practiced on the piano
• That old piece of chocolate you left in the cupboard and is still melting
• A missed phone call you'll never know about
• That guy who wears pink everywhere because he wants to pretend he's not insecure
• I'm that guy that calls you by mistake and you always wondered why your lives crossed paths
• I'm those keys that you never made a copy of and now you're stranded haha.
• I'm the barista that always tries to convince you to buy soy products.
• I'm the parenting manual that your parents never got.
• I'm that box of Christmas cards you never sent.
• The self help book that you never applied to your life.
• The self help book on how to buy self help books.
• That Christmas ornament that your parents kept since you were in kindergarten because they have to.
• Runner's high
• The noise a tree makes in the forest that nobody hears when it falls (if no one is there to hear it)
• I'm the answer to the chicken and the egg question.
• I'm those colors in the spectrum that are invisible eyes.
• Hi...I'm all the pictures you've taken with your lens cap on.