Look At My Heart...Not My Eyes

"Breaking Through Barriers"

2005-08-04T23:57:00.000-06:00

Senior year is looming up ahead for me and nine other students at ICS, and one peer rises to the occasion to mold the student body into a new, unified group of young men and women. Tina Morrill already has not only picked up the reins, but began to direct the chariot that is the future of ICS students.

It seems that our theme from Student Council next year is "Breaking Down Barriers: Breaking Walls/Building Bridges," a poignant and well-directed theme. All I can say is, I pray God will use next year's Student Council with Tina Morrill, Heather Jones and the rest of the leadership group to accomplish what their slogan/theme proclaims.

Here is where I speak my opinion: in order to accomplish this, it won't only take the guidance of Tina and her council, but it will take the will of the whole High School (I hear we've leapt from 70-odd students, to about 94) to make a difference.

Breaking down barriers starts with the barriers the individuals create. They could be barriers s/he lock themselves into, or those in which others are kept out. Examples include refusals to talk to people for petty reasons, forced negligence and "giving the cold shoulder." It could be not talking to the new person in class, not joining the person who sits alone at lunch, disrespecting the teachers, not returning a smile so graciously given down the hall.

When barriers form, only hurt and sorrow come out of it. It leads to gossip, to treachery, to talking behind your best friend's back, and even to refusing to be the leader ICS is trying to make each and every one of you.

Not everyone is on Student Council; not everyone is on PLT; not everyone leads a small group, but everyone is a leader, especially at our small school. So how can you lead this coming year?

By helping out the Student Council to break down barriers. Start with your heart, and you'll see that bridges will indeed begin to form, creating a unified school of Christian brothers and sisters, students and teachers, and a school of leaders and with great potential to shape the years to come.

"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility..." (Ephesians 2:14 NIV)

In Christ, John

Summer-time goals...

2005-07-26T20:47:00.000-06:00

Summer is winding down to the last month before my senior year starts. Before the conclusion of my junior year, I wrote a lengthy list of goals for this summer of 2005. "Read Beloved and Grendel, learn to play the guitar, stop this, start that, abstain from that, indulge in that, etc...etc...blah blah blah...

Shortly thereafter, I began to become down-trodden with the fact that many of these goals I established, I am not achieving. For example, I was hell---I mean heaven-bent on learning how to play the guitar. Now that summer's here (and almost passed) it seemed unappeasing. I picked out a few notes by ear along with some Smashing Pumpkins songs, but other than that, no progress has been made.

My amount of reading has been dismal, my exercise patterns impulsive and unstable.

I blame my lack of goal-achieving on my having to work 33-38 hours a week, and partly on my lack of motivation (which derives from my exhaustion from work/summer homework). It becomes a cycle of brokeness (so thus, in an essence, it becomes not a cycle).

Then a brilliant revelation came to me. Why not set "goals" that can lead into achieving other goals---these new goals would be feasible and simple to accomplish with basic will power.

So, my new goals (yeah, I threw away guitar-learning---I'll stick to the voice and handbells) include...

...cutting fast food entirely out of my system. It's not like I ever ate fast food all the time, but still, eating it in the first place is yucky.

...cutting soda out of my consumption. Yeah, I try this frequently, but it's easier when I crave water, tea, juice etc. more (now).

...when I do exerciese, make it more strenuous (i.e. when on a walk, run for half of it).

* With these goals, I can accomplish my bigger goal of trimming up my bod' and loosing a little wieght here-and-there. * Also, this drives me to want to start up running in the mornings I don't have a zero-period next year. *

...read at least a few pages every day of a book can help me to read more

...listen to more than the same few CD's I usually do can help me broaden my scopes (I have added classical more liberally to my taste through this)

So, my point is (advice time people!) don't make huge goals that become almost impossible to accomplish, but make multiple little ones that will lead up to accomplishing the big ones.

Funny how simple things seem after sitting down and thinking about it more...

ciao, and enjoy the last stretch of your summer "break."

I've been working hard at blogging....

2005-07-23T12:55:00.000-06:00

Alright, so just check out the side bar of this here homepage. It's super-cool now! (Well, I think it is...)

Besides side-bar designing, I also added some stuff to the ICS Community Blog.

Just see for yourself!

Peace and such from Chonny

A few updates....

2005-07-12T21:04:00.000-06:00

Hello all, I've added some goodies to my multi-blog...

~A new piece of art
~A new addition to the "About me" page

...with more to come (I've been semi-grounded to an hour of computer a day, until I finish my summer homework, so it will come slowly).

ciao

Chonny

Who Knew Being a Cashier Could Break Me?

2005-06-22T18:41:00.000-06:00

Well, I worked my first shift as cashier (and my first shift period) at the SouthTown SuperTarget. I was amazed at how much I like it. (Trust me---it beats KFC, or ANY fast food joint ANYDAY.) I seemed to catch on relatively quickly, and also seemed to have experienced almost every sort of situation (well, except a bad customer, spill or robbery/theft).

I must say, this job is really great. Okay, it's my first day, and fellow team members that have been there longer than I seem like they hate it with a passion, and say the time goes by slowly. But, I thought 5 o'clock (shift ends for me then) came swiftly.

Overall, I really enjoy this job thus far, and so wish I could work there over the school year. Alas, I am far too busy for that!

Lastly, I will admit I have gotten nothing on my Blog to-do list accomplished. Right now, I am too achy and tired (the one thing about being a cashier---that much standing (7 hours) on Day 1 WILL cause pain, and break you...take Advil or some sort of Profuen (sp?) like candy) to work on it today, save this post.

So, enjoy what I have, I'll try tomorrow, as I only have a four-hour shift.

peace out

I'm back in town bisnatches!

2005-06-19T14:58:00.000-06:00

**update 2 -- 7/23 12:58 PM -- finished tasks removed from list**

Hello faithful readers of "Look at my heart..." (and good day to those who simply happened upon my multi-blog).

After two weeks of being out of town---I have returned. Week one after school got out involved me attending Utah Boy's State up in Ogden at Weber State University. After that, I had a day back in town, and then left for a road trip to Spokane and different areas in Alberta, Canada. Now I'm back, and have a few days off until I start working at Target full time....sigh...

Just wanted to tell everyone what I have on my schedule to do for my multi-blog over the next couple of days...

~[un]biased review~
---Movie review for "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"
---Movie review for "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith"

~Look at my heart...not my eyes (home page)~
---Synopsis of my adventures at Utah Boy's State
---Synopsis of my adventures on my Spokane, Banff, Calgary, Lethbridge and Idaho Falls road trip (**with pictures**--oooh ahh)

~as I take up my cross daily~
---My Creed of Faith

~and whatever else I feel like adding!~

so, keep a look out, and remember to spread the news about this place, and I will love you forever (yeah, a dangerous promise...but gotta get my name out there somehow)

-Chonny

P.S. everyone---GET FIREFOX if you don't have it. Those who are reading this and are using the beast called Internet Explorer are not seeing my blog as it should be. This was intentionally done by AbandonedHero and I so that YOU WILL CONFORM and get Mozilla Firefox IMMEDIATELY. Look for links on this page...they're everywhere.

peace and love from Salt Lake

Brand Spanking New!

2005-06-05T00:38:00.000-06:00

Alright chicklets, here before you is my brand spanking new blog! After 6 hours and one minute of AbandonedHero coding my HTML for my days worth of Photoshop designing, all 5 pages were up and ready to go. **A special note...this blog has been designed to work properly ONLY with Mozilla Firefox. Internet Explorer is on my hit list for now, as it has messed my blog up enough already. "So what's your point John?" My point is this: don't come whining to me b/c my blog seems to have a "problem." There is a simple solution: get Firefox ahora.**

Right now it is much too late to edit my sidebar content. Furthermore, you will notice my choosing to not use Blogger's petty attempt at a profile page. I have designed my own that will soon enough include a mini-autobiography of muah.

So, without further ado, I present you with "Look At My Heart...Not My Eyes: Version 2.0"

Enjoy! I'm off to Boy's State Monday, then to Spokane after that.

-ciao

P.S. Copyright information, for all those who want to take advantage of there being none of this in my sidebar (YET):

Blogs created and designed by John Kuhn (c) 2005
HTML Coding (and countless hours of unpaid time put in) by Sawyer "sure, that will be easy to fix" Pangborn

All photos and pieces of art (unless otherwise noted) is under the Creative Commons license

Copyright...blah blah blah....copyright...blah blah blah

peace and love everyone!

Poor, poor Claudia

2005-04-05T22:17:00.000-06:00

Well, on top of the little hole in my bumper from running into a truck's trailer hitch, now the side of my beautiful Subaru Legacy (dubbed, "Claudia") is ruined! Luckily, it wasn't a wreck with another car. Coming out of one of the stupid parking lots at Coffe Break, you have to slow to a stop and slowly let off the brake to prevent from scratching your bumper (it's very steep). So, whilst I was being careful to not scratch up my bumper, I cut the turn out of it too sharp (stupid depth perception, and the lack thereof...). KKKRRRRRCCHHH!! (okay...a little hard to type the noise I heard, but it was a rough, loud scratching noise). I pulled over on 5th south, and inspected the side of my car.

You can see the damage yourself. It's definately gone beyond just adding personality. However, like the bumper, it still makes for an interesting conversation starter...my car has gone from swiss cheese, to grated cheese. You can also notice that I scratched "and yet i still love coffee break" on the piece that was violently (yay violence!) ripped off. I hope they still love me, as I did some serious damage to the side of the parking lot...at least it looked like I'm not the only one...

So I went to Subaru today to get an estimate. Luckily it's not as bad as I thought (but I need a door replacement, and some part thingy on the side that got ripped off, and then paint, and all this other crum cake...), but I still may end up having to work instead of going on vacations...boo hoo...anyhoo, just pray I can get things sorted out, I would prefer to not put this on my insurance, as it just went down...

Poor, poor Claudia...
This photo is subject to the Creative Commons License

Schiavo vs. Poverty

2005-04-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

My mom and I discussed this question in the car the other day:

If people are so pumped and on fire to attempt and save the life of ONE dying person, then why don't they apply that to all the people who are impoverished and thus dying everyday?

POVERTY KILLS!

This site talks about poverty a little more. Some of the disturbing facts include:

~More than one-fifth of the global population lives in extreme poverty.

~More than 12 million children under 5 years of age die in the developing world every year, most from a combination of preventable causes.

POVERTY IS EVIDENT ALL OVER OUR WORLD AND IN AMERICA TOO!

This site talks about poverty worldwide. The numbers are startling.

So my two cents is this:

For every person willing to run water to Terri Schiavo, even if it meant getting arrested or in some sort of trouble, there should be five people helping the hungry. For every person who stood outside the hospital holding signs saying "Let Terri Live" and what-not, there should be 20 people making a notion to be heard on topics such as poverty. Everytime the news held extensive coverage on Schiavo, there should be double the amount of coverage on developing countries, in order to inform people that THEY NEED HELP TOO!

I'm not taking sides on the Terri Schiavo subject, but I am going to say that if our nation is so concerned with one dying person and all the controversies involved with them, then they should be even more concerned with the millions of children who die from malnutrition every year.

God bless

My nephew...a living Miracle

2005-03-29T00:39:00.000-07:00

This is my nephew. He is 3 years old. I love him TONS!! He is a real miracle baby...so if you don't believe in miracles, you will now. He was born 3 month premature, and weighed only 3 pounds! He was put directly in the NICU, and my sister and brother-in-law were told he wouldn't be home for Christmas. Well, he was home for Thanksgiving of that year (2001? I can't remember...I'll update). He was off his compressor (something to help him breath) within 1-2 months too. After a while, the doctor told my sister he was growing rapidly for his age, and was very advanced...what a miracle! Seeing him this Easter Sunday was a blessing. He interacts with us more, and even likes to sing to us. After we clap, he proclaims "Thanks you! Thank you so much!" When posing for this picture he says very loudly "CHEESE." Now hopefully he'll grow up to be an artist like his Uncle John...
This photo is subject to the Creative Commons License

If my life was...

2005-03-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

...a color, it would be green

...a book, it would be "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

...a movie, it would be either Donnie Darko or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

...a song, it would be What's This Life For? by Creed

...a food, it would be lamb

...a comic strip, it would be Zits

...a band, it would be either Creed, Our Lady Peace, or Staind

...a style of art, it would be expressionistic abstract art

...BUT IT'S NOT!! so I might as well love the one God's blessed me with...

Look at My Heart...Not at My Eyes

2005-03-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

This is the picture I have on the cover of Volume 2 of my mind (a.k.a...my journal). It's a Photoshopped piece containing 2 self-portraits and a green overlay layer.

This photo is subject to the Creative Commons License

Welcome

2005-03-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my very first blog...but tread carefully...you are about to enter the deranged mind of John Kuhn...enter my dreams, hopes, passions and broken thoughts that swirl around in my head...