A friendly reminder to those of you in Internet-land who have been lifting photos from my website and placing them on their website or Facebook pages: I’ve been seeing more of this occurring lately from a lot of folks, some of whom are my friends. I’d like to respectfully ask that you, and the rest of the Internet, please refrain from lifting images from my website without permission.

All you have to do is ask me to redistribute my photos, whether it be on your personal website or Facebook, and there’s a good chance I’ll let you do so. But please ask first.

I really hate to start watermarking my photos, so please help a brother out here, folks.

If I post photos to Facebook they’re fair game. But I own this website and all the contents therein, and I ask that you respect my intellectual property rights.

Please ask before you redistribute my photos.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

As a sort of birthday gift for me, Trinity decided to come along with me to Seattle on Sunday and spend the day there.

It was gorgeous outside, and 86 degrees as well with a cool breeze from the waterfront. I don’t know what more you could ask for on such a trip.

We made the trip for just about $50 for both of us combined: gas was $25, we were minimalists on food to the tune of less than $15 (and that was even with a visit to Chipotle!), and our light rail ride was $10 for 2 tickets. Not bad for a day that enabled us to take the following photos…

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I love the music and videos of Lemon Jelly, namely “Stay With You” and “A Man Like Me,” both from their album ’64-’95.

I especially love the sound of “A Man Like Me.” For some reason, it reminds me of downtown Longview, Wash.

I was blessed to have an opportunity to join our youth at Life Center’s church camp in our South Campus building near Ethel for a good word brought by our youth/young adults pastor, Ryan Iverson.

Young adults were welcomed to join Monday and Tuesday evening’s services, and though I couldn’t make it on Monday I seized the opportunity to go yesterday. I was glad I did…the Word was good and timely, and of course I got to see Trin. :)

Pastor Ryan basically spoke about a topic I had touched on last September on this blog — that God’s will isn’t just confined to one basic plan for our lives, but rather it is a journey of discovery and one in which we will undoubtedly screw up every now and then. But the fact we’ll screw it up means God has grace for us and as long as we continue seeking the truth, He is going to reveal His plan for our lives.

The best part of the sermon was when he said that we don’t need to try to be someone else to be someone of stature in the body of Christ. Being ourselves and offering our gifts He has blessed us with is our form and expression of worship, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be confined to the church.

It was such a relief to hear that, let me tell you.

Anyhoo I know this is short, but my mind is elsewhere right now and I need some sleep. Let’s all root for more than two hours tonight!

I’ll tell you what, God sure knows what He’s doing.

It was only one year ago that I was laid off at the Springfield News-Leader in Springfield, Missouri. I ended up moving away from my family and back here to Washington in the hopes I could land a media job in Portland and live in the Vancouver, Wash. area for awhile.

Things didn’t exactly work out that way, but as of right now I couldn’t ask for much better. I live and work in Centralia, Wash., forging new friendships every day, finding my job enjoyable and starting to settle in a little bit.

Timing is everything, but it never goes as I plan it. I didn’t get the job at the paper until February, and that was even on a last-minute whim. I was working at a Verizon Wireless store in Vancouver and loathing it, although the pay was good. I knew I had potential for much better and I felt horrible that I wasn’t realizing that potential.

But God knew, and here I am with the job. I’m slowly beginning to enjoy my time here more and more, and create essential connections and friendships in life.

Today brought a whole new gift from God as I began dating a beautiful girl from east Lewis County. You’ve probably read about someone named Trinity a few times — to make a long story short, we met officially in March at our mutual friend Cydnie’s apartment. We attended church together so we’d seen each other and I had actually met her parents, but we still didn’t officially meet until that night.

I think it was late April that saw Cydnie, Trinity and I go on a trip to Long Beach and back on a Saturday evening. We were all punchy and as Cydnie fell asleep in the backseat, I got to talk to Trinity a bit. You see, Trin had been through some tough times and I was ready to just be her friend…but fate (God?) wouldn’t have it thatway. I think it’s safe to say at that point was when I really began to “like” her.

(Honestly, the whole way through from the moment I met her, I couldn’t get out of my mind that I wanted to date her and I’d make sure it would happen. I just didn’t know when, so I didn’t worry.)

She let me know she reciprocated those feelings a couple weeks later when we were talking over the phone, and she was listing off our similarities in life experiences and how our families operate. Then she blurted out: “…and we’re both tall and attractive.”

She said it, not me.

It hasn’t been the easiest road, but the last two months we’ve really seized the chance to get to know each other and pray about where to take our feelings for each other. Now we know, and today is the start of a cool chapter in life.

I hung out with Trin and her parents today over lunch, and it reinforced that the relationship just simply feels right. There’s no other way to explain it. When you fit together, you fit together. When you don’t…well, I’m sure you understand.

I guess if you were to ask me how I’m doing in the year since I’ve moved on from life at the SNL, I’d say I’m doing alright and I wish everyone could say the same.

Please keep Trinity and I, and our relationship, in your prayers. Send an extra one up for me, especially if she decides to keep chewing on my arm at random times of the day. :)

My friend Trinity and I made a trip to Ocean Shores, Wash. yesterday to celebrate our friend Dale’s “halfway party” — a party in which he celebrated turning 51.5 years of age with an eventual goal of kicking the bucket at 103.

It was a grand time, as we walked on the beach and enjoyed some time in their rented condo. It was great to get around 15 people together and see friends…I haven’t been able to relax like that for awhile.

The atmosphere was neat, the ocean was beautiful and it was only an hour and thirty minutes from Centralia. Not bad.

Travel tip: Stay away from Dugan’s Pizza. The food is mediocre, they charge for a pitcher of water, and there was only one server on duty which meant our order was screwed up. Pricey, too, as is the case with most food joints in tourist towns.

Photos after the jump!

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My apartment in Centralia, Wash., straddles one of two main streets of downtown — making it easily accessible to the Centralia Train Depot, Fuller’s Market, Olympic Club, and a whole host of downtown businesses.

This also means I had a living-room seat, quite literally, to watch the 2010 Centralia Summerfest Parade to celebrate our nation’s independence. I did end up venturing outside the apartment and up a few city blocks, and took the opportunity to shoot photos of anything and everything, really.

It was a neat little parade, featuring a host of community groups and drawing a decent-sized crowd. Everyone arrived in droves shortly before the parade started at 4 p.m., and once it was over, everyone scattered quickly.

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The Columbian and Fox 12 are reporting this morning that the Hispanic COGOP church building in Vancouver, Wash. has burned in an overnight fire.

As per fire officials, the structure is in “really rough shape” after the fire heavily damaged the roof. Fox 12 has reported that portions of the roof have collapsed inside the building. No injuries occurred during the fire, but apparently firefighters are still on scene to ensure the blaze is completely put out.

Pray for the good folks of this church. I have many friends from this church — and speaking of such, if any of you guys from the Vancouver Hispanic COGOP or anyone that has connections to it would like to leave a comment and let us all know how you guys are doing, that would be great.

As of 10:47 a.m., I have heard from friends that the building will be declared a total loss. This is rough stuff and the folks at the church there need our prayers.

During my time as a youngster, church camps were the highlight of the year for me — I’d see all my friends from other COGOP churches around the state of Washington for nearly a full week and we would enjoy hanging out, ministering to each other and just being able to be with each other.

As the years have gone on, many of us have parted ways. There are a few that remain, but those that do remain faithful to the camping ministry and their churches.

The COGOP in Washington state has fallen on tough times, to say the least. The most glaring example is church attendance being down, and everyone’s being socked in the gut by a tough economy that is slow to rebound. Those two factors were evident this weekend as we barely climbed over 40 in attendance for YAK Camp 2010.

Despite the low turnout at Millersylvania this year, God ministered to many this weekend and people seemed to respond in a quieter, low-key fashion. Pastor Frank Smith of New Horizons Church brought convicting messages about grace, forgiveness and unity and they resonated with me personally. The teaching by Ruthie Turner and Rick Bear on Saturday was relevant as they both spoke on transforming and renewing our minds to Christ’s image.

One person came to accept Jesus Christ as their savior, and we had four baptized yesterday morning.

The weather cooperated, thankfully — we were able to get in a rousing soccer match in, just after learning of the U.S. loss to Ghana in the World Cup. Basketball was great as well.

I didn’t shoot photos because I wanted to spend some time with friends, and it was definitely time well spent. It was great to see people I haven’t seen in months, particularly my buddies from the Vancouver-Camas-Washougal area whom I have not seen since moving to Centralia.

Overall, I don’t think the camp itself was as good as the 2009 edition, but still good nonetheless. I’m still on the fence about paying $75 for it though, and in the end I think I’ll be glad I did. I know a lot of people can’t justify spending $75 when they have to drive from across the state to attend an event that spans somewhere in the neighborhood of 44 hours, and something has to change in that department — but overall, the spiritual benefit for now outweighs the monetary aspect of it all.

I grade this year’s YAK as a B-minus, just a hair more than C-plus.

Pros:
- Relevant word, great teaching
- Very relaxed atmosphere, close-knit environment
- The food, as always

Cons:
- Parents are allowed to bring their small children
- The cost ($75) is too high for a 44-hour retreat

It’s been ten days since my last update, and I sincerely apologize for not getting on here as much as I’d like to.

The past few weeks, to be quite honest, have been a spiritual struggle for me. I don’t want to get into it, but please rest assured my faith in Christ is strong and will remain so. I am just struggling with some life situations that want to burrow themselves into my mind and mess with my well-being.

I could use some prayer and a pick-me-up.

I think I’ll receive a good dose of both starting tomorrow, when I attend the Washington COGOP young adult retreat at Millersylvania State Park. It’s only about 20 minutes north of here so I lucked out — it’s like having all my friends come to my backyard and chill for a weekend. I’m looking forward to some good teaching, prayer and fellowship with my friends from across Washington state.

The weekend promises to be great, and I’ll document it all with photos. That’s how I roll, son.