Possibly Irrelevant II

Palms Up!

2010-04-09T23:33:00.003-04:00

I need you to do one thing for me right now. Take your hands off the mouse and keyboard, and point your palms at the ceiling. C lear your mind, and look down at your hands.

What have these hands done? the good? the bad? What can they do in the future? How does God want to use them?

Makes you think right? This is an exercise I have been doing every so often. It is helpful for me to visualize the sum of what I have done in the palms, scrapes, and lines of my hands. I think it we did this type of reflection and future thinking more the work of God would be carried out more forcefully.

What do you think? How did trying it go?

In Conclusion

2009-12-05T11:43:00.005-05:00

(shooting the ball at pick-up soccer this fall)

Fall Quarter has come to an end. I decided to start a new tradition this academic year by writing down what God has done in my life at the end of each quarter. As always, this one was a crazy one with many crazy stories to tell.

What God has taught me: That everything I have, He has given me. Seriously. Everything!

The Backpack Story

Just before midterms, I was waiting for Jon to get out of class (we carpool), and was long boarding around F and J lots. I noticed that there were pedestrian paths between the lots that could be used as a chute straight down the hill of the lot. I set my backpack down in the lowest lot and went up to fly down the chute. I looked for Jon at the top and rode down, only to find my backpack missing. My laptop and all my textbooks were MIA the night before midterms. Awesome. It turns out a computer scientist in Jon's class (that I was waiting for) had scooped it up so it wouldn't be messed with and contacted me to return it. In the 24 hours I didn't have anything I usually relied on as a student, God taught me to rely on Him and the people He's put around me.

Power Cords

At the start of finals week this quarter, I had to stay up all night to finish a paper due Monday morning. I was happily working at 137B Saturday night when my power plug light flickered off. I felt the power adapter: it was molten hot! I let it cool fully, but the same thing happened again. I know! I thought, I'll put some ice on it. So I spend the next 48 hours straight working on my paper (thanks 305A). 45 hours in, my ice-cooled power adapter went *POP* and I smelled the dead electronics smell. It had sent it's last electrons to my lappy. In the middle of my freaking out, I remembered that I have an old power adapter that I found in my house. I almost discarded it like 10 times over the years, because who needs 2 power adapters? Who even has two power adapters? Well, it turns out God knew I would need it at a desperate time (no one in the world has the correct plug for my old lappy) and provided for it perfectly. God taught me that he has our back even when we don't know it or ask him to.

iBook

While preparing to write up a final exam (in class during finals week) that we had 2 hours to type our responses to, I felt like I should throw my memory stick in my computer and back up what I was about to write. I had never done it before, and was worried the ridiculous flashing light would be a distraction. As I worked, I saved my file to the memory stick, kind of subconsiously, the whole time thinking I must be paranoid, because I am the only one in the class doing this. Well one sentence from the end of my work, my computer screen goes blank and I listen in horror as the hard drive spins down. My computer had crashed and would not restart, but I happily handed my prof the jump drive with all my work on it. He let me add the last sentence on HIS computer. God didn't want me to fail the final, He wanted me to get a new computer :-P it was getting pretty slow. He is the great provider kids.

Troy

Latest Fad: The Wegmans Diet

2009-09-29T15:27:00.002-04:00

I wanted to plug the fast emerging Wegmans freebie craze that is sweeping through RIT's social circles. It's pretty awesome in fact.

Wegmans has started giving out coupon sheets to college students with free food coupons on them. This week is a free frozen pizza and instant Asian noodles. Unfortunately for Danny Wegman, the terms of use on said coupons are quite vague. This has lead to Perkins freezers full of frozen pizzas, and many cabinets full of noodles. Pictures will be posted soon!

But if you would like some free food, and are a college student, hit up the Henrietta Wegmans sometime. (Coupon sheets available at the customer service desk)

Cheers!

Short days, Long Nights

2009-07-24T01:41:00.003-04:00

Tonight is the second night in a row I have been awake for every single hour of darkness. Darkness gets pretty lame after a while, but it is quite peaceful. There are a number of things I could do to prevent this cycle, but I am well aware of them and will be wary of them next time around. Right now my only problem is I am nocturnal. Like an owl is nocturnal. I need to rotate my sleep schedule from Noon to 8pm to midnight to 8am... which will probably not be easy. Either that or create one of these.....

I do have an old case laying around.... Now I just need some sweet LEDs and a few days off.

Troy

Tunnels

2009-05-10T23:41:00.003-04:00

Recently I heard about this car game that is played when going through a tunnel. You're supposed to see if you can hold your breath from one end of the tunnel to the other.

While driving down to Philadelphia to see Jill this last time (April) I went through the Lehigh Valley Tunnel and tried it out.

As I arrived in Philly I was really excited about the tunnel game, and said to Jill: "Jill, I did it! I held my breath through the entire Leighigh Valley Tunnel!"

She looked very concerned, and responded. "Geez Troy, you're not supposed to play the game while you're driving!!!!"

I had no idea... but luckily I did not pass out.

Troy

The Craziest Saturday in a While

2009-03-21T20:16:00.009-04:00

Today was the most fun I have had in a long time. It was well-placed, too, because after a rough week I really needed it.

Here's a brief synopsis of my day:

9:45 am - wake up to Stefan Bukowski pounding on my door. We eat breakfast (Vanilla coke and yogurt) and get ready to go biking.

10:00 am - We go over to 189 to retrieve my old helmet. It's locked. LOCKED. we couldn't believe it. We checked windows until we found one that was open, and when we threw it open were greeted by an very unhappy-looking Brendan Lenz.

10:30 am - I went mountain biking at Dryer Park with three of my good friends. The trails were closed, so we rode around the recreation facilities, as well as a neighboring quarry.

2:00 pm - We grad some lunch at Wendy's. Three of us dare to take what we called the "Super Value Menu Challenge." This entailed three of us ordering the entire dollar menu for ourselves. The cashiers were in shock. Little old ladies came up and said "Are you really going to eat all those hamburgers?" Someone offered to take our picture. In a Wendys! Two of us finished the 8 elements of the value menu in the restaurant.

3:00pm - I pick Ed up to go get a bike off craigslist. Before I put the car in gear the owner calls to tell him it has already sold...

3:30 pm - Played CounterStrike: Source for an hour or so with my neighbor (I am not very good)

4:30 pm - Eric Parmland shows up for help working on his bike, and we screw around with that for a while.

5:30 pm - My neighbors in 137B invite me to go biking with them, and I cannot refuse! We went through multiple 1ft deep puddles (actually small lakes) and soaked our shoes, covering our bikes in mud. We came back, hosed them off, and lubed them, having good conversations.

8:00 pm - My neighbor all the way over in 139 brings me a single fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie. I couuld not have been happier.

8:30 pm - I am able to sit down and write on my blog, something I have wanted to do for MONTHS.

Praise God for each day he gives us! On days like this that is so easy... But let's make it a point to praise him on the days that is it so hard to do. Even on those days, we are so blessed.

I hope you have enjoyed the stories of the day. Imagine how many stories I have over a week! The picture is not of today... I will change it soon though!

Troy

If Everyone Cared

2009-01-06T10:18:00.010-05:00

I was listening to If Everyone Cared by Nickelback. It's a great song, but this time the lyrics really hit me:

If everyone cared and nobody cried,
If everyone loved and nobody lied,

If everyone shared and swallowed their pride,
Then we'd see the day when nobody died.

It made me think about how much we care. A lot of us, if asked, would say that we care about just about everything: world hunger, AIDS in Africa and Asia, inequitable distribution of water, baby pandas, black footed ferrets, etc. It begs the question, does compassion = caring? Or is compassion even real if doesn't change the way we live our lives?

There are many Christians who do genuinely care about issues, people, and problems, but there are also many who are fooling themselves as to what caring is all about. This is what I have been learning lately.

Ghandi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." This is not easy! In the song, it mentions caring, loving, caring, and swallowing pride. I know I don't do all of these, but I want others to do them, because it will further the Kingdom of God, and bring generally good things to this world.

The other thing the song addresses is dying because of need. I can't imagine not having enough food and water to survive, or not having access to desperately needed medicine. It is truly a worthy cause to do something about this. I agree with Nickelback that if everyone cared for the needy and loved them, throwing their pride aside, there would be significant change and lives would be saved.

I'm tempted to say "and that would wonderfully complicate our overpopulation problems," but I suppose that would be insensitive, considering God did create each person that would be saved, and wants to know them just as much as anyone else. I think I just changed my mind on overpopulation :-P

P.S. 10 Points for the first person to comment with what the numbers and letters on the rainbow are.

If anyone wants more about caring, and needs to get their daily dose of nerding out, check this out:

The Winter Snow

2008-12-22T16:19:00.007-05:00

My latest song is below. I wrote it when was delayed at RIT with nothing to do except the IV Christmas Party.

The Winter Snow

I wrote this song while I was stuck,

Couldn’t drive home through the snow.

My family said “Just stay a while,

And come home when you’re clear to go”

All this time playing guitar,

It made me think of who we are.

Each one of us with his own will.

Are we just living for the thrill?

The winter snow keeps falling down

It blankets everything around

We’ve nowhere to go tonight

So let’s sit here and sing all night.

I wrote this song while I was stuck,

Couldn’t drive home through the snow.

Probly should have bought a truck,

But you know, that’s just my luck…

I’m thankful for this time to play,

Time to read and time to pray.

There’s someone watching over for us

But next time I’ll just take the bus.

The winter snow is falling down

Covering everything around

Tomorrow I’ll make my drive home

Long hours of lonely road

I’ll remember the winter snow

And how it didn’t let me go.

The winter snow is here.

To play it (for those so inclined), make a G on your guitar, lift up your index finger and move your ring finger up one string. Then play the strings you are touching in eighth notes (you'll be on the 3rd fret). The progression is frets 8-3-5-1. You'll see that they sort of correspond with the melody.

Also, I have updated Zero to include links so that everyone can see what it's talking about. Check it out on the right sidebar. -->

Zero

2008-12-19T02:25:00.004-05:00

The guys of 137A have created something unheard of. It's called Zero.

Zero is a thing, like Craiglist Free, because everything on it costs 0 dollars. The concept is that we have lots of free things lying around that people might be able to use. There will be a whiteboard in our living room with the current list of available items, as well as sidebars on one or more of our blogs.

With any luck what we have to offer can be of use to you, and it can help us about-to-graduate students out by saving space.

Check out the sidebar on the right for current Zero postings. Just contact me if you're interested in anything!

New Language

2008-12-12T14:14:00.010-05:00

I am learning my first new language (the third I am familiar with) in 5 years. It's ASL! After 3 years at RIT, I knew next to none, but in the last three days I have learned enough to have whole conversations. It's a little unsettling when you meet a deaf student at the Crossroads and they are in shock that I've only been learning a few days.

I have come to one conclusion in the midst of this: only God could be responsible! It's been quite a humbling experience to be learning so quickly, when I have been forgetting all I learned for years.

A little backstory: Three days ago I befriended an RIT student named Keith who is deaf. He is an older student, and his experience has been very helpful in my learning sign. He has actually taught sign at a community college before! He inquired about playing racquetball when he saw I was carrying a racquet, and we went from there.

It's been neat to see how God is using things like racquetball to accomplish so many things. If we pull off a deaf/hearing weekly racquetball game, hearing students will have an opportunity to make awesome friends and learn sign, deaf students will feel more a part of IV (I hope), and everyone will get the opportunity to play a game they like with awesome people.

Praise the Lord for this craziness!

Free

2008-11-28T21:31:00.014-05:00

So many people in this world look at things for their monetary value. I think that's really lame. I think its silly to think a Rolex watch is better than the Timex I wear simply because it costs 10x as much. This Thanksgiving break I have received a lot of things for free. It has allowed me to see the things for what they really are, and it's very exciting.

But what does this matter to you? I want to enlighten you on the many aspects of the word eff arr eee eee.

As described on Free Convection , free is an exceptional dietary plan (I don't need to get into again). You might be surprised to know that it's also a decorating philosophy:

(The Chouch, built by 137 with all free materials)

A free clock on free wood

A free lamp

And its a just a way of looking at the world:

I saw a bike in a tree and my first thought was

"Sweet, a free bike!" I later sold it for $25 (Once

I was sure no one wanted it back).

Matt bringing back a free futon mattress for the

Chouch (defined by Urban Dictionary as

"combination of a chair and couch") project.

A recliner I saw out for bulk garbage pick-up. Now in 137.

As you can see, there are many parts of free-ness. If you discover any more, make a post about it!!

I hope you are all inspired to utilize free things so that you can save what you have and give it more freely.

~Troy

Purpose of Possibly Irrelevant

2008-11-26T00:24:00.004-05:00

I thought it was about time to write out the purpose of this blog. Most people begin with this post, but I didn't think of that (surprise, surprise).

What is Possibly Irrelevant? Why that title?

This title raises two questions: What, might not be relevant to what?

What #1) This blog is about what I'm learning as a Christian. God is continuing to amaze me and teach me more about myself, those around me, and my relationship with Him. To benefit myself and others, I thought I would start a blog.

What #2) Your life.

This blog is meant to let people know what is God is doing in my life. It is also a great way for me to think things out thoroughly, something I don't really do enough.

Its contents or the conclusions within it may be completely irrelevant to you or your current situations. I cannot be sure of this, however, because I am not you. So that is why the level of irrelevance is not able to be determined.

Hence, Possibly Irrelevant.

If anyone needs an application of the word irrelevant to decipher its meaning, here's the best thing I've seen to do that:

~ Troy

History lesson

2008-11-07T12:31:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Slippey and his borderline addictive use of Google Reader, I have all my posts from Possibly Irrelevant back. They are pasted here in order. There are some new tidbits in a few of them, if you look hard you might find them.

Back from Expedition '08!

A crossroads. A place where roads cross, and we must choose between them. When we come to crossroads in our life, there are many choices, but we can only choose one at that moment.

Right now I am approaching the crossroads. I can see it on the

horizon, in the distance, but I can't make out how many roads there are ahead, never mind the street signs on the posts. I know I'm headed for it, but I don't know what choices I will face, or which I will choose.

The picture to the left is almost where's I'm at right now. The road I am on is straight and narrow, leading straight to graduation. The sky is large, the horizon far off in the distance. The road signs don't say anything like "Albany 240mi," but the lone sign simply states "Destination UNKNOWN" (Please ignore the plug for some event on the sign).

So crossroads was also a track at this year's Expedition. As the name implies, I definitely took an Expedition with God last weekend. We journeyed deep into my life, and looked at why I try every day to push down my own will and let His be done, and why I want to include him in the decisions I will soon be facing. We looked far into the future at things like finding a place to live, finding a church community, and getting married.

The thing that I most remember about the weekend was that God showed me how much He loves me. He convinced me that any effort I put into furthering the Kingdom of God will be more than repaid, and that the best option I have for the future is to let God take control.

I trust that the Lord God will is preparing a place for me , and that he will lead me there if I let him. I rejoice that he wants to be with me in my travels, and that all he asks of us is that we stand and say "Here I am, Lord. I will go Lord, if You need me."

I want to thank all the IV staff and Volunteers for allowing God to work through them in the lives of so many students. I will be praying for the people who put on Expedition and for the students who attended, and I encourage you join me in that.

~ Troy

God tests us

It's so cool when God tests our faith so that we might grow in it.

Recently, God has really be changing my heart about sacrificing for others. Not financially, but time and effort wise. I tend to be quite selfish with my time (like it's mine anyway!) and I'm grateful God is changing that. Recently, my apartment accepted a request from someone on couchsurfing.com to stay for three nights on one of our many couches (their choice, of course). I have to admit, I was not thrilled about it, but I accepted the request because I knew it was the right thing to do. Well, God must have noticed my discontented "yes" response because the more I thought about how annoying it would be to have a stranger here for three nights, the more he changed my heart to be excited about it. It turned out the fellow on couchsurfing found another place to stay (I have no idea why). With this turn of events, I realized that God had, quite creatively, taught me to open my home to those who need it without actually having anyone stay with me. Pretty neat huh?

A very similar situation involving taking someone to get something they needed a vehicle to get arose a day later (today), and again, I grudingly accepted. Again, God changed my cold heart to be more than willing to do it (this time in the span of a 30 second conversation about it), and again, another option revealed itself and I didn't need to go anywhere or get anything.

I'm so glad God is reminding me that my time is all a gift, and that I do not deserve all of it!

P.S. I am slightly worried that God will use the 6 couches in our living room to house 6 at once at some point :-P

~Troy

Longboarding in Rochester

Last night, I went out with some friends to skate Rochester. It was a blast! From the middle of a 4 lane road to the upper levels of parking garages, no one was around. We rode from parking garage to parking garage, doing a few runs at each then moving to a harder, faster one. The final garage had 10 stories to skate down. The best part? They all had ELEVATORS. Its amazing how fast they go up, and they allowed us to do many more runs then the stairs would have.

I highly recommend bombing parking garages to anyone bored at midnight in Rochester.

Holy Spirit Dynamite

I encourage you to say "Holy Spirit dynamite" in the presence of Jim Salmon (when he's interpreting) . He has an amazing sign for it.

In the past week God has really been showing me the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, and what it means for our lives. It still (rightly so) astounds me that a little bit of God resides in me.

Mick's message at IV opened my eyes to the obvious. I had accepted that God Holy Spirit was with me and could influence my life, but I had not figured out how to let it. Recently, God has been showing me exactly how to let the Spirit aid me in ways I never imagined.

I had definitely not been using the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. I was floundering in attempts to utilize it, but realized that its power is not applicable to my own agenda (even if I think I'm striving to do God's work). I think the trick to allowing the power of the Spirit to shine is not jumping the gun and deciding what is God's work, and actually talking to God about it and being shown what he work is to be.

I have written about how God has changed my heart (which can be pretty stubborn) to thank and praise my Father for what he has done, and to encourage my friends to let the Spirit guide us.

21st Birthday

Yesterday was my twenty-first birthday. It was an awesome day, but man 20 went by fast. I went swimming in Irondeqouit creek, was bit (twice) by a fire ant, did a canonball into about 2 feet of water (not the best idea I've had), and went out to The Old toad with close friends. We had lots of time to talk, because our food and bill were very slow in coming. So slow, in fact that we got a discount.

The best part: we didn't understand 90% of what our waiter said to us that night (He was an English exchange student). This further proves that Americans don't speak English.

DELETED

2008-11-05T13:24:00.000-05:00

Possibly Irrelevant is history. I am not happy about this.

The way it happened was I wanted to experiment with different blog layouts (without ruining my content), so I created a blog called temporaryblog and played around for a few minutes. When I went to delete it, I was careless and accidentally deleted Possibly Irrelevant. There was not even so much as a "Are you sure?" window.

Apparently I missed the little disclaimer next to the delete button, which stated "This will permanently delete your blog including all your posts. [...] we can't restore your posts once you choose to delete your blog."

"When the systems we expect to help us actually hurt us, we have tragedy."

- Carter Burwell