Charles’ World

“There are so many more cars on the road,” Grandpa had said
His words like pearls cast before swine
For the world we knew was normal and we looked not ahead
Until we had our own children we didn’t see the incline
First it was the major cities where autos were said to be dead
Then even desolate highways where walking was faster & more streamline

“There are so many more people in the street,” our great great grand kids had said
Their words suffocated by people who moved like bovine
For the people of their time knew no thinner population of biped
And soon even the shoulder to shoulder every day was fine
Then came that fateful day, Charles’ world reached it’s height instead
All of civilization on the planet became gridlocked from shoreline to shoreline
Without any guidance, no master plan, evolution simply spread
Society found itself left hanging with no escape, no design

The End

2008

The planet takes another spin around the sun and from our perspective the sun rolls from the eastern horizon to the western. And it’s under this sun that our lives are played out. Each year more of our innocence is worn off a little more; we know more pain, more struggles. Our nieve hope of a happy carefree life is extinguished as we are faced with more trials, even when we have tried to live right and avoid the consequences of wrong choices. This year was such for me.

Things got off to a bang with Rachel’s annual Black & White & Bling party when Albina and I hung out talking long after the last friend left. It was only 12 days later when I asked her out to sushi at no Coast. It was nice to have “someone” on my birthday.

I sacrificed snowboarding with my “homies” to go with Albina several times.

In mid January 3 van loads of us young adults headed out to Los Angeles to Passion 2008.

In early February my Thursday night Bible Study began collecting money for a Blood:Water Mission Well and will finish out this year with less than $600 to go!

On Valentine’s day I was going to treat my first real valentine to a surprise dinner in Glenwood when we pulled over on I70 and were rear ended by a guy who fell asleep at the wheel. My Honda was totalled, Albina’s right was shattered and it was most of the year before things were even close to normal again.

In March I went to Ensenada Mexico again to build a home for a family who’s home burned down.

In April my friend Jamin helped me go to Denver and find my Toyota Tacoma to replace my Honda.

In April I participated in Sharefest by designing a mural that our high school youth group helped me paint down in Riverside.

In late April early May I went to Cancun with Albina. First vacation with a girlfriend – oooo scandalous!

As soon as we got back from Cancun we had a Mobster/Mafia themed party for Daniel & Rachel’s birthdays.

Albina and I went hiking and biking a lot.

In May Albina, her sisters and I went to Maroon Bells.

In June we had the first annual Jake Wilkinson’s Unicycle gun shoot.

In July I took Albina to Rifle Falls for our 6 month

Went to a Superchick, Disciple, KJ52 concert.

In July I bought my motorcycle

Rode over the Monument with Aric & Wes on our motorcycles.

Sometime in the summer Jake Wilkinson’s Unicycle released Hits From the Future and soon after, the Greatest Hits album.

In August I went up to Land’s End with Albina and her mom.

In August my Thursday night Bible Study peoples and I went camping near Moab and hiked up to Delicate Arch. After that we cooled off in the river.

Saw Josh McDowell with Jeremy Riddle at the Avalon.

Went camping with Chad, Lawrence, Josie, Stevo & TJ up near Rifle Falls.

In September I hike a ton of trails on the Monument that I hadn’t done yet.

In September after Liz’s going away party we all loaded up in a car and drove out to Palisade where we took turns milking Stevo’s goats.

My dad gave me his Winchester 92 Classic 3030.

Played a little paintball (even less than last year)

I rode a camel at Fruita Fall Fest.

One weekend in September my Bible Study people and I hiked near the petroglyphs, watched the air show (from outside of it) and went up on the Mesa for Color Sunday.

In October I was innocently monkeying around in a tree in our backyard when a branch snapped. I fell over 10 feet straight on my head breaking a facet in my cervical spine. The nerves pinched not only caused the most pain I have ever felt, but immobilized my fingers.

Dressed as a bull rider for Halloween to accommodate my neck brace.

In November I had my first surgery, an anterior cervical fusion.

In November my old friend Aaron, who is a film writer and director called me up and had me & my brother in a scene of the low budget art film he’s working on. Later he had me come and help with editing.

In December I went to Lawrence’s annual wine party but coudn’t have any wine due to all the narcotics I’m on.

Went to the second annual Ugly Sweater Party at Nate’s where Daniel won with his teal Grandma sweater.

And we finished off the year with Rachel’s 4th Annual Black & White & Bling New Year’s Eve Party!

2008, You Weren’t All That Great…Weren’t Terrible Either

Where did you begin 2008?
My house for Rachel’s 3rd annual Black & White & Bling party.

What was your status by Valentine’s Day?
For the first time ever, hooked up!

Were you in school (anytime this year)?
nope. haven’t been fer a while

Did you have to go to the hospital?
I haven’t seen the inside of a hospital so much since mom’s cancer. I was in wreck on Valentine’’s Day and went to the Rifle ER, I visited Albina everyday when she was hospitalized from the wreck, I dated a doctor (Albina) and visited/had lunch with her at the hospital many times, then I broke my neck in October and was hospitalized for the first time in my life (a week and a half)

Did you have any encounters with the police?
The officer handling my February wreck.

Where did you go on vacation?
In March I went to Ensenada, Mexico with CVVC to build a house for people whose burnt down.
In April/May I went to Cancun with Albina.

What did you purchase that was over $500?
A Toyota Tacoma after losing my Honda Passport in the wreck.

Did you know anybody who got married?
Curt and Hannah Lincoln, Ari and her husband, Jennifer & her husband

Did you know anybody who passed away?
Actually this year everyone stayed alive!

Did you move anywhere?
No. I hate moving.

What sporting events did you attend?
none

What concerts/shows did you go to?
David Crowder
Matt Redmond
Superchick/Disciple/KJ52
Jeremy Riddle

Where do you live now?
Same place

Describe your birthday?
I think I went out to eat…I can’t remember…I celebrated with Wes between our birthdays at Chilis….

What’s the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2008?
Go on vacation with a girlfriend
Be in an Aaron Sheley movie

What has/have been your favorite moment(s)?
The good parts of Albina & I’s relationship, getting/riding my motorcycle, going to The Passion in L.A., watching as the people in my Bible study have raised nearly the $3000 needed to build a Blood:Water Mission Well in Africa, building a house in Mexico, going to the Gulf with pretty girl, hiking on the monument…

What’s something you learned about yourself?
I still can’t make a relationship work.

Any new additions to your family?
no.

What was your best month?
Too hard to choose one month.

What music will you remember 2008 by?
Hmmm maybe One Republic’s Stop & Stare.
The theme to Sanford & Son because it’s been my ringtone throughout my recent hospitalization & recovery.

Who has been your best drinking buddy?
I’ve all but quit drinking…who needs it?

Made new friends?
Jamin Teide
Lorne & Shayna
Albina’s sisters
Several people who have come to my Bible study (although many of you I think I actually met last year)

Favorite Night[s] out?

Any regrets?
not being more careful in that tree
that things didn’t work out with Albina

What do you want to change in 2009?
I would like to stay out of the ER!

Overall, how would you rate this year from 1 to 10?
The positive and the negative equal out – 5

What would you change about 2008?
I would have pulled into Rifle for Albina to get ice for her burn instead of the shoulder on I70
I would have went shooting with Stevo on October 19th

Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
Albina’s condo
The Monument

have any life changes in 2008?
Learned a ton about relationships
Had 3 vertebrae fused together

Change your hairstyle?
pretty much kept the NO hair look ha ha
I did have a HUGE beard in January

Get a new job?
Nope, still at CVVC

How old did you turn this year?
29….aww goodbye 20’s

Do you have a New Year’s resolution?
Not really…maybe stay out of trees this year

Did anything embarrassing?
Fell out of a tree

Buy anything new from eBay?
No, but a lot from Amazon

What was/were your favorite purchase[s]?
Motorcycle

Get married or divorced?
still a no, although my friend got divorced, sucks

Get arrested?
nope

Be honest – did you watch American Idol?
Nope. I freaking HATE reality TV and anything like it!

Did you get sick this year?
Beside narcotic withdrawal? Maybe just a cold.

Start a new hobby?
Yeah, riding my motorcycle

Been snowboarding?
In the beginning yes…looks like I’m screwed for this season though…

Are you happy to see 2008 go?
Time is too valuable to be happy at its passing.

Drank Starbucks in 2008?
Oh my gosh, can we measure it in gallons?

Been naughty or nice?
Hmmm, I guess it depends on your definition…was naughty to a point

What are you wishing for in 2009?
Maybe a turn for some better luck? Not happy to be heading out of my 20’s in a neck brace and still single…so that’s my wish.

What is Christmas

Look out your window and you see the world before you. A hard tangible world that you can touch, feel, know. You are thinking, processing and drawing conclusions. Very few people debate reality, and the ones who do, have to explain away their own conscience, the very fact that they say reality is but a dream.
All this got here one way or another. Random chance? Or maybe this moving process of the universe from the beginning to now, evolution or whatever…maybe it is intelligent…maybe we can call it God. I have a higher intelligence than a bear, a fish or even a dolphin, and so it’s not hard to imagine an intelligence higher than me. I understand the difference between 2 and 3 dimensions, the ape does not. Therefore, I can easily believe in a Creator that understands the 8th, 9th, 80th dimension.
*  *   *   *
Turn on your TV, open your newspaper, and you see brokenness, hurt, pain, destruction. Maybe by giving us free choice, God had to allow the wrong choice. People are murdering others as I speak. Suicide bombers exploding, people chanting their hate of another people, someone is being tortured by having their nails ripped off with pliers, a little girl in Uganda is raising her brothers and sisters because both her parents and all of her grandparents are dead from aids, someone’s sister just got raped by someone she thought she trusted, someone’s sweet grandmother was robbed of everything she owned, and on and on and on. Where is God in all of this? Who is going to see to it that the thieves, murderers and rapers get punished?
Maybe God had a plan. Maybe He kept a delicate balance of free choice, while at the very same time invading the natural world to fix everything. Maybe He gritted His teeth and did what He knew had to be done. Maybe He came into the human race so that He could grow up and show us that it could be done. We can love everyone while holding on to truth, making a living and being humble. We can hang out with the dirtiest, the most hate filled, the murderous without becoming one of them.
‘God, you don’t understand, this hurts” you say. ‘Yes…I do’ He says back. ‘God, I’ve been humiliated by everyone, I’ve been beaten, people hate me…you just don’t understand.” From Jesus Christ’s bloody face he manages to say ‘Yes, I do.” as He, being the Son of the Creator stepped down from the highest place to not only walk on our territory, but experience the worst kind of rejection and hatred our humans have to offer. ‘Why are you doing this, Son of God?’ you ask. And He says back “I make all things new. I love you and want you back”
*   *   *
I’ve gotten to the point where I really don’t like Christmas anymore. I hate the cold short days and driving on ice and snow pack. I hate all the red and green things they sell everywhere. I’m sick of all the old classic Christmas songs. I’m not a kid anymore and so the allure of getting and opening gifts has gone, especially when I open obligatory presents that are things I neither need nor want. What is Christmas and why do we have do go through it every year?
I find when I get into that mindset, I need to screw up my thinking, shake it all up and look at this all way different. Cleanse my mind of Santa, Christmas trees, stockings, colored lights, reindeer, jingle bells and start out with a blank slate.
As a Christian I celebrate Christmas for the birth of a Jew 2000 years ago that I believe was God incarnate coming to live His life and reconcile this whole mess. So what the heck does a tree, Christmas carols (like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer), elves, wrapping paper, bows, cookies and eggnog have to do with this? I need, I MUST think about what the birth of Christ was, what it means to me and every person who lived and will live. Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, was born as prophesied as the most important step in God’s plan to redeem us. We all, given free choice chose wrong and now He’s mid plan in fixing that.
No one knows how much of humanity, this world, or time itself is left. But when I get my head right about this, it’s an exciting time. It’s time time to party because the King’s plan is motion and we’re all a part of this story. Hope this in some way helped you to get the right mindset too.

Area Man Gives Up Writing: Cites The Onion

GRAND JUNCTION, CO – Local resident Josh Anderson gives up a recent hobby of writing citing The Onion as his reason for quitting. “The thought of quitting came one day when I had a funny idea to write on. I was going to write a story called “Area Man Gives Up on Life: Cites Government Spies”, and then I realized, The Onion has probably already written the story somewhere,” he said. When asked whether is fears where founded on any hard evidence Anderson said, “No, I never really saw the article or really anything in The Onion resembling anything I’ve ever written…I just figured they probably already did it.” Anderson, will give up imme

Finally it Happened to Me – Monday, December 1, 2008

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I have some uncanny knowledge about terrestrials and their older wiser relatives, extraterrestrials. I have speculated the writings of many people who have seen UFOs, “aliens”, bigfoots, lockness monsters, boogy men, ghosts, vampires, mummies, frankensteins, greys, reptillians, excedrin. You may remember me begging them to lay eggs in my head. Well, it has finally happened, I was abducted.
It all began one day when I hit my head extremely hard. Although it hurt really bad I was good to go. Some kid saw some blood on me though and called an ambulance. I’m not sure if the kid was real. I do know that the “paramedics” (more like “paranormals”) were not human because they were so calm and efficient. Humans would have been panicking. The ambulance, which was more likely a “Q34 Morrayzip” or space-car, took me to their mothership. They rammed probes into my arms. The even put a probe in my [CENSORED].
Days and nights on their ship were all a blur to me because they euthanized me. They did countless tests on me and may even have taken a kidney. Once they gave me the cliche anal probe. The aliens didn’t speak English, rather they spoke directly to my occipital lobes which my mind translated to American.
There was one guy, looking remarkably human, who was like the main guy (like a main character in a movie). He told me there was a fracture in my spine (yeah right, so I wouldn’t wonder about the pain caused by the chip they implanted in my neck!) He said they would retain me and observe me.
Many days passed full of these “tests” and “observations”. One day, having had enough of this, I sprinted for the door. I went all over that mothership and could not find a way out! I did however see they had taken a BUNCH of other humans…hundreds.
Finally one day it was time for them to harvest my organs and then drop me in a farmer’s field with cows they had taken organs from (Remember, you must drink Organic milk and eat ORGANIC beef! The other stuff has had its organs stolen!!! Same with organic cheese and butter)
They wheeled me into a strange cold room on a rolling bed-like gurney. One of them must have punched me in the face, because I was knocked out for the entire procedure (also, I had a fat lip when I woke up)…don’t know what I did to piss him off.
When I woke up, they released me in a parking garage somewhere. When I got home I examined myself closely starting with my toes. I saw blood dots on my feet where their sharp fangs must have sucked my blood. There were more on my stomach and arms. When I got to my neck, a chill ran down my spine. There was an apparatus around my whole neck!! I took it off to see a bandage covering something. I ripped the bandage off to see stitches across a 2 or three inch slit!!! OMG I thought. They harvested something out of my neck!!! My mind raced to think of what they took!! My trachea? My esophagus? No….they took my voice box!!!!! I tried to talk and my voice sounded…normal…weird, somehow I can talk without it. I’m not sure why they put this thing on my neck, but I put it back on for fear that the incision will burst and expose my esophagus and trachea to open air which will cause them to dry out and shrivel up.
OK, well, that’s what happened to me. It’s unbelievable, I know – I was there. I plan on writing a book about it called Communion II:Revenge of the Greys. Look for it wherever great books are sold. And I will sign it too.

The Coming and Going of Inspiration

Inspiration flickers to life as a tiny candle flame against the seemingly unconquerable coldness of dark winter; inspiration in me that has been smothered beneath energy draining nerve pain in my arms and hands. I never realized how much your productivity hinges on your physical health until this fall and winter. But once I begin feeling the effects of pain killing narcotics, once I am comfortable without being drowsy, it only takes the right kind of music to restart the creative juices.
Then again, its not long before the song is over or my medication wears off and like the slightest breeze, circumstances extinguish them flame.

MxPx – Panic – (2005 SideOneDummy Records)

Tom, Mike and Yuri seemed to have packed up their punch and settled down for family life on their last release “Before Everything and After” Then they went home and listened to “Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo” and decided they haven’t used up all their MxPx brand extra loud punk rock just yet. Evidence of the return of a more aggressive sound is found on songs like Cold Streets, The Story and Get Me Out. Don’t think this is one of those “We better redo an old favorite album to stay popular” though. Panic is an all new offering with new experimentation heard in Cold Streets and Late again when they infuse some good old string bending rock and roll.

If you love the typical singable melodies MxPx has mastered, never fear, this album has melody as well.  One such song is Wrecking Hotel Rooms which features guest Mark Hoppus of Blink 182. Another is Kicking and Screaming which will stick in your head all day.

It may have seemed like MxPx was taming on their last record, but Panic proves MxPx is still packing a pop punk punch!

-Josh Anderson

MxPx – Before Everything & After – (2003 A&M Records)

Long time fans know where MxPx came from and will tell you this album is different. MxPx has always been melodic punk rawk (or at least since Life in General) but they have taken on “Pop Punk” full on with The Ever Passing Moment and now more than ever on Before Everything and After. If you like memorable songs with catchy melodies that are easy to sing along to, then you’ll love the new direction they have taken on this disc. The cleanness of production and simple song structures allow Mike Herrera’s voice to be showcased which is making his signature sound more evident and likeable (notably on Well Adjusted)

The CD is kicked off with Play it Loud, an anthem about them holding their own in the punk scene that features a guest appearance by the chick band The Halo Friendlies. Well Adjusted is song that sticks in your head and will most likely be featured on future “Best of” albums because it so genuinely MxPx. Other highlights on the disc include Everything Sucks (When You’re Gone) which is something we can all relate to at one time or another, and You Make Me Me which is their shout out to God whom they declare makes them everything they are.

If you love the thrash punk days of Pokinatcha and Teenage Politics you might want to hold out for their next CD.

-Josh Anderson

Five Face Down – (2005 Five Face Down Inc./Paradice/Hot Lunch Music)

Out of the ashes of former bands, SMA, God’s House and Kerusso rises Five Face Down. On this, their first full length release Five Face Down display their experience gained in former pursuits as musicians. The CD was recorded in drummer Kevin Decker’s own studio Paradice Studios but could have been recorded at Island Records for all we know. The production is clean and tight revealing the guitar work of Jared Johnson and Alex Case along with the veteran timing of Decker himself. Usually bass can easily be overlooked and recorded “muddy” but we hear the aggressive bass licks of Anthony Cooper crystal clear. Evidently influenced by U2’s bono, we hear lead singer Troy Behren’s passion as a singer on tracks like “Face Down” and “If”. Lyrically the songs dig into the member’s faith and attempt to encourage as well as state their position as Christians. The disc has an underlining heavy edge with aggressive guitar licks, distortion pedal tricks and a few studio tricks thrown in for good measure. Stand out tracks are “Leave it all Behind” and “If”. Support the local scene and pick up their self titled disc at www.fivefacedown.com.