There are several things in my life that I swore I wouldn't do.  I won't bore, or entertain, you with that list, but one of them is "get a cat, especially before I get a dog."  Nonetheless, last week, I reneged on that statement and I found myself with a cat.

    First off, we are not supposed to have pets here at The DU...but if you know me, I already have a happenin turtle.
    Secondly, a cat is not exactly the display of manliness that I am looking to reveal in my life.
    Thirdly, cats are cats...they are much better for kicking.(just kidding...no, but seriously)

    So here I am, a little less than two weeks ago, and a friend of mine was in need.  She needed me to take care of her cat.  "Ok, I can do this.  Surely it won't be for long.  She really needs my help right now and I am a great friend, so I will take care of the cat."  Turns out it is a kitten, which is cool, because it is still in that cute stage where it plays with anything and everything and it look at you like you are a prick when you walk in the door, so we're golden there.  Last piece of set up information = the cat's name is Meow....see the originality?
(It makes me think of Super Troopers when he keeps saying meow after he pulled Jim Gaffigan over)

    So the cat stays.  It's litterbox trained, so it shouldn't be too bad.  The first night, I leave my door open as I head to bed.  I'm reading a book, when I see this ball of grey fuzz bee-lining it for my bed.  She leaps up on the bed, and proceeds to move and stretch and lick (not necessarily in that order) until she finds a spot to sleep.  And she sleeps there until I wake up in the morning.  I slept with Meow.

    Next night...same thing.  Third night, little later, but still she comes to the bed and plops wherever she sees fit to get a good night's rest.  It was kinda cool.  I was starting to feel a little bonding going on.  (That may make you question my manhood, but I am confident...I think).  A week came and went and I was spending regulaer time with Meow just chillin why I was reading and she was....licking.  I even went out and purchased her some kitty litter.  She pretty much figured out the entire house from top to bottom in merely a week.

  
 So last Thursday comes, and the owner is ready to have the cat back.  I'd been hanging out with this cat for a week and I guess part of me started to think that I was going to keep her for good and I kinda pushed the whole fact that I was going to have to give her back the corner of my mind.  So the friend called, said she was ready...and it hit me.  I have to admit it, I was a little emotionally attached.  I liked the cat.  It was definitely one of the coolest cats I've ever seen and been around.  So I got the owner to take a picture of me with the cat.  One last shot.  If my eyes look misty in the picture, it's because I just woke up or something, not because I was sad.

I'd still rather have a dog.

PS.  I did some research about my turtle.  It turns out its not a girl.  'Tis of the opposite gender...the superior one, perhaps?  Anyways, I've made an executive decison and decided from henceforth that my turtle's name will be Zo, rather than the aformentioned Zoe.  Right now, the Zo is short for Alonzo....however, if you have a name that you would like to recommend that starts with an E, then I could continue to call him Zo E. Bearden.  So, help a brotha out.

Turtle fo Life

 That's all for now.  You stay classy...planet earth.

This was the sunset on Arbel Cliff.

This was the absolute best place for me in Israel.  I was sitting in a lifeguard stand on the Sea of Galilee for most of the night.  Serenity.

This is the Jordan River near its beginnings

This is a Jesus Boat.  We rode this out on the Sea of Galilee and they fished from the deck.

This is a Tilapia.  They call it Peter's fish, from the Sea of Galilee.  I ate this for lunch.

I was re-baptized in the Jordan River.  If you look closely, you can see that I have a Chuck Norris shirt on underneath.  That's right, he did the deed with me.

Pastor Dan lead the dunking.  This is the full baptismal process.  I did come up with half the Jordan River in my nose, though.

This is the synagogue in Capernaum, where Jesus taught.

Here is me in Capernaum.  Peter's house is just below that spaceship looking thing on the right.

This the Church of the Fish and Loaves.  All that is left of this site is the rock you see at the top.

Here is the Mount of Beattitudes, where Jesus started his "Blessed is He..." sermon.

In Jericho, you can see the mountain from which Moses saw the Promised Land, but never entered.  You can also see the Mount of Temptation, where Jesus spent 40 days in the desert.

This was the security going into and leaving Jericho...pretty tight.

This is the sunset over Jerusalem.

The Dome of the Rock (Islamic Shrine) in Jerusalem at sunset.  It is the site where the Temple Mount is supposed to stand one day.

Here I am in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The Church of the Agony is behind me where many people believe Christ went off to pray while His disciples slept.

This is the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.  This is where the Nativity scene is said to have been.

This man on the left, Saint Jerome, translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin which is known as the Vulgate.  These efforts are to thank for our readable Bible today.  He spent some 30 years in the caves near the Nativity doing this.  I thought it was a cool shot of him, the nun that served as his maid, and the cross in the background.

Sheep and Goat Herders are awesome.

This is the wall in Bethlehem.  Not everyone likes having the wall.

Every one of these 18-20 year old girls was strapped with a M16.  They were in the Israeli army and on a field trip as part of a continuing education deal. 
There were about 200 of them in all.  It was crazy.

This is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Golgotha is thought to have been.  Basically, you walk up to this table, stick your hand in the hole provided and you can touch Golgotha...gotta love how the Greek Orthodox church pieced this one together.

This was at the Wailing Wall (Western Wall).  You can see all the prayers written on paper and stuck in the wall above their heads.  They are praying for the peace of Jerusalem.

He is not here, He is Risen!  This was upon exiting the Garden Tomb.

Brodizzle doing the Dead Sea Float.

We were told not to take pictures of the Egyptian guards.  I'm not very good with restraining from doing something I've been told not to do.  His machine gun is black and yellow.

This doesn't justify it, but the craziness of lanes in Cairo was absurd.  Traffic lights were non-existent.  Lane lines were merely suggestions.  Our guide told us that traffic lights were just to teach their kids the colors.  We actually backed into a car on our bus.  The driver got out, moved the car, then went on his way.  I don't think I would make it there as a Risk Management and Insurance Major.

The Nile River.

Check out this camel cheezin' at me.

The top of a pyramid.

This Sphinx and Pyramid...only remaining of the 7 wonders of the world.

There were some awesome signs on the trip, so I nabbed a picture of a few of them.  Take special note to the Andre the Giant one and the Pedestrian Crossing one where someone has painted in wings and a halo.


There you have it.  I know it was a lot of pictures and there really is no good way to explain the whole trip, but all in all, it was the trip of a lifetime.  There were so many times where I was like, "Wow, I'm in Jerusalem" or "Wow, I'm really on the Sea of Galilee."  It was amazing and it brought so many things to life.  Kind of like a Pop-Up book from when I was a kid. 

That's it.  Shoot some comments my way if you got input, questions, or want to know more. 


Oh, and one last thing:

How about it has been a month since an update....impressive, huh?

Let's see, what's new with me.  I've put up a website for Salem Baptist...check it out, it is pretty much off the chain if I say so myself.

http://www.salembaptistcommunity.org
and then the youth site at
http://www.salembaptistcommunity.org/theedge/

It took quite a hefty amount of time to dish those out, but I did enjoy doing them.  Here are the banners I used for the sites, which are still a WIP.
 

Now I have to decide what I want to do with the other domain name that came with that package.  I used the Salem one and now I need to decide if I want to use the other one for my own personal use or for something else...ideas?

I also got my braces off....that was pretty cool.  It's a new thing to be able to eat a meal and not spend the next two weeks finding pieces of said meal still lingering in the metal.  I've been trying to take good care of them so that they stay that way.

My turtle is getting bigger.  It is not a dramatic change, but you can definitely tell there is some change in her size.  I really do enjoy watching her eat and cleaning her aquarium and all that goes with it.  It's just kind of cool to have a pet that is mine.

 

I got to go to the Jingle Jam.  Joseph, Lauren, Laura, Erinn, and I went and saw Howie Day, Gavin DeGraw, James Blunt, Jason Mraz, and Switchfoot perform.  It was a pretty good concert.  I guess the only downside to it was that it wasn't full shows from all 5 artists.  I did refan the flame to my likeness for live concerts.  I've started downloading live concerts recorded from performances from a free internet resource.  I definitely like the live aspect of the music, especially off-the-cuff things.
 

Chronicles of Narnia was flippin awesome.  I got to see it at the Mall of Georgia when I took the youth on a shopping trip.  I absolutely loved it.  It was definitely one of the best movies I have seen in the past few years.  It made the whole shopping trip fly by, especially with 41 people that I was in charge of spread throughout the mall.  I didn't get any shopping done, so I've got to take care of that pretty soon.

Classes are over for me, so I've been on my break for awhile now.  I think I've made an A in both of my classes, I know at least one of them, but the other isn't posted yet.

I busted out the old Nintendo this past week.  We've been playing Mike Tyson's Punchout, RBI Baseball, Caveman Games, and the classic Super Mario Bros.  I have about 50 games, so our selection is quite extensive, but I think the most impressive thing has been the regularity of the game system playing without the annoying interruption of blinking, shutting off, or excessive cartridge blowing.  It really takes me back.

        

I got to help decorate at home in Commerce.  We brought all the decorations up from the basement and put the tree up.  If you know my family, then you know that all of us in one room trying to get things done together is quite an ordeal.  Dad loves ragging Anna and Jenifer, so he takes his shirt off to decorate the tree.  He then proceeds to tell us that for every ornament he puts up, he's taking a piece of clothing off...thus describes Christmas at the Bearden's.  There is a lot of laughing and arguing and complaining about people sitting down instead of helping, but when it is all said and done, we light the tree and sit there in awe at the beauty.  That is somthing I look forward to every year.

Anyways, I think that is it for now.  I know there wasn't as much wit as usual, but I'll see what I can come up with for the next issue of Spoken Thoughts.  Until then, Merry Christmas and long live Aslan.

P.S. Another morsel from our friend Mr. Chuck Norris.