Remember, Remember.

Today is Gunpowder Day! Also known as Guy Fawkes Day, this is a holiday(?) celebrated(?) in England. I question whether or not I should call it a holiday or say that it is celebrated due to the confusing nature of the day. But I'll do my ignorant american best in explaining it to the internet. Just a real quick side-note before we get started, though. The movie "V for Vendetta" is very strongly related to today and if you go watch it right now, it'll make it easier to explain. So I'll wait for you to get back from doing that.

...

Alright, so just in case your powers of observation aren't as good as Evey's, that movie was fictional. Or very prophetic. Guess we'll find out. That doesn't matter much, though. If you payed attention to what historical facts there actually were in the movie, you're fairly in-the-know.

Guy Fawkes wasn't as much the brains behind the operation as V was in the movie, but instead the 'trigger-man' more or less. He was also the 'fall-man'. Oh right... I guess all of you might not have watched the movie. Well, in an american nutshell: King has laws that small group doesn't like, those guys start a somewhat underground rebellion, they are all caught, Guy Fawkes ends up taking the heaviest portion of the historical blame. Oh, and he's hanged, too.

England celebrates the fact that their plot (to blow up parliament) failed by making bonfires, setting off fireworks, and burning Guy Fawkes' effigy. Children make their own Guys out of pillowcases and whatnot and take them around saying "Penny for the Guy?" in hopes of getting money to buy their own fireworks to set off.

While I, being in America, realize that building a bonfire, setting off fireworks, and burning effigies by myself will get me put in jail no matter how into obscure holidays and European culture the judges in my local area are. Instead I settle for watching V for Vendetta and eating a candy Bo-Bomb with strawberry flavored gunpowder in it.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

What is this?

I was hoping to put a post up yesterday, but my laptop was rejecting the charger for some reason. It's all fixed now, though and you needn't worry. The only reason I wanted it to be yesterday was for the slightly odd reason that both previous posts had been on a wednesday. Well, onto what I want to talk about.

To give you the slightest amount of insight as to what this blog will entail, I figure that introducing myself to you will give you an idea of what to expect. My name is Kyle, and I live in Texas, USA. I have spent the better portion of my life in the same state, city, road, and house. I have a mom, dad, and two brothers in my immediate family. I am the middle of the three children, and am also a boy. I am 20 years old, graduated high school in 2008, and am currently going to college. I have made my way through various sections of my life in vastly different ways, but I'll save those detailed stories for later posts. I have gone to church for as long as I can remember. I have gotten involved in ministry more recently as a counselor in my church's youth group, as well as a summer camp for people that are seniors in high school all the way down to some middle schoolers.

This brings me to why I made this blog. You see, for the past two years I have gone overseas to England and Wales to help with the youth camp there, but have been having a hard time explaining to others what happens while I am over there. I would come home, tell stories, and show pictures, but I still couldn't get what I felt across to the people I told. So, I came up with the idea to simply make a blog with words, videos, and pictures of the events that I saw as I saw them, and fairly close to when they were actually happening. However, it came to my attention that a blog that was only updated for about a week every year would soon probably lose momentum, due to my short attention span. So I instead decided to include you all in as much of my life as possible! I plan to, at the start of the new year, be updating at least one of the sites that I mentioned in the first posts often enough to both keep myself accountable, and keep you up-to-date with my progress in general. Especially including my efforts to raise sufficient funds to be able to go on tour with the youth camp (which by the way is called LIFT), as it can sometimes be a little daunting to do, especially as I am still hunting for a job.

So, now you know a little more. I look forward to updating again, and I hope you look forward to hearing more from me!
~Kyle