Sharing the loute.

So I finally got the internet. And I began a blog post with the word 'so'. Two new things that are happening at the moment. My wife and I got online, as they say.. as some say.. a couple of weeks ago. And yet I haven't found the time to post. Until now. Now being 27 minutes before showing my fellow students things that I have been looking at in regards to insects and jeeps in art and film and pop culture.

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26 minutes...

I'll have to get back to you.

Not really rood.

Big theme for this blog, kiddos. Inspiration. Or lack thereof. A little nagging feeling has been sat at the back of my little brain for the past few weeks. It was - for the most part - because I (attempt to) maintain several blogs of various themes and under various guises. Since I have been married I have updated all of them once. It's coming on to three months, now. The happiest three months of my life - may I add. But three months nonetheless. So I am now going to ramble at you, dear reader, for a short while to fill my self-set quota for this here blog.

I went to Camelot yesterday. It was amazing. Camelot amazing. We had a great time on the rides and although it's a bit of a trek with a wheelchair, it wasn't the busy. I'm always amazed at people who seem to be either completely oblivious to someone pushing a wheelchair or being completely oblivious to the fact that they are unable to phase through objects. People just wander towards it, fully expecting it to be as easy to move in a different direction as walking itself. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. If it weren't for my unwillingness to cause people pain by knocking their shins with the bottom of the chair, people would have a lot of sore shins from being knocked by me with the bottom of the chair. If you see someone in a wheelchair, don't be afraid to step to the side. We don't mind.

The X factor is back! Once again, we trawl through the dregs of Britain's... voices, I guess. That's probably most accurate. It's what it is. We'll see outward-panning shots of people being told to cheer and shout; sweeping clips of everyone waving; quickly fading in and out footage of the judges arriving in their various idioms; cheery shots of groups; blue-tinted images of people on their own talking about how someone died or how their dog's last bark sounded like it was telling them to sing; Simon winking at a pretty lady; the judges shouting at each other; slow piano music playing over a solitary figure walking somewhere; and - as it would appear - one girl punching a former friend in the face. I can't wait.

That's all for now. As always, here's a promise to keep updating more often and all that. I'm off to pack up the rest of our things with my wife and get ready to move fully. It's exciting. I honestly couldn't recommend marriage enough. It's so much fun. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next - we're needing to save up for some sort of internet connection at our new house. When we have one, I will write more. Maybe I'll have something to write about then, too.

Not so much a theme, but I've at least said the word inspiration twice. That was the second time.

Until next time, folks. Please come back.

My deer, Melissa.

June 4th. 2010. I got married. The fourth most significant day of my life. In first place, we have November 12th, 1986. Quite significant, I hope you'll agree. It's when I was born. Second; one Sunday in 1992, when I gave my life to Christ and decided to follow Him. Third was September 15th, 2009, when my girlfriend became my fiancée.

Looking back at her prayer journals, we found out that exactly a year ago on the day of our wedding, I'd asked if we were together. She said no. It's been quite a year...

When our friends talk about being in long-distance relationships we are, at first, sympathetic. It is hard being apart. Even when it's working well and going smoothly, it's still quite the task to keep it working well and going smoothly. But when they reveal that they are a whole three hours away - by train, no less - then we become a little less condoling. You see while we were dating, Melissa and I were - at the closest - 6 hours away from each other by car. Really long distance. For the first two and a half weeks, we were together in America, one week in Arkansas - her home State - and two and a half weeks in Missouri, where I studied for the year. After that, we were apart for 5 months whilst she did an internship for a church in my hometown. We were now about 8 hours apart. By plane.

What I want to talk about is pretty taboo in the church at the moment. It's mentioned, but seldom talked about. We know that it's on everyone's mind, yet we only really keep it superficial. "How do you feel about it?" "Alright, I guess." "OK." Next question.

This is true to me, too. I don't know my friends' thoughts or positions on the subject.

Sex. The what-to-do and the what-to-not-do in a Christian life. Everyone says that the Bible tells us not to have sex before marriage. While this is true, I've not met too many people able to tell me where this is from. The Bible doesn't outright say not to have sex before marriage - it tells is not to commit adultery. Which is sex outside of marriage. As in - if you're not married to someone, don't have sex with them.

I've waited my whole life for my wife. I'm 23 years old and then some. I can tell you in all honesty that sex is worth the wait. I can tell you from experience that sex is worth the wait. I can tell you that having waited for over 23 years that sex is worth the wait.

Through this last year, when the deadlines for my classes came along, I was working as hard as I could. I don't think that there's a much better feeling than going into class on the last day and seeing everyone frantically getting work together or drawing it really quickly and shoddily in an attempt to meet the deadline whilst you sit aside, knowing that all you have to do is wait for the teacher to some in and collect the work.

It's a much, much better feeling knowing that on my wedding night I will give my life saving to my wife. The best gift I can give is myself. I know that a lot of people roll their eyes and think that calling myself and calling sex 'the best gift I can give' is soppy and wet and outdated, but I challenge you to find a better gift. A set of wine glasses more beautiful than your most intimate moment. Silverware with a gleam that outshines the twinkle in their eyes. I can't think of any other wedding gift examples, but you get my point. There's nothing you can buy, nothing that you can be given, that will be as valuable as your virginity. Big word. It's not as heavy as you think.

Two more things. One - I would argue to the death that waiting is what makes you the man. It's not the sex. If we're going to chalk up number of times you've had sex and work out how manly you think that makes you, then I know plenty of dogs and a fair few cats with more manhood than you. "Oh, but Dan, everyone does it and I love them, etc." No. Not everyone does it and if you truly love them you can wait. When has self-control been a weakness? When has self-control been unattractive?

Two - why be so scared of commitment? That's the only thing I can think of being the reason to not get married. I mean. If you're in a long-term relationship and you're living as if you're married, what's so hard about actually getting married? What's so difficult about putting a weekend aside and showing and telling people how important your partner is to you? Is that too much? If it is, then is that love?

Truth is, waiting is great. Truth is, we're blessed if we do. The truth is also this - that if you made one mistake once, make this a regular thing, or everything in between, you can still put things on hold and wait. You can be renewed. That's when my God is in the business of doing. He can help you.

It's worth it.

Oh. The deer in the title is a Songs Of Solomon reference. Well done if you got it. 10 points.

[sic]

My fiancée's dog got hit by a car last week. Not the nicest of news to start with, but rest assured I felt a bit worse than you, the reader, as not one week before that, I took that dog by the head, cradling it gently, looked him square in the eyes and in the sweetest voice I could muster, said "You're not going to heaven, because you haven't got a soul." ... Yea, I felt a little bad.

One thing that I've been thinking of lately is algebra. I don't know why. I got a C in my GCSE maths and I pretty much left it there. I'm good at remembering numbers, but not so much working them out and making them do things. I just don't get algebra. I don't know much about maths, but adding letters to an already infinite number of - well... numbers - doesn't seem like the most problem-solving method of doing things. But hey. I don't do numbers that much any more. If at all. I've talked before about tax in America and how a dollar burger comes to a dollar and eight cents. That's the extent of my number life at the moment. Exciting stuff.

I was sick this morning. I have had maybe three bouts of being sick in my life. The first was when I was 15. I did not know what was going on. The second was when I found out I'm allergic to Salmon. That's right. Tasty, tasty salmon. I can't eat it. Well I can. But it won't stay down. Then last night I ate something that disagreed with me. All I had was pizza, so I hope I'm not becoming allergic to that... You're more than welcome for the update on my stomach movements.

And finally. I am incredibly pleased to inform you that this is my last post as an unmarried man! I am very excited. It's quite possible that I may post again before the big day, but as there are only 17 days left, I doubt that there will be another update beforehand. I'll definitely post again afterwards - let you know how everything went. Melissa is amazing. Absolutely perfect. The bounce in her step and the twinkle in her eyes make me somersault inside every time I see her. Her heart for God and her heart for the people around her make me jump for joy. It's truly an honour and a privilege to be able to grow old with her and live life together forever.

Until next time.

Knot sure.

I managed to find a few doodles to put up here. That's all for the opening paragraph.

I'm enjoying my time there in the States. It's really nice, but I feel as though I'm falling out of touch with the UK. I was asked yesterday about what the spending was like there - about whether or not Britons buy to excess. I know people over here do. My goodness. You should see the size of some of the portions and containers. I'm thinking of keeping a cereal box from here and using it as a wardrobe when I have kids. It's not that people buy to excess here, rather the food companies make product sizes that fit with what they see as a normal lifestyle. If I were to buy the smallest container of milk I could find, I'd be using it for a week. Really. I've just done it. (It's probably something to do with the fact they use gallons and yards and inches and other silly things).

But my point is - I didn't know what the consumer market was like in the UK. Maybe it's the same? Maybe it's drastically different. I've been here for about 7 months now and I've got used to this way of life. For the most part. People still think I'm a retard for asking for chips with my burger. eh. But when it comes to the little things, they're the things that get forgotten first. How much stamps are. What minimum wage is. What the weather's like. (I realise that the first two are probably things that everyone else in the UK would struggle to answer, but it's surprising how popular the weather small talk is here. It's normally just confined to "Heh. Ah bet y'r us'd t' theyis baak in Ingurlend?! Heh."

Moving on from what I will assume is a well rounded paragraph; it's nice to finally be at a place where only a few people a week recognise the fact that I am not really from around here. Now that I know most of my classmates and now that most of the people at church know me, it's slid nicely back into the novel when someone asks where I'm from. Even better when they ask questions and say things that I can answer and agree with, respectively. Even better when it's not related to the Beetles or Princess Diana or the Queen or London or bands that I haven't heard of or relatives of people here who I have never met or asking me what I think about Obama or something else that can be cut-and-pasted into a different conversation with someone else and not just me please go away.

I shaved my head the other day. Not all of it. Just the top. I got my hair down to a number one. It's shorter than it's ever been. My beard is at a number three which is good for the Heavy Metal Drummer look. I play the drums, so it gives me the feeling that I can pull this off. Just maybe not in church. I don't know. You know what Baptists are like! (I don't).

And finally - the Olympics are here! I have watched the short track skating. It was good because I'm in America and two of my roommates are from South Korea. Imagine the excitement when the two South Koreans won and the American came third. ... yup. That's about all the Olympics I've seen this year. Sorry. Not much more to say on that.

...

Bye.

Oh. Two things.

I'm trying to keep most of my art and doodles and things in another blog of mine - danfairweather.blogspot.com

It's going about as well as this one. I can't remember when I last updated it.

And also.

My fiancée and I got some engagement photos done on Valentine's Day. My good friend John Carrington did them free of charge. It was an amazing afternoon. The pictures are fantastic.

I love her so much.