It's just Hodges

Round Two

2006-08-25T00:37:00.000-05:00

Round Two for a year of college. Round Two for updating this blog regularly...I think that's all the Round Two's that I can think of...

I'm almost done with my first week of my sophomore year at Harding. It's great to be back. Not only have I missed all my friends, but I honestly missed being responsible and having to do homework and study. The responsibility keeps me in check, so I don't just spend all my time on ridiculous things.

I'm not going to tell you that I'm going to keep writing in this blog regularly. I think I'm going to try though. I enjoy writing in general, it's just for some reason I can't keep up with things like this. Back in the xanga days I was so off and on with it.

Anyways I just realized that if you're spending time reading this then you want to read something interesting. But I don't know if anything going on in my life is interesting enough for even me to put on here. I'll be back for more though...

Hodges

I may have forgot how to do this...

2006-05-26T23:55:00.000-05:00

I haven't done this in so long I might have just forgotten how to do a blog! A lot of things have happened since the last post, April 22. I finished my freshmen year of college, broke my hand, got a haircut (nothing drastic though), changed from working at the Carmichael Center in Searcy to Lake Hefner Golf Course in Oklahoma City among other random things probably not worth mentioning.

I'm already done with my freshmen year of college. That blows my mind. This semester went by SO fast. It seemed like it was last month that me and Binkley went down to Dallas for New Years. This last semester was so much fun too. I had a great room. AB was a great roommate and it was always a party in the 125 mafia. That room will be hard to beat for years to come. I made so many good friends. I'm glad I was so social this year and met so many people because I won't have the regret of not meeting them until my senior year. Some of the classic memories have included me getting caught naked in the lobby by the pizza lady, Ben Woods go narco anywhere from The Underground to Arby's the last day of the year, Grandpa Woodcock and all of his wisdom, Pete Snell and all his amazing imitations, the camping trip over spring break, Charlton being a front lawn whore, being totally useless at the Carmichael Center, everything Cole Sessions says, the 9 hospital trips between 7 guys because of our football games, watching all the TNT guys doing Spring Sing haha, Miller taking a knee, Satisfaction, the week that Charlton took a nap in my bed every afternoon. I could go on for so long, but I'll guess I'll stop there.

The school part ended up alright but not what I wanted. I planned on having 3 B's and 2 A's, but I ended up with 1 C, 3 B's and an A. Somehow I got a B in Art Appreciation even though I had a 100 average going into the final. I'm still pretty heated about that. But I worked pretty hard, harder than first semester. All I want is to have a 3.0 average when I graduate, and I will get that, I'll just have to be more focused.

I also broke my hand kind of. During dead week we got together for our last football game and about 10 minutes into the game I broke my hand you could say. I had a spiral fracture of my metacarpal bone on my ring finger. I had surgery almost two weeks ago and I just got my wrap off yesterday, so I had some kind of wrap on for 3 weeks and it was a big hassle. But now I have both my hands and I can type with reasonable speed and pretty much do everything a lot easier.

This summer I'll be working at the Golf Course, which is always an event simply because Brett Beesley is there. I'll also be doing random lawn work and hopefully coaching tennis again if my hand heals correctly and soon. I'll also be selling the Cadillac. It has had a good 2 year reign in my life, and I've had some great memories in it, but it's time for it to go. I need something with some good gas mileage.

I'll be doing this more often so check back...

...Hodges

It's been a little while

2006-04-22T15:53:00.000-05:00

I haven't been keeping up with updating this very much. I've just been busy with random stuff. Since the weather has brightened up, I've been spending my afternoons at Heber or Latona instead of playing football or hanging out on campus. It's been a lot of fun, but I've been missing out on quality homework time. And I've also just haven't had the desire to write about anything in my blog.

Work

Easy as always. Yesterday while on the clock, I went to Grandpa's BBQ and ate dinner, left again to sign out Arbuckle back at campus, and left a hour early. Today, no one has shown up so I've just been playing basketball and off and on watching "Friday After Next". I'll probably be leaving at around 5 instead of 9 like I was scheduled. Tommorrow I have to be up here at 7:30 in the morning to open up, but after I unlock everything I'm going to get in my sleeping bag and sleep for a while. I don't mean to brag, but it's without a doubt the easiest job that I know of.

School

Going pretty good actually. I looking to finish out for this semester with a 3.4 or 3.2 GPA for 12 hours. I had 15 hours until Monday when I dropped my Algebra class. I found out that I didn't even need it for my major; I needed Stats instead. So taking that class was completely pointless. Also, I had gotten behind so it was pretty much impossible for me to even end up with a B in the class, so it was going to kill my GPA. And it also opened up my afternoons on Tuesday and Thursday so that was an added bonus. For next semester I have almost all of my classes. I have 13 hours signed up right now, and after I get a teacher override I'll have 16 hours. I got all the classes that I wanted for the time slots that I wanted too, so I'm pretty excited.

Summer

I'm pretty excited about the summer too. I love working at the golf course. It's not quite as easy as working at the Carmichael, but I don't really have much to do there either. It's just really nice to be out in the sun all day, and having a good time working. I'm also ready just to be home. I'm going to miss having all my friends in walking distance of me, but it will be nice to have my own room and to see all my friends from high school. Gerald was originally planning a trip up to Oregon, but apparently now it's a trip to Vancouver. It should be pretty crazy, but I'm excited. Gerald will be up in Tulsa all summer, so that will be sweet. I'm sure there will also be trips to Nashville, Texas, and other random places throughout the summer.

The Harding Game

I almost forgot about this. If you don't know what the Harding Game is let me explain. My friend Drew Fralick invented this game. You pay 2 dollars to get in. The game starts on Wednesday morning at chapel when one person is handed the football. If you are in possession of this football it has to be in sight and with you at all times. You can get the ball by any means necessary. The ball must be returned to a mat in the middle of Harding Park on Friday afternoon in between 3 and 3:15. And you can't drive a vehicle onto Harding Park so someone must carry the ball onto the mat. So pretty much everyone in the game and lots of spectators are there at Harding Park on Friday to see what goes down. Last semester was the first time the game was ever played and my room mate Austin Bryan got really lucky and won the game last year, so he started off with the ball on Wednesday morning. So in the middle of chapel he walks out and I have a car waiting for him. Then we just burn some time until it's time for our 10 o'clock Bible class. So me, Ryan, and Austin are walking up a flight of stairs in the Bible building and right as we get to the top of the stairs, we hear this guy Derek Wilson talking to Kristin Dellapace (both of these people are in the game), and he says "Austin Bryan has the ball right now". Right as he says this he looks over and sees he us so me and Austin pick up our pace while Ryan throws Derek up against a wall. Then me and Austin are running then as he is about to walk into class I tell him to pitch me the ball, so he does and I run off with the ball, and no one knows I have it. Fast forward to Thursday afternoon. We were actually getting bored with the Harding Game. We really didn't have any action, so we call Drew Fralick and tell him that we're bringing the ball into the caf at 6. So we expect a huge brawl. So we have our crew at the back of the caf and then Jordan Whetstone provides a little bit of a diversion so Bear (Nathan Hoffman) can run up and try to steal the ball, well pretty much 5 of our guys jump on him and pretty much everyone in the caf was watching it was amazing. So we run out of the caf with the ball. So 2 hours later another brawl happens in the Armstrong courtyard, and somehow we end up with the ball again even though we were going up against some hosses. Fast forward to about 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon. We have our plan ready, and we're all getting ready to just go crazy. Our plan was to have everyone except me, RF, Sloan, and JonMark create a diversion with our fake ball that we had, by running up at the front of Harding Park. Our crew of 4 were going to come up from back either through a creek or a house. It ends up we come up from a creek in Harding Park, but we didn't realize how long it would take for us to come up the creek. So right as we hear that everyone found out that it's the fake ball, we run up from the creek. It was pretty intense; I was running up with the ball and all I see was a huge mass of people. So then about a 12-minute brawl goes down between our crew about probably 15-20 people against about a dozen huge football players. Somehow this hoss from our side Brady Easter ends up ripping the ball out of a guys arm and crawls to the mat and wins the game. It was amazing. A crew of pretty much freshmen was able to beat a contingent of some upperclassmen football players. We ended up winning about 75 bucks so we're going to just throw a party and celebrate our victory. 3 people ended up with dislocated/every ligment torn shoulders, one man with a fractured ankle, and another with serious lower back pain. But it was so worth it. And after the huge brawl everyone just shook each other hands because we all just had a fun time going all out against each other.

Hopefully you made it all the way through the Harding Game description without zoning out...

...Hodges

Mae show cancelled

2006-04-11T23:52:00.000-05:00

So right now I should be on the way home from seeing Mae in Memphis. But instead I'm sitting at my computer writing this blog because they cancelled the show on Saturday, only 3 days before the show. It was definetly a heartbreaker when I heard the news. At first I really didn't want to believe it, but I had a really good day instead. My 1:00 algebra class was cancelled because the internet was down, so that allowed me to go Bee Rock with Ben and Charlton. It was really nice to just be out on the cliff looking over the river, and knowing that before God created the world he knew that today instead of going to concert I would give my time to God. Then me, Ben and JonMark were going to see a movie, one that was probably going to be inappropriate, but we missed the showtime so we just went on a random shopping rampage through Searcy, and picked up little fun things, it was really cool.

So pretty much God took over for the day, and it was a blast. Good night to that...

...Hodges

Just Another Update

2006-03-30T00:58:00.000-06:00

If you've been expecting blood and tears posts, sorry I just haven't been able to provide them lately.

Right now I'm listening to The Fray's CD, How to Save a Life. Until about 2 hours ago, I was going to see them in Nashville on Monday, April 10. But I got a call from Jennifer last night, and she said that Mae and Yellowcard were coming to Norman on Thursday, April 14, so I got to thinking and I thought maybe I could make it to both shows, or maybe I'll just go to Mae and Yellowcard. So I couldn't decide pretty much. Then tonight I decided that I wasn't going to go to either show, then right after I told my roommate and Chris, Ben called me and told me that Mae was coming to Memphis on Tuesday, April 11. Then I started thinking, and then I decided that I was going to see Mae in Memphis. So I called a ticket vendor and got tickets for me, Ben, and Arbuckle. Having the show in Memphis is so nice because instead of a 4.5 hour drive to Nashville or a 5.5 hour drive to Oklahoma City, we have an hour and a half drive to Memphis.

So I pretty much have a killer week next week. Monday, I have a Bible quiz, and a 20-minute Macroeconomics group presentation. Tuesday I have an Art Appreciation test. Wednesday I have a Western Civ test. Thursday I have an Algebra section due and a 20-minute Bible group presentation. Like I said, killer. I've been stressing pretty bad, but I got a sigh of relief tonight. Half of my Macro group met tonight, and my part of the presentation won't be hard, it will just be me giving me testimony if you will on why I prefer Apple computers and mp3 players. Then my Bible presentation is pretty much the last thing to get done so I'll have more time to put into that. I usually dominate the Art tests too, so I should be alright there. I want to get my Western Civ study guide done this weekend somehow.

I just got the Keane-Strangers DVD in the mail. I haven't been able to watch it all the way through yet. I might have to wait until after my huge next week to dive into it. But I watched a few of the live performances and they are really good. They should have a new album out around the end of May. I'm very excited to get it.

I wish had more to say right now, but I don't...

...Hodges

An Update

2006-03-21T14:46:00.000-06:00

As requested by anonymous, here's an update. I'm back at Harding now. It feels good to be back. I missed the dorms a lot while I was at home. Living at home with no siblings can be boring because I'm so used to having people so close, and everyone just hanging out in my room.

I had a really good break though. I kept myself occupied for a lot of time. Usually on the breaks I spend most of my time sitting around my house not doing much of anything. On Monday and Tuesday I worked for Austin Sharp's mom, doing her garden. It was fun, and pretty easy because it took her longer to decide what she wanted me to do than for me to actually do it. Wednesday me and Eric hit up some thrift stores and the mall and stuff, it was fun. Thursday Ryan, J.C., Jennifer, Allison and I went down to Turner Falls to go camping. Then Jenny, Karen, Chase, Tim, Trey, Patrick, and Robbie caught up with us a little bit later in the afternoon. I brought Austin's 2-bedroom huge tent that sleeps 8, except no instructions came with it. So me and Ryan just winged it, and with a help of a couple others we jammed some rods in the ground and somehow we got it stay for the night. The downfall to the whole camping trip was that there was a burn ban, so we couldn't have a fire, so we just sat by a lantern at night, and then we couldn't stay the night on Friday because it rained. So we came back and then we planned on staying the night at Jennifer's but it ended up only being Karen, Jenny, Jennifer and me sleeping over.

It's March Madness. My favorite time of the year. I haven't been able to keep with college basketball as much as I would have liked to this year. The cable connection in my dorm room is really fuzzy so I get a headache when I watch TV. Therefore I couldn't watch games very often. My bracket is doing alright right now though. I still have my Final Four intact after the first two rounds, which hasn't happened in the past 5 years. I have Duke, UConn, Gonzaga, and Boston College, and Duke beating UConn in the championship. I'm feeling pretty good about my picks, but i doubt I get 2 of my Final Four picks right.

My favorite CD right now is Everything in Transit by Jack's Mannequin. It took me a while to give them a chance, but they have a really neat sound. The lead singer is the same lead singer from Something Corporate.

I guess that's all I really have to say for the moment...

...Hodges

Keane and TNT

2006-03-12T02:12:00.000-06:00

"She Has No Time" by Keane. I love this song. I can relate to it. Maybe it's just me being overdramatic or me over-analyzing things, but I see the words of this song reflected in my life. Not so much the words "she can hardly breathe without you" but more like "she has no time for you now." Sometimes it just seems that I put myself out there for a girl and make an effort, but the girl doesn't have the time for me. It's frustrating, and it's happened to me multiple times in my life. I don't know how to else to expand on this...

I can't get away from TNT. For a while I tried to stop hanging out with or meeting new people in TNT, but it's inevitable. I've pretty much met nearly every member of TNT. Tonight I ate dinner with Kyle Chandler and Jody Caruthers, both former members of TNT and Jeff Fowler and Ilex Pounders were visiting and they ate with us too. It was just another example of the many different connections I have to TNT. I'm probably going to end up going to the TNT Canoe trip with Kelly. I mean, it's just become a part of my life to be friends with pretty much everyone in TNT. I don't really mind it though. I still love Knights, and I love Knights more than TNT. There is no way I'm jumping clubs, and I'm still very glad that I'm in Knights.

More random thoughts to come this spring break...

...Hodges

Late Night Contemplations

2006-03-08T00:26:00.000-06:00

Well I'm up contemplating life tonight. Hopefully I can string together some random thoughts.

I can't remember my dreams anymore. I honestly can tell you what my last dream was. It's kind of frustrating, because I'm sure I have some crazy thoughts going through my head right before I go to bed. And I just always hear people telling stories about how funny their dreams were the last night and stuff, and I wish I had something cool to say with them. I'm not sure not remembering your dreams is some sign that you're getting a good sleep, but I want to have a little adventure in my life.

Having a roommate is a very healthy thing in my mind. Having a roommate you are good friends with is even better. Last semester, me and my roommate never talked. I mean, never. He would always be on the phone with his girlfriend back home and I would always have my earbuds in listening to music. Plus, we just didn't connect. We had some of the same interests, but it was still just awkward to talk to him. It didn't help that I didn't have as many friends in Harbin as I know do in Armstrong. But now I have a great roommate. We trust each other, and we tell each other nearly everything (at least I do....). But it's been really nice to chat just for a few minutes before I go to bed each night. And just thinking about more, I think God wants us to share a room with someone. Sorry, this probably won't make sense, but it's making sense in my head. In marriage, partners share a bed each night. There's a scripture that says "Don't let the sun go down on your anger." It will probably be hard to lay in bed next to someone if you're holding a grudge against them. It's kind of the same with a roommate. If you're mad at your roommate then it's probably gonna be hard to share a room with him.

I hate stereotypes. Every kind of stereotype. I will admit that I do stereotype people sometimes. I hate doing it, and I try my best to avoid it. It's inevitable that people are going to stereotype, but I just wish it didn't happen at all. Ever since pledge week the atmosphere of Harding has changed. I remember first semester when we had a group of people meet in the student center every day after chapel. It was just understood. Meet at this table, and we'll fellowship for a few minutes before class. Then pledge week happened and the table was split. Some people stand in a certain area and others stay with their group. If you go to Harding you know how the student center is sort of sectioned off by clubs. It's just frustrating because I question what changed that now some people can't talk to another group of people. Who decides that someone can't hang out with TNT guys or some girl can't talk to a girl in Regina. I know I've already wrote about this, but it's something that I see everyday. There are some times when I wish I didn't do a club. Times when I feel like people are talking behind my back, questioning the people that I'm spending time with, what club I'm spending my time with. And making fun of clubs, that's ridiculous. The way I look at it is this: every person that joined a club put a lot of time and effort into it, so don't bash it. It's like if you spent 3 weeks non-stop writing a book, and then you come and ask me to read it, and I just blow it off because it's not my style of book. Being in a club is something each person should be proud of, and you don't have to earn that pride by downing another club. All you have to do to be proud of the club you're in is to enjoy it. Just love the people in it and enjoy the time spent at functions and meetings. Another thing about me wishing I didn't join a club is that I'm glad I did join a club because it gave me the oppurtunity to meet some amazing people. There are so many people that I absolutely love spending time with that I probably would have never met if I didn't do the social club process or Knights. I just realized that this paragraph that I meant to set aside to talk about stereotypes ended up only talking about clubs, but I think I'm alright with that.

I think that's all I have to this evening. Have a blessed day...

...Hodges

God's love

2006-03-04T16:11:00.000-06:00

I'm taking a quick break from some intense studying for a Western Civ test to bring you another piece of my mind. I really don't have much to say, but if I didn't do it right now, I'm not sure it would be said.

After looking at Arbuckle's blog I wanted to put up a verse under where it says "It's Just Hodges". I wasn't sure what to put up at first. I thought about putting up my favorite verse, Matthew 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." But I wasn't really feeling that, so I wanted to put a verse that would show God's love the most. So I looked at a few verses, and I wanted to avoid a really obvious verse, but I couldn't help but look at John 3:16. I read it once, and it didn't really do anything for me. Then I read it again, and thought about it a little more, and I had to use this verse on my blog. Just to think about how much I love my friends and if I lost one of them, it breaks my heart. I can't imagine how much God hurt when he sent to Son to live a perfect life on lowly earth, only to be executed by prideful humans.

That's all I really have...

...Hodges

A few good ideas

2006-03-02T01:26:00.000-06:00

Some of you may know that today was Ash Wednesday, which means the beginning of Lent. I'm not Catholic, but I believe that going through Lent is a very healthy thing to do. (If you don't know what Lent is, it's when one gives up something for the 40 days between Fat Tuesday and Easter). I think that everyone should go through Lent, just because it's a way to better yourself. I've never done Lent before because I've always forgot about it, then I realize I missed Lent on Easter Sunday. So this year, I'm giving up Facebook. It's very do-able for me. I won't lie to you though, I'm on Facebook more than I should be. I'm not addicted, but there are so many times that I facebook message someone instead of giving them a call or talking to them in person. I'm hoping that dropping Facebook for 40 days will allow me to communicate with people better and build closer, more personal relationships. So if you want to find me, or drop me a line, leave me an email or a phone call or whatever you want.

This a totally random idea. It just came to me while I was brushing my teeth. Give me some feedback on whether this is a good idea for a date. A man and a woman each go and buy their favorite magazine then go to a park, or wherever and read them. But not just read them and not talk to each other, but read what they find interesting, or what they think the other might think is interesting.

Not necessarily a good idea of mine, but I just got done helping shave Ben Woods, Kelly Woodcock, and Kris Kelley heads. It was pretty hilarious. Kelly had pretty long hair, and now he is always asking if he looks like Brad Pitt now. But now Kris and Kelly have a bathroom covered in hair and no broom to sweep it up.

I'm gonna try to be better about supplying you with a new post everyday...

...Hodges

A Beautiful Day

2006-02-28T13:14:00.000-06:00

Well it's 72 degrees without a single cloud in the sky in Searcy, AR. I'm sitting on the front lawn with Ben Woods, Josh Deitch, and Stephen Posey. It's hard for me to pictue a better day right now. I should be in my algebra classroom with no windows, but I had to take advantage of the day that God has given us. The campus is alive right now with probably 100 people throwing the frisbee, doing homework, reading, napping, just whatever.

I don't even know what to write about right now. I haven't had anything in my mind to write about. Maybe just nothing over-dramatic enough to write about.

School is going pretty good though. I had two quizzes and a test yesterday, and tommorrow I have a Western Civ assignment due. I guess just the normal college stuff. I think I'll come back to this post later in the afternoon, when I have something to write about.

Another edition of random thoughts

2006-02-16T00:03:00.000-06:00

Huge load of stress is finally off my back. Today my group did our presentation on the beverage industry in Macroeconomics. I've been stressing for the past week about this. We had a 25-page paper and a 25-minute presentation due on the same day, so I would think it's understandable to be stressed. Plus, I made the whole PowerPoint, and everyone would be seeing that so I was really worried. But I think we did good as a group. Mr. Hebert said that we had really good information and we worked well as a group. Sounds generic, but after I heard his critique of another group, I'd say we did pretty good. So today instead of working on school work, I took a 3.5 hour nap and inadvertantly skipped church and dinner.

During all of this time of working on the presentation, I've able to listen to a lot of music to get in the working. I want to share with you a few of my favorite selections at the current time.

"Landed"-Ben Folds-I love the piano in the song, and the chorus is really catchy. For some reason I can just lock it down and focus when I hear this song.
"Look After You"-The Fray-Good ballad that is constantly stuck in my head. When I first heard this song, I breezed right past it and honestly could care less for it. Now I'm listening to it all the time, or humming "Oh, oh, please, baby, I'll look after you."
The Earth Is Not A Cold, Dead Place-Explosions in the Sky-I love this whole CD. I put it on when I go to bed every night. I have to thank James Arbuckle for introducing me to this unique band. The CD is only 5 tracks long, but the shortest song is 8:17 minutes long. There are no lyrics in the album either, but I think words would cheapen the soothing music that is produced.
"Can't Stop Now"-Keane-Great, upbeat song. When I saw Keane in Nashville, this is the song they opened with. It was a really cool effect they had, with the drums hitting to open up the show with a bang. I think this song would great to start an encore. I can picture everyone at a packed venue chanting "Keane", and having the whole place pitch black. The 3 guys slip back on stage without anyone noticing, then letting the drums hit, and the lights flash back on. And the lyrics "But I can't stop now...can't slow down," sets up the song perfectly.
"The Minstrel's Prayer"-Cartel-Unfortunately, they didn't play this song live when they were here in Searcy. But it's just a great song. I'm trying to put it all together, but I love the chorus. I know I've said that about almost every song, but whenever me or Austin plays this in the room, the whole room sings in unison, it's pretty sweet.
"Don't Slow Down"-Copeland-Before I saw Copeland in concert, I didn't really like this song. But this song was really cool live, and I love the line "You could take everything I have, just don't leave my side."
"The Scientist"-Coldplay-Just about everyone has heard this song, and just about everyone loves it. I've never been a huge fan of this song. I think I was just too impatient with it. It's definetly best listened to with headphones on and turned up, so all you can focus on is the song. Great lyrics, great piano, one of the best songs of the modern era.

I think I'm done with the music review thing. I'm not sure why I did that, I was just feeling the flow.

Ben Woods made a great statement when he said "I think we should call us the 125 Mafia." (referring to the crew that is constantly in Armstrong 125)

...Hodges

Thoughts from Friday to this moment

2006-02-12T01:55:00.000-06:00

I really wanted to update on Thursday/Friday, but I couldn't because this website was down. I was going to write a borderline funny post called "It's official: we're hardcore." But I couldn't. So I'll give you a short synopsis of why we're hardcore.

In our last 2 pickup football games 3 people have been sent to the hospital. Last Saturday, Michael had to stay overnight in the hospital with bleeding of the brain from a head-to-head collision. Then we played again on Thursday and on the first play Binkley and Guillo bumped heads, and Binkley ended up with a concussion and his eye swollen shut, while Guillo now has 4 staples in his head. So pretty much we're hardcore because we bump heads a lot in our football games. But we're gonna stop for a while because it's getting a little bit out of hand.

This has been a good trip home. I rode back with Brady, and we talked for most of the 5 and a half hour trek to OKC. He was so excited about seeing his girlfriend, and it was cool because everyone knows how much he cares for her and I'm just glad that he got to see the one that makes him the happiest. Neways, Friday night me and Eric hit up the Bucks and he supplied about 100 new songs from the likes of Rocky Votolato, Jack Johnson, Yellowcard, The Strokes, and We Are Scientists. He's a stud pretty much. Then we went up to Edmond and I played some basketball in borrowed clothes and it was awesome, then we hit up Jennifer's sorority house. Things got crazy. All I know is that I have someone's underwear and I don't know if it's a guys or a girls....not really. Then today I did the usual Wal-Mart run then went to the dinner for prospective Harding students. It was pretty fun. I ended up just chillin' with my boy Austin and his friend Luke or talking with some people that I didn't know very well from Harding. I wouldn't mind doing some more work for the admissions office. I told David Scharff, my admissions counselor, that whenever he needed some people to do some recruiting then I would help. And I just got back from another night at The Townhouse. It was hott as always, and I got to see some of my favorite people.

Thanks for stopping by...

...Hodges

A look ahead for the next week

2006-02-08T23:47:00.000-06:00

Well I decided that I will come home this weekend. For the past week I've been debating if I should go home and go to a dinner for prospective Harding students or if I should just spend another weekend in Searcy. I decided that it would be good to do some laundry at home, visit the parents, the friends up in Edmond, and just relax for a little bit.

Well I might have just lied about relaxing for a little bit because I have a huge project due in my Macroeconomics class. I'm in a group of 6 and on Wednesday we have a 20 minute presentation with a 5 minute question and answer session on the industry of beverages. On the same day we also have a 25 page paper due about Coca-Cola. Pretty intense I know considering we haven't even started on it. I'm already starting to get stressed about it. This grade is a huge portion of the whole semester and how I finish out overall on the GPA. So pray for me not to get stressed and pray for me to do well.

Tonight I'm going to try to get some good sleep so I'm heading to bed now at 12:30.

...Hodges

Friends...again

2006-02-07T23:59:00.000-06:00

One thing I liked about xanga was that you could see whatever the person blogging was listening so what I will do for my blog is to just put the album art of what I'm listening to. That was just so you don't get too confused.

So my last post was quite a bit of venting but it definetly needed to happen, but I've felt more at ease since I wrote that. Me, my roommate, Ryan and Piccino talked about it for a little while last night, and it was good to just vent to them too and have them understand.

I realized that I've met a lot of people since I've been at Harding, but I haven't grown really close to any one person. This is probably going to be really vague, but hopefully at the end it will all come together. This year I've been more social than I've been in my whole life. In high school, I kind of kept to myself, but I mean I had my friends, but most people didn't really "know" who I was. I'm not saying that I'm well-known or anything here at HU, but i know that a lot more people know me, and I know a lot more people. Maybe what I'm trying to say is that I haven't built many really close relationships. I was already really close to a group of about 7 guys before I came here, and I've grown closer to them no doubt. But it's hard for me to pick out like a best friend here. It's even harder to pick out a girl that I'm best friends with here. I think I've spread my time with friends out over so many people that I haven't been able to spend much "quality" time with any fewer number of persons. This isn't some sob story or a plea for someone to latch on to me and spend every waking second with, it's just an acknowledgment of my current situation. I will say that I want to become closer to all of my friends, I just hope God can put me in the right situations and tell me who to build the right relationships with.

...Hodges

I choose my friends

2006-02-06T19:05:00.000-06:00

Warning: this might offend you, but give it a chance.

You don't choose my friends, whoever you are. I choose who I want to hang out. I choose my allegiance. If I want to spend all my time with a certain group of people that's my choice, not yours. I shouldn't have to watch my back, or worry about what you are thinking about the people I'm hanging out with. I shouldn't have to be uncomfortable or awkward with a group of people because of someone else's view on who they think are "cool." From now on, I will hang out with whoever I want, and you won't stop me. You can go ahead and talk about me behind my back. That's cool with me. That is your problem. I will no longer be careful about where I sit at in the caf, who I say "hi" to, who I'm walking around with. I will no longer let someone else or a group of persons determine who my friends are. This is me telling whoever you are to get off my back about jumping to or from a club. All the decisions I make or made are for a reason, and are guided by God, so don't question me or command me to do anything.

...Hodges

Sunday's thoughts

2006-02-05T22:39:00.000-06:00

It's taken me over 20 minutes to start writing this post, and I don't even know why. I'll start with a few prayer requests. Pray for me. I need God's hand in my schoolwork right now. I have an Old Testament quiz and a Western Civ test tommorrow. I'm trying, but not hard enough, and I have a goal of making a 4.0 this semester, which is somewhat unrealistic and even if I don't accomplish that, I should still have better grades then last semester. Pray for my new job to be a blessing for me. Above all, pray for God's plan to take place in my life. It's so hard for me to hand things over to God. Pray for me to continue to mature more as a man of God.

Music is a big part of my life. Just listening to it though. If you've ever sat next to me in a worship setting or pretty much heard me sing then you know that it's just not good...at all. But I listen to a lot of music these days, and the music that I listen to effects my thoughts and my overall attitude more than I ever thought. I know it's been said before, but there are so many different situations where music has changed the way I look at things. Here are just some random examples. Whenever I listen to Back to Bedlam by James Blunt my mind goes back to Christmas break, because I listened to it the whole time. It's kind of a cold, but hearthy feeling. I want to say I feel at home when I hear it, but I don't know (sorry I bet that didn't make any sense). Hot Fuss by the Killers takes me back to my trip to Tulsa for the State basketball tournament last year. We listened to it probably 4 times through the whole weekend, and it was just a great trip and it brings back great memories of my friends from Oklahoma.

Another thought about music for me is I've been paying a lot more attention to the lyrics of songs. I'm always down for a great sounding song, but I'm getting into the deeper songs a lot more. I have this neat little widget on my computer that displays the lyrics of the song playing in my iTunes, so whenever I pull up Dashboard I can check out the lyrics, it's just made my musical experience even more enhanced.

That's all for now I guess

...Hodges

My first time

2006-02-04T04:08:00.001-06:00

I'm moving on from xanga. This is an attempt to grow up. I was into xanga probably too much in high school, but I still want to publish my thoughts on a regular basis. Facebook gets boring after a while even though it's a unique and excellent way to keep up with all your college friends. If you're catching up with me from xanga, then this will hopefully be your way to keep up with me.

College is great. Change that...Harding is great. I've been able to grow so much here socially, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, probably more than I did all throughout high school. But I'm not gonna do the sentimental update like I've done lately. Yesterday I got a job working at the Carmichael Center, thanks to JonMark and his dad. It's a community gym, and I'll just be sitting around answering phones and doing a little cleaning here and there. I'm not sure exactly when I'll start but it will be good to be back in the workforce, haha, but even better to have some cash flow son!

If you spend the time to read this, leave me something to ponder on. I'll hit you back.

...Hodges