I saw a few movies over the holiday weekend. I saw X-men 3, twice. And I saw Over the Hedge last night. The reason behind the X-men 3 multi-viewings is that there was a scene I missed. If you stay after the credits there's a 10-15 second scene. I'll leave it at that :)

We packed 9 people into a SUV going home from X-men 3. I know...you're like..."Dwayne, you're so Dwaynish! SUV's have alot of room in them." WELL, NOT THIS ONE! We fit me, phil, and mark in the "trunk" space. There's a 30" deep space behind the back seats in the SUV, if you can call it that. It's like a compact-SUV or something. Yeah, oxy-moron, I know. But it sucked. Phil had to hang his legs out the back window. Phil and I had the longest legs of all the people. We were so squished together. It was quite a "bonding" experience. We had a cop follow us but he didn't do anything.

I hung out with people from JCA (Journey Church of Atlanta) over the weekend. My old roommate from Mission Year, Ryan, goes there. They meet at the Gerogia Tech (GT) campus on Sunday's. I went to thier pot luck dinner on Friday night. We played Killer and Mafia. (Yeah, great Christian games, right?) Thet're a church plant from Philly. It's a majority Asian-American Church. Great people. Everyone is an Emory University or GT student (or recently graduated from one of the two). There are very welcoming. And since they kept asking me to go to church on Sunday too. I did. It was great. The praise and worship musak was very current. The preaching was relevent. Everyone in the church, pastors included, are either early to mid-twenties or ealry-early thirties. I wish I went there right when I moved to Atlanta. Oh yeah, then I hung out with them on Memorial Day too. It was a picnic similar to Trinity's former Fourth of July picnic. Food, volleyball, water-balloon toss, food. Not to mention, food. I fould out some of the guys like to play Holdem, among other poker variations. And there were a group that love board games. I brought Settler's of Catan to the picnic and they never played it before but heard great things about it. And the women there are so beautiful, friendly, easy to talk to (not to mention Christians)...And yet I'm moving to New Orleans. It seems like when I settle in and get comfortable, God pulls me away. Ehh, oh well, maybe I'll move back to Atlanta some day. Like my mom just told me. Seek after God's will first, He'll take care of the rest (I'm para-phrasing).

I was accepted to go to New Orleans. I pretty much expected that. My life in the past few years has been preparing me for this, I think. I don't feel able though. I struggle with so many little things in life. I haven't even staightened myself out. How am I supposed to minister and help people I don't know? Won't all my own struggles get in the way of ministering to people? Why would God want to use me? I used to want to be used. I used to dream of having this opportunity to serve and go where God leads and totally depend on God and really be used by Him. But I've learned so much about myself in the past few years. Most of what I see is failed attempts at doing what's holy, righteous, Christ-like. I always fall short. Yeah, I quite my job and moved to Atlanta to live in the inner-city and spend my time volunteering. But I don't think I'm good at it now that I tried it. My life has been gaining momentum towards full-time ministry of some sort. But after doing it instead of imagining it, I don't think I'm qualified. Yet, I was accepted to go. I was told I have abilities that can be used in New Orleans. Am I ready? I need God. I need Him so much right now. And right now I'm so far from Him. My life's in a fog right now. I know I need God to get out of it. I know He's somewhere in it. But I can't find Him despite of it. I wish I had so many things to help me. I wish I had an environment that allowed me to focus on God more. I don't have a church to go to and pray at. I don't know people well enough to lean on them for support and encouragement. I feel alone in this right now. Maybe I need to stop leaning on others. Maybe it's not the place or environment that helps me find God. I nned to seek Him. I need to stop fooling myself. I need to get serious with God. I need to start giving 100%.

I need to vent some frustration. One of my roommate's just ticked me off. I had a few things to do today. And my roommate wanted to bring his pastor over to our place and play some holdem. We've talked about doing it for a few weeks so we finally planned on today, at 2pm. I told Mark I needed a specific time because I had other things to do. He couldn't promise me a specific time but told me to give him a time to be there and he would be there. I said 2pm. So, I just got a call from him and he's going out to lunch with a friend. He said he wouldn't make it on time. I've been waiting for him to arrive all day. I put aside one of my things b/c I wasn't sure I would see Mark in time if I did my thing first. I can't believe it. I postponed my own plans to hang out with Mark and then he goes and changes his plans on me. I told him to promise me he'll be there at 3pm. He won't commit to it. He told me to go to my doctor appointment and call him with another time to be there. Sorry! Not happening again. Now I don't want to hang out with him. Screw him! He can't commit to be there when I need him there. And after I put aside my plans to make sure I was available. Why should I care? Some people are so inconsiderate. And I know what Mark would do if I confronted him, too. "Oh, I didn't realize. I'm sorry! I'll do better next time!" BULLSHIT!!! This isn't the first occurance. I know him pretty well by now! He'll just play dumb.

Well, I got off work early 2day (12:00 noon) so I went and baught the parts I needed 4 my RC truck. I should be at the races 2morrow.

I came in 4th on 2'sday at another tourney. It was the same place I got 3rd in last week. I thought I was going 2 be out in the very beginning too. I thought I got trapped in2 a losing hand. I had most of my chips in the pot. I caught a flush 2 win on the river. I was 1 place short of getting another gift card. I did get points towards the final tourney though.

I had a phone interview for the New Orleans thing this fall. I'll find out by monday if I have been accepted 2 go. They have limited spots. If I'm selected, I go 4 a visit from June 4-7. We'll 2ur the area and then figure out what job 2 take 4 the year. I won't have 2 move down there until September. I'm glad about that. I can make it 2 Walker and Ashley's wedding and not have 2 worry about missing anything in New Orleans. That is, if I go 2 New Orleans. Nothing's set in stone.

Zach moved out of the apartment on Thursday. He's on his way 2 South America 4 the summer. He'll be traveling and packpacking with his college buddies. Our apartment was sold 2 a new owner. They take over on June 1st. Hopefully they won't raise our rent.

I haven't decided yet if I can stay in Albany 4 awhile during the summer. I was thinking about staying there after the wedding. Then I'll leave 4 New Orleans from there. It would be nice to visit, to see y'all 4 'while. (that's my attempt at faking a southern accent)

To recap where I left off: I went to the other holdem tourney last week. And I get knocked out in an hour again. I started out ok. I made some nice pots and got a good chip stack going. But I started daydreaming or something and blew it. I should have called a few more of those pots. Those guys intimidate me or something. Oh yeah, I was at the same table as last time with a few of the same people. These two guys, right! They are loud and drunk and bet like crazy. (I think they might be crazy too). It's supposed to be a random mix, too. Yeah, it's quite random for three people to end up at the same table consecutively. Suuuure!! The funny thing was that the table number this time was 2 instead of 4...But I was at the same table both times. It's a good thing their pit boss guy doesn't deal cards too. I'd probably get 2-7 one time and A-A another but end up with the same hand both times.

So, I broke my RC truck and it's been out of commission for a few weeks. The hobby shops are so far away. I don't want to drive all the way there, buy the part I need, and break something else the next day and have to drive all the way out there again. If there were a place closer I would be driving that thing into the ground. So, instead I fixed my car-car. I replaced the front brakes and rotors on my car. I had a major Dwaynish moment too. I fixed the right brakes and was working on the brakes on the driver's side. I kept trying to get the Torx nuts loosened but they wouldn't budge. My neighbor came over, gave me some WD-40, and a pair of grip pliers for more leverage on the wrench. As he watched me struggle and bash up my hand in the process he asked me if I was going the right direction. Yeah, how Dwaynish am I? I was tightening the nuts, not loosening them. But my car is fixed and it doesn't shake voilently anymore when I use my brakes. I almost enjoy braking now. Ok, who am I kidding?

"Get me a raft, I'm going to the river!"

I played in a Holdem Tourney last night. It was at a local food eatery. It was my first time there. The way it works there is they play every Tues. and depending on how youy finish you get points. Every week they total the points and the top ten from that restaurant join the top ten from several other restaurants for a big tourney with huge prizes (Flat screen tv's and stuff like that). But not only do you get points but you get a gift card to that restaurant if you place third or better.

There were 40 people last night. We started with 5 tables. Usually they only get 30 people. So it was crowded. People left the game relatively quickly but this one guy next to me got on my nerves. I was hoping for more leg room at the table. I couldn't pull up to the thing because my legs wouldn't fit under it. I was looking at my cars from like 5ft away. So this guy, he gets knocked out and I'm getting excited about having some space to work with. But NO, he decides to sit there and watch us play. He finally moved when we joined tables together as other players got knocked out.

I burnt this one other guy bad. I was dealing a hand. He was heads up against this lady. She was all-in (short-stacked). She got one pair on the flop (Jacks, I think). He had pocket Queens. She picked up her second pair on the turn. But on the river I accidently burned two cards. They were stuck together. They decided to split the pot b/c of my mistake. The guy didn't want to though. He wanted them to take the card I had burned that should have been the river and play with it. They disagreed but he flipped it anyway to see. It was the Queen he needed to beat her two-pair. I felt soooooooo bad. I wanted to give the guy money or something to make up for it.

To make a long blog short, I got third place. I received a $15 gift-card to the restaurant. I was happy. My first time there, with more people than normal, and I get to the final three. I could have played better. I folded some good hands but got scared off by gigantic bets. I should have bet alot better on some hands. Either not enough or too much. On the one set of pocket rockets I got all night I bet $20,000 before the flop (I had over $100,000 in chips/I was the chip leader/Blinds were $1,000-$2,000). Everyone else folded. All six of them. Oh well, I had fun. I got very lucky a few times. Most of my wins were on the river it seemed. I think alot of people hope I never show up there again.

Oh yeah, I took over as chip leader on the final table with my A-Q suited-hearts. I went all-in against the chip leader who started off with a gigantic bet that made everyone else fold. He had A-K non-suited. He got a K on the flop. I got a heart. But I pulled off an amazing flush with hearts on the turn and the river. He only had 11,000 left after that and I had over 100,000.

I got to go. I'm playing another tourney tonight. Wish me luck.