Thomas Lorenzo Reynolds

Hosted my second golf outing this year. It was a bit of a success, and one of the most relaxing days out I've had in a while. I'm already looking forward to next years outing.

Next year's outing will be a charity outing for LIVESTRONG and I have already started contacting people about how to plan a larger outing. I hope we can have some serious sponsors for next year. 15 June 2011, be prepared.

I've started watching what I eat. I've kept track of what I've been eating on Livestrong.com. They do all the calorie counting for me. I just type in what I've eaten and how much working out I've done. Now, about the fitness tracking. They have all sorts of exercises listed, including sex and babysitting. Yet, crunches and sit ups are not on the list. I can burn 310 cal/hr at the driving range, but have no clue what i'd do with crunches.

Summer is bad for TV. There just aren't many good TV shows. I'm excited for fall to get here so I can watch some real shows again.

What a week.

I'm finally starting to get the hang of how to keep to a schedule and I'm learning how useful "To Do" List are. All those skills from Freshman Seminar back in Fall of 2002 are starting to become useful. I probably could have implemented most of them much much earlier. I've managed to get myself involved in many organizations on the ground level. Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 12 Montclair, Grand Colony Advisor for the new Montclair State Colony of Alpha Sigma Phi, Parliamentarian for the New Jersey Chapter of the National Organization for Minority Architects (NOMA), Architecture for Humanity: Newark Chapter (AfH:Newark), the New Jersey Coalition of the NAACP...

I have an yearning for positive change. I want to be a part of the force that leads to such change. I'm just not sure if there are enough hours in a day to do that and work, and eat and sleep and be a 26 year old man.

There is a very important step to how you make a successful organization that most of the ones I'm involved in are yet to figure out. Its setting a defined mission and Ends. When you're able to inform someone, without thinking, what your organization does, what they have done and what they can do for you, you have an organization worth joining. I learned that through years of recruiting for the fraternity that those become three of the most essential questions to be able to answer. And the answer cannot be form fitting, a fraternity isn't just "brotherhood for life" and "looks great on a resume". A fraternity is a personalised experience with men of certain values striving for a common goal, the experiences along that journey and the stories that build character.

So what does NJ-NOMA have to offer? What is the tangible ends to that organization. I'm not entirely sure yet because we're still in those formative years. We're still setting up our mission as a whole. And still working to execute our goals. I think having Bill Brown as President, we're going to have a huge push on working with the youth, and getting them involved.

I have managed to get a few more people involved in the Chapter Council for the Montclair State colony. I'm hoping that they become extremely active in our pursuit to be a viable organization on campus. They all seem like strong individuals, the type of people I can count on to keep these guys motivated.

Now time to attack the left-overs on my To Do list.

Sonic'd

1. The act of purposefully avoiding asking someone on a date that is mildly interested in order to build intrigue for the eventual asking. Usually waiting past the point of disinterest, annoyance, impatience and insignificance because you're not being asked until there is a want to be asked out.
2. When someone doesn't ask you out long enough that you are almost busting at the seams for them to ask you out

Root being the Sonic introducing its commercials in the NY Metro area years before a Sonic was built in the NY Metro area. That by time a Sonic was built, everyone felt a need to be at one

"Wow, Tony finally asked me out on a date. I've been waiting so long for this I'm excited"
"You totally got Sonic'd"

by Chocolate Thunder, 620 on Nov 5, 2009

tags: hoodwinked, bamboozled, shy, manipulated, tricked

Dear God,

It has been 12 years since my last confessional, and today I mean to pour out my heart in only the simplest of words. I have sinned, in thought, body, mind and deed. And though raised Episcopalian, I do not fully believe in the words in the Bible. I was raised in the church by those who kept an open view of what it was to be religious and not be held to laws of the Bible. I was confirmed by a man who believed the rising of Christ was a group hallucination, and that Jesus though a brilliant man for peace was just a man.

And so, here I am just as confused as before as to what to believe is your Devine Will, or it there is one. Were you simply fumbling around with an ecosystem, are we your science experiment? We're born, we live, we multiply, we die, pepper in a few mutations and see where we end up? Or was each step guided by the hand?

I believe that there is a God, I believe that his or her power is infinite but balanced with compassion. I believe that he or she is just yet reasonable. I believe that there is a purpose to this life, but as for what I haven't a clue.

I also believe that in the short time I've been on this Earth, I've felt the backhand of life's forces. That I've been tried and tested. And have failed on more than one occasion. I have fallen short of the mark, and I feel like I am almost ready to turn that all around.

And so I ask, do not show me favour, but do not turn your back on me. Don't give me the answers, but offer me a chance to find the answers myself. Do not hold my hand, but do not walk too far ahead without me.

And when the time is right God, show me a sign.

Today, my friend is being tested, facing down the gentle thread between life and death. Her father fell from a scaffold at work today, he has had hemorrhaging and is not doing well. She is coming to see if you can turn things around. And I wish it was so easy, that one could pray just right and you'd change the world. Or more importantly, that praying for his pain to end would mean that he goes from injured to healed, when there are many other routes to pain relief in your eyes. I am having trouble believing that you're there at these painful times. I have trouble believing that these choices are yours. Help me to keep an optimistic mind that you are there for suffering.

God, grant me the peace of heart and mind that I may be able to be there for the grievances of my friend. That I will believe fully that though I cannot see you, you are not far away.

"Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10) reminds me that you are always there. But, even when I'm doubtful, "Keep on Keepin' on." helps me to never forgot, to remember that the only thing in life I really can do sometimes is to keep on keeping on.

So today, while I am clouded with doubt, I will keep on keeping on. And hope that soon, I will be without doubt that you are there, never too far.

"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"
(Matthew 28:16-20)