Judge Judy Rules Poliwager a Success

So a little over 6 years ago my friend Jeremy made a Pokemon website, named after his favorite Pokemon Poliwag.  On this website you can adopt/hatch Pokemon, breed Pokemon, feed your Pokemon, or go on the Poliwager Forums to talk to other people who are apart of the website.  A few days ago I had a dream about the website, and as the title suggests it contains Judge Judy in it.  I told Jeremy about it, and he thought I should post about the dream here because he thought people would find it pretty funny.  So before I forget it (If it's even possible to forget dreams containing Judge Judy) here ya'll go.

In the dream the success of the Poliwager was going up at a high rate, so Jeremy decided to drop out of college.  He assumed the success of his website would keep growing and growing.  Jeremy then told his friend Kyle his thoughts about dropping out.  Kyle basically told him he was losing his mind, and how Jeremy should get an actual job.

Jeremy was optimistic though, but a few weeks after dropping out, his website started losing users.  Jeremy started to believe that maybe this whole thing was an extremely stupid idea.  Until one day when the success of his website started increasing rapidly out of the blue.

The success of the website was caused by none other than Judge Judy.  I (Alex) decided to watch Judge Judy, so were supposedly a ton of people around the world.  In the episode Judge Judy was holding a microphone that had a Poliwrath on it (an evolved form of Poliwag) with poliwager.net written under it.  Judge Judy and one of the people she was evaluating got into an argument, which pretty much happens in every episode.  This person had pushed it to far though, saying that Poliwager was stupid.  Judge Judy stated how the guy was ignorant.  From seeing this episode a ton of people were curious about what poliwager.net was and decided to join the website.

Jeremy was unaware of the success of the website until I told him to go on and check it out.  Jeremy was very confused but thrilled as well.

The moral of the story is that a cranky old lady secretly has a passion for Pokemon, and that you guys should check out Jeremy's website: http://poliwager.net/

Song Meanings

I just love knowing the stories behind he lyrics of songs, so for this blogpost I decided to put my iPod of shuffle and the first 10 songs I got, I looked up, and here is a little bit about the writing. (Without any repeats on song artists)  Hope you enjoy it.  I did a blogpost like this in the past, so here's kind of like a part 2 to that.  

Gasoline- Troye Sivan:  So not many people know who Troye Sivan is yet, so I'll start off with a little information about him.  He started off as an actor for the Spud movies (The Spud series in a popular book series in South Africa, its actually pretty hilarious) As he grew up he started making YouTube videos and by 2013 he became a popular YouTuber and signed a record deal, and now records his own music.  He's Australian.  

Gasoline is actually Troye's most personal song on the first album he released TRXYE.  This song is all about the feelings associated with heartbreak: pain, sadness, and longing.  The song tells a story of how he broke up with his boyfriend because he was looking for someone better, and he knew that he didn't deserve him but a lifelong person in his life.  

Last of the American Girls- Green Day: Billie Joe Armstrong was helping rebuild houses after Hurricane Katrina when he rewrote this song.  It's written about a fictional girl, and what she would of went through if she had survived the hurricane, and the lyrics compare the girl to a hurricane as well.

And I Love Her- The Beatles: I absolutely adore this song.  It's one of my favorite Beatles songs it's definitely my favorite off the Hard Day's Night Album.  This song was written in Paul McCartney's ex girlfriend's basement (Jane Asher).  It was written as a love ballad and later put into the film Hard Day's Night.  

Paradise- Coldplay: This song is about a girl who wants to keep her childlike innocence by dreaming.  She had high expectations for her life, like it was suppose to be a fairy tale.  In her dreams she lives in the world she wants to be reality.  

Santeria- Sublime:  This song is about getting revenge after he catches his girlfriend cheating on him.  

Snap Out of It- Arctic Monkeys: It's about a guy's ex falling in love with a different guy, but he doesn't want to lose her forever so he hopes it doesn't work out.

Fake You Out- twenty-one pilots: Tyler Joseph the lead singer of twenty-one pilots likes to keep his lyric meanings to himself, but I interpret it as that the person in the song is going through a tough time in their life, but they fake being okay, so people don't have to feel sorry or feel bad about them.  

Nice Guys- Chester See, Ryan Higa, Kevjumba:  This song was written as a comedy song by the YouTuber Ryan Higa (nigahiga).  He wrote it to explain how girls usually fall in love with the "bad guys"  so the main character in the song pretends to be a jerk, because being nice never works and how he just wants to compliment his girlfriend but doesn't think he can.

What is and What Should Never Be- Led Zeppelin: The song is about an affair between a man and his wive's younger sister.

You Alone- David Crowder Band: This is a song about how God has given us more than we can ever imagine, and him alone is the only one who can do that.  It's also a song about praising God.

This is Gospel- Panic at the Disco: This song was written about how we only remember bits and pieces of our past, and then you create yourself based on those memories.  The lead singer Brendon Urie actually wrote the song about the drummer of the band's drug addiction.  At the time he wrote the song he was angry at himself and the fact that his friend had an addiction.  

I actually did eleven songs...whoops 

Passivity in Faith

~My friend Trae sent me this in podcast form, because he thought I would find encouragement in it.  So I'm going to state what I got out of the podcast and interesting facts I learned.

A lot of people are passive in their faith, and in their lives in general.  In order for our faith to be strong though, we cannot be passive in our faith.  Most of the time people who lead passive lives would rather escape from the problems they are facing rather than overcome them.  The idea of escaping problems instead of overcoming them reminds me of suicide.  The person begins to believe that they would rather take their life (escape their problems) instead of overcoming them, or finding hope in their situations and trusting God.  We can't expect deliverance from our problems in most cases, so we must face them.

The largest amount of passivity in churches is taking place in the United States, because of passivity there is a lack of leadership today also, because leaders cannot be passive they must take control.  Passivity keeps us from fulfilling what God wants us to fulfill.  We don't act on what God is telling us to do, we just push it off.  However, more people are being born again then ever before.

One of the most interesting things they said in the podcast was how college level kids are the most likely group to get their faith destroyed.  In college being a Christian especially a leader is taboo.  In other words it's not cool to be that one "Jesus freak".  Not wanting to be in an out group, people don't act on their feelings of religion, and kind of suppress their thoughts on the matter.

A lot of passive people make excuses to why they are so passive, and often see problems instead of opportunities.  Passive people also tend to either live in the past or future instead of the now.  They mistake being passive for peace.  For example keeping an unpopular opinion to yourself so a fight/argument doesn't break out.  We must wake up every morning ready to fight.  The enemy is all around us on Earth.

David could of just as easily not have been prepared to fight Goliath, and someone else could of taken his place had he been a passive person.  David was not a passive person however and woke up everyday filled with the Holy Spirit and ready to fight.

Lastly have you ever thought how cool it is that we are all filled with the same Holy Spirit.  We are filled with the Holy Spirit Jesus had while he walked the Earth, the same spirit as Peter, the same spirit as all the greatest people we can think of.  There were no differences in the Spirit.  Every single born again individual has been filled with the same one, and that is just a really encouraging and incredible thought to me.

Prayer

Recently I have been a very happy person, I've realized however how easily happiness can be taken away from us.  Whether it's someone trying to sabotage are happiness or a tragic life event that has taken place.  During these times, when bad things are happening to other people I just want them to be okay again, I want to be able to have a magical tool that takes the pain away.  I guess in some ways prayer can be that tool.  Prayer however, usually isn't miraculous and takes time to heal a person.

Prayer is all about having a relationship with God.  We were created to be closer to God then anyone in our lives.  It's pretty hard to imagine loving someone more than your best friend, spouse, own child etc.  The way I like to think of it is:  Taking your best friend and multiplying everything you love about them by an infinite amount, and that's how great God is. The definition of prayer actually stands for "divine persuasion."  If you think about it that way, you get to talk to a person who is divine, and who doesn't want that.

A lot of people need prayer in their lives, so something you can do before entering a public place is to ask God to turn on your "prayer radar."   Praying for this will help God open your eyes to the people who need to be prayed for at that certain time.  Sometimes God just wants to remind someone of how beautiful he thinks they are.

To be a person of prayer we have to choose to be one.  God wants to be wanted.  He wants us to ask him things and have conversations with us.  It's important during rough times of life to gaze upon God's beauty.  Think about all the blessings in your life.  You will find the amount of blessings you have in your life outweigh the qualities of the situation you may be in.

Keep engaged with God throughout the day, treat him like a best friend.  If you're spending the day with your best friend you tend to talk to the person a lot.  It should be the same way with God.  Be a good listener to God.  The more you listen, the more you hear, and the less you talk.  Sometimes being a good listener is the best thing you can be.

Be a giver in prayer don't just be a receiver.  If people you haven't thought about in awhile come to mind, take time to pray for them, God might have brought your attention to them for a reason.

We're are in a spiritual Earth, but we are in the army of God.  Just picture Gandalf shouting to the enemy "You shall not pass" if you need an image to remind you of this.  Picture God asking you to fight with him like a gentleman holding out his hand before he asks a girl to dance.  We need to tune into the Holy spirit as much as we do with our phones.  When are phones go off, we are instantly alerted about something, imagine if we could do this with the holy spirit.

If we cling to God we can do what seems to be impossible.

~This is a reaction to the message that was given about prayer at Living Light Church

Things are Falling Into Place

    I used to have high anxiety levels all day.  I could barely get myself to drive 15 minutes, take a 10 minute walk across campus.  I physically needed someone to walk me to class in order to keep my anxiety from exploding.  Last semester walks from my dorm building to the arts building would send me into panic attacks, if I wasn't walking with someone.  I would have to call my mom to have her distract my mind from believing I wasn't in existence.  Over winter break even though it was enjoyable I was even more crippled with anxiety.  As soon as it hit night time I was filled to the brim with anxiety, and simple walks from the couch to the kitchen terrified me.  I had to mentally prepare myself for car rides even if I wasn't driving, especially at night as well.  (I still don't know why).

    As soon as I got back on campus, a place full of stress and busy schedules I instantly felt a lot better.  I still wasn't average though.  That weekend however when I went to church they had a message all about rest and having peace in your mind.  They called anyone up who was dealing with mental illness or physical illnesses and prayed over them individually.  I didn't know if it would help, but I was willing to try.  That morning I had a hard time actually driving to church.  (The feeling of not actually being in a car while your driving, is pretty scary stuff.) I'm telling you a little over a month from then it did help immensely.  I didn't believe it at first, that this miracle would happen and my anxiety would be gone.  I thought it was a coincidence that I was experiencing a very good point in my anxiety which occasionally happens.  But it's definitely been longer than any good point I've had before getting experiencing Depersonalization.

    My classes are scheduled on opposite sides of the campus and I'm able to walk by myself without feeling anxious.  I haven't had to call my mom because of feelings of panic while walking or driving.  My heartbeat is normal while I'm walking places not racing.  I don't need anyone to walk me back to the dorms at night, although they usually do :) I was able to go home for a weekend, and able to easily walk around the house without feeling panicked,   I can drive places without feeling uneasy.  (I haven't driven in the dark a lot though so that's my next goal).  In a few weeks I'm going to start meeting with people from Living Light on Thursday nights so I will have to drive at night to be with them.

   Besides for my anxiety levels being normal I've just been so happy.  I feel as if this is the happiest I've ever been in life or one of the happiest time periods of my life.  Even with all the studying and stress, and tiredness.  I've felt so happy.  I see all the good things around me.  I'm laughing constantly and smiling when I'm with my friends.  I hold my head held high while walking in the hallway, and my shyness seems to have broken.  Everyday is like an adventure to me.  I never know whats going to make me smile or what weird incidence is going to happen or what new inside joke is going to form.  People ask me how I am and I honestly can say I'm doing great, and that's kind of a rare thing to actually mean.  I've been blessed though with so many friends here at college.  Friends that get me.  Friends who are mostly drama-free and so positive and uplifting, I can't wait to see them again.  Those are the friends you should have.  Those you can't wait to see, because you know you're probably going to have an awesome time and they genuinely love you.  I don't have to impress anyone, they'll love me no matter what.  I feel confident without make-up or even in bum clothing. :p  That's the kind of people everyone should have/needs in their lives.

     Don't give up hope guys,  Something I always had through all of this was hope.  Hope things would get so much better, and they did: so much more than I ever felt was possible.  A year a go I probably would not have believed you if you told me I would meet tons of people I would consider my best friends or be one of the leaders of the youth group on campus.  It's a big deal for a Freshman,  Even the beginning of last semester I wouldn't have believed you.  All my friend from the beginning of September minus Laurette were fake.  They couldn't care less about me.  Since I moved to the first floor and pass them in the hallways they don't even bother to acknowledge me.  (These were the people I put my trust in)

    I just wanted to end this by thanking all of you who have supported me throughout this year.  Friends or family:  You have turned me into the best version of me, and I couldn't be happier.  I love you guys so much!  (This is the point where I say knock on wood, because I know things can go from wonderful to bad in a second, so I'm hoping this will prevent that and my life will just keep improving.)

Things College Kids Do

1) Stay up to the early hours of the morning, hanging out with friends.
2) If they're really tired they roll out of bed 5 minutes before class, and go
3) Set alarms for strange amount of times that aren't capable of giving you a good enough time to sleep, but you try anyways.  Ex: 14 minutes
4)  Are somehow able to function on very low amounts of sleep
5)  Wake up in the middle of the night to eat something.
6)  Make Ramen/ Microwave popcorn at strange times.
7) Take night naps.  (I don't usually do this)
8) Think four hour naps are acceptable
9) Some have a hard time making healthy choices,
10) Don't really care how they look, as long as their hair is brushed somewhat and smell somewhat decent.
11) Can't adult
12) Participate in nostalgic activities
13) Drink lots of caffeine
14) Fall asleep in weird places, (on the floor, in the library)
15) Watch a ton of Netflix/movies
16) Order pizza late at night (I've never personally done this)
17) Lay around until actually getting the motivation to do homework.
18) Wish there were puppies around to cuddle.
19) Don't use cups, drink things straight out of the bottle.
20) Contemplate your future.

That's all I can think of for now, if you have any others you can comment them beneath this post.  If I think of a lot more I will make a second post about this.