Paul Revere

So... while in my Culture/Art class this morning the Prof showed us this painting of Paul Revere. Painted by John Singleton Copley before Revere was really a famous man.

The sad part? (Or funny because it's SO true). About 9/10s of the classes' initial reaction was -

"HOLY COW THAT LOOKS LIKE JACK BLACK!"

Your opinion?

Children of God...

Had the privileged of photographing the Christian Family Adoptions Dessert/Banquet recently. Is it just me or little kids one of God's most incredible creations?








-J

My Grandfather...

So, my Grandpa is pretty much amazing. Actually, he's absolutely amazing. I couldn't ask for a more perfect grandpa. He always has story after story from his past that find me rolling on the floor crying from laughter. His legacy is incredible... However, sometimes I wonder how a man who really isn't ALL that old (Least-wise he's not in his 90s yet) could possibly have so many incredible stories.

I have finally discovered the answer. Grandpa told me today that he bought the bed that he and grandma have now when Moby Dick was a minnow.

THAT explains it.

-J

Guns...

I read this today and simply had to post it, you video-gaming people will get a kick out this seeing as technically speaking it isn't true in real-life... but gamers know the truth....

Semi-automatic rifles rest in the hands of gods.
Automatic rifles are the weapons of mortals.
Burst rifles are the crutches of the incompetent.
Bolt-action rifles may be used by all three.

Life...

We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic.
- David Russell

Ups and downs...

Don’t let your victories go to your head, or your failures go to your heart.



-J

Remembering...

We do not remember days; we remember moments.


-J

Thoughts...

Well. I just wrote an essay in 10 minutes with three citations. I feel rather accomplished. Of course it's not anywhere near finished but I do believe I set a record for myself in this area. So that's exciting.

I've been sick since last Friday. I missed church on Sunday, and instead practiced for roughly three hours. Who practices when their sick?? Oh right... me... The guy who has important stuff coming up.

Missed my lesson Tuesday, so now my lesson is tonight. From 7-9... ug... Ok fine I'm looking forward to it.

I'm hungry. I still have a horribly stuffy nose.

Oh! I got a baton for teaching my piano lessons with. I do conducting and stuff with my students. It's so amazing!

Enjoy my comic of the day -.... or don't. If you don't want to.

Punctuation Fail,

Is it ironic that I named the image on my computer - "puncuation fail"?

I think I failed with the fail.

w00t for fail day!

True Wisdom...

Simply couldn't have put it better myself...

Epic Win Parker And Hart!

This comic strip made my week for a couple reasons:
It mentioned Ancient Rome
It included a horrible pun in reference to exportation
And it bashed Rome's history in an unseen, sly way

Congratulations Parker and Hart, you rock my world.

Hope...

When all about you is black with gloom,
And all you feel is pending doom.
When your bones are racked with grim despair -
When every breath is a gasp for air.
Keep on going, though you need to grope,
For around the bend is a ray of hope.

A ray of hope is perhaps all that's left,
As your will to live has been bereft.
You've lost it all, it's just no use!
You can end it all, you need no excuse.
But throw away that piece of rope,
And give yourself a chance of hope.

Just give yourself another day,
Brushing aside what your thoughts may say.
This is your life and you can make a new start,
By ignoring the brain - just follow the heart.
Taking baby steps in order to cope,
And minute by minute you'll build on your hope.

Build on your hope,. one day at a time,
Though the road be steep and hard to climb.
The hurts of the past - they should be dead.
The fears of the future are all in your head.
Just live in the present and refuse to mope
Your life will sparkle for you're living in hope.

Poor Roller Coaster...

I just want to give it a hug.

FoxTrot

Water Amazingness...

FYI - I took all three of these following images, and none of them were edited to any degree other than some slight lighting tweaks. Oh yeah, and no animals were harmed in the making of this product.

National Tell-People-About-Blogs Day!

Pass on the good news folks! It's the day we tell people about blogs! So pass on the URL of mine to people and tell them to read it! Please...?

In the meantime visit these blogs and subscribe!

- http://greenleavesofpaper.blogspot.com/
- http://whatnotandwhatnot.blogspot.com/
- http://davidknopp.blogspot.com/

Have a nice day!

-J

Friendship...

Friendship needs no studied phrases.
Polished face, or winning wiles;
Friendship deals no lavish praises,
Friendship dons no surface smiles.

Friendship follows Nature's diction,
Shuns the blandishments of art.
Boldly severs truth from fiction,
Speaks the language of the heart.

Friendship favors no condition,
Scorns a narrow-minded creed,
Lovingly fulfills its mission,
Be it word or be it deed.

Friendship cheers the faint and weary,
Makes the timid spirit brave,
Warns the erring, lights the dreary,
Smooths the passage to the grave.

Friendship-pure, unselfish friendship,
All through life's allotted span,
Nurtures, strengthens, widens, lengthens,
Man's relationship with man.

A Little Humor

And I'm sure I'll get many a, "Wowwww Justin" and, "Oh goodness..." But it will all be worth it -

Perspective...

When I think about life: I look, I observe, I ponder... but what do I see?

Do I see the big picture? Do I see what it's all made of? Do I see where I'm being taken, and what I should expect?



Or do I see closer in? Seeing simply what I'm supposed to see in the moment...



Or... do I see even closer? Do I ponder what the true reality is... what life really means? Do I look and capture in my mind the essence of what I'm being taught? Truly try to comprehend what's in the here and now, rather than what I wish I was seeing?



Yet in the end... doesn't life simply come down to one thing? If you think so tell me what that one thing is, here's a hint, look closely, and ponder.

Thought of the Day...

You never know what's around the next bend, so take it carefully and slowly, but certainly take it. Never wait until tomorrow for the inevitable. Just get it over with.

My Manly Nephew

Being the youngest member of my family, I had no idea how quickly babies start to grow up. Therefore it came as a shock to me when I walked out into the backyard of my family's house, and there I saw my nephew, on our picnic table.... doing PUSH-UPS?

It was certainly quizzical to say the least. He was having a hard time accomplishing this task, and he didn't quite get there. But in my mind I say kudos to you little dude, start exercising now, don't wait.

As you can see by the following images, I am not joking when I say he was doing push-ups. Nor am I joking when I say he was having a difficult time. His facial expressions are far beyond adorable.

My Brother is Engaged!

First it's a nephew, then it's a brother getting engaged. What a life.

My brother asked me to hide in the park where he was going to pop the question and try to get some good shots. As it turns out sunset was at 8:23, and at 8:40 he was just arriving.

I am disguised in my hoodie/baseball cap/earbuds as I sit on the grass. I watch them waltz on by... My head goes all giddy. And then I stand up. Hide behind a tree... and it finally happened. I used all the photography knowledge I could muster to try and make the shots look good. I had decided earlier that because the happy couple were so late, trying to get a "Real" picture was out of the question. So I said to myself, "Silhouette it is..."

Here's the magic that happened... Congratulations Josh. You're one lucky dude.

More pics!

More pictures of my little nephew. The final one is my personal favorite. What a face... :-)










-J

Awesomeness

Fourth of July in Maple Valley Washington = AMAZING.

-J

The New Member...

Name:
David Henry Maynard

Height at birth:
20 Inches

Weight at birth:
6 pounds 14 ounces

Eye color:
DEEP OCEAN BLUE

Hair color:
Black/brown

Favorite Uncle:
Justin

An Uncle? Really?

Well. It's official. I'm finally an uncle. And I've got the cutest little dude kid in the world. This has got to be one of the most exciting things in my life.

Praise God!

-J

Wisdom of Lawyers

Real happening---

Lawyer: "This myasthenia gravis -- does it affect your memory at all?"
Witness: "Yes."
Lawyer: "And in what ways does it affect your memory?"
Witness: "I forget."
Lawyer: "You forget. Can you give us an example of something that you've forgotten?"

YAY!

I WAS ON TV!!!

That was kinda cool. It was also kinda cool to have my family have no idea what's going to happen. And then have me be able to know. Sweet.

-J

Leverage!

So tonight (Sunday night) from 10-11 is the episode of the Cable TV show "Leverage" that I happened to be apart of. I'm going to watch it and see if I'm actually in it or not. My brother and I were asked to be apart of the extras crew for that particular episode. We weren't just audience or random crowd mind you, we were in fact in the orchestra that was performing the famous song, "Scheherezade" during part of the episode. So... first time I got to be on a real live TV show set and I might actually be on TV for millions of viewers!

Post to follow once I find out!

-J

P.S. Then again... not so sure I want this ugly visage on cable TV. Oh well!

Thought

"Zip through traffic"

Is most CERTAINLY an oxy-moron.

Heck. Even oxy-moron is an oxy-moron. Go Greek.

Oxy = Sharp
Moros = Dull

Sharp-dull. What weirdo thought of this language known as English anyway?

English is the only language in which you can say, "Seat your seat in a seat." And it actually MAKES PERFECT SENSE.

What an age we live in.

-J

Breaking News!

Welcome ladies and gentleman!

We have just received word...

Justin is dumb! Woot!

Thank God for rainclouds and depression!

However, this is quite good news, because Justin wins!!

As they say, "Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity."

-J

?

Odd that... people comment on this blog quite a bit. But I rarely get a comment on the blog that actually matters in the long run. Can anyone give me a good reason why? I think it's just today's society. Who knows. It's still sad in my opinion. Because, this blog, it's fun, it's a nice update for those of you who don't see my often, but the other one, it's the one that truly matters. It's the one that will get us thinking, pondering, and hopefully drawing us closer to Him.

Just a thought...

-J

Today...

The sun is shining

School went well

Chores are going well

I get to take pics for a graduation party on Saturday!


But since I'm a hopeless pessimist--

It's too hot

I have school tomorrow... ugg

The chore list NEVER seems to end

The party is FOUR whole days away...


Sincerely,

-your bi-polar friend

Snap.

For those of you who know me well. We have a problem.

I think.




I'm becoming.





An...............






Only slightly a little bit not to much but I maybe getting close to maybe becoming........


An.... op...ti.....mist.....?


I think I'm gonna die. My reputation is about to fly out the window. Lord save me.


NO OPTIMISM!!!!!

Pictures!!

I'm not sure how many of you know that I'm quite into photography. So I figured I'd share my picassa web album with you. If you like the pics please comment on Picassa! I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of them.

Thanks!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Justin.Knopp/NatureSBeauty#

P.S. you can look at the other albums, that's just the one you might like the most. Happy looking!

No title. (Because I say so.)

If you're tired, if possible try to sleep.

If you're hungry, if possible try to eat something.

If you're thirsty, if possible try to drink something.

If you're happy, energetic, not hungry, not thirsty and just plain doing great?

Then for goodness sake share the wealth!!!!

-J

Wherein you get confused....

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve got a couple/few years of Latin under my belt. So if you don’t like Latin don’t read this post. Or. If you’re interested please read and comment.

I was doing logic this morning at 7:00 (only God knows why). And my logic instructor is quite the nerdy fellow. He, of course, connects a lot of words with their Latin roots as is only understandable. You know Latin, you know the roots, you can get the definitions of words quicker. Ergo (which is Latin for “therefore”) I am used to him using general Latin roots to define his terms.

This morning he made a mistake. (Oops!)
He said, “This word comes from the Latin, sequor, meaning to follow.”

In my head I hear, “DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!! ERROR IN TRANSLATION!!!!!” So I begin to ignore my poor instructor completely and begin trying to figure out what he just stated. As I’m sure you know, “to follow” is an infinitive. The most general form of a verb in Latin or English. You put the, “to” in front of the verb, it turns the verb into an infinitive. i.e. to go, to live, to drive.

In Latin the infinitive use is the most common. However, it is different in certain declensions. So if I wanted to say, “To love” I would say, “Amare”. If I wanted to say, “To walk” I would say, “Ambulare”. In a different declension the “to” infinitive suffix is, -ere as apposed to –are.

However, when my instructor said, “Sequor, meaning to follow.” I knew something wasn’t right. Sequor can’t be a “to” anything. Then I thought, “Well, could be he’s using classical Latin not ecclesiastical Latin.” So I went through in my mind the infinitive endings for classical Latin. And then I thought, “Nope. He’s just wrong.”

Finally I decided that according to the declension, the only alternatives were either, “Sequorere, sequorare, or insequor.” The last of the three making the most sense. Even though Latin is an odd language, and a dead one at that, the words themselves still make sense. “Sequorere” simply is hard to say at best. And to say, “Sequorare” you REALLY have to twist your tongue up. Which is quite awkward. So I decided I’d stick with, “Insequor”. The prefix in- being the infinitive form of the verb in this case. So then I googled (not an infinitive) an English to Latin translator online, looked up, “To follow” and guess what it said it was?

“Insequor”.

::Bows::

Happiness

Happiness = being able to be happy and blessed when:
You have chicken pox
Migraines
General illness
...
All at the same time.

Happiness also = being happy after all this is over. Which is now. It is all over.

PRAISE GOD!

Anywho, that's a little update. Very little update. Which I'll end with a joke. I think.

I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

Ug. That was bad.

Adios!

-J