Today has been very long, and very terrifying. This friend of mine is a good guy, just has a LOT of emotional baggage, and some serious trust issues. I helped him through a hard time in high school, and I'm one of the few people he does trust, so of course he called me today to talk about how the world is out to get him and he wants to end it all. I thought he had been doing better, and was not prepared for this bombshell. I did everything I could to convince him suicide is never the answer, but he didn't want to believe me. Thankfully, he mentioned that one of the parents of the family who's adopting him happens to work at my college. I couldn't convince him to talk to them, but I knew they needed to know what was going on so they could help. I was able to track them down after my friend hung up on me, and after I explained the situation, they were able to have the sheriff go check on him. He's in a mental hospital now, where he'll be safe from harming himself. I hope he starts doing better. Poor guy's been through a lot.
Until today, I've never had to try and convince someone not to kill themselves. That was terrifying. Thank God his parent works at my college, otherwise I don't know if he would've gotten help in time.
I need a hug, a couple birthdays, and a drink.
Thunderbird on an island for your time.
Today, I park my car in honor of The Ever Given. It may no longer be wedged in a canal, but it will forever be wedged in our hearts.
It has a seven-foot wingspan, and is built to minifigure scale. 
Here's the link for better pictures of it: 
So, I was one of those unfortunate students who graduated from high school and started college in 2020. That dumpster fire of a year was crap for everyone, but it hit me hard in school, and 2021 has not been any better. I didn't realize at the beginning of the semester that you're only supposed to take two online classes at a time, with four online classes over the course of a semester, and they don't recommend that freshmen take those at all. I took one in addition to four regular classes. That was intense, to say the least. But I thought my workload was normal, and I was just being lazy or dumb, so I never questioned it. Instead, in my attempts to get everything done, I got nothing done, or at least nothing done very well. I had a meeting with an advisor a few weeks ago who told me that my schedule was a recipe for disaster that she wouldn't recommend to anyone, and since then I've dropped the online class and had to drop another class for which there was no chance I could pass now. My workload should've been much more manageable by now, but I've dug myself into such a deep hole that even the three classes I have left, I'm struggling in because I'm so far behind. And this morning I learned I'll have to drop another, which means I'll lose financial aid, and might not be able to come back to college. I want this major so badly. I'm willing to fight for it, to do whatever it takes to even just barely pass so I can stay at this school, but every day it feels like even more of an impossible goal. Trying not to slip into depression is almost as hard as getting the work done.
My Lego Ideas project finally exists in the form of a physical model! I don't have to make do with digital renders anymore! Yay!
I got my sister to help me with the photos, because she's a photography student and actually knows what she's doing with a camera. My job was simply to position the Miata and hold the lamps in whatever position she told me to. The results are certainly better than anything I could've gotten on my own!
As always, please consider supporting this project on 
I couldn't figure out how Torsen differentials work, so I made one out of Lego, and now it makes sense. What a nifty little mechanism! Now I suppose I should integrate it into some sort of RC buggy so I can take advantage of its limited-slip capabilities...
So a couple months ago, I built this Lego model of Twilight Sparkle, and soon you'll be able to find her in the 78th issue of Blocks Magazine! They sent me a copy of the magazine early and I'm super excited about this 
The Lego Miata is finished 
I spent a large portion of my summer doing yard work. It wasn’t all bad, but I thought I’d get a break from it at YWAM. Silly me. They assign everyone jobs, so everyone contributes to the campus. My entire DTS (discipleship training school) was assigned to the farm. I am a farmer now. The yard work has been multiplied exponentially… But honestly, it’s actually not bad at all! It is a lot of hard work, but it’s interesting work. They don’t grow pineapple unfortunately, but they do grow bananas, papayas, fish and lettuce and other stuff through aquaponics, and a ton of other plants I’m forgetting. Also, chickens, bunnies, and pigs. The pigs are the most significant to me, because my daily chore on the farm is feeding the pigs, which involves transporting old food from the cafeteria using the farm truck!
it’s an old Ford Ranger with a four-speed manual and a V6 if I’m not mistaken. Also excellent patina. I’m taking a test to get approved for driving it today. I’ll probably be driving it a lot, since only two of us on pig duty can drive stick. But it’s very interesting learning about how everything on the farm works, since much of it is experimental and intended to find ways to help farmers in third world countries find new ways to grow more food. Wish me luck!
I knew it would be different from driving my manual civic back home, but I had no idea how different. The clutch is a lot lighter and more vague, while the shifter is like stirring a bucket of rocks. I know there are gears in there, but finding one takes a while. I have used both hands to shift a couple times, and done… at least two burnouts. I forgot to count the number of times I stalled. My friend Lorain was in the bed of the truck, smiling and laughing the whole time, and I think I was grinning like an idiot as well. As funky as the shifting is, it’s a fun truck. Especially because picking up pig food requires going off road for a bit. I also drove a van for the driving test today, but that had an automatic so it was like driving my Thunderbird if I were driving while sitting on the hood. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of the transmission in the truck soon. On the bright side, I don’t have many opportunities to get out of first gear anyway.