The Net Ninja.com

Hello all who read this blog. I am now down in Bolivia, and have found a slow but working internet connection! We all managed to survive the plane rides and custums, aquired visas etc, then spent the night in  Santa Cruz, then took a bus up to Monte Blanco, which is the former Tambo MK school in the middle of nowhere. The bus ride from Santa Cruz to here actually ended up being about an hour longer than the flight from Miami to Santa Cruz, over very bad, and sometimes non-existent roads. About 3/4 of the way there, we stopped in the middle of nowhere of the middle of nowhere, where we managed to find restrooms! Well… Sort of… No need to elaborate on that here, you can ask me when I get back if you really want to know. ANYway, we got in at about 12:00am local time, which is eastern time in the US, slept, then made our way up the road to the orphaniage in Comarapa where we´re doing our work. We spent the day moving rock and gravel preparing for the concrete basketbal court, and other odd jobs such as sewing curtain rings on curtains, and assembling furnature. We´re all kind of dirty and tired, but we got quite a bit done, and the weather was very nice for manual labor.

Sorry to cut this short, but I have a limited amount of time on here, and I´m being called to work on a skit we´re doing for the kids, so I will hopefully post more later if I get a chance.

TTFN!

Today I have disconnected my site from facebook. I finally got tired of facebook taking over my web presence, and decided that my website is going to be it’s own entity, not connected to any social networking site. I might also add a photo section to my site again, and use it for my photo publishing instead of facebook.

THIS IS A REVOLT! I AM NOT DEFINED BY FACEBOOK! MWA HA HA HA!!!

I got to thinking today, how long has it been since I first put a website online? And how many different versions have I gone through? After sifting through some old posts, I’ve come up with some dates. The current site, thenetninja.com, was launched on 10/23/2007. Posts older than that were imported from my previous domain, webn8.net, which was launched on 7-15-06. I started digging in some old web design folders on my laptop, and found that I still have an archive of my original site, xcogitation.net, which went up sometime in 2005 if I remember right, but I’m not sure of the exact date since the blog database was lost when I switched servers. However, I still have the original HTML pages that I wrote by hand after reading the book, “Guide to Geekdom: Basic HTML” (which is very out of date now). If you’re interested in seeing a bit of Net Ninja history, I’ve uploaded what’s left of my first website here.

A-lot has happened in the past few years. Looking at all the old posts and remembering the circumstances I was in, what I was going through, and what I was thinking at a particular time, gets me thinking a-lot about where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going. As I remember old times that really weren’t that long ago, I realize just how clueless I was of what was in my future. Then I think, “well gee, if I didn’t have a clue of what was going to happen in my future then, how clueless am I of my future now?”. I’ve come to realize, that while planning future events is good in that it gives me starting point, no amount of planning can ever predict with any accuracy what will actually come about. However, while I may not know where exactly I’m going or what will happen in the future, one thing I do know, is that there is someone out there who knows the future, and He is in total control. When I find myself stressing about the future, I constantly need a reminder that I am not on my own. Praise God for that!

Greetings friends, family, and any other random people who may be reading this! As some of you know, for the past year and a half, I have been attending New Tribes Bible institute in Waukesha WI. God has been doing amazing things in my life in this relatively short time. I have had the opportunity to delve deeper into God’s word than I ever have in the past, learning amazing truths through some of the most committed and talented bible teachers in the US. Things can get dicy sometimes in the state of WI however. The weather can be somewhat less than hospitable, and often times I am forced to brave the great indoors for days at a time with my six roommates. When not at New Tribes, I drive a school bus for Dairyland Bus Co. which gives me a chance to catch the sunrise every morning before classes while I sip a generous helping of french press coffee, and prop my eyelids open with toothpicks.

Bolivia?

This summer, I am planning to head to the mission field in Bolivia over July 23rd through August 2nd. We will be working with an organization called Hands of Love, a ministry that provides much needed shelter and food to children in difficult living situations, while showing them the love of Christ, and giving them what they need most of all, the Gospel of Christ. On this trip, we will be constructing a basketball court, two water tanks, putting up gutters, digging and constructing drainage ditches, and spending time with the kids. Please pray that preparations for this trip will go smoothly, and that sufficient funds will be raised. $1700 needs to be raised by July 10th to be able to do this ministry, if you are interested in having a part in this ministry financially, the help would be a great blessing both to me and those I will be serving. If you feel God leads you to support me in this means, please mail your gift to: Nate Larson 10094 W Lake Dr Littleton, CO 80127

Time for an update.

I am now on spring break! Which means no more classes for a few days, and also in this case means…. ROAD TRIP!!! Yep, that’s right. I’m on the road. Well, not at the moment. At the moment, I’m sitting on the couch in my parents living room with Talitha asleep next to me. We left Waukesha on the morning of the 10th and drove to Holdrege NE, where Talitha got to meet most of my extended family all at once! The timing was a little interesting on this one, but my grandma passed away on the 8th, so we ended up going to the funeral on the 11th on our way to CO. We then drove to Littleton, CO, and arrived at 12:45 AM on the morning of the 12th. Yesterday was kind of wet and drizzly so we stayed in, watched a movie, and played Dutch Blitz. Today, my dad and I got my car in the garage and replaced the shot rear brakes, then my Mom, Cristine, Talitha and I drove over to Lair of the Bear open space park to hike the trails and take pictures. We are now back from that, and loafing on the couch .

The rest of spring break we plan to drive to MN to spend time with Talitha’s family, and then head back to Waukesha. At the end of this trip, I will have approximately 204,500 miles on my Chevy Lumina. Hope it makes it! Guess we’ll see…

I think we might be going on a record of how long this blog has gone without a post…. Poor blog…. It must feel lonely out here in cyberspace all by itself…. Ahem! Yeah…. Enough sentimentality about a website. I’m such a nerd.

Anyway, a-lot has happened in the past two months, which could be part of the reason why I haven’t posted in such a long time… but I suppose it could be that I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Whatever the reason, I’ll try and sum up the events of late, if a bit late.

I am about midway through my third semester at NTBI. I’m currently taking Romans, Soteriolgy, Intro to NTM, and Prayer Practicum. The homework load hasn’t been too terrible. I’ve managed to get everything in on time with decent grades so far.

The job I was working part of last semester, and the beginning of this one, has officially ended. I was working for a guy named Luke, delivering and assembling exercise equipment, game tables, and the like, but he got tired of all the driving and somewhat unpredictable hours, and got another job. That means that at the moment, I’m unemployed. I have one prospect though that might turn into me getting a job doing web design though. We’ll see if that works out or not.

The weather has been typical Wisconsin for the most part, which means cold most of the time. We’ve had a couple of nice days in which it was possible to spend some time outside while only half freezing instead of freezing solid, which I’m thankful for. Just wish there were a few more of them

Oh yeah, and those of you who are friends with me on facebook probably know that I have a girlfriend now . Her name is Talitha, we’ve known each other for a little over a year now, hung out quite a bit last semester, and have been officially dating since January 10th. Go ahead, make the “bridal school” jokes. We’re used to it by now. Here’s a picture for those who haven’t seen her on facebook:

Cheers me homies!

Well! Now that the craziness has died down a little bit, I should probably update this thing and tell about what’s been going on.

For those of you who don’t know, my sister Tamara has been engaged to a guy by the name of Adam Hamill. Well, the engagement is over now. They decided to end it on the 21st of December. Yes, it’s true. They are now officially hitched. You thought I was going to say something else didn’t you? Gotcha!

So after the wedding, (which took place in WI in -8 degree weather with a -30 degree windchill by the way) I drove back to CO with my parents, spend two days there, and headed to NE for a family reunion. I am now back in CO again, and just celebrated Christmas and New Years at the same time with my family, minus Tamara, who is back in WI again.

I’m planning to go back to New Tribes on the 9th.

That’s the highly abridged version of things anyway. Until next time!

Monday, December 15th, 2008.

Today was a very warm day up here in the northern territories. It got up to a balmy 9 degrees today, complete with a wind-chill factor of -5 degrees, and 60% humidity! It was so nice that I was going to go put on my bermuda shorts and work on my tan, but I was running out of food (seeing as the school cafeteria is closed for Christmas break), so I decided to go to wally world for provisions instead. While tugging at my car door, attempting to get through the 4″ of ice gluing it shut, I enjoyed the warm breeze that gently sliced through my hoodie and gloves. Abandoning my attempt at the drivers side, I cheerfully walked over to the passenger side to try it. After prying the passenger door open, and happily climbing over the shifter, I turned the key, and listened to the sound of my car choke to life, obviously happy at the prospect of being driven on such a nice day. As I backed out of my parking space, I noticed the sound of the wind blowing through the passenger door, which was now frozen open. By this time, I was enjoying the situation so much that I could happily force the driver door through the ice in order to inspect the passenger door. After a couple unsuccessful attempts at closing the door, I popped the trunk, pried it open through the ice, and pulled a wrench out of it’s plastic case, which was also enjoying the warm weather enough to crack when I opened it. After a few minutes of ecstatically tinkering with the side of the door, I decided that I didn’t really need the door to hold itself shut anyway, since this car very conveniently has seat belts attached to the car door. So I drove to walmart with the steering wheel in my left hand and the passenger seat belt in my right, holding the door closed. Of course, not long after I hit the road, I realized that this arrangement allowed no limb free to change the radio, but it’s ok, I enjoyed listening to the big hit, “even hamsters fall in love” anyway. After buying the needed supplies, including de-icer, and duct tape in case that didn’t work, I walked back out into the balmy weather, strongly encouraging everyone around NOT to drive their SUV’s too much so this incredible weather could continue. When I got to my car, I found the drivers side frozen shut again, but that was ok, because the passenger side was still frozen open. After dousing the doors in de-icer, I managed to get the drivers side open, and the passenger side closed in order to drive back home.

Days like this are great because they remind me of how much I love the weather in this state. Everyone please remember, this weather can only continue if you are careful how much you drive your SUV’s! A little too much could make it too WARM out after all!

Well, as of yesterday, I am done with finals for this semester at NTBI! I am still in Waukesha, planning to head back to Colorado on the 22nd, the day after Tamara’s (my sister) wedding. Until then, I’ll be working some, and getting a guitar part ready to play for the ceremony.

This past Thursday, the drama group that I’m with at the school, performed a pantomime skit that we’ve been working on all semester for the school. It’s synced to music, and thus is a beast to choreograph, but we have good directors, and were well practiced, so it went pretty well considering that it was our first performance. Our plan for next semester is to take this skit around the community and use it for an evangelism tool. I play the part of Satan in the skit, so I was wearing all black, with creepy eye paint on (which is really hard to get off I might add). People said I fit the part well. I’m not sure how I feel about that… Anyway, there should be a video on facebook soon, or I might post it on my site.

My Christmas break is probably going to be a bit hectic. After the wedding, I’m going back to Colorado for two days, and then driving up to Nebraska for Christmas, and eventually driving back to Colorado. It could be interesting…. I guess we’ll see what happens.

*zzzzrt!* *zzzrt!* Hello? Testing.. Testing… 1 2 3. After two and a half months of grueling repair work, my transmitter is finally working again. After my last report from the land of frozen cheese, my field satellite transmitter was sabotaged by one of the natives trying to feed it a lump of bleu cheese. Thank God for duct tape and bailing twine; I might have been stuck out here in these frozen northern parts forever with no communication… Learning the local language has been a challenge, but I’ve gotten to the point were I can usually carry on a conversation with only one or two confused (and sometimes mortified) looks from the other party. I still haven’t figured out why they like the colors yellow and green so much… But I try not to push the issue too much, they sacrificed a squirrel to the diabolical color combo a couple weeks ago, and I’d rather not share the same fate. The people are mesmerized when they see me working with electronics, and seem to think that I’m some kind of wizard, often coming to me asking that I cast a spell on their primitive tools to make them work better. In spite of the occasional annoyances though, I’m learning more and more of the subjects I’ve come here to study, and assuming I come out of this excursion alive, I believe it will have been very beneficial.

Well, a storm seems to be brewing up so I’m not sure how much longer this thing is going to wo– *KER-POP! BZZZT!!*