the end is near

Just got back to LSU from New Orleans at 1:15 a.m. Cousin Ryan had car trouble...what a night. Now...to skip or not to skip class? That is the question. I haven't skipped a class yet this semester...but I'm so darn tired...

Next week is finals...

Many Thanks

Many thanks to all of you LSU students who may be now visiting my site as a result of seeing my profile through joining the Coldplay fans group on The Facebook (http://www.thefacebook.com). We have acquired over 20 fans so far in just over 24 hours, so thank you, thank you, and again, thank you!!

I encourage you to create more music groups on The Facebook...I noticed that there were only a handful of music fangroups for the likes of Relient K, Incubus, Maroon5, and maybe a few others...(all worthy artists),...but I know that many other people have other favorite artists that need fangroups.

For those of you outside of LSU or who in general don't know what I'm talking about, visit The Facebook at the aforementioned address. Some of you at other college campuses may have a Facebook for your school, check and see.

All I can say is that I Facebook is addictive. Several days ago I kind of scratched my head when a couple girls suggested I join. But it is addictive. Hopefully it's one of these 5-day phase-craze things I go through, just as would be the case for, say, frozen coffee at Highland Cafeteria, watching Seinfeld daily with my roomate, sleeping only 2 hours per night, et-cetera...

HEY LSU STUDENTS!!!

I know there are a few of you Life and Times of Joshua Clayton blog readers who don't live in faraway places like the UK, etc. While I love you fine folk outside LSU, greatly, I'm afraid you can't help on this one.

But if you are an LSU student, then you can help by joining the Coldplay Fangroup on the facebook.com.

If you haven't joined http://www.thefacebook.com yet then do so now. So many LSU students are joining...it's a social network, that's all I'll say, and it's quite addictive. But anyway, go to that site, and join, and then under the "groups" section, search for "Coldplay Fans" and then clikc "join group." I want a whole heap of support for the group. If you like Coldplay, then you have no choice but to join. Even if you don't...you're visiting my blog so you must at least care that I am a living, breathing person and not an amoeba, so do me a favor now and join the group.

Go forth worthy Jedi.

Home

I've been back home for a whole day now. Home from LSU. Visiting my wonderful family. I feel exhausted. It's great to have this time to share with them! For the first time in years, for Thanksgiving Day, both my mom's and dad's sides of the family ate together...and then some. I must get some sleep while I am not obliged to be in class the next few days.

Happy Thanksgiving!

On the Mark with Mark Talley

Late-Night Studying

Incredible!

This is what I love about Pixar animation. Pixar is constantly outdoing itself.

The Incredibles is a great movie I would recommend to just about anyone who:

• Loves animation
• Loves special effects
• Wants a laugh
• Enjoys exciting movies

Plus, it's a fairly family-friendly movie. I don't think there was any profanity (maybe one muttered, not sure). The only thing a parent might find objectionable is a bit of stylized cartoon violence...but death is never shown directly. Most of it comes across as slapstick violence. There are many intense action sequences which may startle very small children.

But even for you adults, this should be a great watch. There is plenty of Shrek-esque adult humor, minus the sexual/potty humor implications. The film is a visual feast for the eyes, with lots of vivid colors, images, human characters and fast-paced explosive action sequences. The unexpected underlying depth to the film was a pleasant surprise, with such themes as family unison, marital fidelity, individuality, and prioritization.

I won't say much about the plot as it would give some surprise twists away, but I'll say it's about one incredible family of superhumans.

Now guys, the question is, how do you plan to find your Elasti-girl?

A Funny Moment

Song Recommendation

Now on the sidebar of my blog you will notice the Song Recommendation, which I will regularly update to let you know an important melody that is currently pulsating into my ear canals.

Dan Hames: Hero of the Week

Last Home Game

After an hour of searching, I found someone outside the stadium who sold me a ticket for $15 to the Ole Miss Game. I went with a bunch of XA-ans...we won 27-24. It was a nail-biter. For parts of the game it looked like we would lose...quite a trhilling way to end the home game football season.

Afterward, Dustin, Jonathan, Solomon and I went with Rachel to her house (this was at midnight) to eat her mother's home-cooked delicious lasagna and green beans. Rachel and her parents are very cool (and godly) people. I thought it was kind of weird how a bunch of guys invited ourselves over to some other girl's house to eat her mom's food...but they've got the hook-up, not me. I didn't ask questions; I just savored the moment.

Before we went there though, we stopped at the grocery store. I jumped in a shopping cart and said, "Dustin, push me! I haven't ridden in a cart in over a decade!" So he hot rodded the cart whilst I clung on and caught the items Jonathan dropped in. The cashier smiled like, "Silly college students," but then the manager was seen by me walking about so I jumped out.

Other than raiding Rach's mom's fridge, we watched SportsCenter and acted like the goons we are.

Anyway, I'm exhausted (as usual), and I'm going to crawl into my bed now to get some sleep before Sunday service.

I leave you with a question from Mr. Zack Mitchell: This is a question for men:

Quieren mujeres con bigotes fuertes?

El Fin de la Semana

En Ingles, "The end of the week." You see my friends and I were in a Spanish mode last night.

I fell asleep reading Wild at Heart between 7 and 8 pm Friday night and woke up a quarter of 8. I then biked over to the PMAC for LSU's first basketball (el baloncesto) game at 8:00. Met up with Dustin a/k/a 'Money' and Derek B. and cheered at the game. We won and then we went to Taco Bell where we met up with Zach, Jonathan, and Solomon. After that Zach and Derek (who are roomates) and I went back to their apartment. But first we rented the Chronicles of Riddick. We got there, Carly and Kristen came over...I'm sorry, Riddick is one of the weirdest movies I've seen in a while. I thought it was rather dumb...but that's okay cause I was hanging with my 'homies.' Whom I love dearly. And then I raced Zach and Kristen for 2 horus in Crash Bandictoor racer. then I c-rashed from 4:30-1:15. Derek drove me back. I got some brunch. Then I spent an hour and finally got a ticket to the Ole Miss game for $15. Last home game of the season. And I'm off to see it right now.

Culture!

For those of you who don't want to listen to my last audio blog post, it can be summed up in saying...I'm getting some culture, learning to dance! It's great fun. Preparation for the XA Snow Ball a couple weeks from now. So far I haven't made a girl trip or anything, so I guess I'm not doing too badly. I've got the waltz I think, except for anything requiring 360's. That turns messy pretty quickly. I can do basic cha-cah, but again, side-turns get pretty hairy for me. So anyhow yeah listen to my last audio blog post, some of you may even be mentioned in it...hmm. ;-)

So, should I go totally audio and stop typing about my day and audioblogging instead or what? It would be faster! But it would be more random and less thought out.

Dance All Night

The Audioblog has landed

Feeling Alright

One exam down, one more tomorrow, one more the day after tomorrow. Busy week. Western Civ. paper on the horizon. Finals and the end of the semester in sight.

On that first Monday at 7:30 in the morning is my biggest exam, West. Civ. Something to look forward to. The general sentiment in my seminar among students was that none of us will make it to bed that Sunday night...study all night, take the exam at 7:30 and then sleep the day away.

What a life. The end of the semester is near. My first semester of college.

Homochitto National Forest

Great times this weekend at an awesome campsite in the State of Mississippi. XA Christian Fellowship...THE MEN.

The funny thing is the women had their own "pink" party sleepover Friday night, also. We had this gender segregation thing so that for 3 days we could do the "manly" thing...and I kid you not: it seems we couldn't stop talking about women the whole trip. A woman's touch is thoroughly appreciated...especially in light of the fact that her absence allowed us to do some rather "dodgy" stuff out in the wilderness... ;-)

In any case, the nightly campfire was great, all the food, the cold weather, the midnight hikes, the day hikes (and there were plenty of them--I'm exhausted)...

Many antics yes ANTICS, people performingly manly feats to astound each other. Much much storytelling/joking, gathering firewood, seeing nature (even 2 deer and a huge LOTR sized spider..well not that big)...

The only thing there wasn't much of was cleanliness. As a matter of fact, was there any? I won't expound upon that.

Anyway, I had an awesome time...it was funny, manly, fun, interesting, though-provocative...

I slept in a tent the first night and under the sky last night. The fact I was sloped downhill and a root underneath my back didn't agree very well with me...I woke up on the hour...but that's part of the experience, folks.

The awesome thing was how hilly/mountainous it was, compared to the usual boring Louisiana flat swamplands (yuck). Great workouts hiking/carrying wood, jumping over creeks, teetering across logs, etc.

I could have continued camping for a week were it not for the fact that I have other stuff to do.

i.e., 3 exams this week.

Legos!

I'm sorry, people, but you've just got to watch this one. It's fabulous. http://www.koreus.com/files/200407/lego-zone.html I guess I love it so much because I was a Lego FANATIC as a kid...I had all the space lego sets, I did.......

This is what I'll be doing this weekend, folks. The counterpart is that the XA girls are having a "pink" night sleepover deal with lots of...pink, I guess? Chick flicks and nail painting, apparently.
Well not us men. We're going to be..."watering trees," what a classic. Courtesy of Mr. Zach Mitchell, folks. A legend of our time.

Sunday Lovely Sunday

After church, I went over to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to the International Students Expo thing. Twas very cool. Various countries had info tables out and I hung out for about an hour checking stuff out. I want to learn more about internationals and get a better picture of the human race. God knows it's getting boring (and deceiving) just knowing Americans.

Another barn-burner awesome prayer time with XA in the student union tonight.

Did ever mention that I love Chi Alpha people? I don't love Chi Alpha as much as I love the PEOPLE. Oh, wait, I guess I mention this in every single post.

God showed me tonight:
A) I am not seriously pressing after him, yet..
B) I am too hard on myself
C) I do not allow Him to love on me and feel unworthy to receive His love
D) I am too concerned about what people think about me and how they perceive me
E) I need to just smile and rejoice.

The main things are the plain things.

Blind Man

I had a blast at the XA First Year Retreat last night and today.

A small crowd gathered at three XA girls' apartment Friday night. We had a delicious meal of spaghetti and garlic bread with Amy Geiger's (an amazing girl) amazing cookies and rice krispies treats afterward (this version was actually made of Fruity Pebbles....superb). Then Josh Harvey (a stinkin' awesome dude) led us in worship. Then Amy spoke and then led us in a discussion about friendship relationships. Then we played Taboo. It was Josh Harvey and Josh Clayton (me) as leaders, so it was Harvey v. Clayton teams. Sounds like a boxing match. But anyway I'm so proud of my team, they won, they did, the beautiful people! Then we played Twister which I was horrible at and then we played Mafia (which I might have done better at had I understood the rules when I played), and then we watched Shrek 2 and then talked forever about random junk and then by 4-something a.m. we'd all crashed and fallen asleep.

At 9 a.m. Mr. Zach Mitchell (another stinkin' awesome dude...oh heck they were all awesome), came in and sang us from our bedspreads on the living room floor. Krispy Kreme donuts, then we had a discussion about romantic relationships (God's perspective). Broke up into groups, all that great stuff, pretty fun(ny). Then we went out to Highland Park for what I thought was the best part. After we ate and climbed around in a huge oak tree, we played this game, which rocked my face off, which I shall try to explain..........

Everyone worked together as one team in this game. The objective was to get everybody piled into two vehicles somewhere else in the park and drive to an objective point. There were a few "problems." First of all, the car keys were hidden in a secret location and had to be found by us.

The other problem was a huge one. Every player had a "handicap." I shall name a few: we had people who couldn't use their arms, couldn't use legs, couldn't hear, couldn't talk, etc. We even had a parapleigic and a girl with Attention Deficit Disorder. Now, let's think about this. We all as a group had to struggle across the park with our various handicaps and get into the vehicles. We have people who can't walk. That's right. They have to be CARRIED.

Furthermore, only 2 people in the whole group could talk. Furthermore, each of us started off alone in a different location.

I was the blind man. I had a handkerchief tied across my eyes. Yeah, let the hilarity begin.

When we started, I was on the other side of a ditch, so I kind of kicked my legs out in front of m me to discover the ditch was right in front of me, and I sure as heck wasn't going to try and jump across it blind, not seeing where it was. And I couldn't talk, so I started clapping and waving my hands, till I heard running footsteps. I reached my hands out and some girl (whom I couldn't see and later learned was Margaret) grabbed my hand and so I ran after her, literally, "blindly."

For those of you who've never played a game like this, it takes a whole new level of trust to RUN behind someone who leads you on, with twists and turns, not seeing at all where you're going.

Another thing, I still have no clue where the heck I was the whole time. I felt hills and stuff, but obviously I couldn't see and no not where I stumbled during the game.

Eventually Margaret, who was mute and couldn't talk, pushed me to the ground, and pushed my hands against this girl (who I learned was Katie). I couldn't understand at all what she was doing, until my hands brushed up against a hanky tied around Katie's leg. So I started untieing it. Margaret then slaps my hand. "What the heck?" Oh, I'm supposed to CARRY Katie, because the handy represents the fact she can't WALK. So I timidly thrust my hands out to pick up Katie and start struggling forward, as someone guides me, while I carry Katie.

Now, I want you to try and picture this in your head, this last scene I described. A mute person is trying to communicate to a blind person that the blind person needs to carry a crippled girl. A blind man then carries a this crippled girl, but the blind man has to be led on by the mute girl as he carries the cripple.

I had to stop frequently. I lost a lot of energy going slowly, not knowing where the HECK I was going carrying Katie. Eventually (!) we met with other members of the group, one of whom had the use of his limbs and carried Katie. I sat down to rest. Before long, some other girl pushes me to my feet (I'm starting to like all this female attention...) and pushes me forward, we cross some more space till I'm pushed to the ground and brush against someone, whom I learn is Brittany. The catch here is Brit's the parapleigic, so she can't do a bloody thing. Here's where I wish I'd been squatting when I went to the weightroom recently. I had to deadlift her and again stumble blindly with her giving directions. I felt like such a weakling. I kept losing grips on her and had to collapse, with falling down BAM right on top of me. Then I got up again to that several times, probably covering a shamefully small amount of distance. But hey, it really sucks, carrying somebody when you're BLIND. Eventually (shamefully I learned later it was a couple girls alternating) someone else carried Brit the remainder of the way, as I was led about by the hand again. We got to the vehicles. Apparently, some other players had found the keys somewhere else. We had to fit like 8 people into a sedan. I managed to find the door and hop in, smushed between the door and someone else. Two people were in the trunk. We reached our destiation, got out the cars, and I kid you not, when I took the blinder off my eyes, the sun was so bright it hurt.

Then we met at an oak tree and Adam talked about relatioship with God, we closed with some personal prayer time.

Anyway, the whole thing rocked, but none more than being a blind man. It was unbelievable, peeps. It was totally cool.

Midnight Rider

After XA The Gathering tonight, Mr. Zach Mitchell provided us with hot cocoa and Chai tea, with cookies for dipping. (Or biscuits, rather, if you're privileged enough to be a Briton.) I had one Chai and two cups of cocoa and so i was very very very hyyypppeerrrr.........

On a spur of the moment decision, I launched not directly back to my dorm but on a night joyride in the cold night air, sporting my vintage high school cross-coutry hoodie. I biked all over the campus.

The cool thing about riding all over campus this late at night is there's no one out hardly, no cars, so I rode at top speed up and down hills. I even stopped by Mike the Tiger's cage and said hullo......he was sitting upright watching the world go by....what little bit of the world is moving at midnight.

After 15-20 minutes of top speed all the way biking, I was winded and sweating (in cold weather), so I pulled my bike in and came in to catch my breath.

This is what's great about college. Come on, high schoolers, you know you want to ride your bike all over town at midnight. Well maybe you don't.

I did. I'm weird. Some people prefer to call that individuality.

The Answer to the Question

by Tree63

I'm growing tired of a mouth shut tight
when all I want to do is tell the whole world
about the Man sitting at the right hand of the One in Heaven
how could I sing about anything but Him
CHORUS
He is the answer to the question
He is the cure for the infection
He is all He says He is
He is the ultimate reflection
of holiness and true perfection
He is all He says He is
How can I not cry watching as
The world dies without a prayer
They run to their own gods, roughshod
Blind to the living God of Earth and Heaven
How could they sing
About everything but Him, yeah, yeah
CHORUS
I'm so tired of a mouth shut tight
All I want to do is tell the whole world
about the man sitting at the right hand of the One in Heaven
How could I sing about anything but Him
CHORUS

Solved Mystery

The mysterious Chris Martin ended up an online friend, Isaac, from Colorado. He does a great British accent apparently, which coupled with my gullibility, does wonders. Props to Isaac, he's not that dodgy a guy, really. Strange how life plays out.

In the words of a friend...

You don't owe anyone anything. Your only obligation is to please God. You don't need to impress anyone. When you stand before God one day it will be God only, no one else.

A Tale of Two Music Videos

A contrast.

U2's "Vertigo" and Johnny Cash's "Hurt."

The former gives the sensation of the vanity and pride of humanity.

The latter gives the ache of a youth and innocence lost.

While the former excited my senses more, the latter has left a lasting impression on me.

The tired look in Johnny's eyes, the agony in his voice...the imagery, the lighting...the worn face.

He tells us that in the end.....we only have the capacity to hurt. Me living for my own good and vanity will cause me to make war on your own well-being. You will, in turn, hurt me. As our hairs turn gray together, we will lose the dreams we have worked so hard to build.....

...a life that is not eternal can only leave us broken...

...and hurt.

ignore this post....maintenance reasons

The saga continues.

First of all, my apologies to Isaac, who assures me he never gave my cellphone number to anyone.

Upon chatting with someone else (2 people separately affirming this in one day), I realized that there is an online database from which the common public can access my cellphone number yours, and basically....anyone.

The question now is whether or not I actually did speak to Chris Martin or not. I was convinced it was a prank caller. But a re-analysis showed Isaac is not a part of the plot...he would be the only American cellphone link here. Therefore, even if it is not Coldplay's lead singer, it is a British fellow who frequents my blog and decided to have a go at me.

Looking back, all the mystery caller said on the subject of why he called was that a friend "put him up to doing it," but he could not reveal who it was. There a number of fine British folk I have e-communicated with through meeting them on (namely) the delirious message board at www.delirious.org.uk. Feasibly, one of these fine British folk could have called another friend who has......connections to Coldplay! And as a favor, asks Chris Martin to look up "Josh Clayton" and call about the "Clocks Lawsuit" (see previous post entitled "Clocks").

In any case, I will try and piece together what I remember of our conversation earlier today.
Me=me.
C=Chris Martin.

I will assume the style of Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian, in that what I will write is as though it is a transcript of the daialogue, though I am sure many details will be omitted because of my quite fallible memory:

I pull on the side of the road and hop off my bike because my cellphone rings.
(To imaine this conversation, imagine me saying everything in a slightly sarcastic, laughing tone and Chris remaining dignified and untouchable the whole time.)
ME: Hello?
C: Yes, may I speak to Josh Clayton?
ME: This is Josh. Let me guess. This is Chris Martin from Coldplay?
C: Yes, this is Chris Martin from the band Coldplay. I was calling about settling the Clocks lawsuit.
ME: This is great. What I want to know is how did you find my blog?
C: I'm sorry, I can't say.
ME: Well, look, I guess you know that the whole thing with the lawsuit was a joke. It was just a joke.
C: Oh, was it? Well, uh, we don't joke about that sort of thing.
ME: Oh we don't? I do! (haha)
C: No we don't. So, Josh, do you have our first CD?
ME: Oh! Uh, no, actually I don't. I barely know a thing about Coldplay..I was recently listening to Launch music on Yahoo--I don't know how big that is in the UK, it's huge over here--and Clocks came on and I loved the piano, so I hit the "cannot get enough" thing and all that. I love that stuff. So let me ask you, how am I supposed to know this is really Chris Martin? (Pause) Oh, ok, so the implication is that I'm supposed to buy your live CD so I'll know your voice?
C: Yes, that's pretty much it.
ME: This is great. So let me ask you, who gave you my number?
C: Um, I cannot tell you that. All I can tell you is that a friend asked me to make this call.
ME: That friend wouldn't happen to live in Colorado, would he?
C: I'm sorry, I really can't say. All I can say is a friend put me up to it.
ME: You wouldn't happen to be--let's see--Dave2 or somebody would you?
C: I'm sorry, I've told you all I can.
ME: (haha) Well i was actually in class when you called--I go to college in Louisiana, it's in the southern U.S.--and I didn't want to pick up in front of the professor. So what part of the U.K. are you in?
C: (......)
ME: I'm sorry could you repeat that?
C: (.....)
ME: Cool. How's the weather? Just making conversation.
C: Actually it's a bit rainy out today, lots of clouds and dark all over.
ME: Wow! Same here! You can probably hear the cars. I stopped my bike to talk to you here.

At this point, we gradually ended the conversation. He had to hang up on me, because I tried to get him to stay. He did chuckled toward the end.and he talked a bit more than what I can remember....it's just he was so cool and low-key that I can't remember what he said.

And he ended by saying "oh and make fair trade." I corrected him, "make trade fair". He chuckled.

Twas strange. Was it Chris or was it not? You be the judge. I truly don't have his live CD...I don't know what his regular voice would sound like.

HHHHHHAAAAA.

I have spoken live in person via mobile with "Chris Martin." It was a very very interesting conversation. Man of mystery, I was riding my bike when you called...and it really was rainy. What a coincidence that it was rainy across the pond, also. You really did put in a good plug for the band, mate. You really did. Why did you eventually hang the phone up, eh? What a PR for the band....so hospitable. ;-)

Thanks to my friend in Colorado for hooking the prank caller up with my CELL PHONE NUMBER. Consider yourself beaten severely about the head and shoulders. I love you. We shall kiss and make up.

Wow. In the words of Captain Jack Sparrow, "Interesting............very interesting."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Yes, this is a bright color....an extreme color....for an extreme situation!!!!!!!

Ok, which one of you, you people who frequent my blog, is responsible for this!? Huh? Who on earth that I know has connections to the band Coldplay?!

I swear, on my honor, that while I was in class, a "private number" called my cellphone........I got out class and listened to the voice message:

"Hello, Josh, this is Chris Martin from the band Coldplay, and I'm calling about some sort of possible settlement over this uh this clocks lawsuit um,...... yeah. I reallly was....[unintelible].......if that would be possible. uh ... I'll try calling back later."

aaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!

Ok, so how did this guy get my number?! Is this a prank....I don't know what Chris' voice sounds like.....I don't know squat about Coldplay......I looked them up on the web to verify "Chris Martin" was indeed the lead singer!!! Did he see I go to LSU and looke me up on the directory? Or is this just a prank call from someone........how....what..........huh? What the........