Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Friends
Kati said today that she wanted to know more about kyle's and my friends...I will try to update you on the one's that I am closest to, since there are so many. This is Ben, by the way.
First, the girls
Amanda Oliver-she is a really nice girl who is very talkative and seems to know everyone on Dordt's Campus. She works in the food service and serves our food sometimes. She likes to run and she also shares interest with us on musical aspects. She enjoys listening to a song or two on the record player with us. She is from Washington
Rachel Delcid-She is from Denver and is also a very nice girl. She made everyone a little stocking for christmas and filled it with puppy chow! She listens to everyone and is great to have a deep conversation with.
Hannah Yoder-She is crazy, but also very funny. She has some pretty funny jokes even though she takes the jokes one step too far sometimes. She is very outgoing. From Iowa
Katie Monsma-From Idaho, she is really nice and one of the first girls that we hung out with here. She enjoys just spending time with friends. She is a great friend to hang out with.
Kayla VanderStelt-We came really good friends when we had a music jam session. She plays guitar and is a good singer, so it's fun to talk about and play music with her.
The Western Girls-This is a group of girls that all went to Western Christian High School in Iowa, and we just recently started to hang out with them more often.
Here is a group shot of a bunch of our friends!
Now on to the guys
Darin Lammers-He is on my praise team, he plays the drums and very well. He is very outgoing and likes to have a good time. He is also very into music and collects his own records! He is kind of a punk kid, he has earings and seems to be rebellious at times.
Matt De Jong-He also is on my praise team and is very talented musically. He plays the piano and the guitar and is also a great singer. We have jam sessions and sing with harmonies all the time. Occasionally, Matt and I will serenade the girls in Covenant Hall with our harmonic voices singing love songs. It is quite fun. He is also good at basketball
Austin Herrema- He is also musically gifted and plays the electric guitar and acoustic guitar. He is a great guy. He cares about people deeply, not that my other friends don't, but you can tell more right away with Austin. He is going into Engineering, so he studies alot.
David Spencer-He is on the basketball team with me and is very strange, we call him strange dave. It is very funny the things that he does, just watch the video of him laughing at me!
Kevin Fopma-He is my assistant coach, but i am also very good friends with him and hang out with him all the time. He is a great guy and loves basketball. He is also a Secondary Ed. History major like me, so we share alot of the same classes.
Tom Lenderink-He is a crazy fun kid. He is always making other people smile and is just a weird awesome kid. He is good at basketball so it's fun to play for fun with him. He is a great guy and is easy to have deep conversations with.
Jon Lenderink-This is tom's brother, and I actually met Jon first. The first day i was at dordt I shot around with Jon in the rec center, and he was a great guy to talk to. I became friends with him and Tom quite early. Jon is getting married this summer!
Jacob Richards-Sweet guy, him and tom have a little bit too close of a relationship, it is rare to seem them apart, haha. But he is a sweet guy, really into movies.
Obviously, Jeff and Barry are close friends as well! But you guys know them.
I think that that is about it. Wow, just making this is showing me that I really need to meet some more girls, haha. Well, that is all for tonight
Ben Sytsma
First, the girls
Amanda Oliver-she is a really nice girl who is very talkative and seems to know everyone on Dordt's Campus. She works in the food service and serves our food sometimes. She likes to run and she also shares interest with us on musical aspects. She enjoys listening to a song or two on the record player with us. She is from Washington
Rachel Delcid-She is from Denver and is also a very nice girl. She made everyone a little stocking for christmas and filled it with puppy chow! She listens to everyone and is great to have a deep conversation with.
Hannah Yoder-She is crazy, but also very funny. She has some pretty funny jokes even though she takes the jokes one step too far sometimes. She is very outgoing. From Iowa
Katie Monsma-From Idaho, she is really nice and one of the first girls that we hung out with here. She enjoys just spending time with friends. She is a great friend to hang out with.
Kayla VanderStelt-We came really good friends when we had a music jam session. She plays guitar and is a good singer, so it's fun to talk about and play music with her.
The Western Girls-This is a group of girls that all went to Western Christian High School in Iowa, and we just recently started to hang out with them more often.
Now on to the guys
Darin Lammers-He is on my praise team, he plays the drums and very well. He is very outgoing and likes to have a good time. He is also very into music and collects his own records! He is kind of a punk kid, he has earings and seems to be rebellious at times.
Matt De Jong-He also is on my praise team and is very talented musically. He plays the piano and the guitar and is also a great singer. We have jam sessions and sing with harmonies all the time. Occasionally, Matt and I will serenade the girls in Covenant Hall with our harmonic voices singing love songs. It is quite fun. He is also good at basketball
Austin Herrema- He is also musically gifted and plays the electric guitar and acoustic guitar. He is a great guy. He cares about people deeply, not that my other friends don't, but you can tell more right away with Austin. He is going into Engineering, so he studies alot.
David Spencer-He is on the basketball team with me and is very strange, we call him strange dave. It is very funny the things that he does, just watch the video of him laughing at me!
Kevin Fopma-He is my assistant coach, but i am also very good friends with him and hang out with him all the time. He is a great guy and loves basketball. He is also a Secondary Ed. History major like me, so we share alot of the same classes.
Tom Lenderink-He is a crazy fun kid. He is always making other people smile and is just a weird awesome kid. He is good at basketball so it's fun to play for fun with him. He is a great guy and is easy to have deep conversations with.
Jon Lenderink-This is tom's brother, and I actually met Jon first. The first day i was at dordt I shot around with Jon in the rec center, and he was a great guy to talk to. I became friends with him and Tom quite early. Jon is getting married this summer!
Jacob Richards-Sweet guy, him and tom have a little bit too close of a relationship, it is rare to seem them apart, haha. But he is a sweet guy, really into movies.
Obviously, Jeff and Barry are close friends as well! But you guys know them.
I think that that is about it. Wow, just making this is showing me that I really need to meet some more girls, haha. Well, that is all for tonight
Ben Sytsma
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Examinations
So this is my (Kyle's) last week of the first semester of my freshman year. It seemed to go extremely fast, but that's what they always say. So I'm going to tell you that it seemed to go extremely slow, even though you know better. This semester seemed to go really slow.
In order for it to all be over, first we must pass through the fires of exams. This week is going to be a lot of studying and test taking until Thursday. And it's going to be painful. But in the end, it will be quite worth it. Or that's the idea. Anyway, in order to help um...anyone that would be taking exams anytime soon, here is a list of tips for successful study sessions.
In order for it to all be over, first we must pass through the fires of exams. This week is going to be a lot of studying and test taking until Thursday. And it's going to be painful. But in the end, it will be quite worth it. Or that's the idea. Anyway, in order to help um...anyone that would be taking exams anytime soon, here is a list of tips for successful study sessions.
Find a Study Buddy
 |
| Ol' Jeff. |
Jeff is my study buddy for Bible class. It's somebody you have the class with that you can work through a seemingly impossible amount of reviewing through. Jeff and I are great at staying on task as well!...yeah. Just keep at it, and before long you will know more than your teacher even does. (This is probably an unlikely result.)
Study in Advance
Don't wait until the last minute! Get started studying for a test you have two days from now, then you will be more prepared. However, it seems to be harder to motivate yourself if you start earlier, so do your best. If all else fails, just throw your books under your pillow the night before the test or some mumbo jumbo like that.
Take Breaks
Don't coop yourself up in a room for 10 hours straight studying. We all need to relax every now and then, and if you just study on and on you will die. Probably literally. So if your friend runs into the room and says, "Good news! It's raining applesauce outside and it tastes delicious! Come on!" you don't say, "I have to study...blah blah blah...I'm lame." That's the wrong answer. The right answer is, "Wow! I'm coming right away! We should play football in the applesauce!" Bingo.
So that's all I got for now. I'm going to leave you with a video that my friend Darin used to describe how he feels during exam week. I think it sums everything up pretty well. Bye bye.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Football-The Real American Sport
It's BEN!!! I know that your all happy to see me blog...just kidding, you pry like kyle's blog's better. He is a much better writer than me. Anyways, to the topic of the actual blog. American Football. Ever since the beginning of the 20th century colleges have had american football introduced as the real man's sport. Today, 30 people at Dordt College decided to continue that college tradition by playing football in a foot of snow and in the middle of a blizzard.
It was completely epic. Men tackling eachother and all for the sake of getting a pigskin across a line, this sport is truely american.
Before I played football, I was in 55th with some friends including Kyle and we listened to some awesome live music while drinking hot chocolate. It was excellent. Hot cocoa is always good on a cold blizzardy day. The live music was fantastic! They played many christmas songs and even included "Earth Angel" by the penguins in their song choices, I was very impressed.
David Spencer is sleeping over tonight with me and kyle, so I must be off.
Ben Sytsma
Before I played football, I was in 55th with some friends including Kyle and we listened to some awesome live music while drinking hot chocolate. It was excellent. Hot cocoa is always good on a cold blizzardy day. The live music was fantastic! They played many christmas songs and even included "Earth Angel" by the penguins in their song choices, I was very impressed.
Ben Sytsma
The Happenings of College
It has come to my (Kyle's) attention that this blog hasn't really talked about what exactly it is that we are doing here at college. Sure Ben can talk about playing the Piano and I can talk about playing Snake, and then Ben can talk about...um...Kaden.
But what does that really tell you, hm? Not much in my opinion. As we near the close of this semester, I think it's time we give an actual rundown about what has been going on in this strange place called college. I'm going to attempt to sum up activities done this semester in ONE blog post, whilst highlighting significant or noteworthy moments. On your mark, get set, and gopher! Aha! Got you! You see, you thought I was going to say go, but I said gopher, which means that you can't go yet because I didn't say go! Anyway, GO!
So, where to begin? We take classes. Um...we do homework. Okay, this is the obvious stuff. What else? We watch a lot of movies. For example, I just returned from a viewing of The Two Towers. Quite good. Last night, I watched Inception. Also good. Mostly good movies, sometimes maybe not so much.
Every Thursday, we have Praise and Worship which is great. Afterwords, heading to 55th Avenue is almost always certain. 55th is the coffee/snack shop here on campus. They have delicious smoothies, unless you ordered one there on October 21st and your name is Rachel DelCid. Then you may have drank a fermented smoothie. But hey, we got a contest to win an iPad out of it, so no hard feelings. Except for the part where I didn't win the iPad.
We've had a few dances, like the Christmas dance this past Thursday. It was pretty fun, but very tiring overall. Needed a breather after like 2 songs, it was pretty intense. The other dances were a Neon Dance, which I did go to, and a Halloween dance, which I didn't go to, but I honestly can't remember why. Anyway, lot's of fun overall.
On Friday nights, except for this one (we were watching Lord of the Rings remember?) we will go on a midnight donut run. There's a place in Orange City, about 20 minutes away from Dordt, that has dollar donuts at midnight. They are fresh and quite delicious. It's always worth it, and a good time.
Let's see...what else? I'm just writing about what comes to mind right now, no particular reason or order...Tonight we played volleyball in the gym. Probably one of the most ridiculous games of volleyball ever played. I was laughing constantly, and I can't even begin to describe it. So I won't. Use your imaginations.
That's all I can think of right now. You may have heard that there is nothing to do out here in Iowa, but that most certainly isn't true. You make your own fun, and that's what we've done. There's tons of other stuff that we've done, I just am to tired to think of them. Goodnight my children. We shall be coming home soon, don't fear.
 |
| Yeah. |
So, where to begin? We take classes. Um...we do homework. Okay, this is the obvious stuff. What else? We watch a lot of movies. For example, I just returned from a viewing of The Two Towers. Quite good. Last night, I watched Inception. Also good. Mostly good movies, sometimes maybe not so much.
 |
| An example of not so much. NO, we didn't actually watch this movie here, but I don't think I need to see it to know it's quality. |
Every Thursday, we have Praise and Worship which is great. Afterwords, heading to 55th Avenue is almost always certain. 55th is the coffee/snack shop here on campus. They have delicious smoothies, unless you ordered one there on October 21st and your name is Rachel DelCid. Then you may have drank a fermented smoothie. But hey, we got a contest to win an iPad out of it, so no hard feelings. Except for the part where I didn't win the iPad.
We've had a few dances, like the Christmas dance this past Thursday. It was pretty fun, but very tiring overall. Needed a breather after like 2 songs, it was pretty intense. The other dances were a Neon Dance, which I did go to, and a Halloween dance, which I didn't go to, but I honestly can't remember why. Anyway, lot's of fun overall.
 |
| An example of me at the aforementioned Christmas Dance. Straight up. |
On Friday nights, except for this one (we were watching Lord of the Rings remember?) we will go on a midnight donut run. There's a place in Orange City, about 20 minutes away from Dordt, that has dollar donuts at midnight. They are fresh and quite delicious. It's always worth it, and a good time.
 |
| We had already eaten our donuts, but I swear they're real! |
Let's see...what else? I'm just writing about what comes to mind right now, no particular reason or order...Tonight we played volleyball in the gym. Probably one of the most ridiculous games of volleyball ever played. I was laughing constantly, and I can't even begin to describe it. So I won't. Use your imaginations.
That's all I can think of right now. You may have heard that there is nothing to do out here in Iowa, but that most certainly isn't true. You make your own fun, and that's what we've done. There's tons of other stuff that we've done, I just am to tired to think of them. Goodnight my children. We shall be coming home soon, don't fear.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Kaden Nesky
Today, Ben Diggidy, will be blogging about one of his best friends, Kaden Nesky.
Kaden, otherwise known as "the Stick" is one of the coolest persons that I know. I have very fond memories of this kid. The best of course being when I went out west with him for 2 weeks and saw some of the best of God's creation.
the Stick is also very interested in sports, and that is one of the greatest things about him. He is the one person that I hang out with that I can count on for knowing the score of the latest game, which is very helpful. Kaden if you are reading this, I challenge you to a NCAA bracket contest this year! Bring it on!
Here are some very famous Kaden quotes.
"I have two babies my laptop and my iPod"
"I just have one thing to say....really?"
Anything by Bo Burnham
Also, he has a great Brett Favre impersonation.
Kaden is also very in to settlers and Euchre. He is also pretty good at both of these things I guess. He is better at Euchre in my opinion, he seems to win that everytime he plays.
Ben Diggidy, signing off, have a good one folks!
Kaden, otherwise known as "the Stick" is one of the coolest persons that I know. I have very fond memories of this kid. The best of course being when I went out west with him for 2 weeks and saw some of the best of God's creation.
Kaden Nesky "Stick"
the Stick is also very interested in sports, and that is one of the greatest things about him. He is the one person that I hang out with that I can count on for knowing the score of the latest game, which is very helpful. Kaden if you are reading this, I challenge you to a NCAA bracket contest this year! Bring it on!
"I have two babies my laptop and my iPod"
"I just have one thing to say....really?"
Anything by Bo Burnham
Also, he has a great Brett Favre impersonation.
Kaden is also very in to settlers and Euchre. He is also pretty good at both of these things I guess. He is better at Euchre in my opinion, he seems to win that everytime he plays.
Ben Diggidy, signing off, have a good one folks!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Snake
So recently, I (Kyle) have had a new addiction. It's the stupid game Snake. Snake. Ugh. This is a love hate relationship we have. If you don't know what snake is, here is the description from the game on Facebook:
Snake is so basic, it feels strange to have to explain it. Basically, get the food without getting yourself.
Everytime you get a piece of food, your snake grows in length and eventually you will struggle to not run into yourself when making crazy turns. Every time you get piece of food you also get 10 points. My current high score is 520. I'm ranked 11th out of all my friends. However, a friend of mine named Austin has a high score of 1580. I am currently under the assumption that he is robot.
I normally don't fall for these Facebook games, but something about this one got me. I don't know why. But, basically once I start playing, I feel like a can't stop. Don't get me wrong, I totally can if I really wanted to. This is sounding strangely like the words of a cigarette smoker... But in all seriousness, don't worry about me. I'm fine. Now to go to bed. But maybe I'll play a game of snake first.
No sleep tonight I suppose.
Snake is so basic, it feels strange to have to explain it. Basically, get the food without getting yourself.
Everytime you get a piece of food, your snake grows in length and eventually you will struggle to not run into yourself when making crazy turns. Every time you get piece of food you also get 10 points. My current high score is 520. I'm ranked 11th out of all my friends. However, a friend of mine named Austin has a high score of 1580. I am currently under the assumption that he is robot.
 |
| Austin. |
I normally don't fall for these Facebook games, but something about this one got me. I don't know why. But, basically once I start playing, I feel like a can't stop. Don't get me wrong, I totally can if I really wanted to. This is sounding strangely like the words of a cigarette smoker... But in all seriousness, don't worry about me. I'm fine. Now to go to bed. But maybe I'll play a game of snake first.
No sleep tonight I suppose.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
the Piano
Today, Ben brings the blog of the day (don't worry, it will be more daily from now on).
First, I have a shoutout...DAVID SPENCER!!! Add him on facebook and like his facebook page David Spencer.
The one and only, David Spencer....just kidding guys, add him on facebook if you want a pic.
I have a new obsession. Don't worry, It's not John Stamos or Emma Watson today. My newest love is found in practice rooms all over Dordt College. I like it so much because it is music, and as you all know, I love music. I have finally found someone willing, my good pal Matt DeJong, to teach me how to play piano by Chords.
I have been going to a practice room to learn chords and specific chords for specific songs for the past three weeks now. It's really fun to experiment with new songs that you hear on the radio and making them into your own new version of that song. There are many songs that I can play now by reading chords off of a chord sheet, thanks to Matt. Today, at praise and worship I even practiced some of our praise songs on the piano before we started.
Matt is the one in the middle!
Recently, I have become obsessed with Coldplay because their songs are so amazing to play on the piano. Their newest Christmas song, Christmas Lights, is my favorite to play right now, I've only practiced it once today actually, but my goal is to have it down pat so I can give you guys a performance when I get back.
Here is a video of that awesome song! It will be on Kyle's awesome CD!!!
This is Ben Diggidy, signing off for the night, cya folks!
the one and only Ben Sytsma.
First, I have a shoutout...DAVID SPENCER!!! Add him on facebook and like his facebook page David Spencer.
I have a new obsession. Don't worry, It's not John Stamos or Emma Watson today. My newest love is found in practice rooms all over Dordt College. I like it so much because it is music, and as you all know, I love music. I have finally found someone willing, my good pal Matt DeJong, to teach me how to play piano by Chords.
I have been going to a practice room to learn chords and specific chords for specific songs for the past three weeks now. It's really fun to experiment with new songs that you hear on the radio and making them into your own new version of that song. There are many songs that I can play now by reading chords off of a chord sheet, thanks to Matt. Today, at praise and worship I even practiced some of our praise songs on the piano before we started.
Matt is the one in the middle!
Recently, I have become obsessed with Coldplay because their songs are so amazing to play on the piano. Their newest Christmas song, Christmas Lights, is my favorite to play right now, I've only practiced it once today actually, but my goal is to have it down pat so I can give you guys a performance when I get back.
Here is a video of that awesome song! It will be on Kyle's awesome CD!!!
This is Ben Diggidy, signing off for the night, cya folks!
the one and only Ben Sytsma.
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