The Suite Life of Ian Zandi

The picture above was taken from the balcony of the the big fancy Westin Hotel next to the beach in Long Beach. What was I doing up there you may wonder? I was invited by my Boy Scout council to go to this recognition dinner for a distinguished citizen award to help out because they needed a good Eagle Scout. They usually pick one Eagle every year to help escort the person that receives the honor on and off the stage and also participate in the flag ceremony.

This year the event was held at a Westin hotel in Downtown Long Beach. My experience here was very interesting. It started as soon as I got out of the car. There was valet parking people that greeted me as I walked up to the huge glass doors. A little intimidating. The doorman opened the door and I stepped inside looking for some sign of Scouts. Finding no scouts or information desks I asked the doorman where the event was. He laughed and told me it was on the third floor. I then went off trying to find an elevator,escalator,or even stairs to the third floor but I couldn't in the huge lobby. Going back to the doorman I got the way to the escalator (It was right in front of the entrance behind a couch). After getting to the second floor I lost myself and then found the way to the third floor. On the third floor I remembered that I didn't know what room it was in so I went around looking for that.


I ended up finding my way and helped set up a few things since I was there early. I practiced the flag ceremony a few times with some of the other boys that were there. About an hour later the guests came which surprised me. I did not know any of them except for some of the leaders from the council. The company that was getting the honor was a gas company called Valero. Most of the people that come though were not from Valero they were people who had been benefited by Valero in some way.

After doing the ceremony I was seated at a table, which was a privilege since the other scouts did not get to sit in for the ceremony. I was seated at a table with a bunch of teachers! It was interesting trying to answer and explain all of their questions about homeschooling. When I was announced to be escorting the receiver of the award by the Emcee my name was really messed up, something like Eye-an and my last name was messed up too but it was fine, more of funny. It has happened to me before and I didn't know the Emcee.

The food there was really interesting too! There was a salad at first and then the hotel staff brought everyone the main course which I am not sure what it was but it may have been Fillet Mignon. I am not sure what the rainbow shaped dessert was either but I think it was some sort of cheesecake. I personally did not like the rich people food and would have rather had home cooked food. I'm odd like that. I half-expected for the staff at the hotel to bring in a cleansing bowl that I could drink from like soup on all of those comedy movies.


The experience was nice though. At the dinner and I met some big wig people of different places. I met the mayor of Long Beach, the ex-mayor of Long Beach named Beverly, the president of the Boy Scout council and some other fancy looking people that I did not know. Wow..... Now I learned a good lesson on how the whole fancy way of life works.



The person on the far right is from the scouts and the man holding the golden eagle is from Valero but I have no clue who the other two are. =)
These are the other scouts that got to do the flag ceremony with me. I don't really know any of them.

Ideas and a Flyleaf review ( or maybe a review by Flyleaf of my idea?)

I am thinking about doing the project where I would take a picture each day and that picture would explain something about that day or have something to do with it. Not sure yet, but I think I will. Also I am going to post a blog entry about every now and then that will be a review of mine of whatever song/album/artist that comes on my iTunes when I put it on shuffle. Or I might just pick one. Depends on my mood. It should be a big mix since I have about 1115 songs on there right now and counting. Here is the first review which is.....

I'm So Sick(Acoustic) by Flyleaf from the album Flyleaf Special Edition




An awesome song, by an awesome band, on an awesome album! There are only a few albums out there that have good songs on it from the start to finish and this is one of them! The special edition also came with 4 acoustic songs and a DVD of videos for the same price of the normal CD. The best songs on here are I'm So Sick, All Around Me, There for You, and Perfect. This band is both mainstream and Christian and they do not hide that fact as some bands do (I am looking at you Lifehouse!). They have great lyrics that glorifies Christ's holiness. They even got so popular they have one of there songs on the Rock Band game. I can't wait for their new album to come out! On a side note though one of the guys in the band is kinda creepy looking!

I got a haircut!

Most of my blond hair is now gone! I'm still not used to it even though I have had this haircut for a few days.

Before


After

The Love of God

The love of God is so amazing. It affects us in many ways but we do not often think about how good it is. It is why we were created and it is even involved in the two greatest commandments. The first was to LOVE the Lord you God with all of your heart, mind, and soul. The second greatest commandment was to LOVE you neighbor as yourself.


God's first act of love was acting as a Creator. He created everything and gave it all a purpose to exist. When he was done he said that it was good. After loving Adam so much and seeing that he needed someone, God created Eve. Even after man sinned against God in the garden, He granted mercy and did not kill Adam and Eve but rather just punished man.


In John 3:16 it says “For God so LOVED the world that he gave his one and only son, so that for whoever should believe in him should receive eternal life.” This is one of the most known verses and it even involves God's love. This verse is about how God sent Jesus down to live in our dirty little world in order to play his part in the long planned redemption plan. He died for man because of his love for us. He went through torture and shed much blood and sweat for something that he did not do but rather for the same people that were hurting him.


Our God is very forgiving to us and does takes our sins away as if they never happened. If he did not come to die for us then we would not have forgiveness and this world would be in even worse shape than it is right now. His fountain of love never ends. He loved all humans from the start and he has not stopped and he will not. Even today he continues to show the billions of people on earth each mercy daily. Jonah is a great example of how forgiving God is. Jonah tried to run away and ignore the purposes God made for him but God just showed him the way back and gave him a second chance. God also gave this second chance to the people that Jonah preached to.


Our wonderful Father has earned himself many great titles such as King of all Kings but one of them is friend. He is always there for us and will never leave us or forsake us. Our friends down here on earth may come and go but the words of God will stand forever. We can talk to him whenever we need and he will be there listening through prayer. He actually cares for us and will help us.


His LOVE was also shown by teaching us how to be more like him. When he came down to earth he did not only come to die for us but he did not spend his spare time messing around. He preached to the people and when he was not preaching he took the activity he was doing and applied a lesson to it. He gave us the Bible so that we could have something to base our lives on and show us what has happened in the past. His teachings have shown us how to love just like he does to us so that we may be more Christlike.

Nothing much...

Thought I would post some music videos. I have not posted one in a while and there have been some pretty cool ones out lately. You probably have not heard of these bands before but they are pretty cool.

VOTA-Hard to Believe



Abandon-Hold On



RED-Death of Me

Happy Easter!

Hello everyone! Don't forget not to get to caught up in chocolate and bunnies and shopping and focus on the fact the an innocent man was tortured and died for us. We were the ones that killed him too but he still went through with it. Jesus died so that we would have no more sin on our records and we could live with him eventually in peace.=) He also rose again on this day proving that not even death can bring his power down!

Feelin better

I'm better today but everyone else in my house is sick except Vince! I only did one joke today because I felt pity on everyone. I put tape over the bottom of the sink facet and when someone turned on the water....SWISH!!!! All over the front of them. Didn't really work out this year like it did in the past years but it did it's job.