Wilkester http://virb.com/cwilke Virb 2.0 (@cwilke) en Photo 3 http://virb.com/cwilke/photos/1382536 ]]> Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:27:34 -0700 http://virb.com/cwilke/photos/1382536 sunset behind apt http://virb.com/cwilke/photos/1145221

sunset behind apt

]]> Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:37:44 -0700 http://virb.com/cwilke/photos/1145221 capoeira pose http://virb.com/cwilke/photos/1127019 ]]> Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:30:31 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/photos/1127019 me guitar http://virb.com/cwilke/photos/1124996

yep, i play

]]> Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:12:08 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/photos/1124996 25 Random Things (from facebook) http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/1063536
(To do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)




1. I never do surveys, questions, etc., which is why this is a very rare occasion. I hardly ever update my status on facebook. But if Harper did it, in addition to a million others, I guess I'll do it too. And for Sarah Holcombe, and now Amber John, too, I will do it.

2. I played oboe for band and orchestra and electric bass for jazz band while in school. Sadly, my skills deteriorated throughout high school which is why I didn't play in college. Fortunately, I picked up acoustic guitar my last year of college, and for the most pat, taught myself.

3. I own way too many martial arts movies. I always have fight scenes in my head. And I have read Jackie Chan's autobiography.

4. Related to #3, Joey Arroyo made me do the hardest workouts ever for taekwondo, capoeira, and cardio kickboxing. The best ones where when my leg would give out the next few days when going up or down a staircase or just walking.

5. I have had Joker lines from the Dark Knight in my head for way too long a time now.

6. I don't have any sort of TV cable or channels at home as a way to not "waste time" but I do that anyway watching movies while I'm at home.

7. I am always excited to hear good stories, including ones in the form of documentaries. Some of the favorite ones I own now (that you should check out) are: Favela Rising, Beyond the Gates of Splendor, and Born into Brothels.

8. I always enjoy meeting new people and learning about them. I usually don't share about myself unless I have someone's complete attention.

9. I used to draw people. I have not drawn people in awhile but I would like to start again.

10. I used to perform with a juggling group in college. It's nerdy but a lot of fun. We did some crazy shows.

11. I lived with 2 of the main guys I juggled with for a few months. I had temporary return juggling doing a Jugglers of Death shows with them for Vaudeville Underground. That was probably the craziest show I've done with them.

12. I try to read when I can. I usually stay away from fiction but I've recently been reading book that were made into movies. Currently I'm reading Bourne Supremacy and High Fidelity.

13. The people I work with at Sony Style are probably the best group of people I have been able to work with at any job I have had.

14. My friends are more important to me than just about anything. That's why I try and travel just to see them.

15. I've recently started to take pictures a lot more. So you can always see what is going on with me at www.flickr.com/photos/cwilke

16. I haven't dated in a long time. I don't think I will get married despite what many of my friends think and tell me. I'm not ruling it out. It just seems unlikely at this point in my life.

17. I have a nephew in the 7th grade and a niece who is 7 months old. I love them both a whole lot.

18. I used to be addicted to video games. But it only got as far as Super Nintendo. After that, the addiction died down, much to the joy of my parents. But it would come back every now and then, playing Xbox with my old college roommate or my nephew.

19. I like going to live shows. Especially before artists get popular. I still boast, way too much I might add, over getting my friends into Mat Kearney before he got big.

20. I went to Europe on a family vacation when I was in jr high. During the trip, I got very sick with back pains and throwing up. Luckily, I got better by the time we stayed at our cousins' house for the last week.

21. I have been to Las Vegas only once for my brother's bachelor party. The common phrase "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" holds true for me. ;-)

22. I strongly believe that there is a purpose for everyone here on earth. Sometimes those purposes do not get realized. It should be something that each person is uniquely passionate about. It's hard to explain all I believe about this topic, but one other thing is that I believe it is never too late to start pursuing something that you are passionate about.

23. I think true beauty and true masculinity are found inside the person. Outward appearances should only be a reflection of what is inside.

24. I would like to have a house one day for homeless people to live in.

25. I would love to have the faith that Amber John and some of my other friends have. The type that she describes in #22 of her 25 random things. Strange that I feel this way since I have been a youth pastor, but I still feel like a toddler in my faith.]]> Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:11:57 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/1063536 weird day at work http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/1057593
Apparently there were a couple guys suspected of carrying guns in the mall. Here is one article about the incident.They tried to rob an armored car (I didn't find that out until today). All the stores were closed for a couple hours in the afternoon while mall security and a SWAT team searched for the suspects. I still had a bunch of work to do and everything, but weird day.

What was funny were the customers still around and one in particular that called the store. He was calling from the parking lot and wanted to know if we could bring him a GPS Navigation system to the mall entrance and pay cash at the door. Umm....no. Nice try, though. Yes, you may have driven far to get here, but the mall is locked down for a reason.

Needless to say, the mall was back to normal after a couple hours, probably with less people though. I wasn't around long to find out how empty it was that evening.]]> Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:44:07 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/1057593 much awaited randomness http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/1042597
1) Christmas was awesome! I got to spend part of it with said friend's house. Lunch on Christmas Day with my family was a lot of fun. Mom cooked an amazing meal as usual. I played some guitar, which has become a new tradition. Christian performed some comedy! He was great. He's been really influenced by Demetri Martin. He performed some of his jokes really well in addition to making up a couple of his own. My alternative Christmas gift worked out a lot better this year. Last year, I wanted my family to support a business owner or worker in a third world country by buying something from a World Vision gift catalog, or something to that effect. Well, turns out no one did it, and I was left leaving a lot of gifts at my parents' house. Well this year I just had everyone write about one of their favorite days of 2008 in a Christmas card. Obviously I was asking for a lot of repetition because Valentina was born in May, but I got a much better participation rate.

2) Working at Sony has lasted longer than I thought. Those first few months I was really feeling things out for awhile. Not sure if I would stay or not. Now, I just work hard and I love the people I work with. We all get along really well and clique with everyone, even if they are only working there temporarily. It has always been like that, from before I started working there.

3) I have made some great friends the past few months. Some are ones that I hope will build into strong friendships. Only time will tell at this point. You can see my recent flickr photos to see who I mean.

4) Although I haven't practiced in a few days, I am finally learning new songs again. This really hadn't happened for a couple years. But now I'm learning to play "Neon" by John Mayer, "This Love" by Maroon 5, "Whisper to Me" by Warren Barfield and a couple others. It's nice not playing the same stuff over and over again.

I guess that's enough randomness for now. Until later...


blessings]]> Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:17:46 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/1042597 Give Me Your Eyes music video http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/845395 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:03:44 -0700 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/845395 my friend Mary http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/768172 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:50:04 -0700 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/768172 that's right, i do have a blog... http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/721441 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:59:38 -0700 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/721441 Some of the funniest things you just can't plan http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/544936
She brings up ex-boyfriends. First, she brings up #6 to be specific, and the story of how she broke up with #5 a little later on. Shortly after that she thinks she recognizes the people sitting at the other end of the long table we are eating at. One guy there gets up to go, and the rest of the 4-person group follow. We are done a few minutes after them and leave.

Then in the car (while still in the parking lot)...
"F---! That was ex #5 sitting at the same table!!!"
(a lot of laughing ensues)
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Hmmmm.....I'm sure he didn't hear you retell the story of how you broke up with him."
"Just drive, Chris..."

"How did you not recognize him?"
"It's been 4 years. Am I supposed to remember who everyone I meet looks like?"
"How about the ones you've had a relationship with."

And then we go on to talk about various relationships one should remember physical appearances, and banter back and forth about the same crap. Man, when Jenn separates herself from people, she severs that connection! Note to self: If you want Jenn to remember who you are, be sure to talk to her and see her every now and then. Too funny...]]> Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:16:16 -0700 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/544936 leadership conference in St. Louis http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/489530 alt
I just got back this past Sunday night from a conference and it was pretty exciting to be there. There were several highlights from the weekend, but one of the biggest ones for me was the opportunity to hear Dr. Robert Rohm speak, which was a first time for me. Dr. Rohm is an expert on personality styles and speaks all over the world. His book Positive Personality Profiles is incredibly helpful in learning how to relate to others better at work, in your home, etc.

If you don't know about these personality profiles, you basically start with two questions. Most of the time (you can change your mind later on), are you:
1) more outgoing or more reserved?
2) more task-oriented or people-oriented?
You then have 4 different personality profiles D-I-S-C, based on how you answered those two questions. Keep in mind that people are a combination of all 4 of these, but most people are predominantly one or two of these.
D= outgoing and task-oriented
I= outgoing and people-oriented
S= reserved and people-oriented
C= reserved and task-oriented

Dr. Robert Rohm is also a world-class speaker. One of the best speakers that I have seen in terms of delivery, amount that I learned, and examples used to illustrate points. It's pretty neat and interesting that Rohm's 4 daughters are dominantly each of the 4 different personality profiles.

All in all, it was a great weekend, with over 20,000 attendants hunger to learn. More on the conference later.

blessings]]> Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:31:06 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/489530 an idea whose time has come http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/456747 alt
I recently purchased Glory Road on DVD. It's in the middle of a line of inspirational, based-on-a-real-story movies put out by Disney, that seems to be a trend now. That's fine because I like them quite a bit. This particular one is about how a coach named Don Haskins took a little known school called Texas Western (now UTEP) to win the NCAA championship and legitimized black basketball players in the NCAA, who up until that point had been discriminated against in this area.

Because of this discrimination, Coach Haskins plays only his black players in the championship game against Coach Rupp's University of Kentucky. This game was one of the greatest upsets in NCAA history and one of the most important games in the history of basketball. An interview with Pat Riley (one of the Kentucky players) showed how the true importance of that game wasn't seen until later on when history started talking about it. Of course blacks were/are competent enough physically and mentally to play in the NCAA.

All of this to introduce the topic. You cannot stop an idea whose time has come. "God chose an interesting venue to take care of this problem," said Pat Riley in the same interview. It wasn't until later that they realized the game was about more than just a college championshipalt. You can say the same thing about several things in America's history. One is the automobile roughly 100 years ago. And now there is the internet, and how much that has become and will be a part of our lives.

Are you a visionary? Can you see the trends? Can you see what is right (as in the case of blacks playing in the NCAA)? Or are you like one of those people 100 years ago who said, "An automobile?! Nobody is going to want that!" Let's all learn and grow together.



]]> Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:55:11 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/456747 to God be the glory http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/426809 altThis post is dedicated to Zach Blickens, a friend of mine who is a youth pastor and worship pastor at River of Life in Cedar Rapids, IA. You can find more info about him and his wife's ministry here.

Last Thursday, I heard a message on Daniel 2. Daniel is a great example of a young leader. Many people of faith can benefit by taking his example of leadership. In this chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar can't sleep due to repeated dreams that keep him awake. He demanded his magicians, scorcerors, and "dream experts" to not only interpret the dream, but first tell him what the dream was. If they can't, they will be put to death. Well this was impossible and they said no man can do this. Daniel and his three close friends- Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah- got wrapped up in this, too. They came together and fervently prayed to God for wisdom. God granted them the mystery of the king's dream and Daniel ended up telling the king his dream in great detail.

I encourage you to read about the dream and the whole chapter. There are many points to be made, but the one I want to bring up is how Daniel gave the glory to God. First, when he received the mystery of the king's dream, he praised God. Then, standing before the king, he gave God full credit for being able to relay the king's dream and its interpretation. In addition to that, he gave credit to his friends twice in the chapter for their accountability to him. After all, they prayed fervently to God with Daniel and ate the vegetables and water diet with him in the previous chapter.

Now why do I dedicate this blog to Zach? Because he always praises God for gifts that he and others have, good things that happen in his life and those around him, and probably even the bad things sometimes too. He doesn't take credit at all when he receives compliments because he knows that everything good comes from God. So when I try to be more like that, I think of Daniel's character in these few chapters, and Zach too.]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:14:24 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/426809 Ode to Mink part 2 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/425894 alt
One of my best friends, Stephanie, just got married after Thanksgiving. Lots of good feelings come to mind seeing her married. If you missed my first Ode to Mink blog, you can view that here.

Stephanie has been wanted to get married for a long time. If you've ever read Wild At Heart or Captivating, a lot of that stuff resonates true with her. She's very romantic and does want to be swept off her feet. She's also very adventurous.

Stephanie has wanted to get married for a long time- probably since childhood. The first time she met Peter was even during childhood. I got to talk with her on the phone a little bit after she got back from her honeymoon. She told me a couple things. One, that little things excited her in the house, such as folding his laundry. I told her that it wasn't surprising, given what I knew about her about wanting to get married for a long time. Yet her response was different than I thought. She said that being married is quite different than what she had been thinking about all this years. I would agree. Obviously someone can't picture exactly what their marriage is going to be like. However, I think that wanting to be married for so long would lead to being excited about simple chores. Things such as folding laundry for her husband, atleast in Stephanie's case.

And Peter is so good for Stephanie, as well as Stephanie for Peter. He's a strong Christian with great integrity. He's a hard worker, but also just a very likeable guy with a good sense of humor.

You have to roll with the times. My friendship with Steph has changed a lot since high school. Back in the day we would hang out whenever. I would work in the daytime at Albert H. Wohler's Insurance, then a few hours at night at Jewel-Osco. Then we would actually hang out for an hour or two when I got off of work at Jewel around 11 or 12. We both would be exhausted the next day, but sometimes do that again anyway. Obviously, friendships change when one of the friends gets married, especially good friendships. But ours has been changing since college.

It's mostly been less hanging out time. But no matter how brief or infrequent, I have also appreciated time spent together. Whether it was just a conversation over the phone in college, a brief stop at her parents' house, or catching a meal now with her, Peter, and other friends. Stephanie is one of those friends that I know I can pick up where we left off no matter how much time has elapsed in between talking. However, while we are all still in Chicago, I am excited to spend any time I can with Mr. and Mrs. Gorham.]]> Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:41:49 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/425894 ugggghhh http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387284
I finally saw The Protector- Tony Jaa's 2nd film release in the U.S. The story treatment is pretty good, building a story on a specific group of people in Thai history. The actual plot though is a bit weak. It had incredible action in it, but the movie was too much based on that. Still, Jaa accomplished one of his main goals in raising the bar with action/martial arts. He has a fight scene against a capoeira guy, followed by a wushu guy. In his fight scene with the x-gamers he does a back handspring onto a ledge, walks along it on his hands, then flips off it. And then there's the 4-minute shot fight scene in the casino. Amazing.]]> Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:49:43 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387284 pretty awesome weekend http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387283
For some reason, I could not sleep last night at all. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep before church this morning. It was my first Sunday as the full time youth pastor. I went to help the kindergardeners' Chinese class as usual, then got donuts and oj for my youth group bible study. It was also the first time I led worship songs for them. It was the first time and there lots of people wandering around so I didn't overdo it. But it still went well. CNSCCC is celebrating 30 years so we had everyone take photos for a new church directory.

After that was another algebra tutoring session with Steph. Then I went to my folks place for dinner. I found out that my uncle was involved in this crazy incident in a forest preserve. Now.....sleeeep!!!! I'm so tired.

blessings]]> Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:49:42 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387283 another update http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387282
I've been able to see more out of town friends recently. Kelsey was in town from Grand Rapids, so I got to hang out with her and Lois for awhile. We ate at Potbelly's (so good!) and Lesley randomly came in with one of her friends, so I got to talk to her for a bit too. It's always good to see Kelsey. I consider her one of my heroes. Her life up to this point has been very atypical and she's always up for the next adventure life is going to take her. She's done a lot already.

Tiffanie and Gabe were also in town for an extended weekend. I went up to Zion to hang out with them at this big family picnic. It was fun.

Even though it was Memorial Day, I started working for threadless again for their new sale. I've really been starting new jobs recently on weird days. Threadless on Memorial Day. CNSCCC on Easter. What can you do?

Last night, I got to hang out with Owen (another Cornell friend) and meet his girlfriend, Rissa. Owen's always been a cool dude and Rissa is very sweet. I actually had to ditch them for a couple hours to meet up with Matiss and see Erica perform at the Hot House- which was awesome. But afterwards, I met up with them again to go to a bar in Oak Park with Peter, and meet up with David and Ashley. It was like a mini-Cornell reunion!

Coming up...tutoring Steph again tomorrow. Her algebra final is Thursday! Please pray that she does well. Also first game in our summer volleyball league is this Wednesday. Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!

blessings]]> Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:49:41 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387282 time to sleeeeeep... http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387281 Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:49:41 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387281 faith like a child http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387280
Keep in mind, these are boys that I just met on those mornings. Yet they showed love and trust to me. Sometimes I wish my love and trust in God was more simple and pure like that. No gimmicks or inner complexities. Just a child who feels comforted in the hands of the Father. Think about that. And listen to "Like a Child" off of Jars of Clay's first album.]]> Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:49:40 -0800 http://virb.com/cwilke/posts/text/387280