Mike Gratz

A few friends of mine and I have started a campaign, the website is youarenotanisland.com. here's the video i filmed and edited. enjoy!

This is my debut youtube part from Bangerang, our latest video that came out in March.  One of my best friends, Daniel Wheatley put it all together and I was privileged to share a part with Ben.  Even better, we got to skate to a song that Brady recorded.  I can still remember eating turkey sandwiches with Ben while listening to Brady tell us stories about The Captain when I was 16 in high school.  Needless to say, this part is a reunion in itself.

Last night I started reading my old livejournals, and then I kept reading...and reading...and reading.  I was laughing out loud at the adventures of Mike Wes and Miles, how much I got made fun of in high school, and how much I loved to hate my job at Nielsens with Corey and Jordan.  A lot of the posts were really serious at the time, but now that I look back on them they're hysterical.  It's not until you look back at your logged past that you really realize how far you've come.  I felt a bit of nostalgia, but I don't think it's healthy to long for the past.  The past is what it was, and I thank all of you for making it so fond in my memory... and thanks to everyone for making me still want to wake up every morning..  life is still sweet.

oh, and go to MikeGratz.com

I'm trying to put together a speech about holocaust denial and I stumbled on this:

"Imagine that "prophets" from every country of the world had predicted in ancient times that their people would be forced out of their homeland and forcibly scattered to all nations of the world. How many of those countries would have prophets who would have been proven correct? None, except for Israel. Only one group of people, in the history of this world, has been forcibly scattered to every inhabited continent of this world - the Jews."

Examples: Deuteronomy 4:25-30, Deuteronomy 28:64, Deuteronomy 28:65-67, Genesis 28:10-15, Hosea 9:17.

I love skateboarding!

This summer was awesome.  I did a lot of traveling, and did a lot of stuff while traveling.  We went to the cayman islands and made headlines:

http://www.caymannetnews.com/news-1329--7-7--.html
hahaha
i'll try and post something longer soon

We had a dodge ball tournament at Emmaus the past few weeks.  My team made it to the championship.  Last night we went to the gym to practice for the game and the other team arrived with their faces painted.  They looked insane and intimidating.  After a few minutes of practice it was game time.  The referee lined the balls up in the middle of the court, and we waited for his signal.  I happened to be lined up with a kid named Brett who I could tell was way too eager to win this championship.  The whistle blew and both teams raced toward the balls in the middle of the court.  Brett and I were each an equal distance away from the ball when he dove onto his stomach, slid about 10 feet, snagged the dodge ball, and ran face first into my knees.  Turns out that he crossed the line which takes him out of the game, he had a lump on his forehead, and I had face paint smeared all over my legs.  After 3 long games, our team lost.

I visited Chicago and Des Moines over spring break.  Skated an amazing outdoor park in Chicago...  I got to see my dad and hang out with Linda a lot too.  I don't know...  things are really good.


                                    I MISS FRED

"days long forgotten have passed before our sore and tired eyes"

everyone's telling you to rest in peace, I don't even know what to say.  I love you Robby.

it's looking like the arcade fire's new album is going to be the album of the decade. March 6th!

It’s been almost a year since my dad was diagnosed with cancer. It was and still is heart wrenching. He’s been through five months chemotherapy with no result and since then has had no medical help. The doctors can’t figure out what type of cancer he has, which means they don’t know how to cure it. You must first identify the problem in order to figure out the solution. After a year of talking to doctors who don’t care about his well-being, and after going through physical torment for 5 months with chemotherapy, he still has that lump under his armpit. The emotions that have been going through my family are indescribable, and we aren’t too good at describing emotions, so we hold them in for the most part.

Naturally, this made me more aware of cancer, and what might cause it. I researched it on the internet, and there are many possibilities. In fact, people blame everything on cancer, even some types of chemotherapy cause cancer! Ironic!

I wondered why cancer is getting more and more popular with each passing generation, and I came to the conclusion that it’s what we’re doing to our own bodies. The food that we eat is absolutely disgusting. Even if it’s supposed to be healthy, it’s very likely that we are still swallowing chemicals that should not be in our bodies. Crop dusters aren’t spraying water on orange groves; they’re spraying insecticides that kill bugs of all kinds. Not only that, but they’re fertilizing fruits and vegetables, making them grow abnormally large and unusually fast. How can this be good for us?

The animals that we eat are being raised in a similar way; they’re being pumped up on growth hormones causing them to increase in size at a faster rate. These hormones affect the growth of the animal; it’s only obvious that they will affect the meat as well. Even the shampoo and lotion that we let our bodies absorb is full of unnatural and unhealthy chemicals. One of which is called paraben; it’s an ingredient in all kinds of cosmetic goods, and it’s also an ingredient found in breast cancer.

What is a cancerous tumor? It’s a mass that grows unnaturally fast in any given area of your body, which in time takes over your body, messing up your blood vessels and internal organs, causing you to die a slow and agonizing death. The resemblance? It’s the unnatural chemicals that we swallow on a daily basis that is killing us. I blame it on our corrupted economy and it’s idiotic, (IMPATIENTLY GREEDY!) “quantity over quality” outlook.

That outlook represents modern man in more ways than one.

Eating this food seems normal – it is normal in America, I do it everyday. Even if we know how bad it really is for us, we will still eat it, because it’s readily accessible and much cheaper than anything organic. In a few years, this junk food we eat is going to cause some serious problems in our health.

All my life I’ve known that the Bible has taught a set of morals of which we should live by, and I realize this more with each passing day. We desire sin just like we desire that cheeseburger – it’s so easily tangible and ready for you to eat it, and it only costs $1. However, it’s not going to make your body happy, it will just bring you a step closer to unhealthiness and death. Your response to this might be “well, we’re going to die anyway”, my answer to that is “EXACTLY!” Sin only brings us one step closer to unhappiness and death. The only thing that was good about that cheeseburger was its taste… and that it temporarily filled your stomach.

I’ve decided that I want to live a life of happiness and love, and it’s been confirmed in my own mind that I can only achieve true inward and outward happiness through Jesus Christ who has given me a purpose to live that is beyond this short life in this small world.

Sin has the outward appearance of something beautiful and “normal” to us in our society, when it’s really our society blinding us from all that is good. Just like a “normal” juicy steak that was unnaturally, greedily grown with growth hormones, sin is “normal” in this society. But living with it in your life for an extended period of time will kill you in the worst way.

We’ve been spoon-fed this childish “love Jesus hate the devil” outlook for so long by so many different people. Maybe it’s time that we realize that legitimacy of that simple statement.

Here are some pictures from our 7 day journey to Dubuque, Iowa (Dec 30th - Jan 5th).


The first night we stayed on an island somewhere in central-eastern Florida with Casey, Lauren and Jordan. This is our camp site.


Casey picked us up and took us to the island on his boat.


Dinner!




Camp fires should replace televisions!


Lauren


Goodbye, Jordan/Lauren/Casey!

We left the island on Sunday afternoon and traveled inland to Lorida, Florida (notice the similar spelling) to spend New-Years eve with the crew.


Hello Carter, Jess, Raychel, Deanna, Jake, Brady and Newcombe!




Dinner!


country in florida


the biggest spider i've ever seen






camp fires should replace television







Finding places in central Florida is horrible


Atlanta, GA. Brady in the morning.


My car was making weird noises on the way up, so we stopped at the most amazing exit in North, GA. Turns out my water pump was bad, so I got it replaced. While we were waiting for the mechanic to replace the pump, we hiked to Sonic.



Brady's house -- Asville, NC. TWO PUGS.


two of them snore when they sleep, ha


Downtown Ashville


art gallery


Brady was great to have on the trip. But we left him in NC, because that's where he lives, although I think he was contemplating finishing the journey with us. Without him in the car, we lacked much needed direction.


we ended up in crazy places where rocks think they're cars...


I don't have many pictures of the rest of our trip, but I will soon. We also went to Ohio to see Lisa (linda's sister), and to Chicago. Now we're here and safe and a week into the semester.

I'll probably be posting more stuff over the next few weeks.

I miss everyone!

I know there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in his toil -- this is the gift of God.  -- Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

5 years ago we skated this spot.

5 years later we're still skating this spot.

And 5 years from now we'll still be skating this spot. 

i'm cool with it

On July 3rd Wonjun had the sudden urge to go surfing even though he had never been before, so me, Won, corey, carter and my dad went down to the beach. Stacey met up with us after a couple hours. It was a good day, so stacey and I wanted to go again on the 4th. We found a parking spot right away, which is rare. Holidays and Lauderdale by the Sea parking don't get along. So we parked, walked down to the beach with our boards and it was flat. We sat there for 20 minutes or so then headed back to the car, came home, called a bunch of people, put the Endless Summer on, and had a cook out. It was perfect.

Later on that night we went to pier 66 with Newcombe where there was some type of gangway hotel party going on. We ended up sitting out on the balcony, of course, and that's where we talked for the rest of the night. It was some of the best most meaningful conversation I've had in a long time. It wasnt about who just landed what, or who just hooked up with who, or even the classic "this is whats wrong with the world" conversation. It was more humble and honest and fun. It had been a long time.

I left for camp Berea on July 6th to work as a counselor. I had never worked with children before so I was nervous. I felt that something was coming, I knew i needed something in my life. I think i even knew what I needed in my life, but i dont think it was something that I could just make happen or that I could just give to myself. I just needed to wait for it.

I flew into Boston and Linda picked me up. She was wearing a new blue dress and looked beautiful.  We drove to downtown and got to hang out in what was soon to be my favorite city in America. We paid $25 to park our car, walked around, ate lunch, that sort of thing. Since it was almost $.50 a minute to park the car, we only stayed for 2 hours, then we drove back to her grandpas house which is north of Boston. I love that house, its perfect. Its about 100 years old, two stories, no central a/c, everything is wood; it's the way a house should look like. We slept there a couple nights, then drove to camp which started on July 8th.



On the way there we passed Darthmouth. Right after we passed Dartmouth, I pulled over to spill some juice in the bush. When i was peeing I saw spiders, like...big spiders. I laughed because I thought of Miles when i saw the sign for Dartmouth, and I also thought of him when I saw the spiders, and then they came together in my mind. Miles hates spiders. Miles is going to Dartmouth. NH is infested with insects. The bugs up there dont even have names. If it flys its a fly, if it has more than 4 legs its a spider, if it flys and has more than 4 legs its a flying spider.

We arrive at camp Berea and go to the front office where they handed me yet another pack of papers that tells me how I should treat the 9 balls of energy that they were about to unleash on me. In the packet there was a schedule, the first thing on the list was to go down and wait for the campers and their parents to get thereand greet them.  Beryl 2 was the name of my cabin, it overlooks Newfound Lake so when I got there I stared out the window and just waited and prayed for the next week of my life.

My kids came in 2 groups of friends. The first group had Big Tim, Little Tim, Sean and David. Big Tim was about 4'2'' and Little Tim was more like 5'5'', they liked to call the small one Big Tim, and the Big one Little Tim... probably to make things more confusing for their counselor. Little Tim was the quiet one that only said really funny stuff when he felt obligated to. He was probably the most loving in the cabin, he shared his candy with everyone...that sort of thing. Big Tim was the really small guy with freckles that was always trying to prove himself to the bigger kids, and he often did. Sean was the kid with the raspy voice that wanted to buddy up to the counselor (me). It worked, I liked him. And David was the video game nerd that won the dance competitions every time we had them. That's the only way I can describe David; shy....but he could dance.

After that group of 4 came in and left to go get ice cream, the second group came in, they were Patrick, Matt, John, Noah, and Nick. Patrick was the funny kid with the slight lisp that kept the cabin laughing. Matt was the 12 year-old kid that has read over 300 novels and probably knows more lagit fine line theology than the average 50 year-old christian. I assume that John came from a wealthy home, when he got there he had some lagit etiquette, after the second night at camp he stopped being so polite. He had lost his voice by wednesday morning from screaming Kelly Clarkson songs in his bunk bed. He won every karaoke competition that we had in our cabin. Nick was the big grimy kid, everyone in the cabin saw Nick naked several times, he was a cool kid.  Noah slept above me, he had asthma and was the most active. He won everything that had to do with sports, but he wasnt really into any sports. Sort of a natural.


David, Patrick, Nick, Noah, me, Matt, John, Sean, and Little Tim.  Big Tim wasnt in this picture because he broke his arm and had to go to the hospital.

The week that I was there I developed amazing relationships with these kids. It was unlike any relationship I had ever developed, I wasn't a parent but I had some type of authority over them. I took care of them.  They were kids, and I was considered the adult. They came to me for advice on girls, they asked me the questions that they felt weird asking their parents. I was the link that brought Gods Word to their ears. God was using me, and it was effective.

As I said before, I knew something in my life was going to change, I felt something going on. At home (in fort lauderdale prior to July 3rd) I felt empty, but I had everything. I was confused, I knew what I didn't want but I didnt know what I wanted (needed). I was just another ignorant Christian trying to run from (and even ignore) his sins. I know the difference between right and wrong, just like everyone does.   So my goal was to stay away from all that is wrong or sinful -- just focus on not doing... bad things. And that's what I did, I stayed away from sin. It wasn't uplifting -- it was depressing. And I think that's what happens with a lot of Christians, we stop living worldly lives because we want to be "better people", and end up getting lonely because it seems like we're the only ones who want to live a pure life. Then while we're lonely and not doing neither bad or good we start to miss that short-term satisfaction that we got from our sinful desires back when we used to give into their temptation.

So then we go back to our old sinful roots, we start doing stupid stuff that we had immediately regretted, and say it's our last time doing whatever it is that we have just done, or are about to do. Then three days later we forget about how terrible we felt after we committed this sinful act, and instead of remembering how we said "I'm never doing that again", we're blinded by this temptation that somehow seems so new, even though we just experienced it such a short time ago. We begin to think we're stuck, and we slowly start to accept it as a way of life, even though we know the Bible teaches that it leads to death and destruction.

Then sometimes it seems like everyone is saying "not us, not me!   That's the type of stuff that everyone else talks about, but will never happen to me. I'll never reach that point. I have balance in my life! I'm going to live the ultimate life. Reap the benefits of both my sinful desires, as well as my all loving, all merciful God who is going to work in my life." We think that one thing won't lead to another, that we won't need more of this sin to keep the same level of satisfaction.  If you think that then you're lying to yourself, because sin holds no satisfaction.  This progression happens so slowly that we don't even see it.  

After dating a girl for a year we don't get that same level of satisfaction from a single kiss as we did when we started dating. We want to go further. We don't get as high as we did when we first started smoking. We want to go further. We move on to other drugs, or just start smoking a little more each time until we end up having to take out a good portion of our weekly paycheck just to remain cool and calm and collected. Even though we were cool, calm and collected before we even started smoking. Maybe it's not even smoking that we're into anymore, maybe its injecting or snorting or eating or absorbing. The bar has been raised. Now our goal is to stop snorting and just go back to smoking. To stop having sex and go back to just doing sexual things.   Or maybe we're so stuck in our rut that we don't have any goals anymore.  All we want is a naked slut that we just met, or enough drug money to get us by. 

In New Hampshire at Camp Berea I saw all that is good. My life changed, just like they had hoped. Just like I had hoped. That's what the camp is for, they are there to help you take the next step. They trap you in a beautiful 15 acres of God's creation. It's full of love, humbleness and Truth. It's based around God's word, and God's word is love. The camp isn't full of self-righteous Christians that like to call people out, there is no strife, it's just normal people with the ultimate goal of living their lives like Jesus lived his; Full of love, perfect.  I felt myself take the next step, and that next step for me was telling these kids everything I knew about the Bible.  I opened up, and thats what i needed to do.  The next step for me was opening up. I also got to see kids take their next step.  For some it was salvation, for some it was learning about how to get the most out of life, for some it was something completely different.

And one of the things that I realized when I was there, is that when brotherly love is established, rules and laws are nonexistent. There is no need for them. I was the week-long guardian of nine 7th graders, and by the end of the week the only rule I had to enforce was that they went to bed on time. It was because brotherly love was established. With love, everything is there. Respect is established, jealousy is done away with, giving is easy. 

We were all seeking God for that one week. Some of them were seeking God for the first time, others had been followers for years. We all gave up a week of our lives to go to camp Berea where the the main goal is growing closer to our creator. God brought us all together in the middle of the wilderness to show us how life can be and should be. God showed me not only how to run from sin, but he gave me something to run towards. I'm running towards everything thats perfect. 

If the vacation ended there, I would be fine with it.  But I had one more night back at Lindas grandpas house.  It was a night I'll never forget.  Linda and I were really content with everything.  But we were also tired so we slept until 6am and then drove to the airport with her mom and grandpa.  Linda and her mom's flights left around 8am, and mine left at 4pm.  I was in Boston with a skateboard in hand, ipod in pocket, and had 8 hours to kill. 

I hopped on a shuttle which took me to a train which took me to downtown Boston.  I had listened to Interpol's "antics" as I was on the train.  If you know the first 11 words on the album then you'll know why I chose to listen to it : ).  So I got off the train at the Government center and just started skating.  I skated a couple miles, walked a couple miles, then skated a couple more.  I skated down hills, through parks, on boardwalks, everywhere.  There was a time that I looked behind me and I saw that the city was about 2 miles away.  Somehow one sidewalk lead to another and I found myself in the middle of a run down suburb, all alone, nobody around, i didnt know north from south or east from west.  It was a good feeling.  I skated back to the city.  I think it might have been one of the best days of my life.

i think it was the best week-and-a-half of my life

the end








Just so you dont get the wrong impression, Im not addicted to drugs or sleeping with my girlfriend. 

while wearing a 22lb weight vest:
put a 40lb hose on your left shoulder, walk up 5 stories, drop the hose on the red X, walk through the door and out the window
grab the rope that's hanging over the railing, pull the rope (and the 40lb hose that's on the end of it) up 5 stories. Take the hose, lift it over the railing, put it on the ground.
walk back through the window and out the door, pick up the previous 40lb hose that's on the red X, walk it back down stairs, set it on the ground
walk over to the sledge hammer, pick it up, hammer the slate 5 feet without lifting the hammer higher than your head
walk over to the charged fire hose, drag it 75 feet, set it on the ground
walk over to the 175lb dummy, drag it 100ft to the finish.

4 minutes and 30 seconds