Procrastination

I AM going to write about last week and my time spent during the Thanksgiving holiday, D.V. when I get the chance. I haven't forgotten about that.

Did anyone try that "freaky card" website? I'm curious to see what others thought of it. I thought it was very well done. *psst, the link is in the previous post*

Well, the night is old (for me) so just a few things before bed.
If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
- PG Wodehouse

Things were fairly busy and they will be for the next two or three days. I have a lot of stuff to do and certain timeslots allotted to each task. I should be fine. I hope.
Classes went uneventfully and afterward I dropped by the TA chemistry room to ask for assistance (and double-checking) on the assignment due next week and it went extremely smoothly so I should be all squared away for that next Monday. There was another young man in there who is an Animal Science major, seemed like a really nice guy and looked just like Mr. Y's favourite professor on campus, I thought perhaps he might be his son! But he wasn't. He was giving help to another guy who was struggling in chemistry. For an animal science major (and one who claimed to hate chemistry) he sure knew a lot! He knew everything that I knew in chemistry and then quite a bit more, I was very impressed. Then he talked about some mechanics and engineering subjects and I was very drawn towards him. Not only does he seem to be very informed and bright, but isn't flashy about it at all. He was a very down to earth type of guy. Perhaps I'll see him again.

Today was the last lab in chemistry, we were supposed to break up into groups of five or six but when we do that, two guys take a section each and then copy results. I mean, how much do you learn that way? So I insisted on doing them all myself, which seemed to agree with my lab partner (I don't know, perhaps that unknown gas did something to him.....). We were dealing with soaps and detergents, surfactants and such and how to get something to clean. One of the prelab questions was "What does hydrophilic mean?" Which was easy for me to guess at, I said essentially it means "water lover" or "a friend of water" which was correct. That is one reason why I want to take latin, so I can have a better grasp on my own language. I find that knowing roots and prefixes helps in so many situations, thankfully I'm usually able to see the relationship even without studying those languages. For instance, Hydra was a water serpent (greek I think) and knowing that "hydrophobia" means afraid of water (as all the phobias are being afraid of something) and that "philos" means love (I think). Though both of those must be Greek. Anyway, I think affiliate might stem from philos too.....
All that to say that seeing a relationship between parts of a word to other familiar words really helps a lot.

Just today I turned on the TV for a few minutes while eating lunch and I saw part of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" which I'm personally not a big fan of..... anyway, one of the questions was

Which of the following is a decennial event?
A. leap year
B. lunar eclipse
C. summer olympics
D. national census

Well, decade, decimal etc. refer to 10 so it must be a ten year thing. Summer olympics and leap year are both four, and the lunar eclipse is more often than ten years so the answer must be D, final answer. Another was the word "Supercilious" refers to the Latin word for: lip, nose, forehead, eyebrow. So knowing roots can help a lot. But most of the people reading this probably know more than I do on that subject. Suffice it to say that I now realize the importance unlike I did in years past!

Another question that was asked made me laugh, because it asked what colour Ronald McDonald, the advertizing icon for McDonalds, wore the most of. Possible answers were red, purple, green, and yellow. The lady didn't know! She had to ask the audience. 99% said yellow and 1 guy said purple (I'm sure that was a sarcastic joke). Though I don't see McDonald's commercials, I thought that just about everyone in the world knows the yellow emblem that is McDonalds, even if they didn't know Ronald. It was kind of funny.

So anyway, that's about it for tonight. Short and simple. Now it's time for bed. Oh, I found this and it gave me a laugh. I remember seeing it in Calvin and Hobbes.
Leave it to a girl to take the fun out of sex discrimination.
- Bill Watterson

El mucho rando

I don't have much to say on any one subject today (do I ever?) thus this promises to be random. You know it's dangerous when the opening line says that what is to follow might be random nonsense eh?!

First let's start with a quick quote:
I have only one superstition. I touch all the bases when I hit a home run.
- Babe Ruth

I studied a bit this morning. It was cold in the camper I'll admit! After a while, when your fingers have problems holding the pencil you wonder if it might just be time to break down and use the heater. Trouble is I don't see why I should waste it on just me. So I moved to the laundry room in the park for a little while. It's much warmer in there (where they keep it heated all the time). No one was using that room anyway. I was studying Economics though I really could have studied about anything. I've got a test in Java Thursday, one in Math Friday and Economics the same day. Aside from that I've got my Java program to write (which honestly shouldn't take to long) by Friday and a Chemistry assignment to turn in next Monday, my pre-lab exercises for tomorrow's Chemistry lab and finish fine-tuning my projectile with all the paperwork that accompanies it. Wow! Then there is also various things to study for as we come down to the final exams. I expected the rain to come down heavily this week and we all know that when it rains it pours. I should be fine though, I'm not feeling extremely pressured. You might forgive me though if I cut this post "short."

My only class on Tuesday is at 12:30 p.m. so around 11:45 I headed out and made it to campus. It always amazes me that at about 11:50-12:00 the road is packed with cars heading away from the campus. I assume it's the staff heading out to lunch but I would think that they would get off at 12:00 and then be on the road between 12:05 and 12:10 but perhaps I'm mistaken. I usually can get a decent parking space at that time so that is why I go a little early. It was a beautifully crisp day even at noon and I enjoyed walking to class. Nearly everyone else was bundled up and looking as though they would bite the head off of anyone who as much as hinted that the day was a good one.

After class I was walking back and when I saw the sign at the crosswalk flash "walk" (some other people were coming the opposite direction) I didn't mind breaking into a trot for about 100 feet. I made it across before the people who had been waiting got to their respective side. A person who was just a short ways behind me just kept shuffling along. I don't know why that is but I have only seen one other person "hustle" at the crosswalk. I see so many that have about 15 feet to go when it says "walk" and they'll continue to drag their feet and make it to the button and press it before the crosswalk has stopped flashing red. In other words, they could have easily have made it if they had even broken into a very tiny jog. Why wouldn't one I'd like to know? I've had several times where I saw the sign give the go ahead and I'd be still a couple of hundred feet behind so I'd just break out into a flat run and make it to the other side before the people walking made it across. I'd rather not spend a minute or two waiting if I can help it. Not that I'm always in a rush but I don't mind giving it my "all" when I can.

Anyway, that was just something I was thinking about. Speaking of thinking... here's an amazing card trick that I came across, why don't you try it? Stumped as to how it "reads your mind?"
http://www.freakycards.com/

So after classes were over I came home and I figured I'd have tons of time to study, get some stuff done that I wanted to. I checked on my e-mail briefly and for "fun" just decided to check my work queue. I need to make a mental note that the Tip of the Week goes out on Tuesday. This week wasn't so bad, there was only about 70-80 messages in there and quite a few were out of office responses and such. Much less people were out of office this week, but apparently there were quite a few still on Thanksgiving vacation. Interesting...

I didn't get any hilarious questions or replies like previous weeks, I received about seven or eight responses that the person apparently was trying to reply to it having been forwarded to them by a parent or something but they sent it to me. So I was called "mom," "dad," "papy" and such today. Quite a few people were irate and wanted to be taken off the list. *sigh I guess we are coming into the holiday season where people's tempers get shorter faster than the days and where "jolly" is something you hear about only in those dumb songs the annoying children sing.

One person (replying to his mother no doubt) said
"I managed to unsubscribe both your and my email addresses from this awful Student Insurance Tip of the Week."

I felt almost like I was eavesdropping but hey! He sent it to me! I thought the tip of the week was a very friendly, interesting, and helpful thing, I've enjoyed reading it when I receive it myself. It's not like it's impossible to unsubscribe from either. Every e-mail has a link at the bottom that says "click here if you wish to UNSUBSCRIBE" or something to that effect. I had one person tell me to go.... somewhere.

One thing that was kind of funny is another person was sending a message back to her mom and she said "mom, you know better than to send this junk to me, am I going to have to block you for spam? Oh, and if you want to get me something for Christmas, get me some thermal underwear." I felt like saying "that's no way to talk to your mother!" Especially if you're asking for a Christmas present too. Sheesh.

Speaking of computers..... here's a quote for no apparent reason.
To err is human--and to blame it on a computer is even more so.
- Robert Orben

And another one!
Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.
- Doug Larson

Indeed! I'm sure many a student has used that excuse, though the thought had not previously entered my head. I do not have much to say and I should get back to Economics now. It's fairly simple but much better to be prepared than not.

My freeware of the week is one that I have a hard time doing without. It's called "E-Sword" and can be found at
www.e-sword.net
I think I shall bring my computer Sunday so I can show off some of its features but for those of you who may not see it and are interested, you should definitely check it out. It's quite amazing and what I really like is you can customize it almost completely. I have nearly every conservative work that you can get and I consult it constantly on difficult passages. Today for instance I read Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotions on it as well as his Treasury of David for a Psalm I am memorizing. I have the Westminster Confession of Faith with the larger and shorter catechisms and also Josephus' historical works such as the Wars of the Jews, Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, commentaries from Henry, Barnes, dictionaries, an encyclopedia etc. There is just SO much that you can do if you customize it. I also have Foxe's book of Martyrs and all of John Bunyan's works and volume 1 of both J.C. Ryle's and A.W. Pink's writings. There is more material here than I think I will be able to read but it's all there and it's all SEARCHABLE, which is extremely useful to me. For example, I wanted to know what Calvin said on baptism so I did a search and found the section. Even if this program was only for finding a specific Bible verse it would be extremely handy. I often remember all of the verse or at least the keywords but can't find the reference. It's a huge time-saver just because of that and well... you should try it if you have nothing like this or even if you do.

News of the day

Apparently introverts tend to have more brain activity in general. I don't know if I would call myself someone who shuns from social contact, but I don't mind being alone and when I am among others I tend to just listen and float around from group to group taking in as much as I can. The world needs more listeners perhaps, though I suppose I make up for it with long posts such as the last one. Interestingly enough, I have had many people confide different things to me, I don't know if I'm just the sort of person that one can talk to or if someone just needs another to listen every once in a while. I know I have had times in my life where I needed someone to talk to and I would go to my Lord most definitely, but sometimes I felt the need for a christian brother or sister to confide in. Most of the time I don't want to trouble others with things like that and at those times in my life I felt like a turtle backing into its shell. But the Lord always listens and I can be very thankful for that!

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.
- Fred Allen

I don't know if many of you are very familiar with Fred Allen. He and Jack Benny had a rivalry going on for many years. Fred's show mainly did a lot of political jokes about the news of the day and for that reason I don't find it as interesting, since I have no idea who was elected to congress in what states that year.

The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin.
- Heinrich Heine

Now I found that rather amusing, though personally I would love to learn Latin and tried a little on my own a while back. There was a young lady a long time ago who was doing a book to learn Latin and I just could not understand why someone would want to learn a language that you would never have a use for in speaking. Then in later years I was able to appreciate the value it can offer and also appreciate that it has better rules of government than English does. Or does English have rules to govern it? I think it's almost entirely made up of exceptions rather.....
Perhaps I'll take a course in Latin here at the college if I can't fill up a semester with courses pertaining to my major (which is my main focus).

I'll try to write about last week (I missed something like 3 days there?) tomorrow, for now I'm going to curl up in my icy bed. I've had people tell me that I might get sick if I do this but as long as my body is warm then I'm fine (which I have been). While everyone is getting sick around me I still have been blessed with good health which I jokingly say must be because the germs can't survive in the cold. It just freezes them to death!

You know it's cold when......

Your CPU fan doesn't turn on. That may be a little inside joke (haha) for some. If you've ever heard my computer turned on then you'd probably understand. Anyway, I could explain it sometime.....

It seems that when the power was out the other day, it may have been due to some kind of a rodent that has an attraction to some of the power lines in the building. Needless to say, his infatuation was "short" lived. Man, am I full of bad ones tonight or what?

Today was cold, windy, and rather dreary looking but I still found much enjoyment. In between classes I didn't put my jacket on because I figured why put it on for less than two minutes and then pull it right back off? I received lots of crazy stares. And I was right about getting a lot of assignment. It seems everyone is cracking down for the last week before "dead" week. I had never heard of a dead week before so for those of you who might not understand what it is, essentially the professors are not allowed to give exams or assignments during that week, the week before finals. In other words it's mainly for preparation.

This morning I woke up, gathered my things, took a shower etc. and headed out the door to classes, which went pretty much like normal, aside from the strong winds. Then I headed back and stopped by Wally World on the way home to pick up my much needed groceries. I had absolutely nothing except a small bit of salami, half an onion and some mustard (and I don't eat mustard). Well, a few slices of bread but what good is that without mayonnaise? Actually I did have some jelly. Last week (I didn't want to go to the store and have everything just sitting there) I tried some jelly with salami on my bread. Trust me, it wasn't that good, it was too sweet. So....... when I got to the checkout the lady asked for my ID to see how old I was. I was rather surprised and at first and thought perhaps it was for the egg-nog, though I'd seen the words "non-alcoholic" on it. But it wasn't about that, it was aout some Krazy Glue I had picked up in order to attach my parachute to my projectile I'd made over the weekend. I was rather embarrassed because it took forever to find my license (I seldom have a use for it) but after she checked it I asked curiously if it was because kids would stick it on sofas or something. I don't know. She said no, that they were using it as an inhalent! I was very surprised! I would NEVER have dreamed of something like that! She also said that while she was working at another store, some kids came in and bought some canned air (the kind you spray to clean your computer) and the next day they came in for more, pooling their money. It turns out they were using that to get "high," as it apparently increases blood flow to the brain or something. It really did shock me, I had no idea things like that were so prevalent. It makes me extremely thankful that I was not raised in a system where I am exposed to things like that constantly.
I mean, it seems very, very ridiculous to inhale stuff like that, it would probably double as a good nose-hair remover. It makes me sad to think that even kids get stuck on this sort of thing and again, thankful that I wasn't exposed. A lot of people say how homeschool children are underprivileged or something. Well, if having that kind of stuff around you is being "privileged" then I don't want it.

It reminds me of when I saw on the exam rules for my Chemistry class that baseball caps were not allowed. I asked the professor why that was, if people use it to shade their eyes so they can glance to the side and look at other people's tests and he said no, it was because some people write answers on the bill of the caps! Now that is something I'd never think of! Perhaps I'm too naive but I certainly don't mind at times. In my Java class the teacher said that he doesn't show examples from his programs on the projector screen anymore because people would be sitting there waiting and snap a picture quickly with their cell phone cameras so they could copy the code for their own programs. Now that type of thing astonishes me. It's something I'd never dream of. I suppose I prefer to spend more time studying than figuring out ways to cheat.

So anyway.... I fixed up my projectile but I'm still having some problems getting the parachute to deploy, I went to class early and stopped by my professor's office and talked with him for a few minutes and he offered some suggestions. He was really impressed with my lathe work and thought it was really neat, which was encouraging! I enjoy working on the lathe but I just have a small pen lathe. I once put together a family of wooden dolls for some young ladies, making each individual arm, leg and body. It was rather fun but time-consuming because I had to turn five pieces for each doll (they were about 8 inches tall). I did a few bowls and small things like that a while back when we had a larger lathe. I'm really enjoying using the skew a lot more than I did previously. I need to get a good one though. Sorry, that was another rabbit trail.....

My professor said that we wouldn't be launching our projectiles today because it was so windy, but we ended up doing it anyway because everyone wanted to shoot the gun. It was freezing standing out in the wind for about 25 minutes but fun nevertheless. My projectile was certainly one of the better ones but I can still add some improvements and my parachute didn't open, which would have helped a lot. No one got very much higher than a 6 second flight time, most had under three. I was glad for the guy who had the highest time because he seems like he does want to be there and study. He is in my Calculus class as well and is one of the better students.

Next week will be the official contest, we'll be competing against two other classes apparently so I want to get mine working very well for my professor's sake. He is a very good teacher and I enjoy him a lot. He challenges his students.

After class I went to meet with Pastor and J. Nathan again, I really do enjoy those little studies, it's always good to go back and cover the basics of what we believe and why. Today the discussion was on Christ, the trinity and basically why we believe what we do. We discussed the questions at the back of the chapter. Here are a few examples:
What do we mean when we say that God is "Triune"
Why is it important to believe Jesus was born of a virgin?
J. said that he had a professor that didn't understand why it was a virgin birth, couldn't it have just as well been not so? Well, the first thing that came to mind was that the virgin birth was a sign (after all, it is pretty miraculous) but also it is a symbol of purity, and the sin nature passed down through the male seed etc. Of course we don't believe that Mary was pure of herself, but the idea of purity is expressed with a virgin. There is a lot to think about on that one. Ultimately God knew what He was doing of course!

How would you answer someone who said that Jesus' teachings are good, but he is not fully God? Well I have always said to someone who says they only think that some parts of the Bible are true that the Bible stands as a whole. It claims to be inerrant, therefore if one part of it is not, then that inerrancy claim is false and the whole thing is untrustworthy. In the same way, Jesus claimed to be God (His "I Am" statements come to mind) and therefore could not lie. If He was lying about being God then how are we to trust His other statements fully? Would I trust in Someone like that to save me and place my hope in someone who actually lied about who He was? I hope not. Thankfully the biblical account makes it very clear that He WAS God, I remember what Jesus told John's disciples: And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." Luke 7:22-23

Though He wasn't speaking directly about His divinity but more about His being the Messiah (which points to divinity), who can do such things? Who has power of the waves and the wind? Who speaks with such authority to the demons and raises the dead with command? I am reminded of when Elisha stretched himself 7 times across the dead boy, he sneezed and then opened his eyes and his mother carried him out. In contrast, Jesus simply says to Jairus' daugher "Child, arise" and she "got up at once." Never did any of the prophets have such power, Elisha tells Naaman to wash in the river seven times, Jesus says simply "be clean" and the leper is cleanses. Such amazing power, dignity, love, perfection! Never was there a man like this! Indeed He is the ultimate example for us and we should all strive to imitate Him in everything we do.

I really appreciate in this booklet how they cover sin and how we are powerless of ourselves. Surprising as that may seem, in many churches the "sin" word is never mentioned. I heard a sermon on the fourth of July where the pastor, over and over again was talking about freedom, freedom in Christ and how if you just asked Jesus into your heart you would be really free and life would be better, in fact, your hamburger would taste better (they were having a lunch right after). I was inwardly screaming "FREE FROM WHAT?! TELL THEM!" It really upset me, but in a lot of churches, that seems to be the trend. Most people think they are good so why disrupt their self-confidence? Why shake their self-esteem? Instead, tell them that they will have a purpose in life and life will just be better.

That is very, very saddening, because the Bible makes it very clear that men need a Saviour, and a Saviour from sin! Without repentence there is no turning from sin (obviously), and without turning from sin there is no salvation! Instead it's just a "say the magic words and you'll be better off" sort of mentality. Men need to be shown God's pure standards and how far they fall short of it, they need to recognize their own depravity, not make excuses about it!

Let me close with a quote from Pink that I found to be very well expressed, I was thinking about this today during our discussion.

Let us illustrate what we have in mind. I hold in my hand a book. I release it; what happens? It falls. In which direction? Downwards; always downwards. Why? Because, answering the law of gravity, its own weight sinks it. Suppose I desire that book to occupy a position three feet higher; then what? I must lift it; a power outside of that book must raise it. Such is the relationship which fallen man sustains toward God. Whilst Divine power upholds him, he is preserved from plunging still deeper into sin; let that power be withdrawn, and he falls — his own weight (of sin) drags him down. God does not push him down, anymore than I did that book. Let all Divine restraint be removed, and every man is capable of becoming, would become, a Cain, a Pharaoh, a Judas. How then is the sinner to move heavenwards? By an act of his own will? Not so. A power outside of himself must grasp hold of him and lift him every inch of the way. The sinner is free, but free in one direction only — free to fall, free to sin. As the Word expresses it: "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness" (Rom_6:20). The sinner is free to do as he pleases, always as he pleases (except as he is restrained by God), but his pleasure is to sin.

Yes, the sinner needs a saviour so he may be free from sin, free from the pleasure, the penalty, the power, and finally the very presence of sin. I pray that people would realize that so they may turn away. Also, please pray for Pastor this week as he is going to a conference with Mr. Yule, apparently there may be some very heated discussions. Oh, I should say that I really enjoy talking with Mr. Yule when I have the chance, it's really interesting when we'll talk about school and such he nods and listens and asks questions but when the discussion shifts to theological issues, his face almost starts to glow, you can tell he loves that subject more than any other. As do I, often I have "battled" on various message boards because I really do love it, there has been some fruit born from it but most of what I see is in my own life rather than others because most of the boards are filled with cynics who want nothing but to try to prove you wrong. As God's Word says though: "so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. " Isa 55:11

How wonderful to rest in God's sovereignty!

Okay, so I sort of wrapped up that part of the day (I'm taking a long time to close this post, I apologize). I came home afterward and did a bit of Calculus (practicing for the test on Friday). I have a lot to do in the next few days. I actually had to do some laundry so I went and studied in the laundry room, since that is heated and it was 43F in the camper. Upon my return though, I broke down and set the thermostat to 55, since I couldn't type if it was set much lower. I just feel like it's a waste to use up good propane JUST for myself! Just like I always think that it's kind of pointless to pay for food JUST to feed me! Why waste good money on that?! No, but seriously I enjoy the coolness (especially at night). In the mornings I don't turn it on because I'm only there for about a half hour before classes start anyway, so why heat it up and then let it cool back down again? I bet the utility companies would love me! Mr. Y had some pages mess up when he was printing out some things so there was a bout 60 sheets of good paper that would have been thrown away. I asked to have them (I couldn't stand to see it wasted) and I've been using the back (which is still perfectly usable) for my Calculus homework that I turn in. My brother would say that's cheap. I prefer "frugal." ;) I don't think I'm tight with my money, it's just with things like these, if I can save, then I will. Perhaps I get that from working for Mr. Boyd for so many years.

He was an elderly man that died recently and I enjoyed him very much, I did a lot of yardwork for him. He was born in 1909 and he told me that he was a paperboy in Hollywood when the Great War ended. He remembers calling out "The War is over! The Armistice is signed!" But he was a very frugal man and lived well within his means. There are lots of specific examples I could give but suffice it to say that I learned a lot from him. He had many stories to tell throughout his lifetime and even when he was 93, he was still very active. When he had a surgery on an artery in his throat, instead of going back to the doctor and having the bandage changed, he went to the vet that was just down the street and went to the same church as we did. Never was anything wasted, every twig, branch, or limb was used to either start fires or as fuel in his wood stove in the kitchen. He introduced me to "real" peanut butter (much better than skippy or jiffy or whatever those other things are) and taught me how to do my tasks without wasting motion. He was a good employer and I do miss him a bit.

First Chronicles chapter sixteen verse seven.

1Ch 16:7 Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the LORD by Asaph and his brothers.

I thought that was fitting given tonight's occasion and its proximity to a certain holiday :)

Now let me see..... When I got up this morning I did my usual routine. I must admit I am a man of habit, I like my rut and I'm staying in it as long as I can! When I got to class I was surprised to see the parking lot empty. Even at 7:00 in the morning there is usually one or two cars there. So I parked and walked to class, breathing in the wondrously brisk air. NNNNNFFFF! AAHHHH! The classroom was empty when I got there but that wasn't surprising since I'm usually the first to arrive, but after about 15 minutes went by and only two other people showed up, it began to sink in that undoubtedly many other students had decided to take their vacation early. I guess they look at the glass as half empty and I look at it as half full. They think that it's a crime that we should have any school at all this week, let alone the DAY before Thanksgiving, and I think that wow! I get Friday off too!

The teacher came in and the students started moaning about how they had to come to class today and it wasn't fair and a couple of the students actually dropped their homework off and skedaddled, one claiming that he was going to go eat breakfast. Now that is really a poor excuse, many are the times when I have foregone not only breakfast, but also lunch as well, not eating until well after 3:00 in the afternoon. I suppose my desire is to feed my mind while his main desire is to feed his stomach. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing considering that even ol' Mother Hubbard doesn't have anything over me right now.

One of the girls said that in the daily newspaper it said that this University was the only one in Oklahoma that had classes on this Wednesday. Then she put the paper down and protested to the teacher how unfair that was and look at how everybody else gets it off? Well first of all, that is hardly an argument and then I piped up "Well, we paid for our tuition so we're actually getting more of our money's worth than they are!" Nobody even nodded their head or laughed, they all looked at me as though I'd lost my head. Well, such is life. One student even said "well, I don't pay for it, my parents do." As though that makes a difference! In fact it should push you to strive harder and put that money to good use! Too many people disdain what they receive for free and that is very sad. I honestly think that most students here at OSU would rather pay the tuition (or their parents) and then never come a single day to class. What a waste of money! Isn't the purpose to learn? Or is it just to "get by?"

The Chemistry class lost about half of the students and the professor did a review of past material, which was helpful to me and I appreciated it. My Economics class was cancelled because the Teacher wanted to (or perhaps it was a necessity) but when she told us that last week she said she was giving us our break a little early (which was greeted with cheers). I walked back to my car and drove home for time in between, until my Chemistry Lab started.

Lab was bare, almost no one showed up. Before class one of the guys came over and said
"Hey! I had some friends who were taking the class and when I found out they had already done this lab I was like, hey! let me see man!"
So he said he just copied everything down and they hadn't got too bad of a score so that was fine with him. He would just turn it in at the beginning of class and leave. Because of schedules, the TAs will allow students to make up a lab during a different period if they must. Another of the "students" (I use the term loosely) wanted to copy it down too, so he could go early. And they did.

The TA arrived and I was pulling my stuff out and getting it ready and the first student walks up to the TA and says he already did his paper and handed it in. The TA wasn't buying it. She asked if he had done this in another lab section and he said "yeah, I did it in the Monday one." What a horrible liar! That made me really upset, after hearing him speak of copying it down from a couple of "friends" and then telling the TA that he had done the experiment in another lab section! What am I supposed to do though? I realize that we must all give an account for our actions some day and that is a sobering thought. I suppose the only sensible thing to do is pray.

My partner and I went through the whole experiment (which was an earlier one we had skipped) and it had to do with calculating the molecular weight and determining what a gas was by its mass in a fixed volume. I actually enjoyed it this week. We had an unknown gas which after doing some measurements and calculations, I deduced was helium. We had it in a plastic syringe. My lab partner wanted to test that out apparently because I turned around after I had finished my calculations and he was "injecting" it into his mouth to see if it would make his voice change! I said that I certainly hoped I had made the correct calculation, because that was rather dangerous, putting an unknown gas into yourself! Perhaps he trusted me, I don't know.

And then I came home where I've answered a few e-mails and such and chatted with a friend for a few minutes. I am ready to go home I think, after the gathering tonight of course and a few hours sleep. I found a plastic bottle that someone had thrown on the sidewalk so I took that to the Chemistry lab and weighed it and then added water until I had 85 grams (which I calculated was just about 3 ounces). Since I don't have anything accurate to weigh three ounces back at home, I decided to do this so I had some estimate of what exactly three ounces felt like. Of course once I create my projectile I'll be able to compare and then correct as needed. I have a feeling that I'm going to have an issue with too much mass, so I'll have to cut back.

Along the same lines (working on my projectile project) I went to the Hobby Lobby today to look for a parachute such as might be used in a model rocket. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Hobby Lobby, STAY AWAY! It's kind of like a glorified "boo-teek" shop with thousands of crafty/sewey/beady things. I had hoped I would never go into a Hobby Lobby again but today was it. I remember when my mother used to take us kids into the fabric store with her and now I have something of a Fabriphobia. As soon as I was old enough I said that I would much rather sit in the hot car and bake than die of pure boredom in the fabric store. And it smells funny too. Well, the Hobby Lobby reminds me of that only ten times worse. It's an embarrassment to my masculinity to visit that place. I got out as quickly as I could.

Well, that's about it for tonight, I may or may not give an update during the next couple of days but if not, then have a great thanksgiving and be sure to remember what you are most thankful for and Who to thank.

Blowin' a fuse

Today was fairly uneventful, I whiled away the hours in my camper waiting for my 12:30 class (the only one I have today). I got a note on my door that invited me to have Thanksgiving at the house of the owners of this RV park, which was very, very thoughtful of them and I really appreciate it but as I'm sure everyone knows, I plan on going home for Thanksgiving. It has been a little over a month since my last visit I suppose.

After hearing a the head of a certain family of Yuletide tune singers (whose mother is visiting a far off land) tell a funny story about his son's undergarments, I found this quote and it reminded me of the occasion:

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

And so I thought I should post it. Here is another one for those who like to stay inside all day:

I believe that every human has a finite number of heart-beats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.
- Neil Armstrong

I enjoy quotes, it's a decent substitute for wit. :)

On a more down to earth level (catch the hidden pun) when I went to class today, there were a lot of students standing around on campus. I didn't think too much of it since I was early anyway but when I got to the classroom building I noticed that all the doors were shut and it was rather dark. I ascended to the third floor using the stairs of course (elevators are for those who agree with above quote) and by this time I had figured that the power was out. It ws very, very dark in the auditorium and despite trying to be prepared for everything that comes my way, I had sadly neglected to bring a flashlight to school that day. I don't mind the darkness but my eyes weren't accustomed to it yet and so I carefully walked to the seat where I usually sit. It was kind of odd though because I could barely see and I wondered if I would end up sitting on someone else (turns out I and one other person were the only ones in the room at the time). After a few minutes I could see more clearly and began to relish the cloak of darkness I was shrouded in. I contemplated letting out weird chuckles while crawling through the aisles as the students came in but decided against it. They probably would scare too easily.

A while later the instructor came in and talked for about 15 minutes about various projects and then we all left. He couldn't use the projector of course (because the power was out) and there was not much he could do about it. After everyone else had already left, I too went home. And here I've been. Sitting.... *sigh

When I got back to the camper I thought I'd log in and check my queue just for kicks. Bah, there's never anything there right? Well today there was 146 messages for me so I started going through. It seems many people are taking their vacation early, leaving on the 18th or so and then coming back on the 28th. At least so it seemed from the numerous autoresponses I received that said "Out of Office." I got so used to seeing that phrase that I was rather startled when suddenly one said "I'll be in the office on November 22nd." Which apparently he hadn't come yet when this e-mail was sent out but anyway..... it broke the monotony.

I didn't have too many crazy ones this time, I had the usual
"Come on Mom. You know better." And

"dad, wahts this?"

Responses (even to their own father they can't take the time to write a correct THREE words?). But the best was from a guy who started off as though he was acting professional about it but went downhill after that:

To whom it may concern;
Hi, i was wondering if i still have access
to a safe... i had one last year
but i thought i didn't this year.
Does the bill for the safe go on the
overall tuition / fees im paying for the room?
If so, i have one of the
safes in the room then?
Thanks

Apparently he thinks SafeRegistry well... registers safes! Sadly we don't offer that kind of protection. We keep your registry safe, essentially. Too bad he didn't read any of the information and only looked at the name. Last week I was thought to be a locksmith (I can't get into my safe!) and this week I'm selling safes. Oh well, it's good for entertainment.

So should I share another freeware program? I recall recommending WordWeb (and I still recommend it) and AbiWord before, this week (or hour as the case may be) I will be pushing for CCleaner
And I would highly recommend it because it does really help your system. Windows tends to clutter things up and after a while you've got over half a Gigabyte of worthless temporary files that it apparently didn't get around to cleaning. Then there is the registry which if you install and uninstall something, gets "dirty." CCleaner helps fix some of those problems and prompts you to create a backup before you correct them just in case something goes wrong. I have never had a problem with it. One thing I should mention is that if you do run the cleaner, unless you uncheck the box for the cookies for your Internet browser (Firefox of course) then your saved passwords will be erased. As a general rule, you want to keep most of your cookies so don't clean those up unless you want to.
CCleaner also has a section where you can edit which programs start up (which is much easier than running msconfig) and run in the system tray, and it shows a much more detailed "installed programs" list than the Windows one does. In short it comes highly recommended as something that will help your computer run smoother and more efficiently.

Would you like to have a free anti-virus program? Stay tuned to hear about it next time!

Tall and Sour

I suppose that should be logical if "short and sweet" is a phrase right?

Anyhow, this post should be "short and sweet" because it's late (nearly 9:30! *gasp) and I should be getting to bed, but I wanted to make note of a few things, especially because it's been two days since my last post since Sunday is my day off. Let's start with a quote:

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.
- Alfred Hitchcock

That is so very true! An former pastor of mine once said that if Psychology agrees with the Bible, we don't need it and if it doesn't agree with the Bible, then we don't want it! Either way it's not very beneficial and that is one reason why I refuse to subject myself to one of those Psychology classes because of what the Bible says in Romans 16:19 "For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. "

Wise in what is good (who is good but God?) and innocent in what is evil. A lot of people today say they need to know all of a cult's belief so they know how to avoid it, but as John MacArthur has said by way of illustration, an official who looks for counterfeit money does not become proficient by studying the fake stuff and knowing what to spot, but by studying the real and true money so that when he sees a fake it is instantly obvious. In like manner if we study the things of Scripture, when a counterfeit comes our way it is blatantly obvious and we turn away from it.

Writing the above reminds me of another quote I saw which I really enjoyed.
A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.
- Burt Bacharach

Absolutely! I often will do that when writing something, I have a mind block or can't spell the word correctly so I quickly think of a synonym :)

As you probably know, I have been working on a projectile for my Engineering project and have something that I think should work and I will be building it this week. I was surprised to see many, many worse designs than my own by the rest of the class because I thought mine wasn't exceptional by any means! But my idea was to turn a "bullet" essentially out of a block of pine wood on my small pen lathe. Quite a few others were going to use a toilet paper tube for a body and construction paper for a nose! Now, this is pretty much a potato (tater) gun so there will be flames when the charge is ignited. I just have to wonder how well a toilet paper roll and construction paper will withstand not only the flames, but the shock! I hope my design works!

The instructor said that none of us gave a real presentation like we would have in an interview because none of us had tested it. An astronaut doesn't want to hear the engineer say "I think that the parachute should open after re-entry, at least I hope so!" It just isn't very reassuring. It's a fun class and he challenges us. I like that.

Saturday evening I got an e-mail from one of the guys in the class who had apparently only just realized that Monday was coming up and he didn't have anything! So he was asking for help. Here is his e-mail in its pure, unadulterated form (said sarcastically)

hey wats up? i havent seen u online for a while...
hows it going?

btw..i had a question..did u make that
design for the ballistic missile? do u know
any sites or anything that i could refer to,
to make this design..i dunno how to go abt
this..wat kind of material would be good? i
dunnno how to go abt this..pls email me if
u would like to share any ideas...or
leaive me some IMs online anytime....

talk to u soon then,

I gave a few suggestions but apparently it wasn't all he wanted. He wanted to meet me on Monday. My only real free time was about a half hour before class started so I did meet him at 1:00 p.m. and class started at 1:30. He didn't have a thing. First the assignment asked for a statement of the objective and he asked me "so what do I write?!" He was quite frantic. I said well, state the objective! Our goal is to build a projectile that will maximize time spent in the air, which essentially means, what goes up must stay up for a while. He wrote that and then turned to me "now what?" I'm laughing inwardly because honestly, this class is supposed to help you learn to think on your own, as an engineer. Admittedly he is from India and I think that part of the problem is he has had lots of book learning and he is very smart, but not too much practical knowledge. Whereas me, well, I have read quite a bit but mostly I am good at improvising :)

So we worked on his paper for a little while. We were supposed to come up with a design and then actually build it this next week or we get a large deduction in points. In other words, what we build has to match our design. With that in mind I made my design to be something I could actually implement, though I did have other ideas. This young man though didn't have any ideas and was asking if I had some so I told him a couple but warned that we had to build it too. He said he didn't care, he just wanted to put something down. I surely hope he CAN build it, though I think it will be very difficult! Five minutes before class started I said I really had to leave so I left and he apparently finished up his paper and came in a bit late. I just thought it was funny (sad in a way of course) that he was so distraught, when he really brought it upon himself. He's the type to wait until the last minute for everything anyway. But it was like he couldn't think for himself at all, he had to be told exactly what to do or else he couldn't do it. I had to figuratively hold him by the hand while I walked him through on how to write the objective of the project!

Other than that though.... not a whole lot happened today. I had some spare time so I did try out a new game on my handheld DS, which connects wirelessly to the Internet here in the RV park. It's a racing game and I have to admit I get rather competitive sometimes. With this new game you are able to connect and race against people all over the world who are on at the same time you are. I really wanted to try that out so I connected and signed in as "Shadow" and waited for a couple others. Within a minute or two, three other people had joined whose names were something like "Derek" "GamePlanet" and "Adrian." I have no idea where these people live, male or female or their ages (which it's kind of nice to be anonymous I suppose). To me they were just racing opponents. I count myself to be a pretty good racer but still, I could be playing against some top players here!
It went in rounds of elimination, all four of us raced on a track and I won by quite a little stretch and I was happy about that. The person who was in last place (GamePlanet I believe) was eliminated from the round.

The next match was a bit more intense, Adrian was left far behind while Derek and I battled it out, we were neck and neck for all three laps and in the end he passed me by using a mushroom boost (please bear with the foreign expressions). We raced again together and I just barely beat him. While racing I was feeling very much the urge to do my best but at the same time I really admired this Derek, he was a very talented player and I almost wanted to shake his hand.

Then came the final round, it was just Derek and myself, the battle for who would be the Mario Kart champion of the day. It started off fine, it was one of my favourite tracks and I was taking the turns nicely, cutting the corners, utilizing my boosts and doing very well, but he wasn't very far behind me. It's a long track so by the second lap I had increased my lead somewhat but made a few mistakes and Derek was right on my tail. I started to get nervous, palms begin to sweat and every turn seems like it's a life and death situation. One mistake and you'll be toast.

We made it to the final lap and I again increased my lead. I started to breathe easy about half way through that lap when he launched a "leader shell" at me which essentially is a homing missile that really packs a punch. I was struck and he zoomed past. Oh no! I was prepared to accept defeat but then I got three mushroom boosts and was able to JUST get past him right before the finish line and won the match, my heart was pounding excitedly and I wanted to say to Derek "WOW! That was a great match you put up, you are a great player." But unfortunately I couldn't. The match was over and the brief time I had spent competing with this unknown person was gone. I doubt I shall ever race him again and I shall probably never meet him but I do thank him for the challenge and I wish him luck in his future racing. It was quite a match and it was really fun for me. Similar to Lord of the Rings it was a roller coaster of emotion, I was excited because I thought I would win (against a very good opponent) but then thought it was all over and then the ray of hope appeared and all was not lost, but it was won! Wherever Derek is, I thank him for giving me such a wonderful match, as silly as it may seem. It's hard to convey the feeling of excitement but that really was a highlight of today, competing against someone of that calibre. Thanks Derek.

I also went to a meeting this evening for IEEE. They had some interesting things to say but like most meetings it was pretty dull and drawn out. What I was most interested in was the announcement of the winner for the t-shirt design contest. I had created a design that I thought was pretty good, I wouldn't have minded seeing it on a t-shirt at least! Well, at the very end they unveiled the winning design and it was NOT my design. I'll have to post a picture of what I made, it was a hand that faded into circuitry holding a globe with the phrase "reaching the world" and it was supposed to be with electronics of course. Well, the winning design was someone who took some pictures of Voltare, Ohm, and Ampere and made an equation with them. Essentially Voltare = Ampere * Ohm

That was disappointing. I spent several hours both coming up with my design and editing it bit by bit to make it look good and someone else took a couple of pictures off the Internet and made a silly little equation (nerdy I call it) out of the pictures and probably could have done it in paint :( Oh well, I don't know what I would have bought at Hastings anyway......
I mean, it's nice that he won and all but I didn't think it was an incredible display of designing talent. I guess it's just what some people want, something "cute" and goofy. *sniffle
I bet Boromir would understand. We can cry on eachothers shoulders about how true art and talent isn't appreciated.

Spar Trek

Not that we did MUCH sparring, just discussion.

After trying to get all my projects and homework done the last few days, I was able to go with a group from the local church to a nearby town and we walked the streets.

We first broke up into teams and of course it was considered safest if a gentleman went with every lady to provide some means of protection if required. I was paired up with one of the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Van, which would make her a mini Van I suppose.......

*falls off chair laughing

I was rather nervous as she said she was too but she had had three years more experience than I so she was to demonstrate the first person. It was an older neighbourhood and some of the houses were kept up better than others. The first person to "interview" didn't come for several houses because it seems many people are on vacation this time of year. Either that or they simply refuse to get up before noon on a Saturday morning.....

So she took the first couple of people and we traded after that. Soon after I took the lead we rang the bell of a house and there was no answer. So I knocked rather loudly. I felt like Mercy, when Christiana told her at the Wicket Gate "Can you not tell how you knocked? I am sure your knocks were so earnest that the very sound of them made me start; I thought I never heard such knocking in all my life; I thought you would have come in by violent hands, or have taken the kingdom by storm.

Well, I did feel nearly prepared to take the house by storm at times. At the start I was rather timid but soon gained more confidence as we went along. Anyway, at this one house I was speaking of, a young man opened the door and he looked (as Mr. Y's fliers said) "Wasted." Though he said he'd been up for several hours he looked very tired. I said the usual introduction "Good morning, my name is [insert name here] and we're from the Reformed Presbyterian church. We're asking people some questions this morning and we were wondering if you'd be willing to answer some."

He rubbed his eyes and somewhat grunted "sure," and then said "Uhngh, it's cold, why don't you come inside" as he held the door open. I glanced quickly at my partner because while I felt perfectly confident, I didn't want her to be uncomfortable, then I led the way inside.

The interior was dark and moody, electronics were piled haphazardly around the walls, which were hung with paraphernalia of all kinds and was rather reflective of its owner, who also looked unkempt and somehow confused and definitely lost.
We stood around while I asked the first question: "Do you have any kind of spiritual belief."
He said "yeah, I'm a tdouist." I wasn't sure what that was and I know I have not spelled it correctly here, I asked him about it and he said it was a Chinese religion. I didn't press further on that point.
The second question was "To you, who is Jesus." I do not recall his answer though.
The third was "Do you believe there is a heaven and a hell?" And I'm pretty sure he said no to the hell.
The fourth was "If you were to die today, were would you go?" At this point Miss Van said that he looked very shaken and disturbed, he answered something about the next life. And the final question was if he was mistaken in his beliefs, would he want to know? And he answered "well, yeah, I guess so" to that. We gave him some information and he wrote upon the list we had. He seemed very confused and unordered, he kept pausing as though trying to clear his head. I really did feel sorry for him and hope that there is some follow-up on that. Here was a person who was very lost and very confused and very much without hope.

I should interject at this point that when I was doing the question asking, Miss Van would help out with little questions or comments to help the person, which I appreciated very much and she was very good at. I have never claimed to be a great conversationalist, as I have said, when it comes to a discussion or persuasive argument, I feel like the ruler of the world at my keyboard. This very much describes me: "For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.'" 2 Cor. 10:10. She was able to help pull me out of a dead spot I'd gotten into because my tendancy, when someone gives a really, really weird answer, is to just want to stare unbelievably at them. Oh how I wanted to take more time and actually talk in depth! But our main purpose was to let them know of a Bible Study if they wanted to find out more.

So anyway, further down the street we talked with a man who was Methodist and who basically said he was a good man and that was why he thinks, or hopes that he will go to heaven when he dies, he doesn't know though. That was sad because his hope then is not a hope at all for it is not resting in the true hope, and that is Jesus as his Saviour and that Jesus has died for him and paid the penalty he would have had to. If only he places his trust in Jesus as both Lord and Saviour. Instead he hopes that by his good deeds he might be able to "sneak in."

All along the line we met people who just didn't have the time. I made the remark that it's strange how people just don't seem to have the time to think about eternity. They would rather put that on the back burner and think about that later, only later comes all too soon before you are prepared.

Further down we met, and were invited in to talk a little with an older woman who was a Jehovah's Witness. I wasn't too scared by the thought, we sat on the couch and I led with the questions. Her answers were erroneous but what do you do? Say "You're wrong and I can prove it!" Our mission was to tell others about this Bible study, not really confront anyone so I bit my tongue though that was extremely hard. She believed in a Sheol, not a heaven or a hell and when she dies she will go there and be a memory with God. I'm not sure what that means.......
She asked what would have happened if Adam and Eve had not sinned, where would they be? And I said I supposed they would be still alive on earth because death would not have entered the world. She said "well.... yes" and then went rambling off on a rabbit trail. I'm not sure where she was headed. I'm just sitting there trying to hold my tongue.
When I asked if she would be interested in a Bible study she said "Honey, I've been studying the Bible for 35 years, I know the truth. I TEACH Bible studies." and then there was a long pause of awkward silence. I'm wondering if that was her answer and wondering what to say when Miss Van breaks in (and saves the day) with "Well, thank you for your time!" The lady said she thought it was great we were out doing things like this and more people need to tell others about God. We left.

First of all I was thinking (well, I was thinking a lot of different things) but saying that you won't go to a Bible study because you teach them... well, it was very much along the lines of "I don't need to learn any more because I've seen it all." Which was very much the impression I received from her. No one can ever know the depths of Scripture, if we knew everything there was to know, what would there to look forward to? To see face to face and know fully instead of dimly is what I look forward to!

Second I was thinking that even though she disagrees with us and I'm sure she knows that, she thought it was "wonderful" that we were doing it. Now for me, I would never tell someone, whom I thought was teaching false things, that I thought it was "wonderful." But I see that a lot from people, an older lady I was with a long time ago was telling another young man "Well, I don't really care what church you're going to as long as you're in a church."
That mentality really disturbs me, the mentality of "well, as long as we all try in our own ways we'll all wind up in the same place eventually." They are on the broad road leading to destruction and they have deluded themselves until they are as blind as the dwarves in The Last Battle.

I enjoyed the day overall and it was eye-opening for me, to see so many people who are just confused, lost, deluded, or just don't want to think about it. They are definitely in need of prayer. The mission field is right here in our backyard, not necessarily overseas, not in some foreign country, but RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA! There are so many needy people out there it just hurts and I think they know they need something but they don't want it. I was very thankful for Miss Van's assistance in helping me gain some confidence and for showing me essentially "how it's done." I did feel often as though I was tagging along, which was fine with me, after all, I prefer my keyboard.

Afterwards we went to have lunch at the Vaknor's house and had chili! It was very tasty. After that last fragmented sentence I think that that it is necessary that I drift off to bed now, so I shall say adieu for the evening.

Bits (and bytes) of information

I've finished most of my Calculus homework that is due next Wednesday so I'm happy with that. I took about 10 minutes to run through my Java program and polished up a few things so I'm prepared for that to be evaluated next Tuesday, all that remains is figuring out a design for a projectile to show on Monday in Engineering class. I've got some ideas and Mr. Van offered one very good one so I'll try to work on that tonight or tomorrow afternoon. It really won't take long once I make up my mind.

Anyways.... I feel it is my duty to share bits of information with others so that is what this post is all about: random thoughts. Isn't that great?! We'll start with a quote.

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Regan

I like that one, it does indeed fit. If an industry is healthy the government thinks that they are a monopoly (which isn't necessarily bad by the way) and they tax it to death. Whereas when something like oh... social security is bloated and extremely wasteful and really needs to be replaced by something better, they help it limp along.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0a03b5108e097010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
Here is an EXTREMELY interesting article on coloured bubbles! It's amazing especially when you understand the chemistry of such an achievement. To get color molecules to bond to the tiny film of soap without weighing it down just amazes me. I can't wait to give them a blow!

Here's something interesting for all of you AIM or MSN Messenger lovers. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In emoticons! It's quite entertaining.
http://www.yankeepotroast.org/archives/2005/11/the_most_excell.html

And some other random thoughts to follow up on that I jotted down for further exposition:
The other night while driving to Bible Study I spotted one of those billboards outside the Hosanna Praise Tabernacle, at least it's called something like that. The sign said "Blame Softly, Praise Loudly."
After pondering that for about 0.2386 seconds I thought to myself "If both actions (blame and praise) are directed toward the same One, as I think it is, then that is quite a horrible thing to say! Never mind the fact that you're blaming "softly," you shouldn't be blaming God for anything! "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. " James 1:17
God is not to blame for anything you endure or think you endure oh man! Instead we ought to rejoice when afflicted by trials knowing that the testing of our faith develops perseverance (James 1:2,3). I can't think of anything that I would "blame" God for? As though shaking my fist at God would be worthwhile. Who am I to say what is good for me and what is not? I am so short-sighted I cannot even see what will happen tomorrow let alone what long-term benefit might come about! To "blame softly" is still to blame and that is sinful. Here is a definition I found:
Blame
1. "An accusation that you are responsible for some lapse or misdeed"

Indeed man!
If they were referring to praising loudly a person you know and blaming him softly (which doesn't make much sense) then it still seems to be in error to me. Anyway, that rather shocked me.

And on a lighter note, the assignment given in Economics class on Wednesday and due today was rather difficult. Inspiration finally brightened my intellect and I figured out how to solve it. So I came to class prepared to turn it in and the guy a few seats over (I was 15 minutes early) asked me if I had completed the assignment. I said yes and he queried
"Can I take a look at it"
as he leaned closer in greedy anticipation. I politely said that I didn't know if I was supposed to. And he backed away a little surprised.
"Oh! Well, I suppose we could do a group thing."
I looked through my papers (and was worried for a moment because I couldn't find it) and taking a quick glance at it I said
"Well, I put together a separate column with Total Cost and Marginal Cost and found where MR was equal to MC like the example she has shown us."
He looked slightly disappointed but there was no way I was just going to let him copy down my answers. The funny thing is, this guy who was asking for help usually tries to ignore me if I strike up a conversation, at least it has felt that way. All of a sudden he was all smiles and "hey! So, you got some answers I can copy?"
The girls behind me were muttering about how they couldn't figure it out (if you wait until the last 10 minutes to do it that occasionally happens) and then another young man came in who everybody thinks is a genius at Economics, one of the girls said they saw him in the cafe yesterday and he said he was having trouble and she was "like, then I'm sunk!" He is a nice young man and I think he's doing fairly well, I believe I scored a bit higher on both exams though, 10 points higher on the last one.

They immediately asked him for solutions and it turned into a big group thing. I know it's nice to help but sometimes when people just want to copy answers instead of learn the material, it really gets my gander up. He and I had done the exact same thing (added the extra columns) so we had the same answers. The first guy who had asked me was copying down some things and one of the girls asked him
"so, did you get an equilibrium price of $26?"
And he said "Well, I uh... I had the incorrect numbers the first time but yes, that's what I got."
Liar. He didn't even have the correct METHOD and definitely not the correct numbers except the ones he had JUST copied down. I turned around and slumped in my seat huffily. I'm sure that whole front right section of the class got the correct answers because of the overly-genial young man behind me. He was trying to explain how it worked but most didn't care, they just wanted the answers and the five points for turning it in. These are the same people that complain that they score poorly on the exams, I guess that is the time for their payback.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't on a lighter note, I'm getting rather frustrated as I think about it. If they had really had difficulties then they could have send an e-mail to the teacher asking for help like I almost did (but I figured it out on my own). Instead they must figure
"bah, this is too difficult, I'll just ask someone tomorrow for the answers."
I'm perfectly willing to explain something to someone and I did give that guy a hint on how to get started, he would have just had to do the calculations himself, which apparently was not what he wanted! So he waits for the next guy to ask for answers. *bangs head on keyboard*
Okay, I feel better, I got that out o' my system.

Let's end on a good note:
Mr. Y sent a helpful e-mail about Customer Service today and I copied a section out of it I thought was extremely funny. It reminded me of Groucho Marx in Duck Soup.

"The author of the book, ‘Life Is Tremendous,’ a motivational and humorous speaker Charles Tremendous Jones talks about the airlines losing his luggage so often that
he expects it. As the plane is landing he starts thinking about the lost luggage and starts getting irritated. As he walks toward baggage claim he thinks about the idiots doing this to him again and he gets really steamed up. By the time he gets to baggage claim he’s hurrying to see that his suitcase isn’t there so he can go give the airline people a real piece of his mind only to find his luggage is there, which makes him really mad that they would get him so steamed up over nothing in the first place."

The cool knight err

The topic actually does have something to do with the subject of this post, I'm thinking because I probably should have worn something a bit more "standard" last evening.

Yesterday I scrambled madly to finish an assignment that was handed out Wednesday and due Friday in my Economics class because I knew that that time slot between 4:30 and 5:30 would be the only time I'd have to work on it! I did finish it thankfully and was able to go to the banquet in the Ballroom that evening for an initiation into an honour society. For the most part it was a waste of time but the honour of it and the joyful solemnity of it was not lost upon me. I enjoyed it for the most part. Phi Kappa Phi claims to be the oldest all-discipline honour society in the US and the highest honour here on campus. It must not be that difficult to enter though because I've really only taken General Education classes and just a small smattering of ones that actually relate to my major, so essentially I'm a Sophmore I would think.

I felt rather out of place as well, I heard it was to be formal but not extremely strict, so I went in my tan slacks, blue and white striped shirt and wore my camera slung over my shoulder and my golfing cap on my head. With white tennis shoes! As everyone filed in I was very interested to see that I was the only person (from what I could tell) that had on white tennis shoes. Every single other person of the 300 or so present, had black dress shoes. I imagine my footwear may have stuck out when I approached the podium but I wasn't too worried. I can't run in my dress shoes and that's what I was most concerned about. After these dreary meetings I just want to let loose, if you know what I mean.

They had a pianist there who was quite good. She played everything from Beethoven's Fur Elise to Scott Joplin's Pineapple Rag (if I recollect the tune correctly) and she played very fast too, it made a good atmosphere.

I was seated by myself at a table for quite some time, until the place started filling up and the only seats left WERE the ones at my table, I guess I was last choice for some late fraternity guys. Interestingly enough though, they talked among themselves but when they directed a question, they usually asked me. Which is odd because I like to just sit and listen to the conversations. You can learn a lot just by watching. For example, if there are two conversations going on, sometimes the words they use are identical. One person is talking about how he is conscientious about something and then the other conversation, two seconds later, the person will say that so and so is fairly.... conscientious. I don't think it's a coincidence because it happens all the time. I think that their ears are picking up words even though they don't really realize it, or maybe they do but don't think about it. They are certainly not following the conversation.

Another interesting thing I've observed and was reminded of today, that people naturally gravitate toward the "troughs" on the sidewalk when crossing a street. They may have to walk three feet over to the left to get to the trough but they just kind of funnel on over there (it's for the wheelchairs or bicycles, so they don't have to jump the curb). Me, I'd rather take the 5 inch step off the curb but then most people probably don't analyze things like that.

Anyway... back to the life of the party...... I took a picture of the chaps at my table, not a bad crew. Two where finance majors, two were Horticulture, and three were accounting I believe. So I was the only Engineer at the table. Here is the picture of the motley crew. I'm the one holding the camera.

I also took some pictures of the food we had, which was quite good actually, though the chicken was too dry so some vinegrette was good for that. I can't imagine trying to prepare all of that food and still have it ready
to come out all at once (because they did it in courses). Maybe I don't want to think of that.......
First was a.... lovely salad, if salad could be called that. I was sincerely hoping at this time that it wouldn't be the main course.
After that we had a bit of bread and then finally the main course. It was chicken (as I alluded to before) and had some nice vegetables on the side. One of the young men (the one on the right of my chair, in the sweater) said that for a class he was having, he had to change his lifestyle for three weeks and be a vegetarian during that time. He lasted 2 and a half. He said that while he felt he still had as much energy as on his normal diet, that it left him getting stressed a lot easier. I don't know why that would be, but I suppose it is wonderfully soothing to bite into a large steak......
He started talking about markets with meat and such and I was surprised that I was able to hold my own in the conversation and explain a little to him how something would work. Essentially he said that 70% of the grain in the country goes to feeding the cattle for the meat we eat and that with the rise of more people coming into the middle class and more are able to afford meat, that he was wondering where the grain would come from because we can't grow much more! Well, first of all, if there is a demand for more grain, I'm sure there will be ways to grow it, but even if that doesn't happen, the market will work itself out in that if more meat is demanded and cannot be provided because of the lack of grain to feed the cattle, either
a) people will choose leaner meat that hasn't been fattened up by being grain fed in a feedlot, or
b) the price of meat will rise and less people will buy it. So the market equilibrium would be most likely at about the same quantity, but at a higher price. That is assuming that more grain could not be grown that is. Say, I do think I have picked up a thing or two from this economics class! My instructor is really one of the best I've had in any course. That can be attested to by the fact that I was able to discuss economics with a finance major and economics isn't even related to my major!

Well.... that was a little rabbit trail..... Back to the Party. Perhaps I should abbreviate that to B.P. because I have a feeling I'll be using it a lot. Here's the main course. It was chicken with noodles and then of course the vegetables. The noodles were rather tasty. Obviously I wasn't shy at all about whipping out the camera and taking pictures of my meal while it was being served. I wonder sometimes if I appear to be a nut, or just eccentric or just plain weird.

Then we applauded a lot for different things and people and we said our pledge and then filed along by college to the head and recieved our pins and certificates while they rattled off names. I was last in my college. Still, I shouldn't complain, there ARE people (like Mr. Y) who are yet further behind in the alphabet. That reminds me of how my grandfather (who said that he was always one of the last to receive pay at the Air Force base he was on) said he had wished his name was Alfred Adams or something like that. As it was, he would stand near the head of the line and collect debts from those who owed him money before they spent it :)

B.P. Well, there isn't much more to say. After that it sort of dispersed and I went on home. I should say that before I went to the banquet I went to pick up a used computer from a fellow I've been e-mailing. I may be able to fix it up and give it to my brother for his birthday. He would love that I'm sure. In the meantime I may use it to play around with Linux a tad. He was oriental and we talked for a little while. When I was ready to leave he asked if I was European to which I told him no. Now isn't that funny? Considering my attire for the evening I am not sure I see the reasoning behind that question...............

What too due

Well, last night was another chilly night but I didn't mind. I woke up with a slightly sore throat but it soon went away after gargling some Dr. Thunder (it's me tonic guv'nor!). Who do you see when you need help? Dr. Thunder! I'd also see Dr. Pepper if he didn't charge so much per visit.

I was very busy, I had a Calculus problem still to solve since I had made a mistake somewhere in setting it up and then an assignment due in Economics tomorrow and my book that I was supposed to write my answers to some questions for the next meeting with Pastor (today). I honestly didn't put it off, I had read through the book but didn't have time to really think about the answers yet what with the chemistry exam on Wednesday (I'm glad that's over and I felt very good about it). So this morning I got up and had Calculus for breakfast. After that I hurried to class because I was "late" as I call it. Normally I get there at least twenty minutes early. This morning it was barely ten early. I was so ashamed.

The teacher gave me some help on problems in Engineering I'm supposed to do but one of them she said requires three dimensional Calculus and I'm not up to that level yet. We did an evaluation for her today and again, I was the last one, most filed out as soon as they had filled in the bubbles but I like to write comments on the back as well and they have spaces for you to do that. I really do like her, she isn't quite as professional as my other Calculus teacher (he was one of the best teachers ever) but she is certainly willing to help the students and try to make it easy for them to understand. My only comment under "Course Difficulty" was "It was too easy, you need to toughen up those big babies." Because she is fairly easy on even the lazy ones, and they'll take every inch you give them!
"Oh come on! You can let us out early this once Mrs. M!"
"You said you thought it could be done that way so that is why I solved the problem without Calculus Mrs M!"
Well, yes, she did say she thought it was POSSIBLE to do it that way, but should you actually do it? I think not. It's a Calculus course! Use what you've learned!

I really do enjoy her as a teacher though.

After class I went to the computer lab and finished up my Lab for today (so I could leave early and meet with Pastor) and printed it out, then I set to work on the Program due next Tuesday and was able to complete that as well. Then I worked out the problems Mrs. M helped me with and sent them to my Engineering Instructor. Then I e-mailed Mr. Van and asked him if he had any suggestion for an Engineering project and he did give me a good one.

So I'm fairly squared away right now. I do have more Calculus homework that was assigned today and due next Wednesday, the rest of the Economics assignment, and my design for the projectile we're supposed to create. I suppose if I am assigned more Java homework then I'll have that too. I feel much more free than I did the last couple of days though with everything crashing down upon me.

Tonight I am attending a banquet with Phi Kappa Phi, the honour society for Engineering Students, they are supposed to give some awards or something but all I really care about is the food! It's included in the initiation fee I think so I might as well go. I hope they don't call my name. I specifically asked on the form that they not mention anything about me.

The last couple of nights as my "break" from my work, I watched through a Sherlock Holmes movie with Basil Rathbone. I don't care for how they portray Watson (he's the comic relief) but it was very good overall. I do like Basil Rathbone (he played Ravenhurst in Court Jester when he was a little older). I love black and white movies and they seem to be much more wholesome and generally have a better plot than the newer movies. I forget what this one was called but it had the Dancing Men code in it, from the Sherlock Holmes short story called.... The Dancing Men. When I first read that I immediately got some paper and a pencil and wrote down as much of the alphabet as I could, I absolutely love codes! Another friend of mine I found out had also read the story so I sent a message in the code and that friend decoded it and we sent messages back and forth for a time. It takes a long time to write though......

It has suddenly occurred to me that this post is very boring. Perhaps I should terminate it.

I had to post some funny happenings today. The names have been changed to protect the clueless.

I do tech support for a local company. My employer, Mr. Y goes to the church I attend. We recently sent out the first "Tip of the Week" e-mail from our company and got lots of "out of office" replies. One of them said:

"I will be out sick on Monday the 14th."

Now wasn't that thoughtful to notify everyone ahead of time? Y said "Those advance-notice sicknesses can be particularly nasty!"


Another person apparently thought our "Tip of the Week" was from her mother and she says:

"Oh, mom. I'm always careful about stuff, but seriously, I've left my messenger bag on the second floor landing, run up to my room to grab my calculator and keys, and come back, and the bag is still there. Our room is so far removed that people rarely frequent it. Thanks for the email though, I'll keep it all in mind."

Apparently the tone of the tips was something her mother would have sent? So she replied to me. Here's another response:

Hi President. H.D.'s email address is dzdt@calculus.org this is not her email address. If I get another safety tip email from you with the subject saying D.H. I am gonna snap. And by snap I mean lose it and by lose it I mean flip and by flip I mean punch you in the gut.

Well! Uh.... *cough* Perhaps he should have said something before? I can't read minds. Yet another person sent me a message that said:

"I still don't know the combination to my safe."

And er... am I supposed to know it? I'm not a locksmith or a safecracker I'm sad to say.
So... that's life here in tech support. Sometimes it's fairly interesting, other times it's not. This was by far the busiest day I've had, with over 125 tickets, which is probably more than I've received in 3 months. Some were actual questions. Some actually just said "Hey, thanks for the tips." Most were just out of office responses.

By the way, another interesting thing I saw today was a user name a person had that was:
sh4k3sp34r-w45-1337
I don't know how many people are familiar with l33t-sp34k but he misspelled Shakespeare.

The Shadow Froze!

The temperature decreased to about 270 degrees Kelvin last night! It was rather chilly I must admit. I dislike using the heater and I enjoy cold nights so I curled up in a fetal position in my bed with my face exposed to the crisp air and toes wrapped snugly in the blanket. Getting settled in at first was a bit cold because well..... the covers were freezing! Have you ever bicycled in bed to use friction to generate a little heat?

But oh boy how well I slept. I woke up in the morning feeling like a million dollars. The Tarzan yell and beating on the chest at 6:00 in the morning will attest to that. Combine that with a positively crisp and beautiful day and you've got an spirit that is indomitable and full of praise. How can the unrighteous live like they do? They don't see the beauty and glory of every day, they can't possibly see it the same way that a believer does.

This morning I found I had 125 messages in my queue to answer, though thankfully most of them were just out-of-office responses. But still... 125 is a lot! I took my test in Chemistry (which I felt very confident about) and now I'm at the camper, eating a little and then going back to Chemistry Lab for the afternoon. Hopefully it will be better than the last lab, which was a disaster because the material we were doing in lab had not been covered in class yet (it was just introduced today, 1 week later). So we were trying to do calculations and diagrams of something we knew absolutely about! The TA tries to be helpful, but being from India, the communication barrier sometimes is a problem. She just doesn't know how to explain it properly and it's not her fault.

But combined with the fact that I have to leave again soon, and that I have to come up with a projectile design for next Monday, do some calculus problems for the Engineering class, work on Program 7 due next Tuesday in Java, do the homework for the same, finish the lab early tomorrow so I can meet with Pastor and work on a Economics assignment for Friday (AND be free Saturday hopefully) well.... the sum of the above is equal to adieu.

It's Windsday! Or er.... Tuesday

The wind has been absolutely howling all day, it began early this morning in the wee hours and I could feel my camper shaking and swaying back and forth. All through the day it came in large gusts. I actually enjoy the wind as long as I'm not outside getting "dried out" by it while working. It does have a tendancy to chap the hands of a chap. *yuk yuk*

Today was my easy day; This morning I did some preparation for my chemistry exam tomorrow and I actually feel prepared for this one, hopefully I don't clinch when the time actually comes to take the exam as I did last time. Some of the problems I missed were because I just blanked and thought "Oh no! I don't know how to do this!" And afterwards when I looked at the problem again I was ready to beat myself up because I DID know how to solve it. Interestingly enough, the problems that the instructor said that most people missed, were all ones that I answered correctly. So it wasn't necessarily that I didn't know the material, I just did some dumb mistakes and panicked in a way. I hope this test should be better because I feel confident. Last night I went to an extra session the Instructor gave, to help refresh some aspects for the exam and the questions that were being asked were very simple and I was surprised because even I knew the answers (imagine that). If that's any indication of what is going to happen, then at least I'll be above most of the class. Not that that alone is my goal of course! I want to ace the test and get the bonus question as well but let's not let optimism turn into rash overconfidence.

Today, while doing some e-mail correspondance I was reminded of a funny little article I saw a long time ago (shared by Psy-duck with me) and I found it again and thought I'd post it here. Of course, it's most enjoyable by computer-saavy people who dislike Microsoft but..........

"If Microsoft Built Cars

At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated "if GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors made the following contribution to the debate: "If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the car windows, shut it off, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this, restart and drive on.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd accept this too.

5. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

6. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car 95" or a "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats.

7. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads.

8. The Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.

9. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.

10. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.

11. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft petrol and lubricants but the packaging would be superb.

12. New seats would force everyone to have the same size rear.

13. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.

14. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.

15. They wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 1 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.

16. There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.

17. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes.Unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.

18. Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own anyroads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free,including IBM.

19. If you still ran old versions of car (ie. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11),then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive muchfaster, and on more roads!

20. If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friends, and then copy it.

21. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganize the ignition for a few days before it worked.

22. You would need to buy an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.

23. Every time Microsoft introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

24. Microsoft would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Automobile Association Road maps (now a Microsoft subsidiary), even though they neither need nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more.

25. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off."

And along the same lines, I watched a short video today of an old Micro$oft press release, when they were showing the new plug and play features of Windows 98, the guy plugged the device in and said that Windows would automatically install the drivers for it and suddenly, the Blue Screen of Death popped up. The entire audience went into hysterics (as I did myself).

Some may wonder why I dislike Micro$oft, well, I used to really like it before I knew any better. It doesn't bother me at all that Mr. Gate$ is so rich, I would say he is an excellent business man but the manner in which it is accomplished sometimes bothers me. And the fact that most of their products are pretty sloppy. I read once that Excel 97 (I believe it was) made it past all the screening and was shipped with a full flight simulator game hidden inside the programming. How you can look through the code and miss something that large is beyond me! In other words, they probably didn't look very closely at the code.

Microsoft is always saying how they are having these new, great features coming and people just are amazed! Such as firewire, I remember when people were talking about how great it was, this new firewire was going to be on Windows and it was very fast etc. Turns out that Apple had used it for the past 5 years...... Another person said that some Windows PC's were now coming out with a slick new feature to free up your USB ports, the mouse would connect to the keyboard so you didn't have to plug it into the port on the computer itself (USB can be connected like a daisy chain, one device can be connected to the other and so on). Mac computers have had this since....... wow. A long time ago. Then there is the fact that Apple came up with the idea of using different windows, then Microsoft thought that was great and decided to use it and even called their new operating system: Windows way back when.

In fact, almost all of the software I see coming out of Microsoft is just bought from another company and modified. Even the original DOS was bought from another computer company by Bill Gate$.

Here's a kicker, I was shocked at this:
I read that a few weeks ago, Micro$soft contacted a man who had an online program called Windows Defender. It apparently would help guard your computer from bad websites. Anyway, a couple of lawyers contacted the man and told them that unless he signed over rights to the name, they would have to pursue legal actions against him for trademark abuse. Now it turns out that Micro$soft owns the name: "Microsoft Windows" but not just Windows, that's not commonly known though. This man wasn't using the program for profit anyway and rather than go bankrupt trying to fight something that wasn't extremely important anyway. So he did so.
Two weeks later, Micro$oft announces that their new Anti-virus program (they bought out the company and then modified the code supposedly) is going to be called Windows Defender. How is that for cheek? They purposely mislead the guy, bullying him into signing over the rights to a name because they want to use it. *sigh*

One last thing before this entire post turns into a Micro$oft rant:
Micro$soft made the news a while back by becoming the first company in the United States to offer marriage benefits for sodomite couples. That reason is good enough for me to not support that company in any way possible (which is one reason why I hope to buy a Mac next year). Why do I dislike Micro$oft do you ask? Read the above.

Okay... so now that I've explained that.... I apologize. I didn't mean to go into that much depth, though certainly more could be said. The above paragraph is very important though, as to why I don't want to support the company in any form.

The other day (Saturday I think it was) I was feeling chipper and needed some exercise after being inside so I went out and shadow fenced for a little while *dies laughing at pun*
It really made me want to start a class just to pass on the knowledge and also sharpen myself. Iron sharpens iron, in like manner will fencers, through practice, sharpen themselves and become more skilled.

The afternoon was filled with some interesting things. I went to my Java class and dropped off a sheet of paper with some funny programming stories for the Intructor. I left it on the podium since I had arrived early. I addressed it to him and made no identifying marks on it so it would be completely annonymous (unless one of the few other students there beforehand was observant and tells him). I didn't want it to seem at all like I was trying to butter the teacher up or make him like me, I just wanted to share something I had enjoyed. And leaving it annonymously was a good way to do so.

He came in, fixed the lights, arranged the equipment, arranged his papers (he gets there a little early as well, he's a great instructor) and I was peering up quickly every once in a while to see if he'd "found" it yet. He finally did a smile crossed his face as he read through them (and that is rare for him) and that made it very rewarding. He has no idea who it was and I don't know if he'll attempt to find out, but I don't care. I fulfilled what I set out to do and no one can accuse me of buttering up the teacher (not that I need to butter up the teacher). It was sure a pleasure though. I was afraid at first he'd miss it when looking over the podium and think it was for someone else so I had addressed it to him at the top.

Also, because the wind was blowing so hard today, lots of leaves and such were all over the place. And... a shirt. It was actually a nice shirt (if you like black) with a collar, button up front, short-sleeves, and a collegiate emblem on the front. I looked around but it was kind of in the parking lot on the grass in between the parking lot and road. My guesses are that it dropped out of a car, or someone was hanging out laundry to dry and it just...... blew away. But what am I supposed to do? Will someone come looking for their shirt or should I go around asking people if they've lost a shirt? I don't think so. Should I have left it there? If so, then it would have made its way into the road and been run over I'm sure. So I weighed my choices and took it home. I'll certainly be glad to return it to the proper owner. I can just picture "Lost: Shirt" posters everywhere on campus.......


I guess that's about it for today, tomorrow is a new day with new dangers! Sorry for the lack of content on this "post-it note" entry :)