Leggo my blogger.

As usual I don't think I have much to write but we'll see if that statement holds true by the end of this post. I'll start with yesterday.

Church was very good, I got there slightly early. Sunday mornings I feel like I'm hanging around so I either study my Bible or a commentary a little bit and then head to church, I like getting there and doing something so I've been helping to set up beforehand. It makes me feel like I'm actually helping!

Pastor did the adult class in the morning, which was very informative and encouraging. He took the place of Mr. Yule that morning and he said that he was no Crescent Yule (that may take some decoding) and I have to agree! I really do enjoy Mr. Yule's teaching, though of course Pastor is great too, they are different and I enjoy hearing them both. I brought my computer to church just in case anyone expressed any interest in seeing e-Sword (I promised I would bring it) but no one mentioned anything. I didn't know if it would be something to announce or spread around. I guess I figured that a few might notice and realize what was happening. Did anyone check out e-Sword? It's really good.....

Mr. Van gave a meditation on Psalm 29, which was very good and heartfelt. I enjoyed his doing that. After the sermon and lunch there was the afternoon service which I always enjoy. I really like singing the Psalms and it has more of a "gathering" feel to it than the actual church service does. More of a family gathered together. More on Psalms later.

I drove G.W. to the Van's house that evening and we took a trip on over to where the Vaknor's live for the evening service. On that note I should say that I really do enjoy devoting the entire day to worship and study. When I go home in between the afternoon service and leaving for the evening study, I try to read a bit in Pink's commentary on Hebrews. He treats the subject very well I believe. There are a couple of things that I wonder at and I know he's just a man but I do think he is a very good Bible commentator. Most of his writings had to do with the encouraging and strengthening of believers around the world, which is why he published a magazine for so many years called "Studies in the Scriptures" of which he was almost the exclusive writer. He never had more than a thousand subscribers at a time but he felt that was his calling and while there was someone who was being blessed he would continue to write. This is a contrast from so many people that I have seen in my lifetime, who are in church either pastoring or doing some sort of teaching and they don't see massive growth so they become discouraged and think the Lord wants them elsewhere. Growth in numbers by itself is no indication of the Lord's pleasure, but rather spiritual growth. I get discouraged from time to time because although I have been to many message boards, posted long, LONG messages and been patient, I rarely see any fruit and I sometimes wonder if it is me being overbearing. But it is an encouragement to me, like on F.B.'s blog, to know that the Word will not return void. My mission is to "unleash the lion" and be a willing tool of God's, not try to do it all myself because I can't.

Anyway, I think I went off on a (Y2-Y1)=(dY/dX)(X2-X2) there......
The trip over to the Bible study in e-Bid went somewhat uneventfully, there was some conversations and I read a little in my book, I'm still behind in my reading for this Bible study so I'm trying to play catch-up while reading ahead for next week at the same time.

The discussion went very well, Mr. Vaknor led it as usual and we went through Hebrews 7:11-21 I believe. It's very interesting and I do understand how the Jews of that time would have had a VERY hard time accepting that their system was replaced so to speak, that there would be no more sacrifices? No priests? 1500 years of history and traditions wiped out? I imagine it would be very difficult indeed and the writer explains how Jesus is the sacrifice, Jesus is our High Priest and a perfect High Priest as that, one who according to the order of Melchizedek will be priest forever and not just for a short time. The new "system" is in every way superior to the old, but old habits die hard.

Afterwards there was some more conversation about various things. One of the groups consisting of the youth discussed geeks for some reason. I asked if I would be a geek and I was told that no I wasn't, geeks were ones who wore thick glasses and graduated really early. I had to suppress a grin. Because aside from the thick glasses I think I might be considered one (though mother refuses to let me call myself that). Graduated early, I sometimes wear a pocket protector, play video games from time to time, generally for competition or when a friend or three comes over, know a bit about computers and spend a lot of time to myself, which I don't particularly mind. I don't talk in a nasally tone about some psynergy upgrade in some RPG that you only get by playing 99 hours and leveling up all your characters though.... I think that's more of a nerd. Oh, you wouldn't believe how often people (in these "Geek central" places) debate whether they are geeks or nerds and what is the definition of one! Me? I'm an American. Violin said I wasn't a geek (I think that's her code name, otherwise online-A.L., not the offline-A.L. who goes by Tlepolemus online but that's not really her name.). Thanks for sticking up for me ;)

About 7 of us, sang a few Psalms afterward, I knew a couple of the songs and I tried to sing. Brother2 (not my Brother2, but F.B.'s Brother2 who goes by G.W. and F.B. goes by A.I.) and I were the Bass. I try to sing Bass and it honestly is my range but I have a hard time hitting the proper notes unless I know the song. Even then I am afraid I spoil it. I recorded myself singing one time and to my horror, though I sounded fine to myself while singing, when I listened to my recording, I was flat! I just hope I wasn't disturbing the others. I try my best.

Then on the ride home they wanted to sing more Psalms, as did I! I love to sing, but it was dark and well... I am still not familiar with a lot of apparent old favourites in the church. That was hard. A couple I knew a line or two from and on more I knew the tune so I would hum along to the best of my ability. My heart was there even if my mind didn't know the words. I grew up with Hymns and can sing those and remember all the words fine, but I'm still new to most of these Psalms and I certainly don't know the bass line on most of them! Mr. Y lent me a CD of New Song that I've been listening to and really enjoy. It helps me to get to know the tunes and words and even the bass line on some of them though it's not always that pronounced. So I really enjoyed the Psalm singing, listening but oh how I wished I could join! I'm learning!

So I arrived at my home and went to bed about 10:00, not too late at all. I broke out my sleeping bag for the first time since I had brought it up here from home. OH! It felt so good to get into my sleeping bag once again! I spent about two years in a sleeping bag (no, just sleeping, not full time) out in a tree house. Just the feel and the smell brought back very fond memories of backpacking, camping, times with my brother and I spent in the tree house. Very good memories. That and the really cold feeling when you first slide in. WOW! So cold it feels great! I also love being able to cinch up the drawstring and have my head covered but my face exposed so I can breathe the cool night air. When I was really young I wanted to have a blanket that I could do that with because on cold nights I would want to go under my covers but then I'd be breathing the same saturated air and after a while I couldn't stand it any more. So I wanted a blanket with a hole cut in it or something and I'd invent it and everyone would want one. Well, I never did, but when I first found out I could do that with my sleeping bag, well, it was love at first night (groan).

So then we come to today, that is if anyone is still with me.........

*crickets chirping*

Anyway, I got up and went to my Calculus class excited because our tests were to be handed back. When I got mine though I hung my head in shame. I had made a very dumb mistake on the last problem (draw circle on desk, bang head here) and was very justly marked off for it. That meant I ended up with a 95 out of 100. A lot of people would have been ecstatic but while I was glad I got a "decent" score, I was still kicking myself for failing where I should NOT have. When finding the area of a solid rotated about the x-axis, I had done the integral from 0 to 2 of pi(4x-x^2)^2, which is ridiculous! I should have taken the outer radius and subtracted the inner, like so: pi(4x)^2 - pi(x^2)^2. I apologized to the teacher. I knew better than that and felt like I'd failed her. She said that I didn't need to apologize, I had a good score! :(

But not one to dwell on it very long, by the time I had exited through the door of the classroom, I'd forgotten all about it and went on my merry way to Chemistry class. Today we were supposed to hand in our assignments that we worked on this last week. I had forgotten completely about it. Not that I hadn't done it, oh no, I had finished it last Wednesday so after it was completed I just put it out of my mind. Lots of other students were scrambling to finish it, copying eachother's papers. I worked out all of my problems with one of the TA Chemistry majors so if I get them wrong I can blame it on him!

On assignment days like this, people usually come in, drop off their assignments and then skip class, feeling they deserve it or something I guess. The professor has commented many times on just how rude it is to walk out on your professor so today he did something about it. After class had started and been going for a little bit, he mentioned the situation once again and then proceeded to hand out little slips of paper with a place for your section number and name. He said it was "pop-quiz" time! Everyone who could fill in their name and section number got at least 10 extra credit points, while those who belonged to the class and yet didn't fill out a slip (which would mean they were absent), when the time came to make the cut in grades and it was very close between a C and a B, guess what they would get?

The students were all delighted, I found it quite amusing myself. Serves those guys right for skipping class, we can all rub it in next time. The guy sitting next to me joked that he hadn't studied for it, to which the teacher replied that well, it was an open-book quiz and we were allowed to use programmable calculators if we wanted. It was rich.

My Economics class was canceled today and I knew that, but I dropped by the room just in case. No one else was there so I guess they all knew today was a day off. Me, I like to check in just to make sure I didn't misunderstand. On the way back to the car I was just dying for the crosswalk to turn while I was still a long way back. Sure enough, as I came over the top of the hill, it turned green and I couldn't help myself. I had to make a dash for it! Students were crowding the sidewalk so I vaulted the grass divider and into the bike lane. There were no cars on the road and also no bikers, but I could outrun most of the bikers anyway). I heard a couple of exclamations as I dashed down the street but I was oblivious to everything, caught up in the thrill of just letting loose, backpack swaying madly from side to side, legs pumping, eyes intent on the goal. I reached the other side before the students waiting at the crosswalk had gone across. I leapt over the curb, across the grass and onto the sidewalk before slowing to a walk. I don't know why but sometimes it is just so fun to well.... run! I don't do it for show at all because I'd do just the same if I was the only person there, I do it for the action, the excitement. And someone out there is thinking "you need a life mate." Perhaps, but I enjoy this one while I'm here. *grins*

Speaking of grass..... (here comes the random thoughts of the day section) I saw some today that was coloured, it's normally brown this time of year but they painted it green. Now that is funny to me, I remember seeing it last year during the winter back where my parents live, but seeing it again reminded me. People paint their grass. Hmm. Okay. Funny!

And in the news!
Renne used a technique, known as argon/argon dating, which measures two argon isotopes. It can date rock from 2,000 to 4 billion years old.

The British-led team primarily relied on carbon-14 dating of underlying sediments to come up with their age of 40,000 years. The carbon method can't reliably date material older than about 50,000 years.

Um.... and I just have one question. HOW do you know it's accurate? How do you test it? I mean, I could say that measuring the weight of an object over a period time indicates how old it is. If I weighed it today and it is 3.001 grams, and weigh it again a year from now and it's 3.000 grams, then I can make the assumption that every year, it decreases in weight by .001 grams. So judging by the size that it once weighed about 100 grams, I can correctly assume that it is 97,000 years old! That's ludicrous but it's pretty much how these systems work. They figured in this thing that it must be over 1.2 million years old because it looked like a human footprint and since humans didn't exist back at that period, it must be older than that because of the rock sediment it was found in and not be human. That makes no sense whatsoever. How do you tell if argon/argon dating is accurate? How do you know Carbon dating is accurate to even 50,000 years (which we know from the Bible is not accurate)? You're just making an observation and saying that some action has been occurring for thousands of years. They measure something back in 1950 and then measure it today and get an estimate based upon the difference. Are the measuring instruments used different than they were back then? More accurate? Different methods used? Then how, with something as small as the replacement of carbon over time, can you say how accurate it is? I've heard of many things of which the date was known, being incorrectly carbon dated as being many thousands of years older than it actually was. I guess they realized that the carbon14 dating system was "outdated" so they came up with this Argon/argon system because THAT is more accurate. Men try so hard to blind themselves.

My water is boiling. I've been enjoying a few cups of hot chocolate. I rarely have it and I haven't had any for quite some time so this is a treat! I normally don't drink anything hot, certainly not coffee, tea every once in a while if it's good tea, and hot chocolate perhaps a couple times during the winter. I guess I normally drink milk or water. Today I made my chocolate, went to do a few things for about five minutes and came back and it was barely warm. Kind of like a glass of water at a normal room temperature.

When I went to do dishes today (for er.... the first time in a month perhaps) the water wouldn't come on. Something had frozen underneath so because of that, and since my choclate had cooled down so quickly, I turned on the heat and within a half hour the pipes had melted, the faucet first dripping slowing and finally gushing. Thankfully nothing had broken. I guess I'll leave the heat turned on after this, set low so nothing will freeze over. I did just a couple of days ago switch to my second bottle of propane. It should last until after finals, when my parents will be taking the fifth wheel out and I won't have to worry about conserving it anymore. Not that I really have to worry now, I just make myself believe I do.

Here is a quote from a secular person, but one that I felt aptly described most of mankind:
If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going.
- Professor Irwin Corey
Now though most people don't like to think about it, that is SO true! This man undoubtedly had another intention in mind. So many are in the town of Destruction yet when warned, they pass it off as fanaticism, or just someone trying to make them lose their self-esteem or something else, deceiving themselves.

The Internet has been down nearly all day today so I'm writing this in TED Notepad (which is much better than Microsoft Notepad, let me tell you!) and hopefully I'll be able to post it tonight. If it's posted late then you'll know why. I guess that's nearly all I have to say tonight. Oh, pray for those with allergies, apparently there is a bit of that going around (F.B., Mr. Y in particular that I know of). And on the subject of prayer, I'm thankful the presbytery meeting went well. I was concerned about that.

I was told that my posts are long. I knew that, I also know that it's undoubtedly boring reading, but since I don't have a journal, this is my place to organize thoughts and share them with whoever will listen. I was also told that some people "skim" through my posts. But then you miss the best parts! When I'm writing to someone on a board, I'll often be completely misunderstood because they skimmed. I try to let every word carry weight, they are ALL (well, almost) equally important! So when a person on a board misunderstands me, it's because they didn't read through my post thoroughly, I can show them my quote. I made it clear, but they didn't read it. Perhaps that's my fault because I write so much. I don't talk much so perhaps it's my way of making up for that. Anyway, I had to insert that random comment ;)

You know, speaking of long posts, I just realized that I have hardly any hair underneath my wrists from resting them on my laptop keyboard here; A sure indication that one has typed too much so I'll close. Good night. :)