Life and the Universe
I don't have a whole lot to say this evening.... at least I don't think I do. I'm kind of tired and will probably read some in my Physics book (the thing weighs a ton and is nearly 1400 pages long with 42 chapters) and then go to bed. We'll see. I've been getting to bed between 11:00 and 12:00 lately and waking up at 0600 so I'm feeling rather tired.... wait. I said that.
So let me see, I went to the men's prayer meeting this morning and really enjoyed the time there. I do not pray well out loud though (from an aesthetic viewpoint). For that matter, I don't pray well in private either, how pathetic I feel sometimes, not knowing how I ought to pray and feeling so superficial. This morning as I drove away I was praying "Lord, teach me to pray." I read an excellent book (yes, by Pink) on The Lord's Prayer and it was really, really eye-opening at the time and showed me just how lacking I was in prayer. I also read a quote recently that said something like "they who speak the most with God are the ones who hear the most." Yes, I do wish for that in my life, to desire, to long to commune with God all the time, praying isn't dreary, it is a gift and a blessing. Teach me to pray how I ought.
I also found out this morning that my customer for the Chemistry backed out on me, he gave no reason, just said he couldn't buy it. Now what if I had some other person who wanted it and I had previously turned him down? Wouldn't I be in a quandary? Even thought it looks like I didn't sell it, I'm glad I went this route instead of the bookstore because I made more money on one of the books I sold than I probably would have if I had sold all of them to the bookstore. And there is always next semester if they are using the same book! Never give up! Semper Fidelis! Or some awesome Latin phrase like that.....
Here is a quote for you:
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Which (I am told) roughly means "Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound."
So I headed to Physics class. The instructor seemed a little better today though she asked one of the students to help her with her microphone box (the wireless thingy) because she couldn't get the battery out, then she asked him to go to the office to get a new battery and in the meantime she was looking all around trying to find all the stuff she'd placed aside and then asked me if I could run to the office and get her some paper to write on for the lecture. But after that it was generally okay.
Then was Digital Logic, which was fun. They divided us into teams and the professor was ribbing the TA's because of what had happened. See, Fritz handed out all of the cards for what teams were assigned, but then he shredded the paper with the assignments on it (because of the social security numbers) but then..... the only record they had of who was on whose teams, were the cards they had handed us! He had neglected to make his own list beforehand. Lots of little things like that. The professor said that Fritz was just too efficient. We also had a little quiz sort of thing in which we were given 15 items and asked to rank them in order of importance. We had about five minutes to do it and I'll list them here so you can take the quiz yourself and I'll score you to see how you did, if you want :)
Here is the quiz:
The year is 2040. You are a member of a space crew that was to rendezvous with the mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. You experienced mechanical difficulties and your ship was forced to land about 200 miles from the point you were to be. During re-entry and landing, much of the equipment on your ship was damaged. Your survival depends on you reaching the mother ship. You will need to survey what is left that is useable and determine the most critical undamaged items that you will take for the 200 mile trip.
Your task is to look over the list below which contains the useable, undamaged items left on your ship, and rank them in order of their importance for your crew. Remember you need to rank each item in terms of its value in allowing you to reach the mother ship. Place the number 1 by the most important item and keep going to number 15 which will be the least important. Be ready to explain why you have given each item the rank it received. Use your knowledge of the Moon and its evnironment to help you make your decisions. When you are done please turn in the sheet to be graded (that means e-mail you answers to me at ShadowN64 at gmail dot com.
Box of Matches
Food Concentrate
50 Feet of nylon rope
parachute silk
portable heating unit
two .45 caliber pistols
one case dehydrated milk
two 100-pound tanks of oxygen
Stellar map (of moon's surface)
self inflating life raft
magnetic compass
5 gallons of water
signal flares
first aid kit containing injection needle
solar-powered FM receiver transmitter
So that's it, there was one person who got a better score on the quiz than myself (I wasn't thinking properly on at least one of the items and it threw the others off) but our group did the best out of the others there. They gave us a sheet individually (which we turned in) and then one for our group just to show us that gathering together and working together on something (combining knowledge) helps our score. We didn't get MUCH better than my score, but better than a lot of people's scores! There were a couple of points brought up that I hadn't thought about.
It was a fun exercise and it was interesting that we scored better than a girl that had taken the quiz before, the previous semester or something :) She was also my success coach last semester, I'm in the same class with her this semester but not the same lab group. She is Catholic and apparently got engaged on New Years. Umm. I don't know why I said that but anyway.
That afternoon I met with Pastor in the Student Union and we just talked about my goals this semester both academically and spiritually. It was a good time and I really enjoyed it. Then I came home and wasted some time on the computer. I need to regulate myself seriously, it just happens that I check my e-mail, then think I need to do something on this site, check my work queue, then check my e-mail again and then my other e-mail... browse a message board. Write a blog post. I thought computers were supposed to make certain processes faster! Instead, I find it consumes a lot of my time! But it's my only point of contact as well. I should just check in the morning and evening and see if I can do that, I feel like I'd be far more productive in the long run :)
posted by Shadow @ 5:34 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Today I was just talking with one of my friends about how time-consuming and distracting computers are. She tends to spend her time looking up pictures and things and making screensavers.
Prayer is one area where you can really see your human frailty. Because we are so easily distracted, it's hard to keep our minds fixed on God. It's ironic: here we have the greatest Being, greater than we could ever imagine, the object and fulfillment of all our desires, but we're distracted from speaking to Him and learning about Him by bits of books that men have written or little tinkering pieces of technology that don't even have their own thought processes. Sad.
Uh huh, and I tend to spend time on computers looking at e-mails and such and making banners and things :)
But there are times where I feel like I could cut down and not do quite so much, then again there have been times where it was necessary. Just yesterday morning I was slightly late to the prayer meeting because a young lady had e-mailed me (I'd never met her before but she had seen something I'd written online) and had some questions, she is struggling with a few areas in her life, friends, etc. It's things like that that really make it worthwhile, though of course I do spend some time on my own goofing off. That's one reason why I rarely, rarely log into AIM, because I feel like I spend an hour in some idle chit-chat and never get anything done (that and I've got lots of people that contact me to say hi and then start chatting, acquaintances).
Thank you very much for your paragraph on prayer, yes, that is how I feel as well. And a while back I started wondering why in the world a fictional book was more interesting to me than a book to help me learn about doctrine or some part of the Bible, or especially, why did I spend more time in that than I did in the Bible! It's not just a ritual or something I "have" to do, it should be my joy and desire, to spend all my spare time learning about God. What I do in my recreation time really does show where my heart is I suppose. I don't think this means we should lock ourselves up and never come out and never play games and stuff (okay, we can get rid of football) but just thinking about where the bulk of my time goes. That is why there have been times where I was to choose between studying a textbook or my Bible and the choice is clear, one has lasting value, the other has a value that lasts merely a semester or at the most, merely a lifetime. Not that I shirk my responsibilities, but it's just the principle of the thing. As I mature more, my heart is being changed more and I pray for more change! Yes, prayer, I do come to God for many things (especially when one is alone a lot) but not nearly enough, not nearly gratful enough, not nearly joyful enough and certainly not passionately enough. If I only showed the same passion in studying as I do in say..... writing long comments, then my life would be better prepared to serve God.
Shadow,
Here's a quote from Valley of Vision, a little Banner of Truth book edited by Arthur Bennet (pp 68, 69):
Thou righteous and holy sovereign,
In whose hand is my life and whose are all my ways,
Keep me from fluttering about religion; fix me firm in it, for I am irresolute; my decisinos are smoke and vapour, and I do not glorify thee, or behave according to thy will;
Cut me not off before my thoughts grow to responses, and the budding of my soul into full flower, for thou art forbearing and good, patient and kind.
Save me from myself, from the artifices of deceit and sin, from the treachery of my perverse nature, from denying thy charge against my offenses, from a life of continual rebellion against thee, from wrong principles, views, and ends; for I know that all my thoughts, affections, desires and pursuits are alienated from thee.
I have acted as if I hated thee, although thou art love itself; have contrived to tempt thee to the uttermost, to wear out thy patience; have lived evilly in word and action.
Had I been a prince I would have long ago crushed such a rebel;
Had I been a father I would long since have rejected my child.
O, thou Father of my spirit, thou king of my life, cast me not from thy presence, but wound my heart that it may be healed; break it that thine own hand may make it whole.
...end of quote.
I find that it helps to use the Psalms to help me pray. One can pray the words of the psalms as they apply to a situation. The prayers of the Puritans in Valley of Vision can be used in a similar way, but taking into account that they aren't the inspired Word of God. I thought the words I've quoted above were helpful, though, as I prayed for a soft heart before God, one which He can mold to be more like Christ.
I feel I too am just taking baby steps when it comes to prayer, though.
Calvin's Institutes also has a useful section on prayer.
-Arwen
Thank you very much Arwen, that was very uplifting and encouraging.
I've been wanting to get that book (Mr. Carroll showed it to me a while back, the first time I tried to go to the Bible Study) and recently I was looking around on Ebay and saw it in paperback and was surprised because I recognized the cover! It was a book that I had seen on my father's shelf and once I realized that I remembered reading the title but not knowing what the book was about. He said he got it as a free gift from Grace To You he thought. But I do still plan on getting a copy myself, as you said, not that it is inspired, but very helpful sometimes to read from men who were striving to walk close with God.
So if I remember my country music well enough (which is not well at all) then he probably told them it was a quote from the great classical poet: Willie Nelson?
Thank you for the quiz. I looked at it and knew my 55 years ago physics and so forth wasn't up to that, but aren't some of the things just naturally of no use? Matches without oxygen, boat without water, water very important and so on, the oxygen tanks would be necessary, but they would be weightless, wouldn't they? Please my curiosity is immense. Thanks for the rest of the blog, you always send me to bed thinking of things I haven't ever thought about very much, prayer has been on my mind a lot and I have a very hard time with it, I read somewhere that when you live alone, you tend to say little word prayers a lot as you go through the day. That is enough for me today, again thanks for thoughts. Gus
Shadow, I couldn't figure out that moon quiz to save my life, but one thing I do know: Pistols aren't worth much where there's little gravity and no atmosphere.
The Latin quote has been properly translated, and it's true that everything sounds impressive in Latin. Spanish sounds silly, Italian overblown, German harsh, and the Queen's English snobby, but Latin never fails to impress one. (thanks in part to Vatican City and the Holy koff Roman Catholics)
Holy Roman Coffolicism did you say?
I wouldn't have thought the pistols would work either, NASA said that they could be used for propulsion. Perhaps they have their own special type of cartridges, I don't know.
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