Comic

Here's something my brother worked on over this break. Enjoy!

http://www.box.net/public/oh3hnuzq23

Grand Update

This is partly for Sarah (who requested my take on how the printing press trip went), F.B., who I'm sure would have liked to know about that as well, and of course, the M.O.M. because I've been a bad boy lately and not kept up with all the nooze as I should have :(

This all probably /seems/ rather scattered. Don't worry, it is!

I think the last post that was lost had something to do with the trip over to Enid to give Austin a send-off and then a description of the trip to the printing press.

By the way, I had decided to discontinue the reading of Pilgrim's Progress in the 19th Century because the 18th chapter was in need of being almost completely edited out. Despite the very good points that the author would bring up from time to time and his putting the Revivalism of his day in a true light (and thereby showing it to be dishonouring to God), there were parts having to do with the atonement of Christ that I believe to be unbiblical and fallacious. So rather than trying to edit it all out and possibly missing something, I'd prefer to read someone whom I do trust and would be willing to recommend. Unfortunately I can't say that for Mr Weeks, as much as I've read of him. Hopefully these are things that were added posthumously and he is not to blame, but in any event, no more chapters. Sorry, I should have looked through it more carefully before I had begun.

Anyway.....

Austin's party was fun, Jonathan was taking myself and Jon over for the ride (and we'd pick up Ben and Greg). We took his car and frankly, I don't think he has ever ridden in the back of his own car, he claims that it's just as roomy as my own, which I contest vigourously. Jon had a late time at ROTC so we didn't leave until after 6:00 and then headed on to Enid. There was still plenty of things left to eat so we sampled a few things and continued on. Jon and Jonathan had planned a skit to show and had given me the quick rundown because I was to be the narrator/sound man. I gave a brief introduction and then started the music. Christy recorded it so I won't spoil anything, but it was a big hit and pretty much made fun of Austin, Mr Wagner, and the Air Force in general.

Then Missy said "L-, you HAVE to do your Gollum imitation!" When I showed signs of declining she appealed to the crowd with "Hey who wants to hear L- do his Gollum imitation?!" Talk about pressure. I did do the entire scene where Smeagol/Gollum has a conversation with himself, to the best of my memory (much longer than at the Talent Show) and Christy recorded that too, though you couldn't hear very well over all the laughter. Apparently it was well-received but I don't want to be perpetually known as the Gollum-man. Both times I was forced into it from crowd appeals.

Austin opened some gifts, which were very funny. There were a lot of gummy worms (apparently he's always opening up some can of worms or another at the study, figuratively) and a Napoleon Dynamite air freshener. We then spent some time playing Telephone Pictionary, which was quite amusing! I had never played before and almost didn't this time but was glad I did.

Basically you start off with a stack of small sheets of paper, you write something down on it, and then pass the entire stack to the next person down. That person sees what you wrote, places the top sheet on the bottom and then tries to draw it. Then that person passes it down, and the next person places the top sheet on the bottom and describes what was drawn. And so on. Example: Jonathan started out with "Obadiah" (which is his and Jon's inside joke having to do with Beer). So the next person drew a picture of someone getting a glass of beer from a keg. The next person wrote "Obadiah needs a refill on his beer" which was passed to me, I drew a picture of a person getting a glass of beer from a keg, looking sad (because the mug was empty) and then on the side drew a Bible with a cross on the front, a man with a mining cap and shovel, and two dollar signs. That was probably a bad move but I thought it was clever, it was supposed to signify a minor prophet ("miner profit") from the Bible. Well, it got passed down and around and I think it ended up with someone saying "a man inside a box", so someone drew a picture of a man's shadow on the ground with a box on top of him and the next person wrote "human pancake" and finally Jonathan drew a waffle iron with a man inside of it. That was probably the most hilarious one. I am SURE that Jonathan, Missy, and Anna were all purposely trying to mess things up though, you just couldn't get that far off on accident! :)

Mine, which was 'Babe Ruth' ended up being a robot standing inside a circle with a laptop computer and a picture of a Christmas tree. How that happened, I have no idea.

Now, in no particular order, the trip to the Printing press, or Quebecore I think it was called. Apparently it's the largest four colour printing press in North America, at least, and it's located here in Stillwater.

As a side note, the four colours are of course, black, yellow, cyan, and magenta. Many people (including myself until last year) thought that the three primary colours were red, blue, and yellow, but they are not, they are really yellow, cyan and magenta, at least in inks. You can make any colour from these three.

Now the three primary colours of light however, are red, blue, and green, which is why HTML codes are in sets of Hexadecimal, with Red being the first two, Green being the second two, and Blue being the last two.

As a further side note, Hexadecimal goes like this:
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F
And then starts over
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
1A
1B
1C
1D
1E
1F
20
21
And so on, up to 256 (in decimal) or FF (in Hexadecimal)

If you wanted to make a blue color in HTML code then, you'd write
#00000FF (meaning that Blue is at the highest and red and green are both zero)
Red would be
#FF0000 (red is highest and green and blue are both zero)
and pure green would be
#00FF00
Make sense? So just mix up a bunch of colours and you can make just about any colour, well, 256^3 or 16,777,216 of them.

#FFFFFF is a mixture of all the three colours at their highest value, which is white, and #000000 is absence of any colour, so that's black. If anyone happened to be interested in how these codes worked....... there ya go.

So back to the printing press. It was quite impressive. And noisy. There were ear plug dispensers all over the place though so we picked up some of those. Much of the plant is robotically controlled, they control the amounts of colour that go into the printing and even change rolls of paper when it runs out. The paper came in rolls that were about 4 feet in diameter and six feet long and weighed something like 5000 pounds! We were able to look back into a warehouse and they had several acres of these things stacked probably six high or so, tons, and tons (literally) of paper! Forklifts would go and get these and bring them to the printing press, which would automatically load them on and change the rolls. The paper was sent through at probably 30-50 feet per second, large rollers (which were dipped in water so that the ink would only stick to certain spots and not smudge the image) would make their impressions as the paper whipped by through the various colours.

The paper traveled back and forth at this breakneck speed down the length of at least a hundred feet, going up to the ceiling forty feet above and on diagonal rollers to change directions, it was really quite amazing. The final products would come out as little pamphlets and be taken away on a conveyor belt far above us, probably at fifty per second, easily. A man stood next to the conveyor belt and periodically took one off and examined it, adjusting the various levels of yellow, blue, and cyan to make the perfect image I believe. I couldn't see any change over the period he did it but obviously his eye was better trained.

A machine would stack the papers rapidly and send them along another conveyor belt where a robot would take the papers, pick them up and place them on a pallet, all in a certain order so that it would line up with the ones beneath oppositely (so they didn't all fall over).

That was the most impressive part of the entire factory I thought, though there was also a place where we were able to see the designing end and how they transfer the images to the sheets of aluminum to place on the rollers (and I was pleased to note that they used G4 and G5 Power PCs by the way.... those are Macs in case you happened to not know :D). They showed an "older" assembly line, where the papers went by and were labeled with mailing addresses and stapled at probably three or four per second. Then they were creased and folded and stacked, wrapped in plastic, and sent through a hot oven to shrink wrap them. A man would take the packaged stacks and put them on a pallet.

It was a most impressive factory and I was very glad for the opportunity to go there!

Now let's see....
Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to go to Tulsa. Alan had to go in early to meet with F.B. and some people on campus about something so I drove Philip out there to see the RUF that evening (since is a prospective student, had already seen the campus, and yet wanted to see RUF). I wanted to see all those "RUFfians" too, and was excited for the opportunity to visit. I almost felt bad though, as though I was cheating on good ol' OSU. I guess University Loyalty does reside in me somewhere.....

The ride over was nice and pretty, despite the brown grass. We got to a place where there was some road construction though and there was a truck with a small enclosed trailer (about the size of a two horse trailer) in front of me. I WAS paying attention but all of a sudden it looked like it had come to a stop and I made it to my brakes quickly and came to a halt, it looked like we had inches to spare. I was sitting there thinking how in the world I could have been so unobservant when I noticed that the tail lights did not function on the trailer. So I had no idea when he was slowing down or stopping, besides the rate of change of the distance between us (there is probably some derivative function available in that last sentence). That was quite dangerous so I left plenty of distance between us after that. It's amazing how much harder it is to see whether someone is slowing down or not when their tail lights do not work.

That reminds me of a story told by the associate pastor of Grace Community Church a while back, and one which I like to think I emulate. He said he was riding with a friend when suddenly an accident happened ahead of them. His friend was one of those few gifted people who when such an emergency happens, make it to the brake faster, but don't panic and slam on the brakes, thereby losing their static friction with the pavement (and everybody knows that kinetic friction is less than static friction) and sliding and losing control. Well, I was pleased that I had the sense enough not to slam on the brakes but apply them enough to come to a halt. Philip said he didn't see any clearance :D I'm grateful that God spared us from getting into a little bumper-bender like that, even though it probably would have been the other driver's fault for driving without tail lights, I don't know.

We first went to the boy's dorm and met Bob and Kevin, the former who is a Mechanical Engineer and the latter who is a Petroleum Engineer. He was telling Philip all the great things about TU, including that if you were a Sophmore or beyond, you didn't have to have any classes before 8:30! :D

F.B. showed up shortly and we took a quick walk to her room to see if Rachel was there, then went to the cafeteria for supper. I'd been told that the cafeteria food was bad but I'm having a hard time believing that, I thought it was pretty good actually! Bread bowls with beef stew. Admittedly I was also told that this wasn't the ordinary fare, in fact, a possible first!

A large table of RUF folks gathered and I enjoyed listening to the conversation and friendly banter that went back and forth, though it was difficult for me to hear things at the other end of the table sometimes. Crystal tried some fried Okra with her frozen yogurt, David took some and said it tasted oddly like funnel cake. A group of girls went around inviting people to lazer tag and handing out glowsticks. Mine (a blue one) died Thursday :(

Afterwards, we headed to the boys dorms again and stood in the hallway for a while while the boys tussled. I nearly jumped in I admit :), I was feeling a tad frisky. Asher ended up locking himself and David in their room and I was getting hot in the hallway (they must keep the thermostat high) and said I wanted to go outside for a bit, so F.B. offered to show myself and Philip around, to see the library and such. Philip already had of course but I was glad for the opportunity. We went in and up some stairs, past where there was a lecture in progress and into a large study room. I had trouble shutting the huge doors quietly. There were many books in the cases along the wall having to do with dissertations from the former students at TU. I opened one from the fifties and was amused to see a comparison of methods used in Engineering schools to the ones used in the industry. There were lots of funny things such as that Engineering students use a T-square much more than someone in the industry, they use a different type of lettering system, etc. I'm not sure how much of a help it really was, but at least it was fun to read!

We went around campus to some various spot until it was time for RUF to begin. I ran out to the car to get Philip's and my Bibles, then jogged back in time for it to begin. I was able to meet a few more of the people F.B. has mentioned and then the service started. There were couches lined out in the basement of the boy's dormatory so it was quite comfortable, and there were probably forty people present at least. John, the campus minister, gave a lesson on the last part of Ephesians 1 and I very much appreciated his sermon. By the time it ended however, it was past nine o'clock and I needed to get going home, so I said goodbye and Philip went out with me to get his bag from the car.

The ride home was uneventful and quiet. I spent some time praying and some time listening to a lecture from Dave on Contentment, made it home, and tumbled into bed. And that's about it. I've had a great week, see you all next update!

Post 160

Okay, well that's the last time I type everything up in Blogspot. I had a long post typed up about this past trip to the robotics and today. It took me about 45 minutes and then the browser crashed. I am not a happy camper and I don't feel like retyping it right now. Forget it.

I did go into Walmart today, after filming with JD I just put my jacket over the top of my Captain Thunderbolt "fan" shirt and I went to the book section to look for a book light. I saw this book:




And started laughing. From the book's inside flap:

"[as a boy the author often] ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)—in his head—as 'The Thunderbolt Kid.'"

I didn't even know that "Thunderbolt" was a proper term! But look at the shirt! Is that scary or what?! There were people standing next to me and I wondered what they would have thought if I'd ripped off my jacket and stood there with a very similar shirt on......

Sorry for the short post, but I'm not in the mood to retype everything. Grrr..... Microsoft. Operating System. Terrible. Sure, the box that comes up says "we're sorry" but does that make it any better?!

New Post

This blog is in serious need of an update. The only problem is that I don't remember everything that happened these past couple of weeks! It would come to me in time but I want to read a little this evening :)

I had some three exams the week before this past one, and one this past week. I did all right in all of them but there were a few silly mistakes I made. Ones which I really, really shouldn't have made! They weren't conceptual mistakes at all, nor would any amount of additional preparation have corrected those, it's just as dumb as writing down someting as Watts when it should be in Amperes. *sigh

As some of you may know, I had been asked by a boy named Will, to meet with him once a week. He told me that he wanted someone who could disciple him, something like a Paul and Timothy relationship. I told him outright that I was no Paul, but I would be glad to meet with him and we could sharpen eachother! He has a hunger for more knowledge, and a passion that would be great if pointed in the right direction. He is the type of guy who stops people on the sidewalk and says "how can I pray for you this week?" Very upfront, very vocal. He wants to go on a mission trip to Africa and we spent some time talking about that. His father (a professing Catholic) has said that he doesn't want him to go into a situation like that and he told him "Dad, though I think this is right and this is my life and I'm old enough to make these decisions, you're still my father and I feel I need to honour you and I won't go without your consent." He says he prays that God would break his heart down.

Will himself comes from a Catholic background obviously, but he has seen the problems with it. I asked him if he would mind going through the Westminster Confession of Faith, a chapter a week, and he said that he would like to do that. I did warn him that the Roman Catholic church would come up more than once in the discussions and he asked if they were "bashing the Catholic church?" To which I responded with a "Yes, pretty much." And he said "sweet man!" So that was encouraging. At least it's not something where he is still very defensive of them. I was encouraged and hope not only to help him grow, but to gain a lot myself as I try to read up and prepare for these weekly study times.

I finished Charles Hodge's "The Way of Life" this past week and I have to say that I highly recommend it. It's well-deserving of the title of a Christian Classic. There was one point that struck me on the last few pages. I got so excited about it that I wanted to mention it to the people in the hallway next to me (waiting for the class before ours to let out). The section (which was short) went like this:

"Jesus is a Saviour, because he saves his people from their sins. Those, therefore, who are not sanctified, are not saved."

He went on to talk more about that, but even that is hard-hitting in itself. Something I /know/ and have known, but never before shown in such light to my heart. It was as though suddenly I realize "OH! So THAT's the difference in people today!" You see, so many people, including the men I was with at a prayer meeting today with Dan, see salvation more as something physical. "Thank you Lord for giving us eternal life." Yes, that is something to be thankful for, but that is neither the object, nor the most important part of salvation. Most tend to view salvation as being saved from hell. Being thankful that now they don't have to be in hell for all eternity, or that they get to be with Christ (which is closer toward the true mark). I myself, when young, used to imagine heaven as pretty much just the opposite of hell. Being saved was "not going to hell."

The biblical view of salvation is much more than that, but for the believer it is salvation from sin. From the very presence of sin. It is the complete opposite of sin and a conformation to Christ! Many people today are apparently saying that one can be a Christian and yet still live completely in sin and never be sanctified. They can even deny the faith and turn to Buddhism, yet because they "said the prayer" at one point, they are truly "saved." But as was pointed out, Jesus was called Jesus because he would save his people from their sins! Someone who is not saved from their sins then, is not saved at all.

As a note, we cannot confuse sanctification with justification though. Sanctification is a necessary outcome of salvation, a necessary "stepping forward" of it (thus Paul can refer to believers as those who are "being saved" 1Co 1:18) but it is by no means a work we perform. We are justified when we believe on Christ, sanctification follows and is intrinsically bound to our salvation. We cannot be saved without it! A man whose passions do not change and who is still set again God, would be be ill-suited to spend an eternity with Him. I just want to be clear to draw the fine line between saying that "sanctification is necessary to salvation" (as though it were a work) and saying that "sanctification is necessarily bound to salvation."

Anyway, I was glad for the opportunity to muse upon this. I had the good fortune to run into Jon N. shortly thereafter and spoke with him about it. As well as F.B. later that night. And I plan on mentioning to Jonathan yet again. The more I learn, the more I realize how important and how central is our union with Christ.

And realizing that everyone else around me seems to know this already, and I did too, but I'm still excited about it!

Last Saturday, Elizabeth, Sarah, Dan, and myself went out to Gus' house to do a little work for her. We washed the car, swept out the garage, cleaned the wheels on a wagon, and raised birdfeeder so the squirrels couldn't knock it from below, among other things. We finished much earlier than expected!

Last night I went to see some basketball games that the Stephen, Laura, Philip, and two of the B. girls played in. I enjoyed all of them, especially the older boys though. The Kirby brothers are impressive to watch, and all of the N's hustle to their destiny and put their hearts into the game. There was this one lad on Stephen's team as well who always seemed to get the rebound, his arms were always in the right spot. I don't recall his number however. Most of the time I spent actually talking to F.B. in the back though. Relating muddled stories of a mission trip to the Philippines about 12 years ago, hearing about school and upcoming classes. I enjoyed the time very much. Laura stopped by for a little while and I pulled out a little bit of chocolate. Her jaw dropped and she stared, gaping for a long while. Then made a grab for it (and missed). Then she proceeded to tell me that the NBA players had to wear tuxedos while playing. I nodded along with "really! I didn't know that!" until F.B. exclaimed "Oh, don't believe a word she tells you!" I'm not /that/ gullible though, and I do know a little bit about sport. I do have a father who liked to watch the Laker's games when he had the chance ;)

Personally, I thought they were all "hotdogs" as our friend Mr Savage used to say.

Today I spent a little time finishing up some Statics homework for Monday, and Calculus homework for next Wednesday. Then I decided to download the manual for my TI-89 calculator and read it for a while. After spending about 45 minutes reading it, I was just shocked. It could do far more than I had realized. I played arround with three-dimensional graphs, directional fields (for differential equations) and polar coordinates. I then went online again and found a webpage that had very brief tutorials on various funtions. Again, I was flabbergasted! I was actually so excited about my calculator that I messaged my brother (who was online) and told him about it! This thing could solve second order ordinary differential equations! And Euler-type Differential Equations too! I sent three e-mails to my fellow classmate, Garret, telling him about my finds and bubbling over with excitement. I paced up and down the camper saying "Oh....Oh WOW!" to myself. I just couldn't stop.

Perhaps that's really nerdy, perhaps I don't get enough excitement so that's why I was excited especially about these things I've made mention of, but I don't care, it's amazing to me! If anyone want to see how to do a Taylor expansion, solve a differential equation, or even factor a number, I'd be happy to show them! I told my brother that I felt like sleeping with it under my pillow from now on. I don't know how I got on without this thing! I was dying here all alone, wanting to share it with someone (not that anyone would care to listen). I just needed to tell someone! I almost sent an e-mail to my calculus instructor, I wanted to see if my differential equations instructor might happen to be in the office today, oh, a number of things. It's hard being alone when you're just dying to share something! That's one thing I liked about being with my brother at home. Neither of us really talked much, but I have to say that he's been my "best friend" and it was nice to share things with him from time to time, even if there was silence in between. And it sure is nice to have someone to tell something to when something comes up. Instead of reading something (like one of my books I'm working through) and saying "whoah! Listen to this!" as I repeat it to dead silence :D

And on that diverging thought.....
it makes me think that it's not really necessary to be talking all the time to be good friends. Just being there to listen counts a lot sometimes.

Well goodnight, and sorry I don't have much more of an update.