Sunday, October 30, 2005

D.Lo Responds to Post Comments (Part 52)

I don't know how many times I've done this so I'm giving it the arbitrary number of 52. So without further adieu, the comments on the "list things" post I posted a bit back:

k-po said: why are you up at 3:54 and please don't share what you are doing with your bodily fluids.

See list. As for bodily fluids, I want you to know that I have to pee right now. Not a lot but a bit, as in I'll probably be going in about ten minutes. And now I'm done saying things with that detail forever, as far as blogging goes.

And on the spiritual growth post:

nana said: just wait till you are a woman of an age old enough to have made all the changes one should ever have to make, and then be asked by God to make some more. Oh, wait. You'll never BE an old woman. Me bad. You're right. it's called spiritual growth and as long as we are spiritual beings we grow or we die. you've learned a large lesson. you are also right. it's scary.

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that whole striving-my-whole-life thing, but Who I'm striving to follow makes the effort worth it.

l-po said: Things would be less scary if you'd get MORE SLEEP!

Not in this area, they wouldn't. Oftentimes I get the most sleep when I'm most frail, and most scared, and that's during the time I often have growth. I can almost guarantee getting more sleep would make me less stressed, but spiritually I'd be just about as scared.

k-po said: stop thinking so much and get some sleep. didn't you learn anything from me on the ride to newberg? we learned how to get to the soccer field :P

I guess I didn't learn anything except that on the ride to Newberg. Actually I'm sure I learned lots of things. And yeah--not here so much, but in lots of places--I do think too much.

Eventually I'll get the rest of the Lord, Liar, Lunatic stuff up. Perhaps tomorrow. Goodnight and God bless!

Growth is Weird

College is weird. Spiritual growth happens in obscure ways. In scary ways, even. I'm growing in other ways, too, but that's the way in which growth has been, well, really different. With academic growth you basically start with a basis of facts and then move more and more into critical thinking while maintaining a factual (or at least plausible theoretical) basis for these thoughts. But with spiritual growth you are often forced to do things that are downright scary. Rethinking my views on the war in Iraq during high school was one thing. Being told more than a few times that I needed a serious adjustment in lifestyle (which I have, often in a halfhearted manner, made), and realizing that doing it more wholeheartedly is very scary, is quite another. The second of the two is more terrifying for me, because it means I--not just one belief about this or that, or whatever, but I, me, down to my very core--it means that I have to change, and I have to give up the complete control over these changes. It's much more terrifying realizing that the problem with my Bible reading habits isn't really in the habits, but in something else, than realizing that I might have been thinking wrong about politics. Academic and spiritual growth can't compare. Both are challenge--at times one is easier than the other. But in terms of fear, in terms of how scary they are, spiritual growth is definitely the more intense.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Just So I Have a Post Today

List of things done "today" (Friday-Saturday Early AM):

Physics lab. It'll run into Sunday, but we worked pretty well!
Messing around.
Philosophy table at lunch.
Messing around. A bit of reading of The Bluest Eye.
Dinner.
Donnie Darko with friends. Movie put on by Sociology Club, or something.
2nd half of Donnie Darko with Tyler, who got a call from his girlfriend and thus had to skip out on almost half of the movie.
Finishing The Bluest Eye. About 100 pages read today.
Checking Matt's blog and trying to say something helpful.
Sending e-mails, including one to a friend over in Iraq.
Blogging this.

Getting offline, peeing, and then getting to bed and soon to sleep.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Wow...Check out this post delay.

Almost TEN DAYS since the last post. Here's what's goin' on: I don't feel like posting the Lord, Liar, Lunatic thing right now. Maybe way later when I'm up for copy/pasting. I'm going to be going to visit Joel (kokosmasher) at George Fox on Saturday assuming there's no hangup on his end. Started The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, which is around halfway done now. Interesting book. She's a good writer. Imagery is good. I'm not entirely sure what the message of it is, although there definitely are some racial image themes. One of our paper options involves why she uses the superlative Bluest as opposed to just Bluer or Blue. I've got a couple of abstract ideas on that one. Hope to have the book finished by Friday evening/night; then I can do the paper. (In case you really want to know, that paper's due Tuesday. I've worked on this schedule before and gotten Bs on both of those papers, so there's no need to be concerned about that.)

Getting back English midterms and the equivalent of a Spanish midterm tomorrow. Also I have a Calculus midterm test (yes, I'll be doing a couple more practice problems, but with most topics I won't need too much.) Thankfully my lack of a TI-83 won't hurt too much. Dr. Hallstrom assured me that he doesn't assume any calculators are had and doesn't necessarily expect a nonvariable value till the final answer is given. (Actually, both of my Calculus/Physics professors recommend leaving answers as variables until the end...)

Over break I got to hang with Colin, introducing him to Chrono Trigger. We also played some Soul Calibur II, which he pretty much won, and a bit more balanced few rounds of Super Smash Brothers Melee. Also I hung out with Matt (over at PCC), a friend from De La Salle. We played SSBM and SCII, and I dominated for the most part in the former and was dominated for the most part in the latter. I hung with Kayla (also at UP) and Mariana (back from Beloit for her break) on Wednesday for a bit. They're doing well, and it was fun to have coffee with people. I hung at De La Salle for awhile then, harrassing old teachers. After that I got to hang and play Tetris Attack with my little cousins at my grandmother's. That was awesome. The younger seems a TA prodigy, and the older dude is getting better all the time. It's mind-blowing being challenged by these kids. Thursday I hung out with Doug in Lake Oswego and got to see a park there which was pretty cool. We also saw Wallace and Gromit's feature film which was a fun movie and quite family-friendly. Pretty much the rest of the time I was having awesome burrito-dinners with family or playing video games. Or doing homework. Can't forget that.

Goodnight and God bless. Got a bit more Calc studying to do, a bit of hangin' around do to, and a bit of sleepin' to do.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Adventures in Philosophy: What Capitalizaiton Can do for You

nana said: hope you got some sleep, dear little Daniel man, and that you did what you needed to do on your mid term. thank God for mid term breaks. sleep it away.love you oodles and gobloons.Lord, Liar, Lunatic. i love the alliteration. interesting study. please let me know your conculsions. what does Chesterson say?

I'm not going to quite sleep away my Mid Term Breaks, but I'm off to a good start in that department. Physics was an interesting test and I'm a bit nervous as to what the grade is. I hope it will be a B, at least. Other classes seemed to have gone fairly well. Not sure about English. English I also am hoping for a B. I've gotten a B+ and a B so far on Orr's papers; hopefully on an essay exam it's roughly the same.

As for Lord, Liar, or Lunatic: I diagrammed the argument (I'll post the diagram in my more awake hours, later "today") and showed it to the professor I've been corresponding with (name / last name withheld for confidentiality reasons.) We had a lengthy discussion about a lot of things, but that argument was one of them.

In particular we've been doing (and did again) a bit of hair-splitting over the meaning of the phrases the Son of God, the son of God and sons of God. (This is important because Lewis' argument rests in part upon what claims Christ made, and so as such when Jesus claims to be "the Son of God" it would be best to make sure we know what He means. Of course I've taken my side on that one, but the professor is a philosopher and we were looking at the argument skeptically, and some of his theories about the meaning of the words as such were taken into account. Vital differences:

"the son of God" -- refers to only one, and son isn't capitalized, which serves as the difference between the wording used with Adam and the wording used with Jesus (with Jesus, it is capitalized)
"the Son of God" -- only used in reference to Christ, or in reference to claims Christ is supposed to have made about himself.
"sons of God" -- refers to lots of things, including (quasi-angelic?) beings in the Old Testament. But it's plural, suggesting that it's not an "only one" as the first two phrases are.

Capitalization marks the difference in terms of the word Son vs the word son. Wherever "son of God" refers to Christ, "son" is capitalized. It might not seem like much, but when a translator decides on that one letter they make serious implications. Bear with me if you don't understand just yet.

When using the word "God" vs. the word "god," the capital G makes the difference in determining whether a false god or the One True God is referenced. The same thing applies in the phrase "son of God" vs. "Son of God"--except that the uncapitalized letter doesn't denote anything especially false--just that the word works in a different sense.

So I conjectured to the professor that, given that we could know how a translator determines to use the capital S, so that we might be able to judge the system of determination as good or bad, we might be able to know, to a better degree of certainty, exactly what claims Christ made about himself. Of course I already believe I know to a very good degree of certainty. One day I do intend to attempt to peice together the system that a translator will use for determining where that capital S is used and where it is not.

The most amazing realization that came out of that discussion was that there really was so much of a meaning, so much of an interpretation, in that capital S. Consciously or not, they will confirm the hypothesis that, in Scripture, capitalization is helping them to tell the difference between false Gods and the One True God, between the sons of God, the son of God and the Son of God.

I'm also forcing myself to read Karl Barth this week. If I have to read Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye) I might as well also read some of, if not all of, the selection of Barth's Church Dogmatics which was in our library. I'll have more on Barth, and my diagram and further analysis of Lord, Liar or Lunatic later.

Teaser analysis: Granted:

- a slight reworking of the argument for more formality, implied steps and less-harsh rhetoric
- replacing Lewis' conclusion regarding one's reaction to Christ's claim with a more specific conclusion that is often given it, and may have been given it by Lewis outside of the argument as presented by the excerpt

It is quite credible to say that, whether the argument itself is sound or unsound, the argument form is perfectly valid. That is to say, if everything Lewis takes as a given is given him, the conclusion can be proven logically.

Oh yes. As for Chesterton...he wasn't alive when LLL was put out. Or do you mean in terms of proving Christ's divinity? Anyway, good night and God bless.

Friday, October 14, 2005

For the Record, I Can't Sleep

I was going to sleep at 11:00 PM tonight. 11:00 PM. That would have been very, very nice. But I stayed up. And then realized at 12:00 that I couldn't actually sleep. I laid awake for about a half an hour and then came to my computer, in theory to blog. So here's a blog.

Did I mention I'm having trouble sleeping and have my last midterm at 8:10 AM tomorrow? Eventually I will become tired enough, and will sleep. Or my eyes will sleep and the rest of me will lay awake feeling like life is horrible becuase I have a midterm at 8:10 AM tomorrow. Fall Break's coming just in time...

I'm going to go to the Philosophy Table tomorrow. Er, today. Maybe while I get sleepy I'll do a bit of research and e-mail one of the professors who does it about our Lord-Liar-Lunatic argument correspondence. Currently we're trying to determine possible exceptions to the argument (plausible we haven't touched too much, at least not that I know of) and are currently splitting hairs over what Christ meant in calling Himself the Son of God.

My research tonight: Where Scripture refers to the sons and/or daughters of God and whether in any case they are referred to as not being adopted. This is a vital component of the discussion because can potentially affect one's interpretation of Christ's claim to be "the Son of God."

If anyone's got any questions they can feel free to ask. I haven't exactly established what the LLL argument is yet; I need to make sure I look it up tomorrow, or something, too, in its original form. Eventually I'll diagram it logically.

Goodnight / God bless.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Funkasaurus

Next week is Midterm Week, after which comes Fall Break. Awesome? Yes. Worried? Not yet, but I will be!

This is my three-or-so-minute post. After I'm done listening to the current song I'm going to abruptly end it, and then pee, and then sleep. Or something. Because I have a lab at 8:10 tomorrow morning. Actually this song's pretty good. My first listen at that. John Kelley's "Funkasaurus"--it's on music.download.com if you want it.

Lots and lots of fun today. Today was a good day. We read "My Last Duchess" in English. After someone got the interpretation I found out the poem is actually very, very creepy. Part of me feels like I've read it somewhere before or at least heard what it was about...Either way, English was good today. So was Spanish--best class I've had these last two weeks. Calculus was better than it was on Tuesday, because today I actually made it.

Well, about twenty seconds left. And there it goes naming the post "Funkasaurus." Before the song gets too far in and I am forced to listen again I need to go pee. Maybe I'll listen once more before bed, but the post stops here. Goodnight and God bless.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Easy Mac

Hey. Short time, no post. I like to give readers a good two-or-three days to read each post--that's about how long they take on average, judging from the way everyone else talks about their length.

Anyways, something shorter today. Poetry regarding the making of Easy-Mac.

"Easy Mac"

Easy Mac.
I put noodles into a bowl.
Put some water in, too—
And hit the button on
The microwave. In minutes the
Timer goes "ding!" and I
Reach in and try to
Grab the bowl. And then
HOT SCALDING WATER POURS OUT
HURTING MY HANDS WITHOUT REASON,
And I wonder just how
Easy this Easy Mac is.

Easy Mac.
I clean noodles from the
Interior of the fancy microwave
Which is one of the
Expensive things in my room.
I scoop what I can
Into the bowl, add the
Orange powder cheese, stir, and
OOH HOW MIRACULOUSLY GOOD THESE
CHEESY POWDERS AND NOODLES TASTE.
But I wonder just how
Worth it Easy Mac was.

Poem Structure, to whomever gives a crap: Each stanza is made up of one two-word starting line (“Easy Mac”) and eleven lines with five words each.

I actually really did enjoy that Easy Mac, once I had it made. It was too much fun. And yes, I really did burn my hands (not as in permanently but as in "Yes, the water really did hurt."

Anyway, I have three classes tomorrow, and the first one's at 8:10 AM. Following that statement, blogging is done, and other activities will soon be.

Monday, October 03, 2005

I'm Not Going to Pretend

...That I have some sort of profound title to give this post, because I don't. I've been thinking of writing some poetry recently. Not sure if it'd be worthy of being posted up here. And by poetry I mean actual poetry, not the stuff I often do that floats in the ethereal void because I call it lyrics and it never gets recorded.

Homecoming was this weekend. I didn't go to anything--the dance or the game or even the float competition. I didn't see many drunk people, either, or at least none that I knew were drunk. But on Friday, when my roommate Tyler came to Colin's place to watch Boondock Saints, he said a lot of people were drunk in Kenna. It wound up being a bunch of people watching, two of whom had seen it before and four of whom had not. The two who had seen it loved it, and the rest of us thought it was alright. Well, I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it.

Boondock Saints is a fairly good movie, if you look at it as a movie. Some of the jokes are fairly funny and the plot is original, at least. And the way the thing is put together is very good. The biggest issue isn't the plot or even the violence--it's the fact that the script-writers felt the need to insert the F-word every few seconds, almost arbitrarily.

That night Colin and I hung out, staying up way too late after other people went to bed. The next night I was also up too late, except that this time it started with me, Colin, Courtney and Rachel--and then from about 2:30 AM, for the next two hours, Colin, Courtney and I hung out in the lobby of Mehling hall. For absolutely no good reason. Colin and I hung out at the crossroads between Christie, Kenna and Shipstad for about ten minutes on the way back, noting that if public safety dropped by we would be unable to prove our sobriety. We had after all been up obscenely late two nights in a row.

But I neglect one detail about Saturday. One very major detail. On Saturday I went to the wedding of someone from my church named Nicole who married this dude named Scott who--I found this out via Pastor Gene's talk during the service--met on a blind date. It was a good wedding. I didn't go to the wedding of my cousin Nate and his now-wife Brit, but I'm sure they had a good one as well. For some reason I haven't asked my parents how it went yet--perhaps they or other family readers could enlighten me via blog?

Oh yes. Because I watched Boondock Saints the night before, I also had the F-word running through many of my thoughts on Saturday. I literally had to clean up some of my thoughts before allowing them to be verbalized. I don't think I even knew my brain could insert the F-word in so many sentences until I had to censor it out of so many.

Just a note here that I never intend to give a last name to any of these people via blog, and a request to readers that if they know the last name they not use it in their comments--if they do the comments will be deleted to protect my friends' privacy.

Oh yes. Today I discovered a very fun song. It's called "The Boxer" and it's by the Chemical Brothers with Tim Burgess of the Charlatans as guest vocalist, the groove bends genres as much of their other stuff does--a dance-worthy and hip-hoppy, techno-groovy, funky, just plain awesome track. I'd recommend it to any of my readers. I've been listening to the stream almost nonstop, and I think it'll be the other Chemical Brothers song that goes in my iTunes, whenever I get around to signing up for a music store account. Note to parental readers: Since I have no credit card and don't want to establish credit right yet, any ideas on how this could work?

I even made an N map mostly while listening to "The Boxer" which I named after the song, because pretty much whenever I've been playing that map or editing it I've been listening to the song. Awesome groove. Go here if you feel so intrigued by my intrigue that you absolutely must hear it.

Oh yes, I also saw Red vs. Blue for the first time this last week (last seven days). Red vs. Blue is a whimsical take on Halo, a first-person shooter made for the X-Box. Using the game the creators of this (cartoon?) make it look as if it were just a bunch of real characters interacting and fighting. There are some very nicely done shots as well, and a plot that I look forward to learning more of once the rolling archive gets to the point of my being able to download every episode. The last one made was actually the first one I saw, and it was pretty good. You could go to RedVsBlue.com if you wanted to hear more and download that episode, which by the way is #62: Lost in Triangulation. Be warned that neither Halo nor RvB is suitable for young children in terms of violence, and there's a bit of language in RvB (while it's definitely bad enough to exclude young children, it's not as much as Boondock Saints and is used to much better, more comical and less over-the-top, effect). Also, the humor in RvB is very goofy. Do not approach it totally from a "smart" humor point of view. It's sort of smart-stupid humor, in a way, and there's a couple of awesome verbal/conversational gags in Episode 62.

I think I'll let that be my post for the evening. Goodnight and God bless (cite comedian mentioned by my Dad earlier here.)