...And Now For Some Answers!

Okay, first of all I need to tell you all how orientation went. Then sometime vaguely after that there'll be some descriptions of what I'm taking and how on earth I expect to pass any of it. You might be saying "yeah, yeah, the 4.0 student thinks his classes are hard, whatever." You, whichever you it was thinking that, do not have Spanish 301 when you tested in the 200s, which you are pretty sure is going to kill you, or at least make your head explode with words you don't know and people all around who are twice as fluent, at least.

You do not have Jazz Band when you're out of practice and barely reading any sheet music, and someone with your instrument (and it's a one-player instrument, bass guitar) is already in the band, and he's good. (On the off-chance anyone reading knows him, I'm not dissing him. He was quite welcoming and understanding, as well as reassuring. For that matter, so was the director of Jazz Band.) You do not have an integrated Physics and Calculus course which could actually be a challenge. You do not have an English course which is for better or worse shaping up to be the easiest thing on your schedule, and that's with three readings (I plan on playing about an hour of bass today. Trying to read this peice called 'Brazil.' If my bass-playing Uncle sees this, any tips on that peice?)

And you, on top of all that, do not have a very sincere friend who wants to transfer to a higher level of Calculus (what I will be doing second semester) and wants you to come with him, very much. And you may have one of these things (if you also have that very last item, please let me know; it'd be an incredible coincidence) BUT you do not have ALL of them. If you DO have all of these things, call me or e-mail me ASAP, because that means we really have a coincidence.

So there you have it; I'm stressed about lots of things. Parents were IMing me awhile back and from what my Dad said I sort of said something that hurt my Mom, regarding their IMing me. So I'd like to apologize for that, because I know she's one of my readers. Sorry Mom, I didn't mean to hurt ya.

And in all of this I managed to lose the orientation. Orientation was okay, and the best part was just getting to hang out with people and meet cool people. There's still a couple of student orientation things left, in some sense. We've got to see some one-person play called "Dissolve" about some serious issues regarding parties and such (the title should give you an idea of what it's about, so I'll be discrete here.)

Today, what's on the schedule:

* Work on my English and Spanish homework, which means a lot of reading and writing in English and reading and attempting comprehension (and, at least as instructed, sans dictionary.) English should be decent fun, though. This'll be after lunch, probably in the library.
* Practice my bass for at least an hour, work on speed and technique as well as learning Brazil, so I can play it as un-crappibly as possible tomorrow, when I get a chance to play. Not sure when this'll happen as dorms can get noisy. Tyler (my roommate) will probably be studying
* Go to bed at a godly hour (i.e. really around 12:00) so that I can get up properly for my 8:10 class.
* Blog (that's being taken care of now.)
* Lunch with Doug from Christie Hall, who's one of the cool people I met while on the Service Plunge (in about forty minutes from this typing is when I leave.)
* Stop using so many parenthesis (those things that you put around side-comments or other things that for some reason can't be / aren't being done without parenthesis) in my sentences (those things that have subjects, direct objects and a few other things in them, like verbs (action words) and adjectives (description words.))

Oh yes, on top of all the other crap going on right now I still need to find an on-campus job. Fun. So, on to your questions and comments from the last post and from the one before it. The one before it, since it was an earlier posts, is going to be taken care of first.

L-Po said: Please, please, please tell me you made it to class on time.

Actually, yes. So far I've been making it to class on time. The classroom that I have my 8:10 in has a clock about ten minutes slower than every other clock I use getting to class, which is nasty and nice at the same time (nice because I get there early, nasty because I can't exactly rely on it well enough to start coming "late."

llgp said: So, how was your first day of classes? When is your first Spanish class (don't forget to talk to the prof). Is Tyler in the class with you or is he in a different section. (It might be nice to have a class or two in common, but not so many that he has to put up with you all day long!) Any more job interviews or applications? I have many other questions I'll hold off on for now.

My first day of classes was interesting. I got to Physics alright; it's going to be a difficult class not to sleep in. Not that it's particularly boring, but that it's a) long and b) at eight freaking ten in the morning. My first Spanish class was at 11:20 AM yesterday, and I did talk to the Prof. I'm going to roll with it, but don't expect an A. If I get one it'll probably be as much the grace of God as my hard work. And I'm going to have to work really hard. Tyler's in different section. No more job interviews or applications, per some sentence I wrote earlier in this post.

Michael Millar said: Alright! Big man on campus. Good luck with the year. (oh yeah, Ive got a show so deep and confusing that I'm stumped to say the least, its called Neon Genesis Evangelion. You might want to look into it. Its filled with tons of christian symbolism and mythology.)

Yep, I am a big man on campus. But some are bigger or at least taller. As a matter of fact one of my fellow Kennadians (peeps who live in Kenna) refers to me as "big guy." I've heard of Neon Genesis Evangelion. If it's on Adult Swim on Fridays or Saturdays I might bug some other UP people and get together and watch it in someone's hall's lounge, or something. Intervisitiation policy regarding times people are allowed to be around don't apply there, so going past 12:00 AM or 2:00 AM as the case may be doesn't result in your getting in trouble.

nana said: Daniel...Daniel....Daniel.
Peace be with you

And also with you.

So now we come to the comments from the last post. Here they are, along with responses!

L-Po said: Just remember ... naps can be a good thing. [AND, she later said:] Also remember that Dad and I are praying for you, even when we are incredibly annoyed with you.

Naps can be a good thing, yes. Thanks for praying even when incredibly annoyed. I might nap today, but it won’t be too long. I think I’m going to “Dissolve” tonight; it’s required viewing.

Nana said: IF you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, THEN you will not be royalty during the French Revolution

Interesting. Never thought of it that way before.

llgp said: Wise sequencing of the peeing and bed-going activities!
Eagerly awaiting your next post.

Yeah, I didn’t really feel like wetting the bed in week one. That would have been just a wonderful way to establish a reputation. By the way, I might need some money soon, or my cash-card, for campus events and to pay back Kenna Hall because the key’s been lost twice in the last two days, counting today (first time’s free, second time’s $1; I don’t know how I lost my amazing don’t-lose-my-key ability, but I’m now on extra key-sensitive alert getting it back.)

That's the end of my commentary on the comments section...By the way, a word about making plans via blog. If you have a question about when I can see my l’il cousins (and that would be cool) or a question about when I can do this or that, or something on some specific day, that’s awesome; let me know. But if it’s something that’d be done today or tomorrow, I’d prefer that you send me an e-mail or give me a call instead, because those things are better forums for things that are happening in that near of a future. I hope that made sense. Voicemail is not yet set up, but you can try calling my Kenna Hall room anyway. I miraculously managed to leave my cell-phone at home, so that will not work, at least not until my parents can bring it / force me to carry it for emergencies.

So one more thing about today. I had Physics and was told to do the pre-lab before Friday. What I'm not seeing is how that's possible, given that most of it is a lab. I'm thinking I might have actually done the pre-lab already, and just don't know it. I might ask someone else in Calculus/Physics what they think about it, because unless I go to the open lab with at least one lab partner I'm not seeing how the assignment can get done pre-Friday.

Well, now it's nearing time for me to head to lunch (we're meeting around 12:00) and I don't want to leave this blog open all day, so I'm going to close the post. Tomorrow expect some stuff about how Dissolve was and how on earth I did in Jazz Band. I've been lazy on the bass and now I have to "face the music," pardon the bad and intentional pun.

Yes, I Will Eventually Answer Your Questions

It's late. Very late. I have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow, not the least of which is an 8:10 AM class. So I need to sleep. Now. I will eventually answer your questions. Please do not ask more questions regarding the post time. Socially and academically I am going to grow much. I will, when the posts are made, let you all know what classes were like today and tomorrow. I am now going to pee, and go to bed. Thanks for understanding. This will be on my list tomorrow, along with a bunch of homework.

Service Plunge and Other Things

The service plunge was fairly cool. My group got to do some cool stuff, like wash windows and scrape tape off of wood in a classroom being rented out by the Sun School, or Head Start, or something. The in-between time, the non-service time, was alright, but not the most fun thing ever. I met a couple of cool people from Christie who I've been hanging with during orientation as well, and a couple of other people as well. I'm not sure exactly how much I remember of orientation. Anyway, on to the many questions, and then to bed for me; I have an 8:10 AM class!

L-po asked: Have you shaved? Interested mothers want to know.

I have yet to shave. Should I miraculously find time tomorrow, I will do that. I already have to shower tomorrow, and get to class on time; -however- I will make a point of showering sometime tomorrow so that I can be cleanshaven for a week at least, or something.

llgp asked: Did you take your vitamines? Did you shave (notice the clean faces of your male friends)? Did you make a plan for how you're going to get up on Monday? (I think you should be in charge of getting up--emphasis on the GETTING UP--and turning off the alarm, since you're on the bottom bunk.)And most importantly, did you cry yourself to sleep last night when you realized that your loving parents weren't there to tuck you in, read you a story, and sing you bed-night songs like usual?

No. No, but see above. Yes; Tyler's alarm is set. And no, I didn't. I was too busy hanging out with cool people, including one of the peeps from Christie and someone I know from summer session who's on campus.

L-po asked: Have you pooped since Wednesday? Inquiring minds want to know.

Yes. I am not going to go into further detail via blog.

kokosmasher asked: Dude! I have to pee, too! Sweet!

Yes, I know that's not a question, but it's funnier saying "kokosmasher asked:" for that sentence. And yes, that is sweet. Make sure you pee before your bladder overloads and you spontaneously combust. (Note: The scare tactic contained in this advice has not been verified by my Kenna Hall peer health educator.)

k-po asked: I miss you already. Please poop for your mom and shave. Don't forget to change your clothes before you go to bed then you won't have to dress when you wake up. Remember to slow down when you talk. Only members from the island of danocrotesland are able to understand danocrotese spoken by their leader danocrates. So slow down there young one, you don't need to get there so fast. Before you know it I will find your school schedule and will be stalking you on campus :O)

Again, I know that's not a question. Don't worry, I will do those things, and I have been changing in the mornings. I think I've had to slow down once or twice. Interesting wordplay in the denocratesland sentence--intentional? Don't worry, I'll slow down when necessary. Don't stalk me on campus. I will call public safety, or whoever I call/talk to.

nana said: my dearest, most delightful, most deliciously wonderful Daniel. a man has to do what a man has to do.

Okay, so I got sick of putting "person-X asked" for everything, because it's not fitting or funny anymore. Thank you for your support.

k-po said: Good luck tomorrow.

Thank you for your support.

Thanks to everyone who's written stuff and asked questions and been so supportive of me in coming to UP and getting adjusted. My adventures shall be continually posted on this blog, ideally a post a day. Enjoy! And now I must sleep.

I'm at UP!

Here I am in Kenna hall, making my first on-campus blog post. I haven't blogged in a couple of days due to the Service Plunge, but I am blogging now. It's been a fun couple of days and I'll explain more later; lots of orientation stuff long gone now, and lots more to go. One of those weekends that feels like a week--it's that cool and that scary. I've made a few (defined as 3+) new friends and I'm sure their names will pop up on this blog sometime. Anyway, I have to go, because I must:

A) Pee.
B) Get water.
C) Meet friends in the downstairs lounge.

Post all of your mom/dad/aunt/relative/friend questions here; if I can I will answer them here. Chances are I'll be able to!

Snohomishfest 2005: The Sidebar (Updated)

Why am I calling this the sidebar? A sidebar on a webpage is often the thing on the side that has your menu on it. Which doesn't mean that I'm going to be giving you the Freedom Fest "menu," so to speak. Rather this will be an informational sidebar: the stuff about Freedom Fest that didn't make it into the first post will be covered here.

First on the sidebar: We didn't have the same interesting preacher as last year's Freedom Fest, BUT we did have this guy, Judah Smith. His job was to be louder than the band, and to create questionable biblical connections. And as Shawn put it, to play off the crowd's "adolescent egocentrism."

The CDs I got are also worth a mention, because they are cool. I picked up Jars of Clay's album The Eleventh Hour, which makes them officially the most-albumed band in my collection at four albums. I got the classic Echoing Green album Supernova, which had originals of two of my favorite EG songs: She's Gone Tragic and Liberation. I owe Shawn for finding that one for me; it's now one of my favorite albums ever. I got the best of DC Talk (the album was Intermission) and what I've listened to of that sounds good. I got the first Tree 63 album as well, and what I've heard of that is good (of course "Joy," "Treasure," and "Look What You've Done" are awesome songs.) There was also an old Myx records sampler, and a sampler of singles which I got mostly because PAX217's "Til the Sun" was on it, and that's just an awesome song. My iTunes library grew considerably. Shawn was able to pick up the Supertones Hi-Fi Revival and an All Together Separate CD himself.

Other bad bands: Zeo Doxa, which somehow is managing to do humanitarian work in Africa. My theory is that they start playing, and then take donations so they'll stop. And that's how they raise money to do their work in Africa. The MC of the event, Frank Montgomery, also did some "worship" at random and with a band. Ginny asked "If this is the worship, then what were we doing before?" Who else was bad? Hrm, we avoided KJ-52 on night two, but we still could hear his music; about half of his songs seemed like they were covers or stolen from someplace. He did freestyle, but I didn't hear enough of that to know whether he was any good. He also played his infamous ode to Eminem, "Dear Slim." Who else was bad...there were one or two other bad bands whose names escape me. There was one that was rocky, and their lead singer couldn't really sing that well. And numerous fringe stage bands that weren't really that good. One last "bad bands" quip was Alicia's note about Seventh Day Slumber's "bragimony" (the bragimony in question being HEY SONY AND UNIVERSAL OFFERED US MAINSTREAM DEALS AND WE SAID NOOOO.) Shawn theorized that the only reason they didn't take it was because, unlike some other bands like Skillet and Switchfoot, the music doesn't have a strong enough message on its own not to require preaching in-between songs. With the exception of the innocence song, that seems fairly accurate, although to be honest I am sometimes unsure of exactly how much of a message Switchfoot and Skillet music has on its own.

Perelux (a good band) would have been there, and would have been good, had they not for some unknown reason cancelled their show. I know someone who takes guitar from their lead singer / guitarist; I think I asked him to ask their lead singer about it.

Other magical musical musings (alliteration was a virtue this weekend, apparently Alicia is a fan of it as well) include the fact that not one but two artists on day two, Riley Armstrong and Shawn McDonald, stuck the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" verses into their songs.

We also saw one of Shawn's friends from high school, a guy named Luke. He was at the Narnia booth promoting the new movie which was, well, based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He actually ate hot dogs with us on night two, and was going to join us for dinner on night three, but that didn't work out for some reason I don't yet know. He was a cool person to meet.

Oh yes, the chicken. Rooster, rather. We had a rooster which came to hang out with us as we made dinner by the road. It was lured in with tortilla bits by Ginny, and then Alicia and Shawn chased it away, and I got the chase on video using my Shawn's small camera...I look forward to seeing that one again! We got to hang out with the rooster twice, once for each of the last two days. That was fun stuff, and he was a funny little thing. Whenever I have pictures from this Freedom Fest thing (the Judah Smith picture was from the FF website) I'll make sure to put up a couple.

Shawn's hearing was amazing this weekend. He couldn't hear anything I was saying, it seemed--often Alicia had to translate for him. Just about every other word that came out of my mouth missed his ears. I'm not sure exactly why. But it wasn't just when we were all up in front or anything; it was the whole weekend.

Let's see, what else...I think that about covers it, actually. Have nice day, and God bless!

- Edit at 1:42: I also didn't wear sunscreen the second day, and today my ears proved it. I should make sure to get outside plenty in the next week, maybe actually preserve a tan for once. -
- Edit at 2:21: There's a few things I put in, like names and more details. Plus the Shawn's hearing section and updates to the "bad bands" section.
- Edit at 2:48: I just keep remembering details.

The Passing of a Great One

I said I'd be doing another Snohomishfest post today, and I am not. I will do that tomorrow, or the next time after that that I can blog. Today I will dedicate the post to the passing of one Robert Moog. (It ryhmes with Vogue, as opposed to having a "moo" sound in it like I thought it did.) Moog synths are among the most well-known in the world of electronica, and they have been used by some very famous non-electronica artists. In fact one article called Robert Moog the father of electronica for creating the Moog synth.

Moog synths have apparently been heard in songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Yes and Herbie Hancock. That's cool. They were also used in a movie which has a name which I forget. This is stuff I'm gathering from articles. At any rate the Moog has been highly influential. It is very sad; Robert Moog passed away at 71 due to an incurable brain tumor. Here's to Robert Moog for helping to give birth to one of the greatest musical revolutions ever, and for in the process contributing to smaller revolutions in many other genres.

Snohomishfest 2005

A post draught? Drought, sorry. Draught is some kind of drink. I'll admit to having one before Snohomishfest, but during the festival there wasn't much of a good time to blog. Just watch me make up for the draught. Just watch me. Drought. Right.

This year's end-of-summer time meant the continuation of what is becoming a tradition of both mine and my older college friends; this tradition is going to Freedom Fest, a Christian Music Festival in Snohomish, Washington. For the reason that it is held in the town of Snohomish (a nice rural community) one of the friends who I've been to Freedom Fest with has nicknamed it Snohomishfest. This friend, whose name is Billy, was unable to come this year, which was a disappointment. However the weekend was still one of the best I have had this summer.

It began with a drive, being picked up by two of the people in my four-person group for the multi-hour drive up not to Snohomish but rather to the house of Alicia, girlfriend of one of the people I was riding with, Shawn. The other person was Ginny who drove much of the way and did a lot of cooking during the festival. The deal was that we would stay at Alicia's house; Sawn and I would stay in the backyard in a tent and the two girls in our group would stay in her house. Her parents were quite hospitable, inviting us for lunch two of the three days we were there. When we reached her house, someone (I forget whom) continued the Freedom Fest tradition of finding a bee in the car. Last year, Billy had eloquently shouted "BEE!" leading us all to rapidly exit the vehicle.

The bands were many good and many bad, as at many festivals, I'm sure. The highlights included Falling Up, Superchic[k], Tree 63 and a local/regional band called Endeavor.

Endeavor I suppose I should name first--they were one of my favorite bands of the weekend. They managed to get on the mainstage during the first day, without even having had a CD out yet. That was pretty cool. They then proceeded to wow us with their crazy guitar-work and awesome songs. I'm going to be watching for that CD. For now look them up on purevolume.com and listen to the songs they've got there. My favorite I don't remember the name of. A warning--they are loud. Very. Their guitars scream. But if you listen you can tell they are talented; I wish them all the best in the world of Christian music and music in general.

Falling Up, for those of you who don't know, have a song out on the few good Christian radio stations. I don't remember what it's called, but the chorus has the words "Father, healer, deliver me from brokenness" in it. They were fairly hard rock. Good stuff. They also had one song that they played, apparently about some sad small-town situation in Oregon, where they are from, in which the lead singer seemed to randomly shout out "Disease kills without discrimination" or something along those lines. That was incredibly funny, and I don't think anyone in my group knew what was up with it, or if it had some connection to the actual song. Two other random facts preceded and followed up the song. If anyone knows which Falling Up song this might be, feel free to let me know. They were on night one, followed by Seventh Day Slumber. More about SDS later.

Superchic[k] I have never seen before live, but am glad I did. They play mostly pop-punk stuff, and many silly songs, but their attitude and the serious songs point to Jesus. One friend pointed out that they're a very girl-power band, which is made more interesting noting that only two out of the current six members are girls. The guys sang a song about waiting to kiss guys--that was entertaining. ("Some princes start as frogs, and all gentleman as dogs; just wait till it's plain to see what we're growin' up to be. Some frogs will still be frogs, some dogs will still be dogs, some boys will become men; just don't kiss us till then!") I found that on a lyric site, then modified it for better readability. They were on night two.

Tree63's concert was awesome. It was the last of the last night, and it was a very fun and worshipful experience. It also helped that, unlike with many other bands, I knew at least half the chorus of multiple songs. My group got to be in the front row, which was also fun stuff, if a bit crowded. The song "Joy" went for about ten minutes ("Let me be a shining light for You; let me be a joy to You always") and was awesome. It was especially fun in the middle, when the lead singer requested that the audience peopel with cell phones take them out and wave them around like "lighters." I participated in that, and they even got the light-people to turn the stage lights down/off for it. Quite a fun experience. They were on night three.

The laughable concert of the weekend was Seventh Day Slumber. SDS came out and played a bunch of songs in which lyrics and music do not match (a happy tune for the words "Over and over again, I'm spiraling into nothing!" and a very angry tune for the words "GOD GAVE! ME BACK! MY INNOCENCE!") The part about losing their innocence; the anger made sense there. But why the anger at getting back one's innocence? Making fun of these two songs is a Freedom Fest tradition which was started by Billy and Shawn from some other time they had seen SDS, and which I began to take part in at last year's FF. They also played a song called Candy, which was written by the lead singer for his wife. Apparently, it is no longer written with his wife in mind, and at least according to his present explanation was originally written about Jesus. Were I his wife, I would be concerned for his sincerity, if not feeling a bit slighted. If he had simply given the song a second meaning, that would be okay--but what he did was just lying. Other than that, however bad they are lyrically, the band was musically good and does seem to be basically sincere in their drive for Christ.

We attempted three Bible Studies, with at least two being somewhat successful. The first time around we tried Obadiah, which was fun to read (pounding our fists at the "wrathful" parts) but not really too educational, as given our lack of knowledge about the book we were really only able to discern that someone was going to be punished badly for turning away from the Lord. The second study was the Book of Jude. That was fun because I got to learn from people about the mention of one of the "Lost Books" of the Bible, and we got to ponder the meaning of that verse about Michael the Archangel not rebuking Satan himself, but saying "the Lord rebuke you." The third study was on First Peter. We avoided largely the subject of predestination (mentioned in the first couple of verses) but read verse-by-verse with continuations on complete sentences. Since we had at 2-3 NIVs and one NASB (in NASB sentences are longer) it was an interesting time figuring out precisely whose turn it was. But it was good. Fewer wrathful parts, and stuff about being strangers. Interesting.

Sunday morning we went to the church of the girlfriend of my friend. It was a Free Lutheran Church. I didn't find out what separates Free Lutherans and Free Methodists, and didn't ask. But it was rather interesting to note that when the preacher noted important calendar dates for the kids, he noted Reformation Day. Ginny noted that it might have been to give an alternative to mentioning Halloween; I suggested it might have been just because they were Lutherans. Either way.

I didn't wear earplugs the whole weekend, and someone suggested there might be a ringing in my ears. I think there might have been after the drive back home, in which I thought I knew the way to go, but was in reality directionally challenged/confused. After seeing Tree63, we went to Alicia's house to drop stuff off, said goodbye to Alicia and set off, because Shawn had to be at work today at 11:00 AM. The drive back home was fun. I got to hear the Echoing Green album (Supernova) that the friend-with-the-girlfriend-whose-house-we-stayed-at found, and I bought, as well as some of Five Iron Frenzy's last album (the Cheeses of Nazareth, I believe.) The two of them drove on the way back; I talked to them on the way back, and at one point we three collectively made up a story sentence-by-sentence. No real animals were harmed in the making of the stories.

I am surely neglecting some detail of this (in fact I have yet to mention many of the wonderful CDs I got and will likely get, among other things) and these will be covered in the next Snohomishfest 2005 post. I wasn't sure I'd end up with three whole posts for these three days, but it's going to be at least two. I can't make it one post because I'm already eleven minutes past bedtime at this point in the typing, and need to get to bed. God bless you all, and goodnight!

- EDITED on the 24th at 2:15 PM for a bit more detail and names.)

The De La Salle of Hazards?

One smokin' woman does not a good movie make. I went to see the Dukes of Hazzard with some friends tonight. It was an interesting movie. I can't say I actually saw the series itself, because I didn't. But from what I'd seen in the previews I got the impression that the movie was more about Jessica Simpson's body than, say, the interaction of the other two Duke cousins.

In case you're wondering, at least in the movie, the name comes from the last name of the three cousins, Duke, and from the name of their home county, Hazzard. I honestly can't remember right now what their names are. Bo, Daisy and...the other dude's name escapes me. Anyway, there was some decent characterization there. I actually did enjoy the interplay between the two guy-cousins. They're supposed to be like best friends, and they are. And they're both a little crazy. Their personalities, if nothing else, are the shining point of the movie in my opinion.

But there is one other thing. What car chases there are are comedic and awesome. One of them even has a direct tie to the characterization, and they all involve the personality. It's actually not that bad of a movie. The problem is that it isn't that good, either. It has its moments (especially the (highlight to read spoiler) jump onto the highway. My friends and I didn't laugh all too hard, but the people around us certainly found it amusing. Overall I'd say one thumb up for the decent characterization and decent plot, and the better jokes. One thumb down for all the jokes that missed.

After seeing the Dukes of Hazzard, we later went to another friend's sort of "last-get-together" party. We all had a great time hanging out. I got to play Up-Words with people, which was cool. i actually got the word "Taize" in. How exactly is beyond me, but that rocked. Pretty soon, though, we started making exceptions in spelling and other things that are probably rules or are rules in the game. We had no rules with us; we were just guessing on what we could recall of Scrabble.

Quite a good few (and quite a few good) people were there. A friend going to the Midwest for college who I am going to miss much; another going to New York who's awesome. Kokosmasher, who I'm going to see again before we ship off to our colleges, I'm sure, but it's still good to see him. He's awesome. And of course my fellow De La Salle people who are going to UP. And someone going to Santa Clara, who I've had many a fun conversation with. A friend going to Knox, someone to PCC, two or three to Portland State University. A good friend going to Clark College. A guy I know who I forgot was going to UO, not to OSU (there is a huge difference between those) who tried to persuade me to side with the Ducks. I said "no," being the Civil-War neutral person that, given my choice of friends and God's choice of my family, is a necessity of survival.

I talked to a friend online, after getting home, who said he'd come from someone's goodbye party. He's going to PCC, that person's going to Dominican, and another friend of mine and theirs is going to be going to St. Mary's College of California. (They're not the only De La Salle Person doing so, actually.)

It's all quite crazy. And of course on top of this is a good and longtime friend whose goodbye party was last Wednesday and who leaves for Colorado State University later today (as in Sunday.) Plus another who's going to Seattle Pacific University, and another who is going to Oregon State University (this paragraph was just the church people whom I'll be missing this fall.)

So we talked and hung out and hugged and now, save a couple of hangin-out things I got left to do with a couple of people, that's pretty much it, at least until Winter Break, when I see church people at church and fellow De La Salle alumni at whatever the Alumni gathering is. I feel like saying something inspirational, at least I vaguely feel that way, but not much is coming. I might have used it all up at Graduation. But here's one bit anyway. (The "miss yous" and very last part of course is only for people I will be missing; thankfully a few of you awesome folks will be within hangout distance.)

We're going to be scattered all around the country. I'm going to miss you all terribly, and at the same time I'll be adjusting to new friendships and a new class structure and all of that. I wish all of you the best and I hope to do my best myself. May God bless you and guide you throughout your college years, especially this first Semester / first Trimester. Looking forward to seeing you all whenever there's a chance!

Another Picture

Goodness, this is almost turning into a "photo" blog--this one's not a photo, though. It's a scanned picture that I made a bit ago using pencil and red pen/marker. Fun b/c it's only two colors. It has been posterized with the GIMP to make the two-color effect greater. The title of it is "Romance"--but don't think of Romance in the sense of what it means today. Think rather of the older sense of the word. Hope that helps. Enjoy!

Oh yes, also there is a question as to what's with that last picture. It was taken on a bus-ride to or from Colorado in 2003 for the International Youth Conference. I don't remember if I took it myself or if a friend did, but hopefully that helps. I have got to come up with some newer topics. For now, just enjoy the picture.

I Suppose I Should Post Something

Late-night blogging is taking its toll. I seriously need to move this activity to another part of the day...And here I am, setting the record for the shortest KKairos blog posting ever. Tomorrow's topic: How I got the name KKairos! For today, enjoy this sample of stuff I'm scanning.

This One Will be Short

Just thought I should blog once today, and let all of you know that with the recent paper turned in, my summer session has officially been finished! It was a wonderful experience and I am looking forward to more in the fall.

Papers I Got to Write:

The Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hahn on Peace and Reconciliation (assigned topic and title)
Upside-Down Cake: Descartes' Search for Certainty (choice topic)
How Sufi Mysticism Differs from Traditional Islam (choice topic)
The Libertarian's Problem (choice topic)

Goodnight and God bless!

Phantom Hat Syndrome

Anyone reading this ever have phantom hat syndrome? It's crazy and a bit trippy to have. It's when you wear a hat for a decent amount of time; then, taking the hat off, you still feel it there. It's like phantom limb syndrome, but better. Why, you ask? Because it doesn't involve losing a ligament, of course! But anyway, it's fading now. But once I put my UP hat on again, it'll probably return.

Well, now my summer session has ended. I just finished doing in-text citations on my philosophy paper tonight. That'll get turned in tomorrow. Class this semester was a wonderful experience. Having one's worldview dismantled in class to see where the flaws are and where the good things are is a good experience. People should do it more often. My worldview survived the experience pretty intact, but I have a much bigger appreciation for the possibility of my being wrong. Of course Pascal's Wager does do some good there (there are some objections to it, but it works fairly well for one who already believes) but it could also do good for Judaism and Islam. Oh well; I'll have to deal with that fact later, whenever it is I actually sit down to decide whether or not I'll ever use Pascal's Wager to help describe why I believe.

I am also more interested in exploring inclusivism and pluralism as honestly as possible, to see how much merit they really have. Probably where they do have merit it will be on an insignificant scale, and it probably won't involve Christianity. I think as to that, even after a class in which, among other things, there was talk of how religions influence one another, I will probably find my former beliefs confirmed. Maybe I'll be begging the question there, but I'm a bit cynical on the subject of pluralism.

(On a side note, pluralism is also a common term for a philosophy in which the universe is made up of more than one substance, e.g. Cartesian Dualism. Found that out trying to do a search for the meaning of Pluralism.)

Now I have to follow up on that spend-time-with-leaving-people thing I was talking about. Lots of people going far and far away...Goodness, that last line sounds like the start of some lyrics or something. Maybe it'll become something, later on. I sort of want to go for an obscenely long post, but I'm not actually up to it tonight. So I'll leave you all with that. Goodnight and God bless!

Another Night, Another Post

Weird. Even though I'm listening to a trance remix of a garage-house song, I just randomly had the chorus of the OC Supertones' "Another Show" pop into my head. Anyone who like me knows that song well enough to get the chorus in their head (probably not many people) will be able to sing my post's title.

One day left in the Summer Session for class. One day. Then a paper, which I think I'm probably going to finish tomorrow night. At any rate it's got to be done by 9 AM on Saturday. Got a pretty nice start on it today, for what that's worth. Well, yesterday, technically, but for practical purposes it's sort of the same "day"--I haven't had that break of sleep yet.

pjammers, in response to the post a couple of posts ago, wrote: "Yo, D! I wouldn't mind viewing some of your photos from categories 'A' and 'C'... that is, if you don't mind sharing. :) p.s. Glad to hear you did well on your Philosophy test Monday!" I'd be happy to share some. For those who don't want to go back and figure which categories A and C are, that means my Graduation/Baccalaureate/Senior Party and my Junior Year. So here goes... This first one's a picture of me dressed up as Doc Gibbs before the production of Our Town, which was by the way De La Salle North Catholic's first play ever. Rockin', huh?

And of course I'm also thinking that I should post something from Baccalaureate / Graduation / Senior Party, so here goes on that one...
This is a picture of me during my speech at De La Salle's graduation, which was held in the amazingly huge (as in, if this is a school assembly, it's our biggest ever) Immanuel Temple. It's really not REALLY big, but what it is is bigger than anything we've ever had an academic school event in before. That's not saying much, but it's something! Anyway, here I am giving the speech-thing as one of the De La Salle Christian Brothers looks on. I have no idea what I was saying at the time. But it looks kinda cool. I remember when I actually gave the speech, as opposed to just having written the thing, and people started describing it as a sermon or as a preaching thing. I was actually a bit taken aback, thinking I had made stuff subtle enough so as not to come off that way. Not that you shouldn't preach, but I knew Graduation wouldn't be the appropriate time for an all-out Sermon. (Not that no other speakers gave sermons; I honestly don't remember well enough to say. But for me, it wouldn't have worked.) But I went for the more subtle side and I guess people picked it up anyway. Good for them, and I guess good for me; I guess it's possible to preach and evangelistic sermon without actually preaching an evangelistic sermon?

For the record, a lot of this stuff is me trying to fill blog-space; I practically established an expectation for myself in the first couple of weeks to be a bit long-winded, and now my penance is to fulfill it. Tonight's wordcount is upwards of 500. Dunno what my actual record is for one day. Probably around 1000 somewhere.

Plans to Give You Hope and a Future

Llgp, in response to my last post, asked me: “Did you forget about your Monday Philosophy test or did you just think it would be fun to see what effect sleep deprivation would have on your grade point?”

O ye of little faith—for the benefit of you and every other reader, I aced that test. So no, I did not forget about my Monday philosophy test. In fact, I read/skimmed my notes on Sunday night, and had already been paying—GASP!—actual attention in class. So I knew stuff pretty well. I was worried for a bit I’d mixed up some of the identity theory, but I guess I didn’t.

And also, I felt it would be good to include some of the fruits of my labor in this posting—so I’m putting up an image that got scanned in Sunday night, made into a separate image either Sunday or Monday. Unfortunately I had to use the GIMP on this one to get it down to size—Blogger frowns on anything above 50kb. It’s the huge honkin’ cathedral at St. Mary’s College of California, where I went for a Lasallian Leadership Conference last year. If De La Salle people look closely they’ll see the adults from the De La Salle trip in this picture, on the far left.

My big question regarding the file sizes I ended up with is this:

When I scanned these in, about four photos per scan seemed to yield about 200 or so kb per scan. So four photos = 200 kb, so you’re thinking one, once they’re split up, should be about 50 kb. But when the photos are split up, into smaller sections, they yield upwards of 300 kb. You’d think, just logically, it’d be more like 50 kb. Oh well. Maybe it’s the way they’re being saved? I am saving in a pretty high-quality JPEG format—higher quality than the initial scan, probably. But the quality I’m saving in is “100” whatever precisely that means, and the “average” (at least according to the GIMP) is “85.” Go figure.

Two days till the end of summer session. Then one last Philosophy paper to write before Saturday, and I’m done with my first semester of college (yes, this does count as a semester. So while I won’t be a fifth-year Senior, I will be a three-semester Freshman.) One of my friends is having a birthday party soon and is leaving around mid-August. It’s crazy stuff. The thing this summer really has me wishing for is more time. Just more time to spend with people, to get to know them, to not take for granted that the people I’ve known these four years are just always going to be there. Obviously, taking that for granted, if and when I did, was nothing short of stupidity.

Some people whom I know from De La Salle are coming to University of Portland in the fall. That’ll be nice. The ones living on campus are all in the same residence hall as I am. That’ll also be cool. It means there are people I’ll be able to keep in touch with regularly, and that’s always a good thing. But the people from church are all going off to other Universities, two of which are out of state and one of which is Oregon State, down in Corvallis. And of course one of my very best friends, J.S. Morgan / kokosmasher, is headed to George Fox University this fall, so you’ll get to hear how his adventures down there are going.

I’m thinking of the verse in Jeremiah which says “`for I know the plans I have laid for you,’ declares the Lord, `plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Unfortunately, even though people have been telling me this verse all my life, I don’t know the reference off-hand. Let me grab my small Bible and look it up. Okay, here it is. It’s Jeremiah 29:11. Interesting some of the stuff below it—often this verse gets yanked right out of context. The next two verses: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13.) Fun. That last part hits hard; I have a feeling that if I ever hear a sermon on that one, it’ll be one of those "ouch" ones.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Which, of course, I’ve never done really well. It’s good to be reminded of all the times we fight God instead of truly seeking God. It’s good to be reminded that we seek and find not halfheartedly, but when we put our all into the pursuit of God.

Scanning Photos

Blogged from 11:41 PM on the 31st of July to 12:33 AM on the 1st of August

I am currently scanning pictures onto my Mother's computer so that I can burn them to a CD and transfer them back to my laptop. If you understood that, kudos.

I'm doing so because my own computer has no scanner, which is fine. This scanner insists upon scanning everything twice--once a "preview" and twice the real scan. The big question I have is that if I already know exactly how a layout I've put down into the scanner will look, by virtue of previous experience, why on earth can't the "preview" be optional? It helps, but after awhile it's redundant.

So what is in this group of pictures being scanned? I am scanning select photos from:

A) Baccalaureate and Graduation, and my Senior Class Party
B) The trip that some of the Ambassadors took to the LaSallian Leadership conference in Moraga last summer.
C) Junior Year (a little bit of the school Auction aftermath with parents talking, a picture of me before performing Our Town and a few pictures from before my Junior Prom.
D) Random family gathering, includes me, my aunt (the k-po one), her kids / my cousins, and my parents.

There's some fun pictures in there.

But they're all scanning slowly. And even though it's not really slow, I keep neglecting to push it along right when it's done doing whatever it's doing. I've even started writing tonight in part to offset the monotony of scanning things. At the time of this writing I have scanned in and saved nine groups of photos, which I'll later have to use the GIMP on to make into individual pictures. Okay, now it's ten. And now naturally I must check to make sure I got all the Baccalaureate/Graduation stuff in. I'm not actually scanning the auction stuff, which is in the next packet, but I would like to note that I found one thing that I can't identify. It's either my little cousin making a weird contorted face, some cousin of E.T.'s, or someone from De La Salle and related groups/families that I don't know.

Make that 11 De La Salle .JPGs with at least two photos on them (for whatever reason the second-to-last Baccalaureate/Grad picture I scanned only had two photos laid out on it...) Now I'm on to that family gathering, the our town picture and the two-three Jr. Prom pictures.

Okay, I've decided to add what's in my wallet and a coupla other pictures (most of this addition is senior pictures. I'm going to try and fit them all in one scan--if I can this will be the 14th and final! Hrm, just realized it's gonna be two, as I'm going to get the messages/signatures where they apply to senior pics. So I'll end up with a clean number of 15 scans!

Well, not all the pictures will fit. But the two that don't have no messages, so they can scan with the messages, I suppose. Lots of GIMP-editing is going to be done on these scans to get them to the point of being individual pictures. I'm thinkin with senior pics that have commentary, I'll even combine them. Anyway, it's time I stopped blogging for the night.

Goodnight and God bless!