FINALS COUNTDOWN

Real Analysis in Class and Out-of-Class: Done. The out-of-class finished about halfway, and I should have at least most of the credit for every problem on the in-class. So this final shouldn't be too terrible.

Four left to go. They're all tomorrow.

Worst thing about all of this: Because of my own stupidity I'm guaranteed almost no sleep tonight. I only got about half an hour of sleep last night and got about three this afternoon. So I'm hoping for basically a little bit more sleep tonight, but there's also:

The good news: which is that after the Crypto Final and whatever food I ought to be eating...basically after a nice late 10 PM Tuesday prayer, I get to settle down and sleep for N hours, where N is the sum total of all the blood and sweat and tears of my procrastination and stupidity and awkwardness and growing in the Love of God this semester... I know Pat wouldn't object to me skipping his prayer under the circumstances, but I can always just nap between dinner and prayer and not worry about it...

Marriage Final Essays due: Done.

Now there's three left to go and they're all today. Logic won't suck but the other two will!

Logic In-Class Final Exam: 1:30 PM. I don't anticipate it taking me more than an hour and 15, so depending on how much time I need for the Crypto final I might ask Dr. Santana if showing up late is okay.

Now there's me, Crypto and Complex Variables.

Cryptography Final Take-Home Exam: 4:00 PM, so basically I get to hand it to Dr. Wootton at the start of my...

Complex Variables Final Exam: 4:10 PM. Basically I carve out about 30-60 minutes for review of this tomorrow sometime.

Now there's just me and a pile of somewhat regrettable classroom performances, but less regrettable out-of-classroom ones!

I love God. It might sound like a "well, duh," statement, but I don't exactly like God at the moment, entirely...but it's in a loving way.

The way things have gone this semester is yet another pointer to a Mystery that some logicians will never understand, because they will, in the words of Chesterton, be "seek[ing] to get the heavens into [their] head[s]."

The Thought

The thought of God's grace being in any way without an element of violence has become to me a theological travesty. I still believe in God's plans. I still believe they are made to prosper us and not to harm us. But I am not so sure that we can really take the "not to harm us" to mean that God's plans never harm us...There appear to be too many miserable saints for this to be a real, viable option.

Feel free to discuss as you see fit.

Hat Tip

Studying group theory late at night might just be a ticket to quasi-insanity.

Waking up all frazzled because of said quasi-insanity might just be a ticket to hilarity.

Film at 11.

On the plus side I'm feeling pretty good about the test I was doing.

X != Y

What it says.

The Person You Want to Be

Let X = the person you are.
Let Y = the person you truly want to be. Not "if I were richer" or anything like that, but who you want to be morally, philosophically, spiritually.

Does X = Y?

Why or why not?

Whether X = Y or X != Y, is the fact of the equality or inequality a good or a bad thing?

I've been thinking about this question a bit lately, in particular in relation to relationships (romantic or unromantic.) I've decided it's fine for one person to change another in relationship as long as a) both people are open to being changed, b) both people are working towards a state of X = Y, c) neither of them is being coerced or forced along in an inappropriate fashion.

I Just...

I can't vote Obama.

He's. Just. Too. Pro. Choice.

It's just too much. I can't. People can scream at me all day to keep theology out of politics. I no longer care, as much as I respect their opinions and rights thereto.

If I Didn't

If I didn't believe firmly that we were all sinners, I'd probably be totally depressed right now, as opposed to just tired.

Don't worry too much about me, as it's not for once something I did that makes me relieved of that theological truth.

...Wow

XKCD is actually sort of sad today. (You should probably read this comic first to get context, though.) This is probably the one time I've really felt bad for the top-hat guy. Stuff like this is why XKCD as a comic is more spiritual and poignant than most of liberal Christianity. It's also an excuse to use my favorite "blargrequeafd" label!

Fun Stuff Found in an Old Assignment Tracker

I was looking through my old notebook for keeping track of assignments. It's the one from my Senior year of high school. Most of the pages have been thrown out but I kept a scant few temporarily, as they have awesome quotations from different people. I think an old friend of mine, Marcus, is the leader. I'll list all the quotations followed by the person they came from following:

"I think I saw my life flash before my eyes." - Stephen
"Was it shiny?" - Marcus

"You got a lot of points. Too bad you're shooting at the wrong basket." - Marcus

"Surround yourself with smart people." - Marcus, probably

"I'll give you participation points if you can read my notes." - Marcus

"Today's gonna be a good day, because I don't have to go tomorrow." - Marcus. I'm pretty sure that "going tomorrow" refers to CIP work-days, but I'm not absolutely sure.

"And the majority of dorm windows don't have trampolines under them." - Mr. Huelskamp

Not that many if any De La Salle people will ever read this, but this one came from a poster in Mr. Z's room. I think the context was to make posters revolving around issues from the 1800s: "A slave is a slave no mater who owns him. Stay nutral / It for the best"

I also found two other things:

"CLINTON VS. NEW YORK CITY!"

This was funny because when Mr. Boyle said it, I got this picture in my head of a king-kong sized Bill Clinton taking on the city of New York in the style of a giant-monster movie. As such it did at the time (and still today) strikes me as incredibly humorous. I believe the actual court case involved Clinton's ability to do a line-item veto, but I don't know.

Also, someone wrote "Hi Daniel!" randomly on my notebook. I think it was a girl, based on handwriting. Don't know who, though.

Anyway, I found this a fun ride. Hope you did too.

Best. Shower. Ever.

Dan's recipe for cold shower appreciation:

1) Stay up all night working on Modern Algebra and Computer Science.
2) Begin losing steam around 6:00 AM.
3) Take freaking cold shower around 7:15 AM, preferably with peppy Christian rock stuck in brain (Tree 63 was my example.) Just dive in. Don't be a wimp.

You might think I'm joking, and I'm probably a little high on lack of sleep, but that is seriously better than any other recent shower I've had.

This is easily going to be the best day ever. Oh, also, I don't stand a chance of finishing that book, but I do intend to read the first half and skim the rest. However I did get my CS done, and my Modern Algebra is to the point where the test won't kick my...hindquarters nearly as much as the first time. Anyway, it'll be breakfast time soon. Bye!

I try to explain the way that the frame doesn't quite fit the edge

I had a conversation with a guy named Andy (who's the first-floor RA in Christie) earlier this weekend, and I'm still echoing the sentiment of that conversation between myself and him:

Me: "Do you ever think that God brings good things out of our idiocy?"
Andy: "More often than I'd like."

I'm going to try doing RCIA this year. While I do that I'll be reading A Biblical Defense of Catholicism. So yeah, you can feel free to spread the word that I may be going Catholic. If you hear I am, please think and pray long and hard before automatically coming and telling me not to. (Those who have cautioned me I trust done so in love and in only the best of intentions--and I'm thinking of cautioning as different from simply telling me not to.)

I'm at an interesting place in my life. It's...a weird place, to say the least. I'm thankful for good friends and for good company, and for those people who fall under both categories. Jars of Clay is really good music for times like these. My theology classes could not have been better-timed.

Don't expect to see too much more of the "blargrequeafd" label. I may have to pull it out at random just for fun.

If you can actually tell me what song I got the title of this post from, I can totally give you a point.

Guys, Guys

10 years ago it was 1997.

Holy crap, what's happening?

I don't even know how to file this. That's how bad it is.