On the road...

Marathon

2011-10-29T10:06:00.003-05:00

Ever since I completed my first half marathon a year and a half ago, people have been asking me when I'm going to do a marathon. My first answer was "When I can do a 90 minute half marathon." When that goal looked actually feasible, I changed my answer to either "When I have a good reason to" or "I'll run a marathon if she's really cute," depending on the seriousness of the situation.

On Monday, September 26th of this year a young marine named Scott Davidson died in a motorcycle accident. I knew him through his brother, Sean Davidson. We had talked motorcycles and gone water skiing/wake boarding a few times together. Scott was signed up to run the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington DC as a fundraiser for the wounded warriors project on October 30th, 5 weeks later. To honor him, Sean decided to take his brother's race number and run the marathon for him, with five weeks to train and having never run a marathon.

I had been planning on attending the race to encourage Sean, and then, a week and a half ago, he asked me to run it with him. I had been thinking about what it would mean to run a marathon because of talking to him about his training, but it still took a while for the possibility to sink in. In the end there's no way I could give up on such an opportunity.

I could go out tomorrow and run a half marathon with a pretty decent time, maybe even get close to my PR, but there's a big difference between a half and a whole... simply put I am not trained for this. But neither is Sean. So tomorrow my goal is to make sure that he crosses the finish line. My knee hurts, I might be catching a cold, and the temperature at 8am tomorrow morning will hopefully be above 32 degrees.

"When are you going to run a marathon, Peter?"

"When I have a good reason to."

I found one.

Say a prayer for Sean today.

Thanks

Peter

Why do I run?

2011-05-15T10:57:00.005-05:00

I've been running this spring. A lot. After running 4 races in 5 weeks, I feel like talking about why I run... if you don't want to listen, well, you've been warned...

I often tell people that I like running 95% of the time, and the other 5% is when I'm actually running. I like being a runner more than running itself. There is some truth to that. There's a lot of pain, a lot of soreness, a lot of time invested into running. And the payback is being in good shape for sports, being really hungry at meals, and getting cool racing t-shirts.

But I also enjoy the feeling of simply making my body move. And there's something about pushing one's limits that is almost addictive. My heart counts out how hard my body is working, my legs and lungs complain when they're getting pushed, but my head decides what I'm going to do. There's a certain point in almost every race when I'm nearing the end that is always clearest in my memory.

In the same moment that I want my legs to move faster than ever and my lungs to supply oxygen, my body is screaming out to lie down in some soft grass and never move again, I want to finish the race, I want to cry, I want to laugh out loud, I want to scream, I want to stop, I want to fly, I want to run for the rest of my life and I'd be fine with my life ending then and there....

And it's in that moment that I feel alive. When I am pushing my body to its limit, when I can feel every part of my body working and every muscle straining, when I want to go faster but know that I can't, when it's all that I can do to keep moving: (inhale) step step step step (exhale) step step step step... then crossing the finish line knowing that I ran to my utmost and found my limit for that day. That is why I run.

In the past several weeks I've set new personal records for:

6 mile run

8 mile run - set and then broken twice

half-marathon

most miles run in 24 hours

most miles run in a week

In an oft-quoted scene from the move Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell expresses his intention to become a missionary to China while still taking time to compete in the Olympics: "I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure." After participating in the 1924 Olympics and winning a gold medal, Eric Leddell went to China and served as a missionary until his death in 1945.

I don't expect to win any gold medals or to be a missionary in China, but I know that God made me for a purpose, and he made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.

Food for thought

2011-02-25T07:57:00.000-06:00

"Every man has forgotten who he is. One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; but thou shalt not know thyself. We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget." - GKC\ Chesterton

Agree or disagree?

Life has changed

2010-07-31T07:51:00.003-05:00

Well I just discovered that a friend of mine lists my blog as one that she subscribes to, which was enough to make me feel guilty for having abandoned it. Therefore, here is an update of life since May 23rd, 2009. Since the name of my blog implies traveling and I've done a lot of that recently, I'm going to focus on that.

July: 5 day road trip/canoe trip in the boundary waters of Canada. Highlights include being awesome (hard work + rewarding trip = bonding) and listening to the Mountie song.

July/August: 2nd trip to Brazil. This one was 2 weeks long and I and another grad student were the only stateside folks who went. It was pretty cool. After much labor we got everything working. And it continued working for 2 days or so. Which brings me to...

September: 3rd trip to Brazil. This time it was me and a professor from Clempson University. We had several things to do, including fix the instrument that quit right after I'd left the last time. We got everything done.... except for fixing that last instrument (did I mention that I needed this to be working so that I could have data for my thesis?). On a side note, just a few days ago I dreamed that the problems we were having were caused by the computer's graphics card overheating. I doubt that's true though.

December: Brief trip to Maryland for a job interview at Hopkins applied physics lab. Met up with an old friend, good times. Christmas in Green Bay, was awesome. Got to hang out with my family, where the generational shift is complete now that I have a nephew and we all got together at my parents house, instead of at my grandparents house. I now have the role of uncle, instead of... young one. Sadly I left for school just a couple days before Eden, my niece, was born.

January: However, my days weren't completely bleak, because this time in the holy name of research I was forced to travel once again. Where, you ask? I and my companion suffered through a trip to Bonaire and Trinidad, in the Caribbean. I'll have you know that I got NO sympathy from friends when I talked about the unbearable heat. I got sunburned rather badly one day because my suitcase was slow to arrive and I didn't have sunscreen (and we were WORKING in direct heat). Fun times though. KFC is very popular in Trinidad, although its a bit spicier there. Also, the first day we were there we freaked out when Chinese take-out was $25-40 an entree. Eventually we found out that the "$" sign in Trinidad means Trinidad and Tobago dollars, not USA dollars. Exchange rate: ~6:1.

Febuary-April: No travel here, except back and forth from home and campus in CU. During this time I wrote my thesis. Through this process God revealed his great mercy to me in that my thesis was completed on time and came out longer than what I expected. I now feel like I should go back and explain how God revealed himself to me during these other events, but I'll just say that he did and leave it at that.

May: House hunting trip to Maryland, during which I found my roommate and his sweet townhouse, where I am now. Also made two trips to Wisconsin, once to visit family with Jen, and once to go to Lake Ellen one last time to say goodbye. That trip could be a blog post in itself, so I'll just leave it at that. I also drove around and visited my grandma Hedlund and some friends around Wisconsin.

June: To MARYLAND! This was a roadtrip. 700 miles across country. I stayed one night in Dayton, OH with a friend from my undergrad. It was fun to be back in Dayton (it was the summer I spent there a few years ago that inspired the creation of this blog), and catch up with two guys who were in that area. The next day was about 8 hours of driving, which I thought would be long. But it was super fun to drive through the mountains and see the sights. I finally arrived here, and discovered my room nearly completely full of boxes that the movers had brought ahead of me. I took a series of pictures to chronicle my progress cleaning up the room over the next few hours... maybe sometime I'll be inspired to post them, especially if people want to see them :P

Cheers,

Peter

Brazil

2009-05-23T06:08:00.003-05:00

Hey All,

Rather than giving each person who asks, "Hey, how was the trip?" the same short, generic response, I'm going to give a more detailed response here so that everyone can get the full version.

Here's some statistics first:

# of days: 9

# of miles flown: ~12,000

# of flights: 6

# of miles driven: 1,500

# of hours traveled ~30 each way

# of hours of sleep while traveling: ~4 each way

# of brazilian foods and fruits eaten: many

# of instruments to install: 7

# of instruments successfully installed: 5

# of traffic violations while I was driving: 4

# of group members who got sick: 1 (me)

So basically the trip involved going to two different sites where we had shipped small cargo trailers filled with equipment. At each site we had to run power cables and convert 230 V to 115 V for all our equipment. We had to attach a clear plastic dome and a GPS antenna to the roof and get all kinds of stuff running: a MiniMe (optical instrument), a laser (for calibration), a laser shutter, pc's to record data, wireless network to transfer data. That list sounds quite a bit simpler than it was to do. Water leaked into one of the containers and damaged a few computers. One we fixed, another we swapped parts around with another one to get it running. What we weren't able to get around was that two camera controller cards went bad somewhere in transit. This meant that we weren't able to get the imager and one of the MiniMe's running. Sadly, this means that I'll have to go back later this summer :P.

It was quite an adventure. Being without a home depot equivalent posed quite a challenged when supplies were needed and/or broken. Having limited internet access posed quite a challenge when information or files were needed (2 hours to download 4 megabytes, ftl). The sun was really hot. Just a few minutes of exposure without sunscreen or a tan resulted in mild burns. The temperatures were around 85-95 degrees with humidity of 50-60%. Some days we were sweating long before we started working, others were really okay.

Hopefully next trip we'll have some time to do some sightseeing. As it was we saw some great scenery though. I'll post pictures when I get a hold of them.

The Internetz

2009-02-25T14:36:00.004-06:00

I have about six hours to finish a homework assignment that's due tomorrow, and so in the interest of relaxing for a few minutes after class, I've been reading one of my favorite webcomics, xkcd (By "favorite," I mean, "The only one I keep up with that isn't on my igoogle homepage."). Today I came across this one, which led me to simple.wikipedia.org, where I naturally looked up engineering. What does simple wikipedia say about engineers? Among other things, I found this gem: "Most engineers are trained to be very clever. Much of their training involves working within a limited budget and materials."

I think I'll just leave it at that....

Resurection!

2009-02-19T14:34:00.004-06:00

It seems that most of my friends have given up on blogging for the time being. But I couldn't really complain about it since I haven't blogged in a couple months either... UNTIL NOW!

This semester I added a signature to my emails (or maybe partway through last semester). Anyway, I was just thinking that it'd be interesting to see how long I could make it if I listed everything that I can possibly think of. So here goes... Except that I don't want to post everything there is to know about me on the internet... hmmmm. Guess I'll just have to stay humble :D

This weekend I'm driving to another wedding. I hope my car gets me the whole way there this time. Recently I had the tires rotated and now there's some vibration that wasn't there before...

I can't really think of anything else to say since my initial blog idea got shot down by privacy concerns, so I'll leave you with this profound observation that should put to rest the epic ninjas vs. pirates debate.

If a ninja got on a pirate ship at 10 am it would be a ninja ship by lunchtime and no one would know what had happened to the pirates.

Gas Prices... Just as I Suspected

2008-11-20T21:36:00.003-06:00

I was thinking that gas prices have been getting low enough that they should be making some records when you adjust for inflation. I found this graph that I thought was interesting enough to share for two reasons. First of all, gas is now cheaper than it was 50 years ago when you adjust for inflation. Secondly, the graph shows how much the dollar has inflated. The dollar is basically worth half as much as it was 25 years ago.

Figure courtesy of Wall Street Journal. Check out http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122722595127246035.html

for the whole article.

The Tolerance we find in America

2008-11-14T17:15:00.004-06:00

I came across an article today about an 8th grader who ran an experiment this election season. She noticed that her school was predominantly in support of Obama, and so she wore a shirt that supported McCain for a day and recorded the tolerant and understanding responses that she received.

I don't mean to imply that the situation would have been different had she worn an Obama shirt in a predominantly McCain-supporting school. I hope that this experiment is an anomoly and the majority of people are more accepting... but I kinda doubt it.

The Ill-Fated Road trip

2008-11-10T14:55:00.007-06:00

A few of you have heard the story about my attempt to make it to Phil and Heather's wedding a couple weeks ago. Here is the extended version of the story:

On Friday night after gcf (graduate Christian fellowship) large group my roommate and I gave another gcf member a ride home and found out that she was going to Chicago the next day for a family get together. She was planning on getting up to take the train at 6am, but the timing worked out that I could give her a ride, drop her off a couple miles from the highway, and continue on to Phil's wedding in Milwaukee. That made me happy, since while I like road tripping I get bored, and having company helps a lot. So. The next morning we headed out, and I dropped her off right on time. Right after I left, the low coolant light came on in my car. I got out and looked under the hood to see something wet scattered over part of my car.

Now, I'm not a mechanic. However, I do posses shrewd observation skills and a solid command of basic logic. So after carefully evaluating the evidence before me, I determined that something was wrong with my car. I got directions to the nearest service station and headed there immediately, arriving just in time to pop the hood and watch the remainder of the engine coolant make its bold escape from the confines of my engine via a hose that was as cracked as a drug-dealing cop.

The service station I had happened upon said that they'd have to order the needed part from Saab and wouldn't be able to fix it until Monday. As a good American, I wanted it fixed within the next hour, so I called my insurance company to get my ride towed to a Saab service station. Sweet! tow truck within the hour. Get it fixed. Still make it to the reception and get to catch up with everyone...

An hour and twenty minutes later I called back. "Oh, apparently the tow truck was in an accident and they didn't tell us... please hold... we can get a different truck there in an hour to an hour and a half. Can you wait that long?" "NO! I'm going to drive off, catch me if you can!" As if I had a choice. Finally, four hours after I pulled into the station, a tow truck arrived and got me to Saabtech precisely fifteen minutes after they closed for the day, perfect timing. So I ended up calling Betsi (the friend I gave a ride to) and spending the evening with her and her extended family.

Now, as these plans were being made, I was picturing myself being introduced to all of Betsi's relatives as "her 'friend' from college who gave her a ride" (assuming they forget about the "and had car trouble" part at the end). Meeting her Aunt and Uncle and immediate family was fine, and I went out to dinner with them. However, after dinner we went to Betsi's great Uncle and Aunt's house where several other family members were lying in wait to jump me, tie me up, interrogate me about my intentions with their great niece/niece/cousin, and quite possibly look strangely at me. But I knew their plan had a fatal flaw. When my sister got married a few years ago I had a few awkward moments when I couldn't quite remember who certain people were that I was, in fact, related to. Therefore, as I entered the door, before anyone could say anything (or get the rope out to tie me up), I greeted them all, "Hi everybody! Man, it's been a while. How have you all been?!"

My shock and awe campaign was a complete success. In the ensuing moments chaos ruled in their minds. I could see from the looks on their faces that they were frantically scrambling to figure out who I possibly could be, who knew all of them without them recognizing me. With the enemy camp thrown into disarray, I was able to explain why I was there, and they were so relieved to learn that they weren't supposed to know me that my explaination was met with no objections, no strange looks, and most importantly, no ropes or bright lights.

In the end it turned out to be kind of fun, because I do like people and Betsi has a very nice family. I guess I also got a practice run at meeting a girlfriend's family (whenever that happens :). I was fortunate enough to be able to stay the night at Betsi's Aunt and Uncle's sweet downtown flat, and took the train back to Champaign in the morning, leaving my car for my parents to pick up the next weekend on their way to visit me.

All in all the whole experience reminded me that I'm not as in control of my life as I'd like to think I am. It could have been a lot worse, I had a place to stay and someone to ride the train back with, but bottom line was that the day went much differently than I had planned.

James 4:13-17

2008-10-19T18:56:00.002-05:00

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil."

I'm going to retranslate that into the "Peter just had an interesting weekend" version.

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to Chicago and then Milwaukee, go to a wedding, and return home.' Why, you do not even know whether or not your car's coolant hose will crack before you get there. In addition, the tow truck may be delayed such that you cannot get your car fixed until Monday, forcing you to depend on a friend's relatives for a bed and to take the train home early the next morning. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and go on a road trip to celebrate an old friend's wedding.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil."

Apparently I'm not quite as in control of my life as I like to think.

Practical Justice...

2008-10-16T21:51:00.005-05:00

is the name of a book that I started reading a couple weeks ago. It is written by a Christian who spends a lot of time ministering to the opressed and the poor. Most recently I read the section of the book on "giving a man a fish" where he talks about direct handouts: what it looks like to directly help someone, what it can cost, and what not to do. In addition to that, I started reading Isaiah in my quiet times, which is a lot of God criticizing the rich for making money by oppressing those who are in need. God promises to return and give both the righteous and the wicked what they deserve.

Anyway, I think I read the chapter in Practical Justice on Wednesday morning. That day it was raining so I rode the bus to campus and was thinking about walking home that evening because I felt like it. As I was walking down green street a man named Charles greeted me on the street. I could tell immediately from his manner that he wanted something from me (or was selling something), and sure enough, he told me he was homeless and asked if I would help him out. Due to some other circumstances that God brought about, I was relatively free for the evening and so I agreed to buy him dinner, where he told me that he was a Christian, has been all his life, and his favorite passage is the ten commandments. Also during dinner he asked me for a few different things that boiled down to more money, which I did agree to take him to Goodwill and buy him a coat, while refusing to give him $40 in cash.

So I drove Charles and a buddy of his, Marcus, to Goodwill and bought him a warm coat and a pair of pants. Marcus had walked over to buy some food at a fast food place, so we drove over to pick him up there, and parked to wait. As we sat in the parking lot, I looked over my left shoulder to see the restaurant, and then to my right and saw a liquour store, and then started to wonder which door Marcus would come out of. Sure enough, he came out of the latter establishment. Charles assured me that he was talking to somebody there, cuz he knows lots of people, but Marcus hadn't seen us right away, and I saw the bottle in his hand and the look in his eye when he spotted us. His story was that Long John Silver's didn't have change for a $50, so he had to go over there to get change.

I'm really glad I had the whole experience. I was exposed to the realities of the poor. I can't say that I really got a taste of it or that it hit me full on. But I met and talked to some guys who have to walk everywhere and sleep on the streets.

I'm glad I put some food in Charles' stomach and I'm glad I put a warm coat on his back, and I'm glad I didn't give him any cash :). I also figured that since he said he was a Christian (whether he is or not) and I was buying him dinner, that he wasn't going anywhere, so I talked as much as I could about Jesus. I told him one of my favorite passages, I talked about what I've been learning about trusting God in grad school, and about what we studied in Bible study the night before. When he thanked me I told him to thank God, because I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't for what God has done for me. This kind of thing is outside of my comfort zone and risks my belongings and takes my time, but I think it's what Jesus would have done.

I apologize if it seems like I'm tooting my own horn here, I don't mean to be. This is something that happened to me. I've been praying for opportunities to share the gospel and to be a part of caring for the poor and the oppressed, and so I guess I shouldn't be surprised when God gives me a chance to do both.

Life without mah internetz?

2008-10-09T16:33:00.003-05:00

Last Monday the internet at my apartment was down all day. This did result in a few minor emergencies-I had to frantically redo some homework on campus so that I could print out the proper graph. However, I have recently been thinking about how I spend my time and if I am actually as busy as I think. That day definitely illustrated to me how much I use the internet for AND how much time I waste online. I also realized that I really could do without the internet. I'd have to either stay on campus or go back to campus after dinner to do homework in the evening and check my email less frequently, but that really isn't that drastic. After I finished my homework on Monday evening I sat down and read a book instead of reading news or browsing the internet. So what if I fall behind on reading xkcd or miss a deal on something at Newegg, having a slower pace could be nice. As an inadvertent illustration to my point, I'm writing this on campus while I'm in between events, and thirty minutes just wasn't enough time for me to feel like getting some homework done (especially since it isn't due until next Monday).

I've also decided that I think that my blog is one of the most unattractive blogs on the net, so I may play around with the template and color scheme.

have a fabulous Thursday

Home-schooling strikes again!

2008-10-03T08:41:00.003-05:00

I just read an article about a twelve-year-old girl who got bored with high school coursework and is now attending a community college. She is applying to go to Yale for pre-med next year. The thing that I liked best about the article is that her parents said that others asked them "Aren't you rushing things?" Which is a pretty valid question, but their response was that it was their daughter who has these goals and dreams, and so they're just being supportive. I though it was cool that they aren't pressuring her, she's making her own decisions with their help. Sounds like home-schooling at it's best.

My Hero for today...

2008-09-26T08:59:00.004-05:00

is Daniel Ellenson. He is the author of one of my favorite techno songs ever, Inside of Me, and I just discovered that I can download it for free on his website. If you're a fan of techno/trance, you should check it out.

In other random news, yesterday I went swing dancing and had lots of fun. Apparently they also have a big Halloween swing dance, so I need to come up with a costume.

My class today was cancelled, so I need to get lots of homework done so that I can go camping tonight and still have enough time to do 3 homework assignments, grade lab reports, and study for a test and a midterm, all of which are due by Thursday. Smile! God loves you.

Politics (gasp)

2008-09-09T07:42:00.004-05:00

One of the worst accusations politicians receive is that of being a flip-flopper, or of changing their position. So when new information or more experience causes them to change their position on an issue, they're required to quietly and carefully start saying something different, while hoping that no one will notice that they said something else six months ago.

Today I read an article on a recent interview of Senator Obama by ABC's George Stephanopoulos. In this interview Sen. Obama made it as clear as a politician can that if he becomes President he will not raise taxes if the economy is still in a fragile state. This is a far different plan than what he presented when he was still one of several contenders in the Democratic Primary (largest tax increase in near history), and a moderated plan that he presented this summer as the presumptive Democratic Nominee (moderate tax increase no matter what).

Critics of Mr. Obama might say that this was his plan all along. First to court the liberal Democrats that he needed to make a strong showing in the Primary and then switch to a more moderate position when it's important to be able to court more conservative/moderate voters. Personally, I think that if that's the case, he deserves the Presidency. Anyone who can plan that far ahead to achieve success should be able to do at least a half-decent job of running the country. Far more likely is that as time has gone on, Mr. Obama has been doing some thinking about what he'll really do if he gets to be in charge. This thinking has led him to a position that, in my humble opinion, is much wiser than his original plan. Which, if this is the case, simply means that Mr. Obama is willing to learn and adjust his position to what he believes is the correct one. I consider this an admirable trait. However, "change" would have to include a smaller government, a balanced budget, and a pro-life posiiton before such an admirable trait would cause me to consider voting for him.

Brightened up my day

2008-09-03T17:38:00.003-05:00

This just in from the Wall Street Journal Best of the Web Today. Fred Thompson spoke at the Republican National Convention and had this to say of Sarah Palin:

Thompson describes Palin as "the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose, with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt." It's not clear if he means TR might have been able to field dress a moose or Palin might not be able to field dress TR.

My work here is done.

Apple

2008-08-28T07:57:00.004-05:00

Finally I have definitive proof that Apple has set out to make their products a status symbol so that people will pay more for Apple products that do less than what the competition is capable of.

I am Rich

Someone developed a screensaver for the iPhone and the iTouch that is priced at $1000. What does it do, you ask? Cure cancer? Solve world hunger? Give it's owner the ability to fly? No. It displays a glowing red gem, so that all your friends will know how rich you are. I'm just waiting for a rogue software developer to start selling the same thing for $3 a pop.

Has a sandcastle ever gotten the best of you?

2008-08-20T08:42:00.004-05:00

One evening that I was in Oregon, I decided to go for a run along the beach. I headed down to the beach and started running along the edge of the water. It was high tide, so there was only a thin line of damp sand between the waves and the really dry sand. I ran right along the edge of the water, using the excuse that the sand is the most firm there, while it was really just because it was most fun. Within the first couple minutes I came to a huge sandcastle. Just as I approached it, a big wave came up and around it so that I had to either wait or run around to my right on the really dry sand. I decided to wait since I didn't want to get my shoes sandy. After a couple seconds it looked like the water was only a half inch or so deep in front of the sandcastle and so I went for it.

It was precisely at this moment that I discovered where all the sand for the sandcastle had come from: there was a hole about two feet deep right in front of it that I managed to skillfully locate by leaping directly into it. My right shoe/leg got soaked and I got sand and water all over me, but I wasn't really cold, and had just started my run, so I just decided to keep going, running through the shallows splooshing and splashing. As I went along the whole turn of events struck me as absolutely hilarious, so I started laughing at myself as I went along. I felt like I had been on the discovery channel, "Little did this jogger know that moments ago, local children had just completed a clever trap." So I continued along the beach, sometimes on wet sand, sometimes splashing through a foot of water. I started passing some people and got quite a bit of enjoyment out of the strange looks I got as I ran through the waves with a big silly grin on my face.

Camp, In Review,

2008-07-28T10:23:00.004-05:00

Was wonderful. I was at Lake Ellen for three weeks. In contrast to two years ago, I was a counselor instead of an Area Director/Counselor. So much better! The first week I had 11-13 year olds, the second week I had 9-11 year olds, and the third week I had high schoolers. I had to adjust quite a bit, but each week brought its own challenges and joys. In those three weeks, two kids in my cabin recommitted themselves to Christ and two others prayed to receive Christ for the first time. It was thrilling to be working on the front lines encouraging kids to pursue God and righteousness and to be reconciled to Him. The staff were also amazing. If circumstances were different, I'd room with any of the guys that I worked with in a split second and whatever the non-creepy equivalent of close friendship is with girls would be the same. I'm really praying that God will make a way for me to be able to spare the time and money to be there for all summer next year.

Lake Ellen is probably my favorite place on earth. Nowhere else have I been so challenged to grow and seen God do such amazing things around me.

Sunset at Loon Lake

Derek Gladstone and Myself

Roughly the Trailblazers' team, from left, Derek,
Me, Joie, Rochelle, Andrew, and Sarah

Blogging Time!

2008-07-03T19:43:00.004-05:00

I just caught up on reading all my friends' blogs. Okay, well, all of Megan's new posts. Apparently she's biking around doing sweet music stuff, which looks like fun. But you don't read my blog to hear about what my friends have blogged about. If you want to read Megan's blog go here. And you should. But anyways.

One of the things that I thought about in Zambia was about how many clothes I have, and that I should get rid of the ones that I don't wear, because someone else could probably use them. Over the last few days I went through my clothes and got rid of a bunch. I started with T-shirts. I discovered that when I hunted down every last one and counted them, I had over forty--Mildly disgusting to me. So I got ride of twenty of them or so, sweet! I also got rid of a bunch of other things, so now the only clothes that I have are ones that I'll actually wear, and I won't need a U-haul to get them down to Champaign in the fall.

One of the back speakers in my car blew out, which made me sad. I talked to Brian Spangler about it and he just happened to have speakers the right size and a receiver sitting in his basement that he wants to get rid of. Or did he just happen to have them? Hmmm. In any case, assuming that that works out, I will be one happy driver.

I read an article today on BBC talking about how the US needs to end its love affair with the car. Unfortunately, my love affair is just beginning :P.

That is the end of my random thoughts and a little bit about what I've been up to. Hope you enjoyed it.

Graduated

2008-05-15T17:11:00.002-05:00

It's true. A Bachelor's of Science in engineering physics (should ep be capitalized? guess it shows that you still don't know everything after college) has now been earned by THIS. I also have a car now, which is cool. It's a '97 Saab 900s, nice and small and sporty (although no turbo).

The last week of class was the IV Senior send-off gathering. It was a lot of fun to think back on all the good times that I've had over the last four years. I didn't know until a couple minutes before that I had a chance to soapbox for a few minutes so I didn't say much when it was my turn. If I'd had more time to think about it, I'd have said something about spending one's time wisely. That the biggest thing that I regret about graduating is all the people that I know that I haven't had time to really get to KNOW. I wish I could be around next fall to welcome the new students and continue to lead a Bible study and be a witness in the EP department. But that responsibility now falls on those that are still there.

As classes and projects wore down, I had a little urge to just wander around campus and think about my college career. I didn't do it because I just didn't quite have the motivation to do it by myself. But then on Tuesday after I had everything packed up I went to noon prayer (since Tuesday was the day that I had noon free this semester) and we went on a prayer walk. So I had a chance to wander past the student's center, the PAC, Otts, and McGregor, the buildings that I spent the most time in while I was a student. I had nothing to do but think and pray and listen to the prayers of others and it was great. With each building I was able to think about all the things that I had done and the people that I knew and pray about those things. It was great.

My mind is leaking into the keyboard

2008-03-29T14:40:00.008-05:00

It's official.

I accepted the teaching assistantship from U of I at Urbana-Champaign. Last week I was getting tired of waiting to hear from U of M, so I started moving forward with going to UIUC out of spite :D. I emailed the Grad InterVarsity chapter to see if anyone was looking for a roommate for next fall. My biggest priority in my future was finding a good Christian community to join immediately, and I figured having a Christian roommate(s) would be a good start. The next day I heard back from a physics grad student whose roomie is graduating. He's currently a small group coordinator for their chapter (which is what I did here at Platteville for a year, now I'm back to being a sg leader), and has a fairly inexpensive two-bedroom apartment. It's less expensive than other places because his landlord doesn't advertise much, i.e. I wouldn't have found it otherwise :D. He said it's big enough to host a small group Bible study, so I'm pretty sure that I'm going to land in the middle of a good Christian community if it works out. Then there's some other little things, like its unfurnished, but he has enough furniture for the living room, so all I need is a bed, dresser, and desk, which is what I just happen to already have.

Four hours after I heard about that, the university of minnesota finally got back to me and offered me a TA there, but I didn't even think about it seriously. Maybe because I had a cold, maybe because I don't have time to second guess myself, and maybe because the stipend they offered me was $17/month less than what UIUC offered :P. Actually, it's probably because UIUC's EE grad program is considered to be one of the best in the world (comparable to MIT and Stanford) and I just needed a little extra momentum to choose the better of two very good choices.

Other ways that God has been leading me to UIUC is that next weekend there is a Tau Beta Pi conference on that campus (TBP is an engineering honors society). Since I'm a member, I can go for free and get to see the campus, possibly attend Grad IV's large group meeting, and possibly finalize housing.

Final random thought of this post: I'm not actually that gung ho to get a masters degree. While I do enjoy my major, part of me would rather be a pastor than an engineer. I'm doing this because this is where God has sent me. He gifted me in this area and has given me enough patience to get some more schooling and that's all I know. Honestly though, I feel like I'm building a resume similar to the one that Paul lists in Phillipians 3. I'm really just waiting for the day God directs me to give all this engineer stuff up for the sake of his kingdom. Maybe that'll never happen, but I'll be ready for it if it ever does.

What the Future May Hold

2008-03-07T07:05:00.003-06:00

Spring break is in about a week and because of one professor in particular and work I'm going to be quite busy until then. Yesterday I had a few hours free and decided to get a jump start on a difficult and potentially time consuming lab project that's due next Wednesday. After only about three hours of work I got part one (of two) working properly and was able to check off with my professor. Let me tell you, I felt pretty good about getting that done, so when I ran into some friends who were going downtown for cheap tacos I went along and did some relaxing, which was amazing. Around this time I started thinking "Man, the only way my day could be better is if I had an email from a grad school or employer waiting for me."

I called UMN and UIUC about a week and a half ago, and they both said I should be notified by the middle of March, so in the last week or so I've been reminded a few times of filling out those cereal box offers when I was little (like <13 years old). I collected all the UPC symbols then laboriously addressed an envelop and sent it off. And began to wait the 8-12 decades it takes for them to process it and send the toy to me. By the time it got within a few weeks of the predicted time period, I'd start wondering every day before the mail came, "Maybe today is the day. It PROBABLY isn't, but wouldn't it be cool if it was?" And I'd get all excited and then disappointed until the day it finally arrived.

Which brings me back to the present. I've been checking my email even more obsessively than usual because every time it crosses my mind I think "Maybe they sent the email today/this morning (/in the last five minutes). Yesterday after thinking that my day could only get better if I got an email, I actually didn't check my email until much later because I didn't want to expect my day to be THAT amazing. When I got home we had a ton of people in the house for the Platteville Safe Spring Break Party Challenge, so it wasn't until 10:30ish that I looked carefully enough at my email to realize that I had an important email.

The electrical engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne accepted me in to their program and offered me a "half-time" teaching assistantship (which means I get free tuition and money to live on in exchange for working as a ta). When I could breath again, my first impulse was to show it to my roommates (weaving around the 4 million people that still populated our house), call my parents and tell them, and show it to a couple other people that were at the party.

When I was thinking about whether or not to blog about it, my first thought was that this is kind of an impersonal way to tell some of my good friends, and I'd rather tell them personally. But then I decided that next to the people immediately around me, my closest friends read my blog, and so I decided to go for it.

I'm still not going to UIUC for certain, or even grad school for certain, but I now have a concrete option for the next couple years of my life. Before now all I had was potential, which doesn't put food on the table :).

Yesterday It Was Spring

2008-03-03T23:06:00.001-06:00

And now it's winter again.

Phooey

-the end

Had a Jehovah's Witness stop by

2008-02-29T16:34:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning a Jehovah's witness stopped by and caught me in between classes. He was a bigger guy and looked like he was in his 40's or so. I had a few minutes so I invited him in.

He talked for a few minutes how its hard to "find peace" in this world with everything that's going on. I'd say more about what he said, but he pretty much just repeated and elaborated on that idea. Then he read Isaiah sixty five verses twenty-something. It was a prophecy about a time of peace and prosperity returning. His point in that was that many people don't have that today. He said he was going around encouraging people to look into the Bible to find peace.

I sat quietly and listened, resisting the urge to grab my Bible that was sitting on the table a couple feet away from me and waited for him to finish his thoughts. When I had a moment I said that I don't even look for peace in this world because it can't be found. I have peace through my relationship with Jesus Christ, by living for him. With that he basically said "good for you, its too bad lots of people aren't like that" and left.

What struck me as odd was that I didn't even know whether he was a Jehovah's Witness or Mormon. I figured it out because the literature that he offered me was watchtower, which google told me is Jehovah's Witness. My thought afterwords was "Wow, even these guys have gotten pansy in the way they share what they believe." I mean the guy no disrespect. He clearly meant well, but his approach was really weak sauce.

Not much activity here

2008-02-16T11:12:00.000-06:00

Most of my blogging energy has been directed towards our Zambia team blog so check in there if you miss me :D.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

2008-01-28T16:06:00.000-06:00

For those of us who are still willing to consider the possibility that President Bush was not out to invade Iraq from the beginning and didn't spread a net of lies to convince everyone to agree with him. Here is an article by CNN that says Saddam Hussein admitted to pretending that he had WMD's in order to intimidate Iran.

Nice to know that the "independent" report that chronicled over 900 false statements by the Bush administration between 2001 and 2003 is still hardly proof that Bush is a liar, besides the fact that the "independent" report was funded by a liberal group that has been funded by someone who publicly compares America today to Nazi Germany.

In Case You're Interested after all my talk about Kenya

2008-01-27T22:38:00.000-06:00

Here's a really good article about the current conflict in Kenya and how the church there is responding.

http://www.urbana.org/_articles.cfm?RecordId=1160

American Media: The Image or the Mirror?

2008-01-27T09:37:00.000-06:00

I was reading news this morning and noticed a headline about the ongoing tribal violence in Kenya. After I read the article, which was located on the BBC's website, I started wondering if any American news services were covering the same story. Being the inquisitive person that I am, rather than simply wondering, I investigated.

First on the list: CNN. I navigated from the US section to the main page to the "WORLD" section. On all three the headline was about the Democratic Primary race in South Carolina. Since when is that world news?!?! A 30 second search of this page and I couldn't find any reference to the conflict in Kenya (I figure that's more than the average American would spend, and the average one wouldn't be looking for that specific article.)

Next for the chopping block was Fox News: They actually had "world" events on their world page. Fox also had an article about the Kenyan conflict too. However, it was buried in a list of about 30 minor articles at the bottom, I'm still not impressed.

Last of all was Reuters (which I didn't check until later, I started this blog post about 9:15 am). Unfortunately for the sake of this post, Reuters had a fairly large feature about the Kenyan situation. At this, I returned to FoxNews and CNN, which even more unfortunately for this post, now have featured articles on the world section of their websites.

But, for the sake of the first half of this blog, lets say that's not true. I was going to go on a bit of a rant on how either the American media or Americans in general have little interest in what's going outside of their own little world. The title raising the question of whether its the media that doesn't care and the general public follows, or if the media is simply catering to what Americans are interested in. But in any case, I have some news articles to read about what's going on in Kenya :D.

Culture

2008-01-16T17:17:00.000-06:00

A couple days ago I came across a new band... well, a band that's new to me. Within Temptation is a goth-rock group with a female lead vocalist, very comparable to Evanescence. The main difference that I noticed is that they use an orchestra to powerful effect in several of their tracks. Within Temptation would be accused of being a copy cat band, except that WT has actually been around longer than Evanescence. They started in Norway in the late 90's, and were well received in their home country. It took about a decade for their popularity to spread to Holland and the rest of Europe and then finally to the states. They released a new cd in 2007 on a deal with an American record label.

What I find interesting is that it seems that the pinnacle of musical success is to sign a deal with an American record company and record in the US. In many things it seems that reaching fame in America is the "top." The only exception I can think of is soccer. The best MLS (Major League Soccer, also known as MajorLy Sucks) players migrate to European Leagues. I'm reminded of an article I read about understanding other cultures. It said that everyone knows American culture because it spreads everywhere. But most Americans know little about other cultures, when traveling they take at least a little bit of their own culture with them. Even on missions trips Americans tend to stay in nice clean American hotels and eat nice American food. In France I've heard that there's a law that requires radio stations to play at least as many songs by French artists as by American artists. Our culture is pretty invasive, so it takes more effort for us to get to know other cultures than it does for others to get to know ours.

Something I heard today (well, I started this blog two weeks ago)

2008-01-01T19:22:00.000-06:00

I was listening to Christian radio this morning and the DJ read the days "Word on the Way," the Bible verse of the day. He talked about it for just a minute, and I don't remember the verse, but his application for it is that it is wrong to think that what your denomination believes is right and other denominations that disagree with you are wrong. He said if you think that, stop, because that's what divides Christians.

That kinda bugged me, because if I don't think that what I believe is right, what's the point in believing anything? I understand the importance of accepting the possibility that I am in error and respecting the beliefs of those who disagree with me. It is really important for Christians to avoid over-emphasizing minor theology, especially when it comes to unity in the universal church, but I believe what I believe because I think it's true. By definition, it follows that I believe that those who disagree with me are wrong. Could I be wrong? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean that have to agree that someone else is just as right as I am when one of us is clearly in error.

What divides Christians is not individuals standing for what they believe. Divisions are caused by Christians who are unwilling to agree to disagree.

At Semester's End

2007-12-13T16:05:00.000-06:00

It's almost here. I have NO finals this semester, and I am not complaining about that. It came about because I have two lab classes, senior design, a class with an optional final, a class with a "creative project," and fitness assessment. Of those six classes, I am completely done with fitness assessment, communication systems, and EP Lab. That leaves my main things left at my Sensor's Lab project and a bunch of stuff to do for Senior Design. I feel really drained, but by Monday my life should be a lot simpler.

Christmas

2007-12-09T19:09:00.000-06:00

In past years of college I've never payed much attention to Christmas until two days before the event when finals were finally (ha, sorry) over. This year I've been more aware of its approach. Maybe it's because in two weeks I'll get to see my nephew for the first time. Or because we've gotten like, two feet of snow in the last week--more than we got in December and January combined last winter, and as an added bonus, the thermometer hasn't made it above twenty degrees since the November. It could be because I'm looking forward to seeing friends at break, or just because I discovered pandora radio (pandora.com), which allows the user to customize internet radio stations, and I've used it to make a rock-awesome Christmas music station. Maybe it's because a certain individual has been giving me and my house-mates Christmas decorations (a not-so-subtle hint :D) and a new toaster, which is amazing.

This finals week I may have zero finals. I do, however, have three projects and a senior design project to wrap up. The end is in sight though...

tests

2007-11-10T02:04:00.000-06:00

So I took the GRE today. The nice thing about the GRE is that you get part of your score onsite since it's a computer based exam. A few people asked me if I was nervous or "ready" this morning. I'm not really sure how to answer that, "Um... Almost--got a dictionary I can memorize real quick?" Its not like a few hours of studying are really going to change my score, and I work off of the assumption that I'm pretty smart and I'll do okay. How did that work out, you ask? 800 out of 800 on the Quantitative (math) section. The other sections aren't quite as stellar, but good enough that anyone who considers GRE scores will give me a point or two above most people. That good news was almost enough for me to get over my frustration of bombing a test on Thursday...

Something you probably haven't seen before and won't see again (for good reason)

2007-10-23T20:53:00.000-05:00

The power button on my mp3 player stopped working a few days ago. Having learned my lesson about discarding items too quickly and not having the funds to purchase a new one, I decided to try fixing it.

I discovered that the joint where one contact on the button had been soldered to circuit board came loose. I tried soldering it back on, but I found that fitting a soldering iron with a 1 mm diameter tip and solder into a .4 mm wide space doesn't work particularly well.

I had discovered that by putting pressure on the button from the correct side pressed the contacts together and caused it to work. So I folded up a scrap of paper and wadded it inside the case so that when I reassemble the device, the proper pressure was applied to the button. Thus, my mp3 works now-I just hope it lasts till Christmas.

Being A Senior

2007-10-18T22:52:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is UW-Platteville's "Fall Break." Which means we get Friday off of classes. I only have one class on Friday, but all 52 minutes of it are canceled and so I'm home tonight. At the Quik Mart in Platteville we stopped for gas and I saw a friend of mine. I said something about how that's a sign that I'm a senior-I run into friends at the gas station on my way out of town. Just as I finished vocalizing that thought, a car filled with 3-4 other people I know showed up. And before I made it in and out of the gas station (to procure a mountain dew slushy) I ran into two other people I know. I like people and I know a lot of people, and that makes me happy :D

Life is crazy but good.

So I spoke at Quest tonight...

2007-10-11T22:49:00.000-05:00

and it was kinda crazy. I really wasn't that nervous and I got a lot of positive feedback. For anyone who isn't in the loop, Quest is InterVarsity's large group meeting. I spoke for ~30 minutes to a group of about a hundred or so students. I was responding to some street preachers who came to campus a couple weeks ago. They did know the gospel, but they presented it in a somewhat incomplete and a rather offensive manner. I talked about a couple things that they did/said that don't line up with Scripture and then talked about the challenge to us to be showing authentic Christianity. You can see my notes here if you're interested.

The deeper question that it raises for me is if this is something I could see myself doing a lot more of. I did enjoy it, but right now I don't think I'd be able to spend all day every day preparing for talks and such. I need to design an amplifier every now and then to keep me sane :).

Every now and then I'm reminded of a a time when I met a pastor who immediately began ask me what I wanted to do with my life. I was probable only about 13 at the time, but I was already thinking about being an engineer and said as much. His response? "I went to school for engineering and now I'm a pastor." I still wonder if that short interchange will end up coming true.

Joy and Happiness

2007-10-09T20:38:00.001-05:00

Different things make different people happy. This weekend I was floating pretty happily because I aced a test and a prelab for my comm class, one of my most challenging this semester. I enjoy my academic work when I do well. Other people don't care much about school.

Some people were happy because the bears beat the packers or were sad because the packers lost to the bears; I didn't even know they were playing until the game had already started and couldn't care less about who wins (although I was disappointed to find that one of my roommates is a bears' fan).

Sometimes having free time to watch a tv show makes me happy, sometimes lifting weights makes me happy, sometimes it's a phone conversation, or hanging out with some friends, or meeting a new person.

But sometimes hanging out with friends ends up depressing me... kinda weird.

Sometimes blogging seems like a chore (like the last week when I didn't blog) and sometimes it feels great (like now).

I really have no idea what I'm saying, I guess I'm trying to get back to the point that its important to keep everything in perspective: With any luck I'll be dead in 60 years or so, and most of the things that seem so important now will hardly matter.

Theology is in the Air

2007-09-27T20:29:00.000-05:00

For the last three consecutive days we've had friendly neighborhood street preachers outside the students center. It makes things pretty interesting. This afternoon there was a crowd of close to 50 people gathered around one of them. Some were there to mock him; others to justify their faith; others to observe. I hung around for a while to see what gospel was being preached and looking for opportunities to start spiritual conversations. All in all I have a very mixed view on the preachers' presence here, but I do know that whatever gospel they preach, it gives me opportunities to communicate the truth. I also realize that there are MANY MANY people who are interested in spiritual things and I should never relax, "Always be ready to give an answer for the hope that you have."

Busy! but not...

2007-09-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

I just got hired by tech services here on campus. My job is to do set up, backstage work, and tear down for shows at the theater and other random events on campus. Yesterday we had our scheduling meeting and I somehow ended signing up for 35 hours of work over two weeks. Scream? Actually I have time to write this right now instead of doing homework because I'm fairly sure the only homework I have to do yet this week is study for a test on Thursday, so I think I'll be okay. This morning I worked a few hours setting up lights for a show. It's pretty crazy how heavy power cables are...

I has cell phone (and other stories)

2007-09-16T00:09:00.000-05:00

Well I discovered that I and my roommates could save a large quantity of money by changing our internet service to being just internet and no land line phone. Thusly, I was forced into getting a cell phone (tear). I was able to join the Cherney's family plan, so it's a bit cheaper than other national plans and a lot more minutes per month. It would be even cheaper if I could find another person who needs a phone though (hint hint).

I've decided that the book of Psalms is pretty much amazing. My latest rediscovery is Psalm 62, another one of those "safe feeling" Psalms.

This semester is a bit different than others. I'm crazy busy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but I only have one class on Friday. So by 2pm on Thursday, I feel like my weekend has practically started. It good for time to get things done, go disc golfing, take a nap, and other random stuff, but a feeling of impending doom rises on Sunday night.

I changed the title on my blog because I got tired of the old one, but I still haven't thought of anything good so I just did my best to be clever.

I went to see Stardust this afternoon with a new friend and an old one. I didn't expect much, so I enjoyed it quite a bit :). It turned out to be pretty clever and entertaining at bits and the guy got the girl in the end. So aside from the expected crudeness (light for a PG-13 movie, actually), it is a pretty decent film.

My modification of my project from last semester is almost done. I spent a couple hours on Friday soldering and the code is almost done. Just a few minor changes and get the timing down so the clock keeps good time and I'll be all set.

I've had my phone for three days now and I've talked on it for just over 2.5 hours already--glad I didn't get a prepaid phone.

Sorry if you were expecting something deep tonight, I'm too tired to think about anything very hard, I was working on advertising for Cross Training (InterVarsity Fall Conference), so my brain is shot now.

Psalm 46

2007-09-10T00:47:00.000-05:00

1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.

5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.

6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields ^[b] with fire.

10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

Tonight Zach, BP and I had our "wing meeting." We talked about a bunch of little things ("why is the fan in the bathroom always on?") and then studied Psalm 46. BP had a different translation that instead of "Be still and know that I am God" said "Cease striving..." That gave me the picture of a drowning person who is desperately struggling to stay afloat while his would-be rescuer tries to save him in spite of his frantic efforts to save himself. When we let go and trust God, things end up getting a lot easier.

Thought number two: After reading the passage together a few times, I said "I wish I was that guy, it sounds so safe!" In truth, I am that guy, I just don't live like it.

Things are Happening

2007-09-05T22:15:00.000-05:00

I have to get up at six tomorrow morning, so I have to make this quick, but I need to at least cover a couple things that have been happening that maybe I'll expand on later.

A few days ago BP and Zach were going through the drawers in the kitchen (add more here later)

Last night Zach, BP, Megan, Hannah, and myself made a Walmart run for food and other household items. When we got home we realized that we had to clean out the freezer to make room for our food. That led to the Refrigerator as well. An hour and a half later, we had discarded an incredible number of ancient and inedible items including multiple containers of salsa and ketchup, artichoke hearts, and some meat that was dated April.... of 2004. That meat was placed in our freezer before I graduated from high school. I have some sweet pictures that I'll post later.

Tonight Zach and Hannah went to town on the rest of the kitchen, even down to scrubbing the floor with whatever weapons of cleanliness that they could locate. BP tackled the basement and I took on some miscellaneous sweeping jobs. Mega was MIA.

Back in P-Vegas, baby!

2007-08-30T12:47:00.000-05:00

Being a Senior is pretty cool. I'm recognizing people all over the place, especially since most underclassmen haven't arrived yet.

1. Four people at the grocery store
2. Guy at the career center desk
3. Guy at the library desk
4. Guy at the computer lab help desk
5. Bunch of people while wandering around campus.

Tuesday when I went to Otts I ended up talking to our lab manager and one of the EP professors about my summer for close to an hour.

Life is crazy at the house I'm living in this year because the three guys who lived there last year are still in the process of moving out and me and my two roommates are moving in, so stuff is everywhere. It is wonderful to be back in the midst of old friends though. I don't have internet at the house yet, but hopefully it will be set up on Friday.

To Cell, or Not to Cell

2007-08-23T10:36:00.000-05:00

So I've been looking seriously into getting a cell phone. Yesterday I spent a couple hours on the net and finally found the best bargain prepaid phone I could. I didn't buy it immediately because part of the deal included that the phone is "reconditioned" and until I know what that means I'm not going to pay out a ton of money for it. Last night I was thinking about a number of things, one of them being this cell phone deal. The cost still comes out to approximately 15 cents a minute for calls. So I started thinking, "Is a ten minute phone call really worth $1.50 to me? Is a twenty minute phone call worth $3?" I can make a meal for two or three bucks, is that the same value as a phone call?

The reason I've resurrected this idea is for the sake of staying in touch with people better while I'm living off campus. I'll be spending more time on campus and for the sake of being available to people and getting a hold of new friends and old ones, it's tempting to get a cell phone. Half the convenience is having a digital phone book that you carry with you.

But in another year I will probably be making a lot more money and will be able to afford a cell phone more easily. I've made it three years of college without a cell phone and I'm sure I could survive a fourth.

Preparation

2007-08-18T22:42:00.000-05:00

The last few days I've been acquiring furniture and such for living off campus this year. I head down to Platteville in just over a week. Today I procured a desk and a dresser and I have a mattress to get too. I also picked up two old floor speakers and an old receiver at a rummage sale and have been having lots of fun with them. It's a bit exciting to start getting my own furniture and begin the process of moving out of the nest officially (sorry mom). I'm 21 years old and have one year of school left. I may not be a mature fount of wisdom yet, but I'm ready to be independent and it's cool to be moving in that direction.

New Plan

2007-08-15T15:22:00.001-05:00

It seems like it'd be easier to blog a little more often in smaller posts than to do a long post every now and then.

Today's thought is about the song "Blessed be the Name."

Blessed be your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name

Blessed be your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, Blessed be your name

It's easy to bless the name of the Lord when I'm surrounded by Christian friends at church or camp. When the sun is shining. But when you think of this song when times are hard, "when the darkness closes in," it isn't quite as easy. If you sing this song as I have, you have made a promise, as I have, to continue to praise God no matter what your circumstances are. I thought of it today when my mom was talking about how difficult it was to say goodbye to my sister, her husband, and her 6 week old child. She mentioned the importance of believing in God's promises. Many times in the last couple years I've been reminded of this song in a time of duress, and forced myself to respond: My heart will choose to say/Lord, Blessed be your name.

So much for a short post :D

Is this the end?

2007-08-14T20:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been home now for just over a week, so I guess I can't keep blogging under this title. Although UD is still around and I am still producing thoughts, these thoughts are not emanating from UD anymore, so I'm going to have to either stop blogging or change the name of the blog. Thank you all for reading and the feedback you've given.

Today I met with Kori Cherney, my IV staff worker, to continue planning small group goodness for the fall semester. The time we spent went really well. My excitement (if that is an appropriate word) for the coming semester continues to grow.

I also went through my mail today and discovered that last June the bank changed my savings account terms and has been charging me $4.00 a month for having a low balance for over a year. Two lessons can be learned I suppose.

1. There is a reason to open all those blasted mailings from the bank, they will occasionally have important information.

2. Don't let little mistakes bother you. Do your best to prevent them, but don't spend the rest of the day beating yourself up about it.

And lastly today, an example of clever wordsmithing from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

"Aurther Dent woke up and instantly regretted it."

I'd like to think that I'll change the name of my blog and keep going as my life continues, but I can't say for sure, so check back every now and then if you feel like it, the web address won't change.

Future (eyes wide open)

2007-07-30T21:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my professor and physics lab manager from UWP flew in. We spent all day today touring labs and talking to people about their research, our research, and plans for the future. I have a stomach full of excellent food, a fridge full of leftovers, and a mind full of an interwoven, interconnected, and unorganized assortment of ideas (try saying that out loud 10x faster).

What does the future hold for me? Do I want to go to University of Central Florida and then work for NASA, North Carolina State University and work for Intel, University of Dayton and work for the Air Force, Urbana-Champagne, Michigan State, Penn State, UW-Madison? Am I interested enough in optics to spend two years of my life and more learning and working in that field? Do I want to head for digital electronics? Do I really even want to go to grad school? How is it that I enjoy chipping paint, breaking old furniture, picking up trash, and washing dishes at the gospel mission as much as I like designing waveguides, filters, and learning about nanofabrication at the university?

There are two worlds and I cannot commit to both of them.

Have I come this far in Engineering merely for the purpose of having a choice? Ten years from now I might be saying "I could have gotten a masters, I could have gotten a job earning six figures, driven a BMW, and joined the ranks of the MENSA-qualified academic elite. But instead I'm doing _____ for the cause of Christ and I don't regret that choice for a second." Or I could plunge into this world of $400k SEMs (scanning electron microscope with 800,000x mag) and multi-million dollar laboratories where the goal is to complete projects, get better equipment, win contracts, and make more money. I respect those who do such things, but I abhor the idea of making it my life. Can my career be engineering and my life be something else? Am I to take this knowledge and go on in my career with my eyes wide open, hating and fearing the possibility of losing sight of what is truly important in life?

One can strive all his life and gain nothing, only to realize that he already had what he was searching for.

In my fatigued and unhealthy (getting a cold again :/ ) condition, I think the best I have for tonight is to keep my eyes open wide. The obvious direction I have is to spread my resume around a little and check out grad schools, so that's what I'll do. I'll also keep looking out for other possibilities, and I know God won't expect me to do anything without showing me first.

The Project

2007-07-28T13:28:00.000-05:00

Josh and I have finally started working on Dr. Li's project in earnest now. I'm going to describe the process we'll be going through sometime in the next year.

1. Deposit a um of silver on an SiO2 (glass) substrate.
2. Use an EM field to cause the SiO2 to essentially absorb the silver through ion exchange and "dope" the surface of the glass with silver. This will create a waveguide for light so that a laser shown at the surface will travel along the surface of the substrate.
3. Lithography: Use a photoresist, a mask, and some method of etching to cut away the doped glass to create individual narrow channels. The current mask design will have 24 waveguides, but that may change before it's actually made.
4. Electron-Beam Lithography : Use an electronresist and an E-beam lithographer to Etch different structures into each waveguide. The photo lithography will have features as small as 3 um, With E-Beam lithography we can get down below 100 nm if necessary.
5. Shine different frequency lasers through each waveguide and find out if certain wavelengths have 100% transmission.

The downside to this picking up is that I haven't been able to spend as much time at the mission in the last few days. The upside is that I am more excited about what we're doing than I have been all summer.

Yesterday we toured the Air Force Research Lab where several UD graduates work. It was exciting to see their rather extensive facilities and I was able to understand at least 90% of what the person giving us the tour said to us. I realized that I have learned quite a bit this summer and can picture myself going to grad school for nanofabrication, whether Optics or EE I'm still not sure. I have a few good schools to investigate though. U of Urbana-Champagne in Illinois, North Carolina State University, University of Central Florida, and a Michigan State University all have large clean room facilities and good programs (or so I've been told).

In other news, the rear derailler on my bike needs to be replaced and I'd much rather buy a road bike, so if you know someone who has a decent road bike that they want to get ride of for cheap, let me know :D.

Pictures

2007-07-24T15:26:00.000-05:00

Well I haven't blogged in a while so here's some pictures from around the Gospel Mission:
The house we cleaned up: Before and

After

A sideways picture of Mike, the king of the kitchen

Marigold, a semi-offical mission cat

A few guys digging a post hole. Jackie and Jeremy are the two young men there. They are paid by the city to help out and their work ethic is rather lacking, so pray for them.

By my account I just broke the 60 hour mark working there. Today I got to climb around on scaffolding scraping in preparation for painting. It continues to be a blessing to me to be able to help out there and be a part of God's ministry to the poor in Dayton.

I now have less than two weeks left here so it seems like I should have a significant closing thought or two, but I don't (yet).

KTHXBIE

King's Island

2007-07-15T17:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to King's Island, an amusement park just east of Cincinnati with a bunch of international students. I spent the day with eight French-speaking students (mostly from France, one from Morocco and one from Nigeria). I knew six of them pretty well, so I was very much a part of the group despite knowing very little French. There was one point where Marlene said something in French and I said "What?" and she repeated it in French a little more loudly as if the problem was that I hadn't heard it the first time :D. I take that as a complement that they don't necessarily remember that I don't have their language in common with them. In case you're wondering, I took that picture from the park's mini Eiffel Tower and that is the Vortex, one of their largest roller coasters and one that we rode and enjoyed.

Before yesterday I'd been on a grand total of one (1) roller coaster, and that was a solid twelve (12) or more (+) years ago, so in addition to spending the whole day with non-Americans, the whole death-defying speed thing was a pretty new experience. I went on five roller coasters and four watery dealies, and... yeah. I took a couple videos, but they were on the two wooden roller coasters, so the vids are really bumpy. Fun day though.

Today I spent a lot of time thinking about how relatively isolated from the body of Christ I've been this summer. I've found more friendship at parties where underage drinking, flirting, and smoking abound than at some churches. Part of my reaction is frustration with the body of Christ, and I believe rightly so. But I also know that God allowed this to happen, and it has required me to "fly solo" in my walk with Christ more than I ever have before. I don't recommend doing that by choice, but it has unique opportunities for growth.

Working at The Gospel Mission...

2007-07-09T13:01:00.000-05:00

Is pretty much amazing. TGM is a soup kitchen/other ministries center for the Dayton Area. I helped out there a week ago Saturday and last Saturday and today I went in for the morning. I wash dishes, mow, weed wack (today), and pick up food donations from a nearby hospital. Reasons it's awesome:

1. They're located about two miles from UD, so it's only a short bike ride to get there.
2. It's an opportunity to aid an important ministry--helping others in the name of Christ.
3. I get to work hard, something that I enjoy doing but only do when I have tasks given to me.
4. I get a free lunch that is usually quite tasty and is always healthy... and did I mention that it's free?
5. I can be blessed and bless others with fellowship with other believers.

When I remember to get my camera out of the clean room I'll take it along and take pictures, so for now my verbal description will have to do.

I'm an Uncle

2007-07-07T22:29:00.000-05:00

As of 7:00 am Friday morning, Christian Knauss has arrived. He got a steroid shot about six weeks ago because there was a possibility of premature birth, so he's already quite developed as you can see from the picture.On a more serious note, his arrival is a reminder that I'm getting older. You know all the family reunion pictures from when I was little? Okay, so maybe you don't. Work with me! Soon I'm going to be the uncle in those pictures instead of one of the little kids (Hopefully the cool, fun uncle, or one of two cool, fun uncles :). Life moves on, and here is another step away from being a kid and towards being an adult.

"What's Another Way of putting it?"

2007-07-06T16:43:00.001-05:00

So last night I went to a drive-in movie theater. Another new experience for me while here in Dayton. On the way pretty much out of the blue someone in the car asked me a question.

"So are you really into your faith?"
"I guess that's one way of putting it, yeah."
"Well what's another way of putting it?"

I really didn't know how to respond. This is part of the issue that I've been thinking about for a couple years now. What is it that separates me from those who say they believe the same thing but live their lives differently? I stalled for time and we were interrupted so I had a bit more time to think about it. When we got back to the conversation I just gave her the whole deal. In brief, I said that I believe that I'm saved by my belief in Jesus Christ as Savior and in response to God's love towards me, I strive to serve him (In retrospect, I unfortunately left the work of the Holy Spirit completely out).

How would you answer that question?

Subtle Racism

2007-07-06T16:36:00.000-05:00

Check out this Link for an interesting story about an unjust criticism of a black Supreme Court Judge.

Happy Independence Day

2007-07-04T15:21:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, happy 4th! I took this picture on Sunday night, which is when the Dayton fireworks were. One of my thoughts about this summer was that I might end up with nothing to do and feel lonely on the 4th. Well... last night I went to a 21st birthday party for one of the guys I play ultimate with. Today I went "Cabrewing," a canoe trip on which some people bring beer. It started pouring rain towards the end, which made it quite an adventure. I also could have hung out with friends from a Bible study I'm in. Later today we may go see the fireworks in Centerville (a nearby town), but for now I'm going to get a little r & r.

It's Me

2007-06-29T12:25:00.000-05:00

So I haven't blogged in a while. My life has settled down into a bit of routine now. I still have quite a bit of free time and I'm gradually figuring out how to fill it. Yesterday I got a Java textbook so hopefully I'll stay motivated to crack that open and take some time to learn Java this summer. On Monday I heard about a soup kitchen call the The Gospel Mission that is quite close to UD that needs volunteers, so I'm going to go over there tomorrow and help out and possibly set up more times that I can assist. I now have all of I John 1 memorized and about half of chapter 2, making a little progress every day.

Today is volleyball day. Every Friday a bunch of Arab students play volleyball all evening with whoever else shows up. Last week it was 10-15 Arabs, a French student, a Puerto Rican, a Chinese student, and half a dozen or so Americans. We divide into roughly four teams and rotate. Last week someone brought a rather ornate Hookah, which I now know is a method of smoking tobacco that is healthier than cigarettes and smells quite sweet (My asthma served as an easy way to avoid trying it myself). It's great fun, so I'm looking forward to it again this evening, assuming it doesn't rain.

My inspiration for blogging today was a random thought that I had. When someone I'm with calls someone on the phone and they start the conversation with "Hi, it's me" or just "It's me" and then go right into what they were calling about, I know that they know the person they are calling well. Often it's a spouse or girlfriend. Sometimes it's just someone they've been talking to a lot lately. Whoever it is, I know that those two have a strong relationship. When they talk, they have no need to identify themselves explicitly because those two words are enough for the hearer to know who is calling. God knows us so well that all we have to say is "Hi God, it's me" and he knows who's calling.

Rereading this, I'm afraid that what I was trying to communicate was lost in the words that I used, but I hope you understand at least partially my attempt to illustrate God's intimate knowledge of who we are and his eagerness to have a close enough relationship with us that all we have to say is

"Hey, it's me..."

Pictures

2007-06-22T10:17:00.001-05:00

A while ago I had a request from my mother for a few pictures of UD so here's a few that I've taken from around and about. There are more on Facebook if you're interested.

The view from my window

Josh and I by the fancy entrance

Julio and I looking thoughtful

The exact photo requested: Me with the big UD sign

The view as we come out of the science building

This is part of the hill we bike up every day after work/class

Emily and Josh in the clean room

Locked Doors Bug Me (when my keys are on the other side)

2007-06-21T15:53:00.002-05:00

So when that little switch at the bottom is flipped my door locks. That's fine with me except that when I unlock my door the switch doesn't flip back...

That lead me to the situation of the morning. Last night when I got back I unlocked my door and went to bed. This morning I got up and went outside for a minute. The wind blew the door shut and there I was, no keys. It cost me ten bucks to get my door unlocked so my immediate resolution was to make sure that this was never going to happen again. First I removed the panel over the switch and tryed using duct tape to fasten it down. That worked exceeding well. So well in fact, that the door wouldn't even lock. Next I decided to try to make a jimmy out of a coat hanger. I stepped outside and closed the door to test if the coat hanger would fit in between and lo and behold! The door was locked, I was on the outside, and my keys were on the inside, again.

I had three choices.
1. Make the jimmy and hope it works. My pliers were inside my room, dang it!
2. See if by random luck (or blessing) Josh's key happened to open my door.
3. Go pay another ten dollars five minutes after I locked myself out the first time.

I went to see if Josh had pliers, nope. I tried bending the coat hanger using my knife (that I somehow had even though I didn't have my keys), didn't quite work. So I borrowed Josh's key and my door opened right up, I guess God does have a sense of humor. After that, I put my keys in my pocket and made and tested my jimmy, shown below. It works pretty well so I hid it outside my room so that I will NOT get locked out of my room again this summer.

Jon showed us some bike trails (for better or for worse :)

2007-06-19T08:59:00.000-05:00

In the last two days I biked about 55 miles. That isn't far for hardcore bicyclists, but I hadn't ridden my bike much since college started, so my legs are a bit sore today. On Sunday morning I ended up riding quite a ways (13 miles) to get to church. Then that evening Josh, Jon, Jon's roommate and I rode around a bit. Jon showed us a trail that starts about a half-mile from campus and connects to a network of trails that go all different directions. In addition to being a fairly well maintained bike trail, there's some really nice woodsy parts around and much of the path goes along a river, so it's a nice ride. Sunday night I had a blast riding around and talking and stopping at picturesque spots (+14 miles). So yesterday Josh and I decided to go out again to get some exercise. This time we went hard and fast for miles, 27.5 miles in just over two hours. Now in high school once I rode just over 30 miles in one day, but that included a break for lunch and a much slower pace, so I'd call this my most challenging bike trip yet. In July there's a bike trip to raise money for some good cause that I can't remember at the moment that I may participate in. That trip is about 150 miles in two days. So I have a long ways to go if I'm going to get in shape.

Church Adventure

2007-06-17T16:30:00.000-05:00

I decided to go to Apex Community Church this Sunday because it had been recommended to me by a couple of people and I briefly met two student age people who go there. It's a five mile bike ride to get there, which is a bit long for a Sunday morning, but I figured I'd do it once and hopefully meet someone who lives in my area that I'd be able to mooch rides from in the future. Another factor was that they have an 11:15 am service, which is conducive to sleeping in after a late night. So I set out this morning on my bike with a map in my head including the street the building is on, major streets I'd cross, and the big street before it and the one after. After riding 6.5 miles, I concluded that I had somehow missed it and so I went back about a mile to another church I had passed that looked friendly. (It turned out I had ridden right past it and that it was just down the street from the one I went to)

So I went in and managed to catch most of the sermon. After the sermon the teaching pastor spent quite a bit of time talking about their new building project. The pastor was responding to a possible lack of commitment of the congregation to supporting the project financially. Part of what the pastor shared indicated that he saw the new building as an evangelism project.

Afterwards, I seriously considered walking up to him and asking "How will the new building aid/improve/strengthen your church's efforts at evangelism?" From my perspective there was nothing wrong with their current building (which is probably incorrect to some degree), and in my humble opinion American Christians spend too much on building temples unto themselves instead of treasures in heaven. The other interesting aspect was that after the service I waited around for a few minutes. I managed to make eye contact with less than half a dozen people, and two people greeted me verbally in passing. I could see that the people in that church have excellent families, good relationships with one another, and from all appearances are a growing body of believers. I really don't mean to knock them because I imagine that if I attended the college Sunday school I would have met some people and gotten rooted in a little better. I also might have been greeted had I been on time. But if the only welcoming thing about that church that I experienced is the big banner by the door proclaiming "Welcome" to all who enter (actually I didn't notice it until my way out. Irony, anyone?), I don't see how getting a new building is going to turn the church into a bunch of evangelists. The next question that I ask myself is would I be any different from these people at a church that I was a regular attender? And to be honest I would probably be no different.

What if instead of building a new building they took that 6.5 million dollar project and used it to send medicine, Bibles, and food to needy churches in Africa? What if they used it to support native missionaries in India? What if they sent it to Russia, where instead of one hundred and seventy-five baptist churches in Dayton, Ohio there are less than one hundred churches in a province larger than the state of Ohio?

I'm reminded of a (true) story I heard from someone I personally know who visited a church in Russia. The small body of 100 or so believers have no plumbing in their church. The bathrooms are quite literally a small outside building with a dirt floor and a hole in the ground. Quite uncomfortable, to say nothing of the bitter cold in the winter. A few women of the church asked the elders if they could get indoor plumbing and install proper toilets. They did some research and found that they could do so for the same amount of money it takes for them to send one missionary to another city to start another church. They concluded that before God they COULD NOT spend money on indoor plumbing instead of sending another missionary. 80% of their annual budget is spend on sending missionaries and so they pee in a hole in the ground for the cause of Christ.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for churches here to have indoor plumbing, but sometimes it almost disgusts me how nice churches are. Is God glorified by a beautiful building with a state-of-the-art sound system with subwoofers built into the stage? Perhaps. But God IS glorified by people who sacrifice earthly comforts for the sake of reaching the lost. Yes, there is a balance, but it seems to me that in America we err on the side of comfort all too often. I'm not positive what I'm even saying here. But it seems to me that there is a problem with the church in America and the experience that I had this morning is a good example of that problem.

Let me try a summary statement: American Christians are too concerned about themselves and about having nice things and should be more focused on reaching out to those around them and using their finances to further Christ's kingdom.

A Wild Weekend (well, at least for me:)

2007-06-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

This weekend I hung out with Josh, Julio, and a couple other people they knew. On Friday night, I went to what could probably be called a stereotypical party. Ten or twelve of us ended up chilling at someone's apartment where the main activity was ingesting alcoholic beverages and the goal of at least some of those present was to get wasted. This however, was not my goal, so I limited my intake and watched events unfold. In retrospect, I don't think it was a bad thing for me to do. I had a good conversation with a guy from Kenya, discovered that I don't like cheap red wine (at all), strengthened a few relationships, and had some fun while I was at it.

Saturday night Josh, Julio (a cool guy on our floor), and Jon (a cool guy in our building), went to see two independent band play at a bar. I didn't drink anything stronger than water in part because things were expensive and in part because I just didn't feel like it, so I drove home :D. This night I had a really in-depth conversation with Jon that started because he has been to Africa and I am hoping to go next summer.

If due to some freakish event in the time-space continuum I run into the 19 or 20 year old me. the younger version of me will react "you did WHAT? Bars and parties are bad places to go. People get drunk there." But now I'm realizing that there really isn't anything wrong about going into a bar or to a party (now that I'm legal). This is what my friends here do for fun. If I refuse to enter a bar on moral grounds, that damages our relationship. And if I go and drink responsibly and "be good" it strengthens our friendships and I even have a bit of fun. Its an environment that I'll never fully embrace or seek out, but if that's what my friends do... Paul said to be all things to all people, and if I'm afraid to reach out to people in their own environment I'm not doing much good. The people I met and hung out with are pretty cool people. Even if I don't like drinking as much as they do I can have fun with them, I can learn from their different perspective on life, and I can show Christ to them.

Leave Comments!

2007-06-12T20:02:00.000-05:00

Just a side note: I'd like to encourage you to leave comments if you have anything to say, agreeing, adding, disagreeing, whatever. It's nice just to know that people are reading this :D

Update on my life (in case you care:)

2007-06-12T19:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Josh was riding his bike to the garage to pick up his fixed car when he hit a manhole cover that was a couple inches lower than the road at high speeds and took a big digger into the pavement. He's doing pretty well, hopped up on Vicodin he can walk around without much pain and is showing every sign of a quick recovery. Today we had our first lecture on nano fabrication which was quite interesting. Then we went adventuring in his now-healthy car and found a Walmart with no food and a grocery store that had lots of food.

This evening I played Ultimate Frisbee with some people who are here for the summer. It was really fun, but now reminds me that almost everyone here has a solidified circle of friends. It's easy for me to go and hang out and be friendly and they be friendly to me. But the relationship just isn't there and the only thing that will change that is time. I think this is a good experience for me in light of preparing for new student outreach next fall at Platteville, but I'd much rather be able to have the perspective without going through the frustrating stage of having only a few shallow relationships. I know from talking to other friends who are now far away that I'm not the only one going through this, which is comforting to some degree. I think the main thing that I'm realizing is how important it is in the beginning for an insider to "adopt" the outsider and help them with whatever they need until they become an insider. That hasn't happened for me here yet. Maybe it will, and maybe I'll end up making do with a bit of determination and courage instead. Only time will tell.

The Existence of God

2007-06-11T22:11:00.000-05:00

I was listening to Ravi Zacharias today, and he said something as an aside that I found fascinating. take the person who says "God does not exist." "Well, why do you say that?" They say "I know God does not exist."

If I say "I know that no black rock with white spots exists in the universe," I presuppose that I have infinite knowledge of the universe.

To claim that you know that God does not exist is also a claim of infinite knowledge of the universe, a truly God-like quality. So the statement in itself is self-contradictory.

I'm explaining this poorly, so you should really go to rzim.org and listen to him yourself.

Movie Comments

2007-06-10T22:03:00.000-05:00

This evening I went to go see "Waitress" at an independent film theater. Apparently it's also made it into main theaters now too. I really liked it and feel like recommending it, except that I can't really think of any particular reason that it's a good movie. So I guess I'll start writing my thoughts and see what happens.

Basic premise: A waitress who makes amazing pies works with two other waitresses and a horrible boss. One thing that I found interesting was that both of her coworkers find "love" during the course of the movie. One says the equivalent of "Well, he loves me and no one else does, so I guess I'll take him." The other has an affair with their boss because, as she puts it, she has someone to look pretty for and it's exciting, even though the guy is a jerk and married to a nice woman and she doesn't love him.

Two women who both are involved in relationships for two very wrong reasons. The stories do end up happier than the part I told (for those of us who are romantics at heart), but these stories provoke thought about what a good reason to enter into a relationship is. I think that's why I like this movie, there are interesting people with interesting relationships in it. The part that I described is just a subplot, so don't expect the whole movie to be about those things. Some characters you hate, others you just can't make up your mind about, and some you root for all along. The end is a bit unexpected but it was happy enough to leave me with a warm feeling.

One of the best parts about it was that Nathan Fillion has a large role in it. He is the main actor from the tv show Firefly and the movie Serenity. I really enjoy his ability to work with good dialog. He had quite a few clever interchanges with the lead actress.

Why do people go to church to pray?

2007-06-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

This morning as I was waking up, I thought about the challenge that I and many others have in spending meaningful time with God regularly. One of the things that makes it hard for me is that I have only one room, so almost everything that is in my life that could distract me is less than ten feet away. Here in Dayton I have my own room and it has two desks, so simply sitting at the desk that my computer isn't at helps a lot.

So I was thinking about this this morning, and I remember how some people have a little area of their room or house set up as a "prayer corner" of sorts--A special place where they can go to remove distractions and put their focus on God. The Romans in ancient times had "household gods" in a special room where they could make offerings.

Then I realized with greater clarity than before why people go to a church to pray. It isn't that God is any nearer to us at church. It isn't that he cares more about people who pray from a church. Out of all the places there are to pray, a church is one with very few distractions. It is a place where you don't have to worry about other people thinking you're strange. Everything in that place is designed to aid one's focus on Christ, so prayer can be far more meaningful and effective. So if you're in the Dayton area this summer, don't be too surprised if you notice some crazy person going into a church during the middle of the week and realize that it's me.

LOLCODE

2007-06-09T09:05:00.001-05:00

Zach IMed me this link a few minutes ago and I thought it was worth sharing. Apparently the programmers are at it again, developing a new code that "has no practical or educational value, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun." The geeks and nerds among us will probably get a big kick out of it, and a few minutes of time from a non-geek/nerd would probably enable said person to understand at least some of the humor.

http://programming.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/06/07/1654251&from=rss

See Me

2007-06-07T23:40:00.000-05:00

I will be spending quite a bit of my time this summer in the clean room here. If you want to see it and what's going on inside live, check out http://homepages.udayton.edu/~sarangam/nanofab/ It's usually pretty boring though (come watch us wait for the turbomolecular pump to depressurize the sputterer!). Okay, so that SOUNDS cool (minus the waiting part), but it does involve a lot of fussing with details (and waiting). We are currently in the process of building a light filter that will transmit 100% of a certain range of Infrared light and reflect 100% at a different wavelength range, or at least the computer model says that it will.

Tonight I attended a local college/young adult Bible study. I was quieter for that study than I have been in any Bible study in I don't know how long :). I guess it was because I wanted to get a feeling for how the group interacted so that I would fit in. It seems that most of the people there had at least an undergrad degree, a few had jobs and others were going for a masters or PhD. There were plenty of engineers present, so that was a nice bonus.

I got the feeling that something wasn't quite right, but nothing that I can describe well. It was a feeling that while we were gathered with the best of intentions and desires to follow Christ, we weren't going about it the right way, or something like that. Whatever it is, I think I've seen it before and will probably see it again. Maybe I'm wrong and it's just that it was different from what I'm used to, I probably need to think about it when I'm not tired.

"Disc Golf" or "Adventures in a new city"

2007-06-07T08:55:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday evening Josh and I set out to find a disc golf course. This was a difficult undertaking because of a few complications. I don't have a car and Josh's car was parked a half mile away, so taking our bikes seemed much easier. We had no internet in the dorms because we didn't have login names. We do have a lappy with us, courtesy of Dr. Li, so we biked to Panero's, a sandwich place, for dinner and used their wireless internet to look up Belmont Park and memorize the map so we could bike there. We stopped off at Josh's car to leave the lappy and procure his discs and then we realized we had made a mistake: We knew how to get to Belmont from the dorm, not from his car. But Josh said he thought he knew how to get us there so off we went...

3 miles later we had found the road that we knew ran N-S just west of the park, but not the park. We rode south about a half mile and didn't find it, so we asked a couple that was waiting at the bus stop:
"Belmont Park, I don't know where that is, but it's probably in Dayton."
Cue dramatic music! I thought we were in Dayton! How far had we veered from our intended path?
"Um, where are we now?"
"You're in Kettering."
"Oh, well, I guess we need to go back north then."

North we did go, and found the park maybe a mile in the other direction. I had been told that while Dayton itself isn't that big, the cities just run into each other so that the Dayton area goes for miles. Josh and I now have first hand experience with that.

The disc golf course was quite nice. A good mix of hills, trees, long and short holes. It was a good time. I am definitely going to get buff from riding up all the hills around here though.

Background

2007-06-07T08:30:00.000-05:00

So last December I heard that Wei Li, one of the physics professors, was looking for two students to help him on an optoelectronics research project that he was working on. I applied for the job and found out early in the Spring semester that Josh Duran, a classmate and good friend of mine, and I had been selected. It was part time over the semester (about 3 hours a week) and full time over the sumer. Josh mentioned during the semester that we'd like to do some hands-on research in addition to the theoretical stuff we were working on. So Dr. Li arranged for us to spend two months this summer at the University of Dayton, home of a class-100 clean room (which is really good) and an accomplished electro-optics program. WAY MORE than either of us expected, but its looking like it'll be a great learning experience and will be a leg up to get my masters if that's the way I want to go next year.

Trying this out

2007-06-06T22:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I made it to Dayton, on Monday the 4th of June, 2007. I've had a lot of new experiences and a lot of free time lately, so it seemed to me that this would be a good way to remember some of the things that happen as well as telling a few friends about it. However, it is now quite late, so I will have to resume this mighty undertaking at a later time. If I get ambitious, I'll try to post some pictures as well.