Mathematics Factorial

another quiz

Morpheus


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
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Prayer Request

Hey everyone.

One of my floor gals fell off her horse over the weekend and received a bad concussion. After being sent home on Sunday, things were looking up but she has been admitted into the hospital in Tyler.

Please keep her in your prayers--healing, recovery & her schooling the rest of the semester.

--Anna

another movie review, sort of

So tonight we saw "Eternal Sunshine in the Spotless Movie" Please remember, movie reviews are not my specialty.

If you like drama and you like psychotic movies, go see this. It's better than Memento, but sort of like it. Definitely no the same plot or anything, but the same sort of insaneness. It's one of those movies you have to be careful watching over again...might want some time and good comedies inbetween.

I liked it. I like movies that are original, and this was original. Everything in the movie worked together. The acting was superb. At any rate, I'll leave the good critiques to the crew.

somewhat suprised

I'm surprised no one has put up a Big Fish review yet (other than Wheeler's from sometime ago.) At any rate...

I really enjoyed the movie. It was funny; it was sweet; it was moving; it was inspiring; it was good.

I thought everything was well done and it all melded together nicely. It brought things to closure, yet left a little bit to make ya think. For example, the story about the day of the son's birth...in a way, it was true according to the father's perception. The basic theme was the idea of "things are how you see them." While there might not have been a literal fish and such, the story worked as a metaphor. The movie also bring to mind the the complexities of symbols and concepts, how words are symbols of something.

anyways. if you haven't seen it, see it when you get a chance.

odd

You are Sally!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
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Grinding along

I just finished what ended up being a full nine page paper. Now I must finish my journals.

this week

Life is crazy.

as most of ya'll know, yes I am back. The trip was mostly uneventful and good. The weather is beautiful and I'm happy that it is spring although feeling bad for all those suffering from allergies.

However, my attention is wanted from more directions than I am capable of handling, so I may not be posting much right now. Prayer is welcomed with much gratitude, particularly for trying to figure some things out.

Just to let you know how I am busy school-wise: Doctrines Journals and Paper due Thursday. Unit Plan with 60 activities due Friday. Stats test Friday and I'm behind on what we're doing. Doctrines take-home test next week. Cults presentation Tuesday night. I'm trying to cope with future unknowns from summer to housing next year. I've got to get paperwork in to the education department for next year and of course there is course scheduling and all that mess going on too.

On that note, I'm going to wrap up here and get to bed soon. God be with you all.

soon

All too soon we will be on our way and back in little ole Longview to finish off the semester. I've really enjoyed this break and I rather like it up here. It takes some getting used to having stuff so near by and houses relatively close together, but the week has gone well. I probably haven't done near as much research as I should have, but eh, I needed lots of rest and chill time too. I do have to say that the stuff I have been reading for my papers this week has been quite fascinating, somewhat appaling, but really interesting. I spent one day reading a book on euthanasia and the soul by Dr. Peck and other amounts of time reading about peace pursuing folk of the last hundred years, written by a Buddhist. I've also been reading up on liberation and secular theologies--the secular theology tending more towards the pluralistic theology and other stuff. I'm feeling better about the paper too because I think I'm getting a handle on the basic ideas and beliefs. The paper will be a comparison of salvation concepts between evangelical, liberation, secular, and existential theologies.

It's challenging ina lot of ways. I sit here and read a lot of stuff that goes against everything I've been taught and believe. It sounds so close to right, yet also so misguided and deceiving too. and I want to say "what if" but I remember that I cannot deny the existence of the God of the Bible and the truths I have seen and experience and Christianity--the evangelical, conservative, biblical theology--is the most consistent and strong system. Some of the stuff is hard to accept, yes, but well, one thing I have learned is that the easy road can be very wrong and that the best things in life tend to come with hard things. It's hard to explain. and it gets confusing to be confronted with different logical thought systems--one human mind is complex.

You see, I'm one of those people who usually doesn't have a hard time seeing different view points. I can mold to other systems of logic somewhat easily. :-) Or at least, so I think. But anyways, the curse of this is not flip-flopping and just jumping from system to system--I need to know what I believe and I need to know it well. Oh the joys of being stretched and molded and growing. Yet, it really is awesome.

another update

Well, I have to say this place is unique and interesting. Monday night we went book shopping.... :-D :-D :-D and had some good ice cream that was definitely unique. Yesterday was more research and bumming around and later visiting Jungle Jim's....a very interesting grocercy store with all stores of interesting foods. and Today we walked over to Skyline for chili...definitely not like Texas chili. So Cinncinati seems to be full of unique flavors. I'm probably not getting as much done research wise as I should, but oh well. It'll get done by the time the paper is due. I'm liking this whole rest and sleep bit plus having good food in a homey atmosphere. and I'll try to keep an eye on that spam... or rather not look at it but delete it as fast as I can.

hello

so, it seems i'm getting the comment spam now too. at least it's easy to delete. at any rate, so we are now two days here in ohio and i'm still absorbing it all. It's an interesting little place and not all that bad. and i'm surrounded by books to research and reseach some more. I really don't have anything interesting to say. We're busy being total bums here. Oh yeah, I did read this book called Tortured for Christ that was really good. It's from Voice of the Martyrs. I recommend it. You can borrow my copy if you'd like when we get back to school. But that's is still a good few days from now. Later!

another journal to be

Today's discussion in Doctrines was about "perseverance of the saints." a favorite topic for some who like to argue.

It was a really good class for me. Course, I don't know that there have been any classes that haven't. But anyways. Things just seemed to make sense. What is about to follow is my understanding--not the views of Grudem or of Dr Woodring or anyone else, but my understanding from the information I've been given thus far.

I believe it is possible to lose one's salvation, to commit some apostasy. Let me stress this though, once on loses it, one loses it for good. Not an easy thing to accept. I direct you towards Hebrews 6.

However, I've been understanding salvation as a continuous idea, something that is progressive and is completed fully at our earthly death. When we first accept Christ and receive the Holy Spirit, we become a Christian and have salvation. What follows is the process of God making us a new creation and we have a role to play in that process--bearing fruit and obeying in our actions and attitudes. However, we all know that we are failures and make mistakes. We all have doubts at some time or another. We make even take steps backwards towards our old lives. Apostasy happens when a person completely and fully rejects what they originally believed and accepted; they have no desire for God or knowing truth. I would assert that just as salvation is completed fully at death, so also is apostasy. A person may be stepping backwards and really close to falling over the line, but God is going to chase them down and always leave the door open for them until they chose to close it firmly. They shut the door in God's face. Even Satan and his angeld, who experience something of Heaven and God's glory and presence, turned their backs on God in disobedience and sought to be something more. and they are/will suffer eternally for that. One good point in class was made however that Adam and Eve also experienced God's presence in Eden and disobeyed. But then, they also were sorry for that and did face God for the consequences. I don't know. That is a lot of speculation there.

The class was good for me in that I've been experiencing waves of doubt lately, waves of doubt even while I still have desired to know God more (even though doing little to learn) and believing he existed. I cannot deny his existence. So class was comforting somewhat to realize that doubt & backsliding are a part of everyone's walk and that I have hope in my "remnant" of hope and belief in God still yet. It was also good to know because it still doesn't really change a position on evangelism other than emphasize it all the more, and also emphasize the need to exhort fellow believers to stay firm in faith too; call eveyone to trust God. For even while we may thing someone has backslidden a lot as a Christian, there is still a chance for we are not ones to judge the internal. We can discern from outward fruit or lack thereof, but we still do not know as God knows. he is the Judge and final Judge. anyways. it's off to bed with me now. This doesn't even really cover everything and for sure needs to be supported more with scripture, but alas, my bed calls anxiously. Goodnight, God bless.

Entry 60

Well, many of you want to know how the Houston trip went. Let me see if I can explain what can't be explained.

My doctor is baffled. For sure I have an abnormal electrical pattern in my heart, but he doesn't know that it is the cause of my varied symptoms. If I were 40, 50, ya know, old, he wouldn't hesitate so much about emphasizing the need for a pacemaker. However, I am not that old. I am quite a bit younger. So, he's concerned that a pacemaker may or may not treat the symptoms.

So he sent me off with a 24-hour continuous Holter monitor to see if the electrical pattern had change/worsened any since my last visit. I shipped that back today after gratefully removing the electrodes. But, I do have to wear an event monitor again. This will have two wires connected to me for most of thirty days--only off when I'm in the shower. It has a ten second memory loop so that whenever I press a button, it'll make ten more seconds of noise to record my past ten seconds of heartbeat and the current ten seconds. In other-words, it gets my heartbeat when I am having a "symptom." This means I get to be a disturbance during classes and other things. Or more likely, I'll be stubborn and only hit it on more serious episodes when i am in an environment that shouldn't be disrupted. We'll see.

So basically, we just don't know what is going on. I'm frustrated because I've been trying to ask for the last year and a half if we were positive the symptoms were from the heart-beat. Lightheadedness and such can also come from neurological problems (:-p) Sinuses. Maybe it's some crazy wiring of my flight or fight system. Who knows but God?

so that's that. We thank God for the good traveling we had coming and going and had a bit of good time with my dad and grandpa and uncle, good food, good bit of time away from school. And now we're back to wrap things up for Spring break and it's off again. Now to make a post about doctrines!

before i leave

well. we leave at 7 am tomorrow morn for the dr appt in houston. my most wonderful boyfriend and i will meet up with my dad and than head up to the nineteenth floor of St Luke's Medical Tower.

and I'll decided on something that could forever alter my life. to get a pacemaker. i'm at a strange point with it...i'm half resigned to it and half at peace about it, knowing it needs to be done as much as it feels strange that it is. at any rate. i'll post more either tomorrow evening from houston or thursday when i get back.

have a wonderful wednesday all. and please pray for our safe travels.

note to self

Note to Self:

Self, one should run windows updates more often than every two years.

Being Ready to Answer

I've spent the last semester and a half taking a class in Christian doctrine. The last two months I have also been learning about cults. I've been sitting here reading some other crazy stuff from the Urantia people and before that from the Unification Moonies. I've also been working on a paper about Wicca the last few weeks. Last night I listened to a practing homosexual bishop in the Christian church.

Many of us have read and heard and been taught that we should test all spirits and be ready to give an answer. We should be ready to defend our faith when someone comes along who disagrees. It's easy to know and believe and many people do try and become astute in the beliefs of the Christian faith. However, I thought of another reason to be firmly grounded in one's beliefs. We aren't immune to doubt. We are made to question and reason and think. Sometimes Satan can attack our minds and try to turn ourselves, just through individual study and thought, away from God. We need to be ready to test the and fight the nagging voices that come, those voices that try and twist and tangle everything up.

I cannot deny the existence of God. I cannot deny what he has done in my life and what he has created. I cannot deny that there seem to be threads in the different beliefs around the world that can be traced to one common root. (Threads that have been twisted and recolored and distorted from the Truth and their original meaning). This much right here is all the keeps me believing sometimes. Because I cannot deny these things, I can only find truth and consistency in one faith, that of Christianity and therefore I must accept the many things that don't make sense sometimes to my merely human mind.

We don't just battle other people. We battles ourselves sometimes.

sort of in the same line

here's one of my sources for my paper on Wicca.

It's an interesting read about comparing Christianity and Wicca and whether or not a person can synchronize the two.

thoughts

So we watched the 60 minutes interview with the gay bishop, gene robinson tonight. It's hard to express my thoughts other than disgust and just the definite perception this guy is seriously being deceived. He kept mentioning God and how he feels God is supporting him in this and has given him peace about all this; God apparently wants this to happen--letting in openly gay bishops. I don't know what God he believes in, but that really doesn't sound like the God I know through Scripture. A priest who had been fired for not submitting to the bishop's authority was also interviewed, and he had a lot of good things to say--particularly with regards to his oath being to the authority of scripture first and teaching and fighting deception. Farther down the list of his oath is a promise to submit to bishop authority. Ah yes, and robinson also talked about his mainstream family (they all love and care and support one another) and such. Apparently mainstream is a good thing. At any rate, I'm just more apalled at this man who says he is serving God and those who are supporting this. If you get a chance to see the interview somehow, I'd say watch it for yourself. I think it reveals a lot about this man.

a struggle

sometimes the consequence of a wrong action is a crack in the armor, a dent that makes something a little more weak and the action a little more likely to happen again. it's scary how much easier it is to justify something once you've made the mistake once. and how some things become do deeply ingrained--particularly from when you're younger. i guess it makes me want to be a better role model. and it makes me feel like such a failure.

God. help me. SOS. *white flag*

a forgotten thought

Culture is a way of life; intelligence is a way of the mind.

God is Good.

Tonight devos were awesome. I can't really share too much, but God answered our prayers to work tonight and he was very very there and brought a new friend to my life.

I don't think I can put this into words.

so God is good.
God is.
'nuff said.

Random Scattered Diverse Thoughts

Well, I just sent my paper off for the C.S. Lewis conference....

The new letu home site is looking better. but for some reason, the conference information is found at http://www.letu.edu/people/arturomorales/conference/.

I thought of the niftiest way to come up with an answer key for a multiple choice test. I could write a simple little program that would take the first n digits of pi or e or phi for (n+1) questions, and than mod each q sub n (question n+1) by the number of answer choices. The appropriate letter would than be assigned as the correct answer. And I could write the questions and answer choices and let the program do the rest.

A. this would mean I could easily create any different number of versions of a test. B. It's just cool. C. having a program makes it easier to write tests in the future. D. FYI--q sub 0 would be 3, q sub 1 would be 1, and so on if one chose to use the irrational number pi. So that the first question would have an answer of C if there were four choices. E. You can switch your pattern up...maybe go backwards from the last question starting with 3.

that's all.