Mathematics Factorial

signs of a semester end

increasing numbers of very random conversations on very random topics, particularly amongst floor mates and other random persons

the printer never stops printing

you can tell easily the difference between under and upper classmen because the upperclassmen look very bleary eyed and bedraggled.

people start laughing at the weirdest things. and make the weirdest comments.

the clutter in your room begins to look daunting as you realize you have to begin packing.

lots of girls are at target buying wedding gifts for friends.

you don't remember spring break very well. the last two weeks for that matter.

you look and plan for opportunities to procrastinate.

studying is planned around movies for those who normally plan movies around studying.

book-lovers begin to realize they will have the freedom to read "real" books soon.

you pay for things in loose change.

you stretch out your laundry for when you can do it for free.

prayer is unceasing.

the end of the weeks seems to be a VERY LONG way off. until you're crunching out that paper at the last minute.

fewer people in chapel.

fewer people in classes.

the grim reaper of financial aid is haunts you and friends.

you are calculating minimum grades needed.

homework doesn't seem so important anymore.

you realize yet again that you really should be in bed, not writing out stuff on your blog.

you check other people's blogs to see if they've updated in the last few hours on their own homework breaks.

the end is setting in...

The feeling is beginning to sink in. It's almost over. I've known it was coming. I'll be moving out of this dorm forever in a couple of weeks. Many friends are leaving over the summer and we'll start afresh another semester with new traditions.

It started to sink in when I began to take the posters off my cabinets. Something about ripping paper off that I decided not to keep anymore. It isn't really symbolic of anything in my life (other than getting out of this building), but it just started to hit me. I'm not sure what to feel (other than that I hope the caffeine begins to wear off from that dollar latte five hours ago...) Do I dread the approaching of summer? Somewhat. Do I look forward to it. Eagerly (I love my roomies!) Something just doesn't feel completely right. Maybe I really don't like change at all and I'm quite fond of routine. There's all these friends getting married this summer. While the last couple of years I knew things would be different the next year, it just seems more enhanced for the coming year. We're growing up. In one year, I'll be graduating and looking to teach the year after that. Only one year.

All this from tearing paper off my cabinets...

quiz time

um. yeah:

Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me
videre?
"Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you
just glad to see me?"
You're smooth, okay, but you also need a
girlfriend. Bad.


Which Weird Latin Phrase Are You?
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This week:

Assignment: Status:
Doctrines Paper, Thurs. noon FINISHED
Doctrines Journals FINISHED
Cults Paper, Thurs midnight FINISHED!
Education Tests Assn. FINISHED
Seminar Paper, due next Wed. Still need to add to draft.
Clean off shelves/box books, stuff In progress*...

*thank you Lily and Charlie!!!!!!!!!!

hmm, what else?

The week ahead

I have hope for this week. For example, my classes lately keep getting let out early with the encouragment to either eat, work, sleep, or whatever. One of my classes is cancelled tomorrow which means I'll have some extra time for working on the three major papers/assignments I have due Wed/Thur this week. Normally Josh and I attend Bible Study off campus on Monday nights. However, that was cancelled. Tuesday night cults class will be somewhat shorter than normal. Dr. J. gave us until Wed of final week to turn in our final work for the semester on the seminar paper instead of this Friday. I might just be able to sleep this week. I also have all my chapel credits, so attending chapel is a low priority this week (although I will be in chapel tomorrow since it has been strongly encouraged by my roommate that I attend.) While I haven't done the full amount of research for either of my papers due Thursday yet, I have gotten the hard part done in that I understand where I'm going with the paper and thus supporting research can be done to fine tune my points and add to the number of sources I have.

And while I seem to have hope for the week ahead, I realize that many of my other friends out there are going to be swamped and sleep deprived more than usual by the end. So I wish the best for all of you and pray every night that all of us survived with our "sanity."

hmm

While I do think Pat Tillman deserves the respect and honor he is getting, I wonder what makes him more special than the many others who have died "in action" the last year. A big deal was made for the first number who died, otherwise we've just gotten the names of others in yet another news report. Did others die with Tillman in the same mission? (*goes to check the story*), or how about those who have died since in the last 24 hours?

In general this is something that bothers me. The fame and such that some people get at their death for the various circumstances. Yet there are so many others who died heroic deaths and do not get the same amount it seems other than by those closest to the deceased. I realize it'll always be this way and that's the way it goes with celebrities.

Maybe it's the part of me that wonders at every person's story. I don't think that's fully it though. I have issues with it sometimes on the local level too, such as the IMPACT bit. "These students sacrifice so much blah blah blah" when I can share stories of student leaders who aren't IMPACT and yet do more than some IMPACT persons I know.

It's the imbalance from my perspective that bothers me. And it grates me in even other areas, such as various causes involving suffering. Most can sympathize with someone who has experience a more physical or "harsher" tragedy while others may be suffering from something more subtle and of a "lesser" degree.

At any rate, I should go to bed now. I would like to go to church in the morning.

gematria!

and yet it fits... somewhat.

Sixes are a whole bunch of words; harmony,
friendship, family life, loyal, reliable,
loving, and you adapt easily. You do well in
teaching and the arts, but are often
unsuccessful in business. You are prone to
gossip and complacency. The Pythagoreans
regarded six as the perfect number because of
lots of math things; six is divisible by both
two and three, and was the sum and well as the
product of the first three digits. Please rate
my quiz.


What does your name and arithmacy say about you? (some simple knowledge of adding is required on your part)
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gee. that was easy

What Finding Nemo Character are You?
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TRINITY DWELLERS

I have some shelves for sale. They're pretty cool shelves and are styled for the odd-numbered rooms in Trinity Dorms. If you know of anyone who might want them next year, send them my way. They can find me on the Student Directory and get necessary info there.

*update*

SOLD!

no math muse? or random muse?

~Clio~
Your muse is Clio, the Proclaimer, the muse of
History. Her symbol is the scroll. You're
very interested in history; have you considered
archaeology for a taste of something new?


Which of the Nine Muses is your muse?
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I write like a male.

So after seeing the interesting fact that Randy had run some blog post of mine through a gender predictor based on writing and it said I was male, I decided to check some other entries from that last few months, including some from last semester. It predicted male every time. Some of the scores were closer together but other scores showed strongly male.

Interesting.

I fed this one two posts and one came up female, the other came up male.

I fed each one my fairy story written for Inklings. They both predicted male.

I fed the the latter site my infamous story of the Evillies. It predicted female with literal, male with permissive. Gender Genie predicted male.

Bizarre America

I present to you the ultimate bizarre/random/strange tourist guide.

a perspective

Storms, C. Samuel: "A Third Wave View." Grudem, Wayne. Gen. Ed. Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996. 222.

There is often the danger of emotionalism in those who seek to minister in the miraculous charismata and who not only acknowledge but expect the often tangible and sensible operation of the Holy Spirit in their lives. However, this need not be the case. As Jack Hayford has said, if wa are careful to create an enviornment where the Word of God is foundational and the person of Christ the focus, the Holy Spirit "can be trusted to do both--enlighten the intelligence and ignite the emotions. I soon discovered that to allow him tha tmuch space necessitates more a surender of my senseless fears than a surrender of sensible control. God is not asking any of us to abandon reason or succumb to some euphoric feeling. He is, however, calling us to trust Him--enough to give Him control"*

*Jack Hayford, A Passion for Fulness (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1991), 31.

Quote Site

This looks to be entertaining... it has some quotes from our favorite "seed faith" man

frog

Where's my frog?

If you have my frog, please return it as it was expected of you to return the frog to me. I rather miss having it sitting atop my computer monitor.

Reward: One story on blog.

Celebrate!

For the record, I need not attend another chapel as long as I am a student at LeTourneau University.

*Assuming I graduate next May.
*Assuming the chapel policy doesn't change to worse punishment after two semesters chapel deficiency.

Just too good not to share

You know how I will reant every now and then on person(s) who tell me "I just gotta have faith and I'll be healed." Well, one of the freeing things I've been learning through doctrines and in research for my seminar paper is how this is very unfounded biblically. Here is a passage and a bit from the footnote reference from a book I'm using for doctrines research

"Scripture reveals that the level of God's working of miracles was not primarily dependent on human faith, but on his sovereign plan and purpose. Nowhere in the New Testament are believers encouraged to have faith so that they can become the recipients of miraculous works."
Footnote:
"While the ability to work miracles is related to faith (cf. Mark 9:23), the amount of faith is not emphasized. The reference of the disciples to cast out a demon because of "so little faith" is best understood not as a rebuke of a small quantity of faith, but of a misdirected faith (Matt. 17:17-20). Jesus immediatedly adds that "faith as small as a mustard seed" is sufficient to move mountains (v. 20). The disciples were apparently treating the power given to them as magical power rather than true faith, which depends totally on God. Mark's additional comment that prayer is required supports this understanding."

Robert Saucy, "An Open But Cautious View." Wayne Grudem, Gen. Ed. Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996. p. 119-120

Praise

Lily has a job!!!!!

Curiosity

Hello all. I am writing a paper for Doctrines on the different positions regarding spiritual gifts, particularly with regard to whether or not the "miraculous" gifts (prophecy, toungs, healing) continued past the apostolic age. Please leave a comment with your own thoughts and if you know of any helpful, accessible resources, leave that too.

Christian love?

My dad used to work at a camp. He quit at the end of my freshman year because of some issues of disagreement with the director. He was one of many full-time staff to leave within two years. Talk to me personally and I might be able to give you some more information.

Anyways, last year the directors and two other departmental directors were asked to leave by the camp board or trustees/directors after the director refused to change some things that they had asked to be changed. The board had had someone come in and do a management audit type think where they see how things run and such and offer suggestions for improvement. Now this was at the end of three-four year of questionable full-time staff turnover and after an incident involving a local church a year or so earlier. I think the church elders had confronted the director on what was going on and there was some letter written by a former staff that played in. The director thus left the church and "strongly encouraged" all camp staff who attended the church (which was probably about 75 percent camp staff) to leave and they started their own "community bible study" on Sunday mornings. So back to the directors being asked to leave. They all left, picking up jobs in little Lake City and one of the three families having to find another place to live. Things the last year have been treated badly by a few friends of the directors. The camp has managed to continue running as the board had brought in another director and had asked some remaining people to help out more. My only problems that were ever with Redcloud were with the directors and the way it was run. I agree fully with and support the goals of the camp to encourage growth of faith in Christians and reaching out to non-Christians who attend something at the camp and I think God has definitely blessed the camp. However, as is the case for many places, the management of the camp was being handled wrongly and is now being treated better as far as I know. My dad is even working part-time again for the camp. However, there have been actions of revenge against the camp such as this, to block the continued running of the camp. A gas station in town refuses to offer credit to the camp anymore as friends of the directors. They accuse the camp of horrible things and yet take actions of their own that are more divisive and un-Christian flying the face of biblical texts speaking directly to the way things of disagreement are to be handled in a body of believers. I believe that last link I have provided is even threatening to the camp itself.

If ya'll could, offer up some prayer for the camp and people involved in continuing to run the camp.

belated caffeine induced spike

i want to be asleep. i should be asleep.

i forgot how much i like vanilla wafers. they make a good late night snack for my picky stomach.

starburst jelly beans are good too.

for the summer longview folk

An idea of what could and should and will come.

follow the lemmings

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions

The first book I grabbed had a title on page 23 and no fifth sentence. Therefore, I grabbed a book which is about the same distance in a different direction:

"A special gold star if you can name the work and author of this famous line"
Mathemagic

Story of My Life

Many of you know I'm quite fond of analogies and metaphors and other figures of speech, especially when I can make life connections. Well, I realized another life lesson learned from a simple thing: an Easter Egg Hunt.

You see, I haven't done well in recent Easter Egg Hunts because I make these bad and bold assumptions. I assume that because people have been there before me, than I don't need to make as careful a search because the probability that I find anything is slim. But people always miss things. I miss things....alright now, focus your thoughts back here. I can miss an egg if I look in the same spot three times. Details aren't my forte.

Well, I didn't realize the lesson I should learn from this until I was doing some reading for one of my papers tonight. I was reading on cessationism and contemplating the references that the guy was giving. You see, I generally wouldn't be as keen on doing an indepth word-study in the hopes of finding something that others didn't know before or missed because invariably I find that someone had figured it out already before me. Why bother than says I to myself?

It never really hurts to look again though now does it? Different perspectives, different lighting, different eyesight....they may help to reveal something to one person that another before missed. Else, I will walk away from the Easter Egg Hunt with little to show for myself. And if I were to walk away with many eggs, I hope I would realize that I probably received a lot of hints and divine inspiration along the way.

number quiz!!!!!!

Something or Another

While I could brag on lots of friends around me....I unfortunately don't have the time to do that because it would take awhile because while I thought of some friends, others would come to mind and the list would just keep going and going.

However, today marks nine months of dating a wonderful man in my life and since I've been fairly difficult to him of late, I feel that I should brag on him a bit.

Josh, who is the special someone God has given to me and who I really don't deserve, has stood by me over the last year through the swings of fists and emotions, through the being sick and disappointments accompanied thereof, through the rambunctious family and interesting friends, through my selfishness and carelessness, through the busyness that I can't seem to escape. He's prayed with and for me. He's put me over other interests, taking the time to go with me to Houston for a doctors visit, or attending a wedding or two, riding with me and putting up with my spontaneities. He's encouraged; he's pushed where I needed pushing; he's helped me unmeasurable amounts with Common Grounds and other ventures. Loaned me his sandals when mine broke while walking back across the hot July pavement. I could go on, but I know he would rather me be asleep right now so I shall give in.

I love you Joshua. May everyone know!
Thank you Lord, for this wonderful man in my life.

Stories

I was reading the blog of the Codepainter and it brought back to mind thoughts I have when I get the chance to stare at the world as it passes by when in a car or what not. I see empty houses, broken down, old or businesses that have seen better days. I see the homeless, expressively sad folk wandering about and I wonder. Once upon a time did these people have a family story, loving parents? What happened? What brought them to this point? Those houses...Did someone and their family move in for the first time to the new house excited and full of plans? Or a little business, which was what I was thinking of more specifically when reading the post, did somebody start that little business with dreams of success? What did they wish to see? There are all these unknown stories everywhere. Those are just my meager thoughts. I would like to say that I think the Codepainter expressed his own quite well and are thoughts all should read this Easter day.

Food For Thought

Father Tom made a great illustration in his message at church today using a mosaic--God takes our brokenness and puts together a picture in which we find the Lamb.

everything's changing..

so i changed my background color. and the funny thing is, i could almost swear that was the color i had started out with as my background. who knows? i changed my colors so many times in the beginning, I lost track.

wow...productivity

It's truly amazing but I have just caught up all my doctrines study question and journals and reading. I may even get started on my history of math paper tonight to that i can make a good bit of headway on other stuff this weekend, like senior seminar paper. course, i have a stats test first thing after the lovely long weekend and i have some sample test questions to write for education, but with regards to the major papers i have due in the next few weeks, i'm feeling rather happy that yes i can sit down and get this stuff done. it also helps to be very interested in the subject. for example, in doctrines we are now discussing the nature of the church, baptism, communion, and spiritual gifts. maybe I'll post some more thoughts on that later.

go figure

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
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where did my life go?

well. here i am again. it's been BUSY with all capital letters. and i enjoyed sleeping around 11 hours last night. A lot.

where did I leave off? Well let's see. Tuesday I spent much time preparing for my presentation on Wicca. and it went WELL. :-d we had lots of fun and good food at Dr. Carl's house. although I somehow managed to leave my purse behind in the street. THankfully, God must have watched over it for a few hours before I managed to go back and retrieve it and had no problems.

Wednesday. Other than classes and work all day long, I spent two and a half hours on a Woodring test before devos. Than, we tried to go for free food for a year at Chick-fil-a, but alas the line was already too long at midnight. I read an article the next day that said people were in line at 6:30 WEd morning for the 6:30 Thursday morning opening. So we came back and slept in our own beds. and that was quite nice.

Thursday. I worked, I went to class. My glasses broke so I used my lunch hour to take them to Wal-Mart only to have to pick out new frames. THankfully my lenses didn't break and thankfully it was a manufacturer defect and thankfully my glasses were still under warranty. and I like my new frames a whole lot more. I think they look better on me. but oh yeah, now i remember what kept my going going going on thursday. So i got out of class, got ready for my teacher education interview and than had to get the room clean. well, my room was in a state of chaos. so that took some time. and i had to start my laundry and eat dinner at which was the pie auction. and we walked away with yummy desserts. after dinner, i went to go get my glasses. we got back, and went to registration. we got dollar coffee at common grounds. i finished cleaning my room and than we went to practice reading papers for the conference the next day. and than i came back. and about cried at remembering that i hadn't done the grading for friday.

i woke up early friday morning and was at the conference at 8. Thankfully they had coffee there. I drank some. The first hour was kind of boring. But I chose well the first seminar session to attend. It was fantastic! Narnian education, Treebeard Philology, and Dark Tower as the Allegory of Lust. The session energized me. the next session was okay. and lunch was quite good along with the drama. the sessions i went to after lunch were okay. I was particularly impressed with the lady who spoke about Lewis's female characters and how Lewis really rather upheld the feminine ideal rather than being chauvinist.

and than it was my session to present. After having a slightly troubled practice the night before, I have been told that I did very well. I felt like I did well too. but even more so, all my other fellow students have also been praised and the ones I were able to see went quite excellently too. My quotes on powerpoint helped me to go more smoothly along and it helped me slow up my speed just a little bit. hooray for Dr. Olson's work with us last semester!

After quickly changing and grabbing a quick bite to eat, we went to Hootenanny. I didn't have a lot of expectations but I did end up enjoying myself. It wasn't as good overall as last year I would say, but I think that it was good for it's last minute prep and scheduling in a busy weekend. I also think that the judges awarded quite well those who received first, second, and third.

after hootenanny, i spent a relaxing hour reading with My Sweetest Heart and than we had a good chill out time with the crew with lots of chocolately goodness. YUMMMMM and we laughed and talked and laughed some more. and than I came back. and I went to bed. and I slept a wonderful 11 hours.

Now about that catch up grading to do and homework...