notebooks

sooo...i finally went to go get notebooks for class today. later i was sitting in class and i was looking at the little calendars at the front of my notebook. they spanned the years of 1999 to 2002. when i came home and looked at my other one i had bought, the years were 1995 to 1997. since there's really no reason to put an out-of-date calendar anywhere, i can only assume that these notebooks were produced before the dates on them. that is very, very strange. i wonder what else we buy that could be almost 10 years old...

random lyrics: rich mullins

Well, it took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

And they say that one day Joshua
Made the sun stand still in the sky
But I can't even keep these thoughts of you from passing by
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

And the Master said their faith was
Gonna make them mountains move
But me, I tremble like a hill on a fault line
Just at the thought of how I lost you
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

And if you make me laugh
I know I could make you like me
'Cause when I laugh I can be a lot of fun
But when we can't do that I know that it is frightening
What I don't know is why we can't hold on
We can't hold on.

It took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

When you love you walk on the water
Just don't stumble on the waves
We all want to go there somethin' awful
But to stand there it takes some grace
'Cause oh, we are not as strong
As we think we are

No, we are not as strong
As we think we are

-Rich Mullins, We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are

books

okay, so i got a ton of books for christmas/bought a lot of books over christmas break. they are as follows:

• Great Dialogues of Plato - Plato
  
• To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
  
• Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
  
• The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas
  
• The Odyssey - Homer
  
• A Reformation Debate - Calvin/Sadoleto
• Confessions - St. Augustine
  
• Systematic Theology - Wayne Grudem
  
• Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
• A Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken
• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith - Jon Krakauer
• The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism - Daniel Bell
• Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
• Lord of the Flies - William Golding

i am hereby resolving to read all of these before the end of the year (except the ones i've already read before). i'm also removing systematic theology from that list seeing as it's kind of under the "reference" heading. my progress will be recorded in the sidebar on the right.

semester review

i'm a little behind some people, but i suppose i should do this before the new semester starts...

third semester in review (sorry danny, but it was such a good title i couldn't resist):

apparently there were a lot of "firsts" this semester:

• first ou football game (and many thereafter)
• first semester without a single all-nighter (not even for my standard 8am calc final)
• first cigar
• first trip to a non-okc or non-tulsa oklahoman town
• first time to vote
  
• first semester to not live in the honors dorm
• first semester where i actually went to the library for studying purposes
• first semester to do undergraduate research
  

i also:

• decided to change my major
• made new friends and unfortunately lost some old ones
• took 9 hours of classes which count not a bit towards my new major (however, on the bright side, i can have cool side conversations with my brother about martensite while watching the reforging of the sword in return of the king)
• decided i wanted to be an RA, took the class, and subsequently decided that i did not indeed want to be an RA
• actually ate at the cafeteria
• interned with sin
  
• finished my calc sequence
  
• had my last class with doc m
• experienced the horror that is physics with dr. shafer-ray
• experienced the awesomeness that is socaps
• gained new appreciation for non-math and -science subjects (i promise i won't make fun of letters majors anymore)

this semester has in some ways been the absolute worst of any i've had so far, but in some other ways it has been the best. there were times when i was incredibly lonely and sad and there were times when i don't think i've ever been happier. there was a lot of stuff that went on that, though i wouldn't particularily want to go through again, i would, if i felt it would teach me as much as it did the first time. i've learned a lot about myself, about other people, and about God's sovereignty and grace. i've failed at some friendships, but i've also gained and restored some friendships and in the process learned what true friendship really is. i have been more challeged to think and stretch and grow than ever before. all in all, it's been a good semester. even for all the crap that came along with it, the best thus far.

w00t

ok so, cool story. today i was downtown hanging out with my friend cassidy and since the weather was beautiful (60 degrees and just a tiny bit of rain) we decided to just wander around for awhile and maybe check out some of the cool shops...so anyway, we ended up at a little clothing consignment shop where i found, not clothes, but my very own copy of the lord of the rings trilogy (which i did not previously own). in addition, this is no lame current edition. no, this is old school. white cover with brown and black art, yellowed pages, no sign of orlando bloom anywhere on that cover, printing date: 1978. that's the year my parents got married. yup, way old school and way cool. i was pretty psyched, especially since it was only $10 for the set. when i asked the lady why she sold books so cheap, so responded, "because i want people to read." that lady gained major coolness points in my book today.

in addition, this is one more instance to add to my theory that i can't leave the house anymore without returning with a book. i think this is the fourth instance of something like this happening...

tsunami

http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/9.html

random lyrics: modest mouse

just reading lyrics on the internet the other day and came across this:

"If God takes life, he's an Indian giver."
-Modest Mouse, "Bukowski"

what a concise way of summing up how it seems most people feel about God. he's kind of there as a convenience factor, but he had better come through and do what we ask of him, otherwise, we feel like we're not getting what we "deserve". if only we could fully grasp the reality of what it is that we are truly deserving of. the wrath of God that we are spared from.

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Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
-Romans 11:33-36