Visiting time is coming to an end

I have 2 days left to get all my visiting in with Jesse. We haven't done much at all. Wooo hooo! The whole family has stayed in the living room most of the time and we read the Wall Street Journal, and point out good articles to each other. We have about 3 weeks worth we've been saving for this, so we have quite a few papers to go through. As soon as we leave, my mom will get rid of them and start saving for the next visit.

All the mornings and evenings, everyone gets together and plays Uno Attack or Ultimate Scrabble. My mom likes to watch us play more than she likes playing, so she keeps us well supplied with celery and hot chocolate, and tea and snacks.... It's WONDERFUL.

Jesse, Dad, and I did cut wood Saturday morning. Near the end of the woodcutting, everyone got inventive and tried different ways of cutting wood. My favorite alternate method was to put the axe behind my back, arch waaaaay back, until the axe head would almost reach the heels of my feet, and then swing forward with as much force as my arms and stomach could handle... I thought it was very effective, but as I found out later, my stomach muscles couldn't quite handle the strain. I had trouble sitting to get out of bed Sunday morning. I'm sure Jesse felt the same way, but neither of us will admit to it. :-)

It's time!

Jesse is coming here today! Even as I type, he should be driving here. He's going to come directly up to my apartment and then we'll all go back home together. "All" includes my mom too. HP finally sent the pieces we need to send the computer back, and she's driving up here to bring the computer while I try to find all the booklets that came with the computer.

As a parting note: Mom remembers hearing the chorus to "Seasons in the sun".

Oldies forever

I was listening to oldies music today, and I loved this one song that had a beautiful chorus.

We had joy we had fun,
We had seasons in the sun

A great sentiment. A toast to fun in the sun! (Not that it is EVER sunny during winter in W. PA)

I'm home!

The family Christmas gathering is over, and everyone has gone back to their homes. It was a little sparse this year, as more of the children grow up, some of them move away and don't usually make it back until a few days before Christmas. Depending how the schedule works out, we usually have more family come, but this year the gathering needed to be held earlier than normal.

So for everyone who didn’t come… have a happy year, and I’ll see you when you do come down!

Unfortunately, my brother couldn’t attend today either. :-( But I don’t despair! :-) I just have to wait one more week before I embarrass him by doing more pushups and curls than he can! AND I’ll tell everyone the results… if I do more :-P On more serious matters, it seems as though the Lord is leading and helping Jesse along with a strong, clear hand.. He is out of a job now. The rest of his work time is just using up his vacation time (3-4 days), so he won't be going back into the office. One of the guys had over a month of vacation time coming, so a little after my boss announced the layoffs, he took a vacation of more than a month! Jesse had one job interview, and he expects to get the job hands down… but even if he doesn’t, Jesse seems to be happy to put in resumes and do job interviews and wait for the Lord to pick out a job. Kudos for Jesse!

My apartment’s first floor is looking more like an office now. We have a NICE printer, tables set up, office chairs assembled, floor mats placed, a internet hub in place, and everything arranged as we think it will be long term. Now, we’re waiting for our computers to arrive, our monitors to be set up, and finals to be over (Not me personally, but the other two hires are looking forward to it. :-) )

I know I’ve been using the smiley faces heavily. They make a blog look so much more laid back, and since I’m home I thought they would be fitting. :-D

"Moving" along - ironic isn't it.

Tonight I head back home and spend the weekend with family. Our family's Christmas gathering is this Saturday, and there are always a lot of relatives attending. This weekend, we'll probably have another pool competition ( which I'll undoubtedly get eliminated in the first round again ), spread stories over the lunch and dinner tables, play in the snow, and swap some gifts and memento's back and forth. I am definitely looking forward to Saturday - I should also mention Saturday is my birthday!! I probably won't be getting any presents, but I know I'll be getting an extra helping, or two.... or three... of vanilla ice cream!

I've paid for and completed the sign up for classes next semester. I'm looking forward to both classes: Hebrew II and OOPLs (pronounced ooples). If you don't know what ooples is, then you can be classified as the sane part of the world. :-) I will give you a hint: it is a programming term.

I still need to see what the sign language club is doing next semester, but I think I won't have much time after work and school for extra-curricular activities, although fencing seems to be an intriguing option. I have to ask myself though, “When I move somewhere else, what good will fencing be?” I think the benefit of knowing some fencing is similar to the benefit of base-jumping. It doesn’t serve much practical purpose, but it is cool!

More Mania!

The apartment is two stories and a basement tall, with a pretty good heater. There is one flaw with the heating system... hot air rises! :-) While I was working in my bedroom, that was great. I just turned the heat all the way down and enjoyed the comfort of my bedroom. Now that the office equipment has arrived, I work on the first floor which is a little bit chilly for my taste. But don't worry Jesse! I have more layers of clothes on than usual.

There is also a decent internet connection in the house: 100 kB/s. While not roaring fast, it does save time when browsing the internet. What saves the most time is the fact that I don't need to drive into the college and use the library connection anymore.

For things other than the apartment I should mention that I now have a Grove City college library card! From what I can gather from the codes on the card, I am the 43rd Grove City resident to get a card, and according to their binary numbering system, they only have room for 64 community library cards.

And for a final tidbit of information: I have (or will soon, whenever I can fax the receipt) send my new computer back to get a refund. The day I got the computer back from the second repair, I turn it on... and it doesn't start up. It was the same old error, and it still wasn't fixed after two tries. I call HP to attempt to get a refund but I never managed to ask for it. As soon as I described my problem to the first person, she patched me through to a second. After I explained my problem to the second person, he patched me through to a case manager, who offered a new computer or a refund. I'm guessing they don't like a computer/customer who takes advantage of the repair policy and uses it a lot. :-D

Dan has moved into the apartment, I'm going home for this weekend for a Christmas party, and I'm going to add another year onto my age!

Apartment Mania

I have moved into my apartment! What made the move in final was getting an internet connection. Now, I don't have any practical reason for going home. :-( I guess I have to face up to the truth and just use the excuse, "I'm homesick!". :-)

But what about the apartment? It's smaller than my bedroom at home ( which wasn't large ), with almost no closet. It is only a 20 minute leisurely walk from the college, but in the winter, it's a shorter walk. All I need to do now is to sit in my room and to program. All the activities that I'm interested in joining won't start until next year, so things will be slow for a while.

And for you mom, "I'm homesick!".

'tis good to be back

After a two week break, blogging feels like a luxury. Oddly enough, even though I know I'll enjoy it when I sit down to blog, I don't look forward to blogging at all. It must be some twist of my nature to not look forward to something I'll enjoy, because blogging isn't the only area I procrastinate.

But enough about procrastination. I did have a somewhat valid excuse: I couldn't access the internet for a week. The phone lines had a lot of static, and it messed up the internet access. It is getting late and I'm rambling, so I'll limit my ramblings so I can get to bed soon. Thanksgiving week was wonderful.

My brother Jesse, his girlfriend Charlessa, and Nephew Jermemiah came to visit us for the weekend. It was a great Thanksgiving weekend. While Jesse was here, he caught me up on all the developments at work, and we chopped and loaded five or six loads of wood. We've had branches fall down, one onto our horse trailer (not a pretty sight) and one onto a shed and flatbed trailer. These braches weren't small either. I'm guessing a minimum of 7 feet around at their base, and they didn't get much smaller until close to the top. The main base of the tree is at least 10 feet around. I should mesure that! The small branches alone made an ash pile close to 2 feet tall when, and stayed hot enough to melt over an inch of snow 5 days later. Dad has spent several full days cutting the branches, and another two or three full days will be required to just chop and load and unload the rest of the tree. When Jesse and I were chopping wood, we worked for almost 2 hours (he had worked longer before I got out there), and I think we only split about half of one branch. The main base of the tree is too large for our chainsaw to cut, but the branches show an age over 130.

But the main fun was visiting with Jesse again. Jeremiah made his presence known the full time, and Margaret took advantage of his presense to play endlessly!!!! I don't think I could have lasted a quarter of the time she did. I think she likes being an Aunt. :-) We spent Thanksgiving day with family nearby and Charlessa met a little more of the clan.

As I said earlier - it was a great Thanksgiving week. Even bigger happenings have happened since then (I'm moving this week), but I'll leave that for another blog.

Working

Work seems to take up the whole day, and it is because I take so many breaks. When I am working by myself, the very presence of this computer is a distraction - I run error checks, virus checks, ad-aware checks ( I run a lot of checks ), I browse old pictures, play computer games (Not as many as my mom assumes :-), and stare out into my background and barely have brain activity. I thought I could move into another room and the very fact that things were different would help. They did! I no longer played around with my computer. Instead, everything else that was happening would distract me just as much.

I think there is only one solution, and it is a solution I am hesitant to take... wake up early. If I'm going to wake up early for something, I'm certainly not going to waste that time. Early hours always make me do more work. If I'm going to loose sleep, I would prefer it to be for something important, and NOT for me to do nothing by staring at my computer screen.

It's no fun to talk to people who talk in circles.

A day of disappointment

Sometimes there are days where nothing seems to go right. The day got started off badly with me waking up at 4:30, and being unable to go back to sleep for at least an hour. Second bad start, I slept in late, and didn't get up until 9:30, and didn't start work until 11. That means a minimum of finishing work at 7:00! That's pretty late especially since I haven't finished by 11. :-( Then, in the middle of the day, I find out that debate no longer needs my presence to survive! (Gasp! I bet that's a shocker to everyone! :-) ) To top it all off, I thought my brother was coming THIS week, and instead, he is coming next week. :-(

And to be honest... (And why not, this is MY blog!)... I'm fooling with you. This has actually been a very good day. (1) The early hours of the day were spent praying, so I consider it the best hours of today. (2) The late wakeup meant I got some much needed sleep ( A good nights sleep is invaluable), and I don't mind working late in the day. (3) I now have a lot more free time with less driving in to GCC. Although, I still have case briefs to drop off. And, I now have time to pursue other activities I've been looking forward to. (4) OK, well, having my brother delayed is a bad mark for the day, but at least it isn't permanent. That means that next week gets the big A+!

Actual bad things (not limited to today)
(1) My computer is acting up.
(2) My room is a mess.
(3) That's it!

More good things (not limited to today)
(1) There is a NCFCA debate tournament Saturday!
(2) Contra-dancing (one of the "other activities" )
(3) I don't have to send my computer in for repairs!
(4) I heard news about Rachel... Kudos! I like your job!

Repair Work

For the last few weeks, I've been having just a little pain on some of my teeth whenever I chew. I made an appointment 2 weeks ago to have them looked at and sure enough, there were some cavities. They were all concentrated on the side of one of my back teeth. The other teeth looked fine, so I guess the way I brush is the cause. However I brush, I must not hit that one tooth side. I also needed a worn out filling replaced, so I did that Tuesday. And it looks as though I may need my lower wisdom teeth pulled. If I keep them in, they will start to cause a lot of pain when I eat and massive headaches... I figured I should probably get them pulled before the migranes start to get too bad. :-)

In other news: MY MOM IS HOME!!! She's looking forward to tidying up the house. We do a decent job at keeping the house clean, but it needs a mom's touch to make it feel like home! My brother is coming back home for Thanksgiving weekend! He doesn't get home too often, and it is always GREAT when he does. I'm looking forward to rubbing in the fact that I.... hmmm.... I don't know of anything I can rub in. I'm sure I'll think of something. That's what brother's are for after all - to boast about our perceived advantages over each other :-D and to have a 'polite' ruckus until he admit's I'm right. :-P

A Good Laugh Now and Then

I've watched "Chicken Little" and I would have to say it is very cute and funny. I think what made it so funny was all the movie references it put in. Whoever watched it must have liked "Princess Diaries". I also watched "Shark Boy and Lava Girl", and while I'm sure most people would dislike the visual imagery used, I thought it was great. I actually cried through part of it. What does is say about me when I cry during a kids movie? Mentally unhinged? Sensitive? Loco?? I vote for being mentally unhinged.

Congrads on the debate team for putting in such a good showing this weekend! Everyone did wonderfully and made if a fun trip, and next time I'll bring my own camera. :-)

Longing to study

This insatiable urge to re-learn Hebrew has come over me again. At the moment, other than the alphabet, I only have Genesis 1:1 memorized in Hebrew, and I've forgotten most of what it means...

I never said I had learned Hebrew well! Just a bit to get me through what used to be
inconceivably different look of words in the word reference section. :-) Although, now, I wish I had taken one more class of Hebrew. Well... maybe I still could? It just takes a bit more dedication. Taking another class of Hebrew... something worth considering surely -- Learning the native language that God used to send a message of unconceivable glory to us!

And I've reconvinced myself to re-learn Hebrew... it looks like I could have stopped after the first sentence of the blog!

Hurrah for moms!

Not quite an ode, but hip-hip-horray for moms!

It's almost the end of day 4, but from what I hear, my mom is missing us terribly already. :-) That California sun can't quite compare to the chilly, cold, overcast, and drizzly days that Western PA has!

Today started slowly, with a little bit of work and then going to see Zorro with my dad. As my dad drove, I was asking him what he did and that started me recalling the long hours he would put in during heavy work periods. Dad would stop work very late, start very early, and that was without us to help and none of the jigs he's developed to help him get things done faster. Knowing now how much my dad likes to get a full nights sleep (we have similar needs in that area), it must have been very hard. As I was listening to a country song, I remembered this afternoon's conversation, and I hope when I get weary and the work gets tiring that I'll be like my dad and that I'll will keep pushing through with patience and courage until I'm through the tough spots.

I went ahead and put the lyrics below, but they don't give a complete story of what I was thinking at the time; so I'll translate my own version right now. :-) Here goes! "I said I wouldn't seek out or make trouble, but sometimes hard times come. So I'll keep fighting through the hard times, because I do remember what you taught me.

The actual lyrics:
I promised you, papa,
I walk away from trouble when I can.
Now please don’t think I’m weak,
I didn’t turn the other cheek,
And papa, I sure hope you understand:
Sometimes you gotta fight when you’re a man.

I love reading the news!

As I read the news and listen to the news, it seems as though the world and it's governments no longer make sense... nothing new under the sun... I can't say that the news has ever made much sense, but war has tended to clarify things for the last few years. After all, if a nation is willing to openly declare war and proceeds to do so, things get clear really fast. In the case of the US, nations align themselves on one side of the issue or the other and walking a middle line becomes wishy-washy and a sign of weakness instead of a sign of temperance...

There were some bright spots in the news. Yesterday, in the Wall Street Journal, there were some very interesting articles on the attitudes blacks and whites have adopted. (It is the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks' refusal to leaver her bus seat.) My favorite article was one Mr.Steele laments the weakness that blacks and whites have chosen so that no one need feel ashamed.

The bottom line of the article: blacks know that the fault of poverty has been the widespread oppression of generations and it is up to the old oppressors to set things right or things can never be set right;Whites have taken the easy way out and have chosen to eradicate racism on their side and to take responsibility for black poverty as their payment for past sins. The problem with these stances is that blacks have become so integrated into the US system for so long with so comparatively little racism still left that we can no longer blame racism for keeping blacks in poverty - at this point, it is the failure of blacks as a whole to take responsibility that has left them in their current condition - and it is the fault of whites for helping prolonging that position and not holding themselves and others to a high standard of responsibility. As a white, to say blacks have not been responsible for the past one or two decades is to commit racism,and to say that poverty is no longer the fault of whites raises the same cry: "Racist!"

The article and my explanation of it is a little blunt, but I recalled when Bill Crosby was speaking to a group of parents... and kids (I'll have to look that up). He told the group he was speaking to that blacks had to take responsibility, and that they were failing to take responsibility at the moment for their children's education. Oh! For about a week, there was a small uproar, and Bill Crosby was blatantly called racist, insensitive, and ignorant of black's true plight. I kept seeing news blurbs on that topic for almost a month. On the flip side,try arguing that the government doesn't owe inner city students better education, more vouchers, more funding.... try arguing instead that it is up to the parents and students to get a good education. The same cry rings out: racist, insensitive, and ignorant of who are the most poorly educated. "It would hurt inner city schools", "City students don't have transportation" - with the sad assumption that "inner city" means blacks incapable of helping themselves, and that whites must lend money and other help.

Fortunately, It is true that I have some great friends who would argue for personal responsibility on everybody with little emphasis on what the government can do for "me me me", but outside a small circle - To argue that blacks and not the government should stop black poverty is to commit political hari-kari. Imagine that getting played over the TV networks and the outcry! By saying the government must take care of poverty (almost always intended to be 'black' poverty) is to degrade blacks into permanent second class dependent citizens, and to put on the pedestal all of the years of horrendous failings of the government( whether we intend to or not, viewed as the elite of the white culture). And all those failings accomplish us not feeling ashamed of our role toward the other race: blacks don't need to feel responsible for their own failings/poverty ("because it's not their fault" ), and whites don't have to feel responsible for their abysmal failings ("We're throwing money at the problem. We're doing all we can").

The problems that personal responsibility for everyone would bring to the surface are numerous, but America has chosen to live with far more problems when they choose the easy way out because it is comfortable and we are used to it.

Final thought on the article... there was a lot of rhetoric, without much proof of his point... I'm not sure I was convinced that black poverty can mostly be explained by a whole group of people abdicating responsibility. It doesn't seem to leave room for the "one person can make a difference" idea (which I agree with). The main point of the article is the part I already agreed with, that government can't lift people out of poverty (black or white) unless the people themselves make an effort. An effort is no guarantee of success, but it puts the odds more in your favor.

In other news, the Sunnis have decided to participate more in elections(apparently not participating hurt their political representation. :-) )
In other news, Saddam Hussein's lawyers have boycotted until the get better protection. They have 10 demands before they come back. Most of them seem reasonable - especially the better protection so they don't die - but 15 bodyguards per lawyer? It seems a little much.

Aches and pains

I guess this is what it means to be OLD. As soon as you turn 21, it's all downhill and I've got a headstart!

I think I need to make a chiropractor appointment. I think it's all my sitting time while programming that making my lumbar hurt so much. When I was helping my dad this summer, I would always be standing, bending, moving, and doing something active that was not sitting down. Now that I'm doing a lot of sitting, my poor posture is coming back to haunt me. The last 4 years or so of high school, I did a lot of ABeka video classes, and everytime the teacher would tell a student to sit up straight, I would smile to myself and be just a bit smug about the fact that I didn't have to sit up and was in a very comfortable chair or glider. A sore lower back takes away some of the smugness, but not much. :-)

I have the weekend free, and I'm trying to think of something special to do Sunday. I was thinking rapelling, but it's not too much fun by myself... I could stay at the house and clean up ALL day like last Sunday (Which was great)... or I coudl get out "In His Steps" and read it again. I'm leaning towards staying home and cleaning up. It was a lot of fun to help my mom putsy around the house and straighten everything up and rearrange rooms, but I'll probably be sent outside to have fun weedeating! "In His Steps" is a good option, but I read that one one... or two months ago and I may wait a little longer before re-reading it. Rapelling just isn't fun by mytself... hmmmm.... or I could make a few calls. See what I turn up? :-) I know Jacqueline would love to come if there isn't schoolwork still to do, and so would Courtney, Dan, Mark, Steve,... but everyone else is busy I think. It's worth a try! It's time to pull a Holly!

Parting note to brother Jesse: 1152x864 - nice screen resolution. You didn't tell me how nice it was when I was visiting! You also might want to put a little more security on what cookies can be put one your computer. ::evil grin::

Travelling Tale

I got online, checked mail, organized that mail, prepared to send some mail, and by the time I'm finished it's too late to post a lengthy blog. :-(

Not that there is too much to say. On the speech and debater front, GCC broke a few students at the recent tournament, so we know some more people will be going to nationals. I got to judge 4 rounds. I didn't feel too confident until the last round, finals of impromptu! That one was rather easy to judge because I've competed and watched so many others do it.

My new computer is up and working now. I finally managed to transfer a few of my E-mails and programs to my new computer so I hope to fully transfer everything by the end of this week.

Tomorrow morning, my mom leaves yet again for Michigan. She made one trip last week to breed one of my sister's dogs, and she's going tomorrow to pick up the dog. My sister has/will go along on both trips, but she has the added traveling of going to see my brother and nephew this weekend - a six hour drive one way. Both she, my mom, and my dad are ready to stay home for a while.

That's it for now. I can tell I've been programming to much when I start to end sentences with a ';'.

Another blog from a motel

Again, I sit in the dark, typing my blog, alone... while everyone else in my room sleeps. Although if I were to be completely honest, the light has been dimmed, and my mom and dad aren't quite asleep yet, but it sounds so much more... dramatic - if I'm left alone... in the dark... reaching out to connect to the world in the only method left to me - the World Wide Web. It's not accurate, but it adds a small flair to an otherwise unassuming blog.

How boring you ask?

Work is progressing slowly - it's just that I only had 2 days to get 40 hours of work done. Fortunately, my boss is fairly lenient and lets me do work on the weekends so I'm hoping to get the rest of the week's work done, but I am unsure how I should order my week. I know that I am ordering this week so that I am working on the Sabath, but should I? It's something to take to the Lord in prayer.

I must, before I go too far afield in my ramblings, give my regrets to the debate group. I didn't get the debate plans looked over and critiqued, but don't worry! Before I show up next week, I'll get the debate plans back to you.

Now for the rambling part:
I'm starting the process of looking for apartments. I'm trying to find possible housing starting December or January, so I'll be closer to work. My parents made a wonderful effort in raising me and managed to get me to all sorts of activities (gymnastics and piano being my favorite: I can still do a giant, but I don't have ANY music memorized), but now that I'm left to my own devices, without quick access to activities at college, I've floundered in the interesting hobbies category. At the moment, I wouldn't blame anyone who said my life was 'boring'! :-) Now that I'm moving to a slightly larger town, I hope to get involved in some more activities. (dance partner anyone?)

The move is still up in the air and of has a dubious probability, but I think the time has come. I just pray that God would give me the wisdom to listen to him through all of this, in good times, and in the hard time where it is hard to stay connected to friends and family.

A cute visitor

Here the promised post of pictures when Jesse and Jeremiah visited!



Awww.




In this picture, Jeremiah is teaching my dad how to play guitar. :-)




What better to do on a bright, sunny day than ride a horse!
"Aunt Margaret's pretty good, but wait until I'm alone. I'll show her how fast Runner can run!"

"Oh no! What will I do??"

"Look Ma! I'm winning!"



Jeremiah enjoyed the tractor until it started up. I think the noise scared him. As soon as he jumped off, he wanted to get back on. Once he was on, he looked scared again. Go figure!