Merry Christmas Everyone!
I finally got the wireless internet in my grandpa's house to work, so I figured I should update this.
My week at home has been a great one. I've hung out with Kayla a few times, and just generally sat around and had fun not having homework!
Christmas has been good so far. And I doubt that anything will happen to ruin it. I don't like keeping a running tab of gifts, but i will say that I got some great cologne from Kayla. I smell so manly. I still have one to go, but I won't bore you all with the details.
Seeing that it's Christmas, it's time for a reflective post here. I think it's interesting that the attitude changes around this time of year. Suddenly, Christians aren't so bad. Perhaps the world thinks they shouldn't make us mad cuz we might take it away. Maybe it's just cuz i don't watch as much TV at home, or I'm not as "connected" to the world news, but I have noticed a definite decline in anti-Christian statements. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I'm a cynic, I'm just observing.
Don't forget the reason for the season. We are celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He was God. He left heaven, the place we all look forward to, to come to earth to save mankind. We can't forget that at all.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Friday, December 16, 2005
Wooohooo! Home again!!!
It's true, it's true, fair citizens of Hutchinson. I have returned.
I flew back from Kansas City today. Except for the stupid check in lady dropping my driver's license in a tiny crack between the luggage scale and the counter, (she never apologized, but I did retrieve it.) and the flight being a half-hour late, everything went swimmingly. I got back here and me and my mom went to Famous Dave's at the Mall of America for lunch. Yummy yummy yummy....i haven't had good barbecue in far too long. Anyway, got back to Hutch around 4...hung out, ate dinner, and then went to Narnia with Kayla.
First off, being with Kayla again is great.
Now onto the movie. It was pretty darn close! I enjoyed it immensely. Lucy was the exact thing i imagined. She was so darn cute! The rest of the kids were dead-on, too. Edmund was the snarling brat at the beginning, and good at it. Susan was the logical one, and Peter was the reluctant hero. He looked pretty awkward when he threatened the head wolf with his sword the first time. The visuals were of course, amazing. With three major effects companies working on this film, it was expected to be amazing. The White Witch was incredibly chilling. Her eyes, her hair, everything about her was just freaky. I found myself really not liking her by the time the Stone Table rolled around.
Overall, i thought the minor changes were good for the story. The Professor's role was bigger in the movie, i think. I'm not 100% sure on that though. The movie was great. Plain and simple. They really nailed this one.
I'll have a few rants the next few days.
I flew back from Kansas City today. Except for the stupid check in lady dropping my driver's license in a tiny crack between the luggage scale and the counter, (she never apologized, but I did retrieve it.) and the flight being a half-hour late, everything went swimmingly. I got back here and me and my mom went to Famous Dave's at the Mall of America for lunch. Yummy yummy yummy....i haven't had good barbecue in far too long. Anyway, got back to Hutch around 4...hung out, ate dinner, and then went to Narnia with Kayla.
First off, being with Kayla again is great.
Now onto the movie. It was pretty darn close! I enjoyed it immensely. Lucy was the exact thing i imagined. She was so darn cute! The rest of the kids were dead-on, too. Edmund was the snarling brat at the beginning, and good at it. Susan was the logical one, and Peter was the reluctant hero. He looked pretty awkward when he threatened the head wolf with his sword the first time. The visuals were of course, amazing. With three major effects companies working on this film, it was expected to be amazing. The White Witch was incredibly chilling. Her eyes, her hair, everything about her was just freaky. I found myself really not liking her by the time the Stone Table rolled around.
Overall, i thought the minor changes were good for the story. The Professor's role was bigger in the movie, i think. I'm not 100% sure on that though. The movie was great. Plain and simple. They really nailed this one.
I'll have a few rants the next few days.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
There is something rotten in the state of Kansas...
As you all know, either from the news or from my previous posts, Paul Mirecki (on the left) is under a lot of fire. After private emails were discovered revealing his true intentions for teaching an anti-creationism/intelligent design class (seriously, what other motive could you have), he has withdrawn the class. Earlier this week, Mirecki was attacked by two unnamed men south of Lawrence. He said that they referred to the debate during the beating, which involved fists and a metal object.
So he says.
In the article in the UDK (click here for the full story), it says that he was taking a early morning long drive in the middle of nowhere when the attack happened. First of all, who does that? Whoe really takes a long drive early in the morning to nowhere? Moving on, he said that a pickup was tailgating him, so he pulled over. Sure. Sounds reasonable, right? I would pull over if a car was tailing me. But then, he gets out of the car. When a truck that was tailing you pulls over at the same time, you get the heck out of there fast. You don't stick around to see what the angry men want. The two men, described as two white men between the ages of 30 and 40, then proceeded to beat him, referring to the debate over the anti-creationism/intelligent design class during the attack.
This just seems fishy to me. Why would you pull over and then get out of your car? Of course, he has refused any comment. I just don't get why he would go through all the controversy and then refuse to explain yourself.
Anyways, that brings me to the latest update. If you read my mom's comment on my last post, Mirecki has resigned as the head of the religious studies department. (Click here for the full Kansan article.) First off, thank God. We do not need an atheist running the religious studies department. Also, it seems kinda like he just quit early. He has been with the University since 1989 and then suddenly resigns after two weeks of albeit, pretty harsh, controversy? Presidents have stayed in office for longer than that after controversy 10 times as bad. He also stated that faculty recommended he step down. Did they know something we didn't? Here's another interesting tidbit from the Kansan article:
"Andrew Stangl, president of the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, the 121-person student group for which Mirecki serves as faculty adviser, said Mirecki told him on Tuesday that he would step down as department chairman."
Hmmm......I leave the floor open now to any rebuttels my readers (ha) have. I'm just saying, there's something very fishy about all this.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Thankful.
Given the somewhat downtrodden nature of my last few posts, i decided to put an upbeat one in here.
Church was especially good today. It always has been. I'm very thankful to God for allowing me to find this Church (Christ Community Church) so early on. I've said this before in previous posts, but I find it necessary to reiterate, given the past few weeks there. The college bible study is pretty good. I guess it's not fully up to my standard because my standards are unfairly biased. I'm used to a close-knit group in Hutch that i've known for a while. Having all new people, save a few guys from Navs, is a little awkward for me, i guess. But i'm getting better. The sermons are great. Pastor Bill Hurlbutt (I know...strange last name. But he's great!), or PB as he is called, is not afraid to preach on issues other preachers step around. He preaches on sin, on hell (yes, he actually says the word "hell"!), on everything the congregation needs to hear. Not wants to hear, but needs to hear. I enjoy his analysis on already well-known passages a lot.
I am very thankful that God has allowed me to find a good church so quickly. The sermons are good, the pastor is good, the bible study is good, and I can even get regular rides there! And....the bible study has donuts. But that's beside the point. I really do enjoy the college life here in Lawrence, despite the impressions I have given in previous posts. There just are a few things that bug me.
That's all for now.
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11 Days!!!!!
Church was especially good today. It always has been. I'm very thankful to God for allowing me to find this Church (Christ Community Church) so early on. I've said this before in previous posts, but I find it necessary to reiterate, given the past few weeks there. The college bible study is pretty good. I guess it's not fully up to my standard because my standards are unfairly biased. I'm used to a close-knit group in Hutch that i've known for a while. Having all new people, save a few guys from Navs, is a little awkward for me, i guess. But i'm getting better. The sermons are great. Pastor Bill Hurlbutt (I know...strange last name. But he's great!), or PB as he is called, is not afraid to preach on issues other preachers step around. He preaches on sin, on hell (yes, he actually says the word "hell"!), on everything the congregation needs to hear. Not wants to hear, but needs to hear. I enjoy his analysis on already well-known passages a lot.
I am very thankful that God has allowed me to find a good church so quickly. The sermons are good, the pastor is good, the bible study is good, and I can even get regular rides there! And....the bible study has donuts. But that's beside the point. I really do enjoy the college life here in Lawrence, despite the impressions I have given in previous posts. There just are a few things that bug me.
That's all for now.
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11 Days!!!!!
Friday, December 02, 2005
Musings on Various Issues...
Yeah, I know. Weird title. But that's really what this entry is about! Let's start out with the events of the week.
Classes are slowly rolling to a halt here. Finals are coming up after this next week of class, so the "new" material is slowing down. My finals range from 4 to 7 in the afternoon to 7 to 10 in the morning, so they're all over the place. Thankfully though, they're spread out over four days. People seem really stressed out, and there are signs everywhere about not getting stressed, getting advice, and all that kind of stuff. I'm not really getting stressed out yet, but i'm not ruling that reaction out yet. Hopefully it will not occur.
It's really cooling off weather wise here. It's been low 30s pretty much every day this week, so the winter coats and goofy boots that somehow became stylish with the females are out in force. I'm serious about these boots. They look warm and all, but bright pink ones with fuzz (and matching snowpants and ski coat) and the pant leg rolled up to just above it? That's cool? Guess I just don't understand women.
On to the musings.
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I've started figuring out iTunes and the many features built in. I haven't used the music store yet, because i really don't have the money. Or i'm cheap. Either one. Anyway, it has a lot of other cool features. At the risk of sounding like a payed-for ad, I think it's great. First of all, I'm listening to guy (who lives down the hall)'s Christmas music right now. Shared Music Folders, a feature of iTunes, works like this. When I'm plugged into Templin, or for that matter, any other network, I can access the music they put in the Folder. Now, it's not illegal, mind you. Only 5 users per day can access any one person's folder, and they can just listen to it. They can't copy/burn/manipulate the files in any other way. Nifty! Also, I'm subscribed to a few podcasts now. I don't own an iPod, and probably never will. The battery isn't rechargable after a few years, and it costs waaaaayyy too much to replace it. I just listen to the podcasts on my computer. Anyway, most of them are free, and I'm subscribed to 3: NPR morning news, some human interest NPR feature, and TheForce.net's podcast. All of them are very interesting, and I think it's a interesting new way to get information across. Could be a new mass media? Who knows? I just think it's a lot of fun.
Next muse:
There was a big argument here over the last few weeks. There was going to be a course (in the religious studies department, no less) about "the myth of creationism." The actual title of the course, after they took that tag off the end, is as follows: “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design and Creationism.” Orginally, there was a tag implying creationism was a myth. That got the department in a little bit of trouble, so after a story in the Kansan, they dropped the tag. Now, in an article in the Kansan today, they revealed the course had been canceled. People probably glanced at the headline, said "those stupid Christians" and went about their business. In fact, the reason it was canceled was entirely different. Paul Mirecki, the head of the religious studies department and also strangly and paradoxically enough, an atheist, sent a variety of emails over the past few years and posted them onto a yahoo.com listserve. They had things of this nature: calling Christians "fundies" (fundalmentalists) and saying that the course would be “a nice slap in their big fat face.” He got in huge trouble for this, and the class was dropped. (All this info is from the Kansan story, available here.) People immediatly thought that the class was dropped for it's content, and think that they can use this as another excuse to rail against "fundies." This shows the nature of our society. They are willing to either read waaay too much into an event (such as Kanye West's reading into Katrina) or waaay too little (in this instance.)
But such is life. Hopefully I can do something to counter all this crap when I get in the J-school. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whew! Long one...hope you all didn't mind. See you all soon!
If you care: 14 days until Christmas Break!
Classes are slowly rolling to a halt here. Finals are coming up after this next week of class, so the "new" material is slowing down. My finals range from 4 to 7 in the afternoon to 7 to 10 in the morning, so they're all over the place. Thankfully though, they're spread out over four days. People seem really stressed out, and there are signs everywhere about not getting stressed, getting advice, and all that kind of stuff. I'm not really getting stressed out yet, but i'm not ruling that reaction out yet. Hopefully it will not occur.
It's really cooling off weather wise here. It's been low 30s pretty much every day this week, so the winter coats and goofy boots that somehow became stylish with the females are out in force. I'm serious about these boots. They look warm and all, but bright pink ones with fuzz (and matching snowpants and ski coat) and the pant leg rolled up to just above it? That's cool? Guess I just don't understand women.
On to the musings.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've started figuring out iTunes and the many features built in. I haven't used the music store yet, because i really don't have the money. Or i'm cheap. Either one. Anyway, it has a lot of other cool features. At the risk of sounding like a payed-for ad, I think it's great. First of all, I'm listening to guy (who lives down the hall)'s Christmas music right now. Shared Music Folders, a feature of iTunes, works like this. When I'm plugged into Templin, or for that matter, any other network, I can access the music they put in the Folder. Now, it's not illegal, mind you. Only 5 users per day can access any one person's folder, and they can just listen to it. They can't copy/burn/manipulate the files in any other way. Nifty! Also, I'm subscribed to a few podcasts now. I don't own an iPod, and probably never will. The battery isn't rechargable after a few years, and it costs waaaaayyy too much to replace it. I just listen to the podcasts on my computer. Anyway, most of them are free, and I'm subscribed to 3: NPR morning news, some human interest NPR feature, and TheForce.net's podcast. All of them are very interesting, and I think it's a interesting new way to get information across. Could be a new mass media? Who knows? I just think it's a lot of fun.
Next muse:
There was a big argument here over the last few weeks. There was going to be a course (in the religious studies department, no less) about "the myth of creationism." The actual title of the course, after they took that tag off the end, is as follows: “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design and Creationism.” Orginally, there was a tag implying creationism was a myth. That got the department in a little bit of trouble, so after a story in the Kansan, they dropped the tag. Now, in an article in the Kansan today, they revealed the course had been canceled. People probably glanced at the headline, said "those stupid Christians" and went about their business. In fact, the reason it was canceled was entirely different. Paul Mirecki, the head of the religious studies department and also strangly and paradoxically enough, an atheist, sent a variety of emails over the past few years and posted them onto a yahoo.com listserve. They had things of this nature: calling Christians "fundies" (fundalmentalists) and saying that the course would be “a nice slap in their big fat face.” He got in huge trouble for this, and the class was dropped. (All this info is from the Kansan story, available here.) People immediatly thought that the class was dropped for it's content, and think that they can use this as another excuse to rail against "fundies." This shows the nature of our society. They are willing to either read waaay too much into an event (such as Kanye West's reading into Katrina) or waaay too little (in this instance.)
But such is life. Hopefully I can do something to counter all this crap when I get in the J-school. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whew! Long one...hope you all didn't mind. See you all soon!
If you care: 14 days until Christmas Break!
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