Housing Survey

I am filling out a housing survey. They have asked me how I like my room. Is the dorm kept clean? Does it seem safe to me? Should they add wireless internet? Is the cell phone reception good? Should they start selling fruit cups at the snack bar?

And then:
Please indicate the importance to you personally of each of the following.
a. Becoming accomplished in one of the performing arts (acting, dancing)
b. Becoming an authority in my field
c. Obtaining recognition from my colleagues for contributions to my special field
d. Influencing the political structure
e. Influencing social values
f. Raiding a family
g. Having administrative responsibility for the work of others
h. Being very well off financially
i. Helping others who are in difficulty
j. Making a theoretical contribution to science
k. Writing original works (poems, novels, short stories)
l. Creating artistic work (painting, sculpture, decorating)
m. Becoming successful in a business of my own
n. Becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment
o. Developing a meaningful philosophy of life
p. Participating in a community action program
q. Helping to promote racial understanding
r. Keeping up to date with political affairs
s. Becoming a community leader
t. Integrating spirituality into my life
u. Improving my understanding of other countries and cultures
v. Working to find a cure to a health problem

I'm just a little bemused. My dorm wants to get to know me. Does it want to become my new best friend? Go out for coffee? (As if I drank coffee...) It seems kind of silly. But on the other hand, these would be very good questions if they actually did want to get to know someone. It seems like they get to the dreams of a person very well. For instance, even though I enjoy theater, (a) isn't that important to me. (b) is something I think I'd like sometimes, but it's not the cream of existance. (d) and (e) seem like valuable contributions to make to the world. (i) is clearly a Good Thing(tm). (j) would be cool, but I don't really expect to do it. I am quite into (k) though. (t) is good if it means that I want to serve God more fully. But as to (v)...no, I'm afraid curing cancer isn't on my ToDo list.

So we have this set of questions that seems like it could work on LiveJournal on a fill-in-the-bubble survey from my dorm administrators. Huh?

Stardust and Leader-Ladies

A probe named Stardust has landed on Earth after a seven-year journey through the solar system. It carries our first sample of comet dust. They haven't gotten to the point of studying the dust yet, but it sounds like a pretty cool thing.

I was also amused to see two female presidents in the news today. I don't hear about many new presidents in the news, and I don't think I've ever noticed a headline about a female one since I set up my headline screensaver. Having two announced on the same day seems like quite a fun coincidence! ...though I suppose being at the start of a new year might have something to do with it. Both have historic trivia attached to them: Chile is getting its first lady president, and Liberia is putting in place the first elected lady president not only in that country, but in all of Africa. Overall, pretty cool.

Eventful Half-Weekend

Well, it's Saturday night, I ought to be in bed, and I must say, I've had a very eventful weekend. First, I went to a retreat put on by my church. This involved rushing around all over the place on Friday; taking a superfast shower, followed by a superfast supper, followed by a moderatly fast entering-my-room-while-the-key-is-locked-in-thanks-to-the-shower-and-the-rush. Then, I was able to meet the rest of my group, and pick a ride to the retreat. The ride was a convertible, excellent for traveling through swarms of raindrops, and nothing short of perfect for snow. I entertained myself by navigating, while the driver entertained himself by trying to see through a windshield obscured with ever-changing raindrop patterns. We got to the camp safe and sound, and gave up the pleasant games of driving mazes through torrents of rain for the gray and trying drudgery of having a good time with God and our friends.

The retreat itself had three talks and a lot of time for worship through music. The first talk served to remind us that we are in a battle, that Satan is after us and wants bring us down if he can. The speaker used several examples. With appropriate anonymity, he shared about several pastors he had worked with who had fallen in sexual sin. In one case, he found out and was able to play a useful role in stopping what was going on before it went too far. In the other case, an entire church was devastated by the affair that their founding pastor had; the pastor went to a center fighting addictions. That pastor was a good friend of the speaker, who was shocked when he found out. He did not tell us these stories to discredit the church, of course, but to show us that even though we are Christians and try to do what is right, we are still under attack. It can be easy to get comfortable and trust that all is well, but complacency is dangerous.

The second talk was about how to fight back. One thing to be aware of is the importance of our emotions. In our speaker's opinion, many Evangelical Christians come to believe that they need to always act happy, and keep from expressing their real feelings. It may seem obvious when it's written out like that, but that is a really unhealthy thing to do, at least if you never deal with the emotions. He described separate occasions when he and an experienced friend fell under great emotional overload and had no idea how to deal with it. The Psalms provide many examples of our volitile human emotions being expressed openly to God. I think it's freeing to see David writing Psalms that say things that we know theologically aren't true: "Have you abandoned me God?" "Do you even care about me?" When we cry out to God, some caution may be necessary, but we don't need to filter what we're expressing based on what we've been taught is true. It's OK to cry out something emotionally even when you know in your head that it really can't be true; it helps you get it out and deal with it in the open.

However, a larger part of resisting the devil's schemes is remembering that we must depend on God to help us fight sin, that we cannot do it without help, and we cannot do it by sheer willpower. Also, by confessing our sins, and by being honest about our own weaknesses, we gain some protection from the devil's schemes. If we pose, putting up a false and polished self, then we will be in great danger indeed. I really hope I'm not doing that, and if I am, somebody'd better tell me. :-) But I did realize there were plenty of problems I could stand to share with someone. After that talk, I confided a nice long list of sins and stuggles to one of my close friends; we were at it for twenty minutes during an "appropriate" time, and then continued during the entirety of the next worship session. Quite refreshing.

The third talk was entitled "Where are the workers?" The first two talks were given by a guest speaker, but this one was given by New Life's own Jon Shah. He speculated most convincingly that many people do not work the fields of evangelism because they are dangerous. As Jesus says in Luke 10, we are sent out as sheep among wolves. We should approach it as something that will take perseverence and much trust in God; we should not be surprised when the going gets rough. And why bother? Well first, because Jesus tells us to. But it may be more inspiring to consider what happens later in Luke 10, when the 72 that Jesus sent return. Great things have taken place, and Jesus tells them that many kings and prophets have longed to see these events, but they never got to. By taking up the mission that Christ lays out for us, we can be part of events of epic proportions, serving Good in noble and valuable ways.

And after that, we all went home, picking up Arby's on the way. I wasn't navigator this time around, so I slept some of the time. However, I also found my chest hurting near the end of the trip. When I got back to my dorm room, the pain was still there. While I suspected it might just be my torso's musculoskeletal system showing yet again that it wasn't in shape after my back surgery, I couldn't tell for sure. There's this annoying thing about chest pains; if you can't tell what they are, there's some fairly good reasons to play it cautious and get them checked out, because they're also the main indicator of heart attacks, and heart attack symptoms are fairly subtle, from what I've learned. If you ignore heart attack systems, you can do some really bad damage before anything obvious happens. I would have checked it out with my doctor, but that doesn't work so well on Saturday nights. Instead, I called 911 and told them what was happening. I didn't want to cause a lot of trouble over nothing, but the 911 lady assured me that she could give me no medical advice about whether I should look into the thing further. Instead, a little while later, I found myself riding an ambulance to the ER. All of the medical staff seem perfectly comfortable with this reaction to chest pains, and they brushed aside my attempts at apology. It was kind of strange getting the invalid treatment though. They rolled me from my room to the ambulance on a stretcher, then put me in a wheelchair in the ER. Part of me wanted to protest that I could still walk fine, but it seemed like they would just keep rolling me around anyway, so I didn't bother. Why not just trust the experts?

At any rate, once the doctors had the reassurance of a variety of tests, they decided that the musculoskeletal idea was a pretty good one, and let me go. Overall, I think I spent about 6 hours in the ER, mostly waiting for tests to be performed. Fortunately, my father demonstrated his love for me by coming to keep me company and drive me home, and I also had had the sense to pack water, snacks, and a good book. I was tempted to ask the paramedics if I could bring my laptop, but I laughed so hard when I thought of it that I could see there was no sense in doing it.

Christmas Lights

It will be so much fun when I finally have my own house... ;-) Requires a Windows Media Player plugin (sigh), and I had to watch it in Firefox.

[edit] BTW, got this from Abigail's blog.

Nemesis Quiz

Your arch-nemesis is: Joan of Arc Why? Because they tried to steal your identity The winner will be... You will join forces to conquer evil Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Now, this quiz didn't even ask me any questions. I don't think that really counts. It was kinda funny though... after I gave it the same name a few times and got a different nemesis each time.

Personality Quiz

Yet again, I have been proclaimed "Normal". What is this world coming to?

Your Social Dysfunction: Normal Being average in terms of how social you are, as well as the amount of self-esteem you have, you're pretty much normal. Good on you.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

A Blog Game

"We human beings can be identified in many ways."
Computer Networking, Kurose & Ross


1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. If you do not have a journal, post a comment here.

5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.


All that said, I actually chose the fifth sentence including the one that started on the previous page. I thought it was a bit more fun in isolation than the fifth complete sentence:

"For example, we can be identified by the names that appear on our birth certificates."
Computer Networking, Kurose & Ross