Aug 19, 2005 00:25
i'm almost done with my online intercession class. this has been the easiest class i've ever done. it's about volcanoes and earthquakes. i have had to watch a ton of movies and documentaries about volcanoes and earthquakes. pretty cool--lots of them show lava running over whole cities, cars getting destroyed, stuff buried in ash, big explosions--all that stuff that makes the little kid in me say "whoa! cool!" i take the online final tomorrow. 100 questions multiple choice. for the mid-term, i literally had enough time to look up lots of the answers in the online notes. but hey, overall--the class took me 3 weeks, it was 100% online, it was easy as all get out, and i get 3 credit hours for it and a gen ed is out of the way. not too shabby.
i start my fall classes next week. i'm taking German online. i decided to take a foreign language for the sake of my major. apparently it looks good on grad school applications or somethin' ruther. i'm reconsidering whether i should've chose german. German would cover a lot of the modern philosophers. i definitely don't want to specialize in ancient philosophy--now that stuff is boring even to me, a philosophy major. but if i were, i'd need to be taking Greek or Latin. the reason i've reconsidered is that i could at least take the Greek even just for the purpose of better Bible study. And i've really been toying with the idea that maybe i should also aim for a graduate degree in theology on top of philosophy. if so, then Greek would definitely help there too.
i still aim to get into Notre Dame. i've had a couple people get wide-eyed and say things like "wow, you're dreaming big." i guess i'm not that intimidated. should i be? should i be so worried? i'm not saying i'm arrogant or anything, or that i'm convinced it'll be a cake walk. but i don't see why i need to feel like it's impossible or unreachable or undoable. why not aim to accomplish the very best i can? frankly, i'm far more worried about actually producing quality work as a philosopher than i am about getting into (or not getting into) Notre Dame.
but if anything worries me about getting into Notre Dame, it's that i realize i'm going to have to change a pattern of mine--just getting by. all through elementary, jr. high, and most of high school, i could expend about 75% of my effort and still pull off -A's. i realize what will really make the difference between me being just a *decent* professor/author/philosopher/theologian from being a *great* one lies squarely in that 25% region. i'm going to have to tap into my ability to walk the second mile despite the way i've trained myself to think and perform all these years. however, i'm still committed to the belief that prayerful humility is the path to finding that previously-undiscovered 25% as opposed to proud self-dependence.
i'm also taking Botany. i don't know what it is, but i just plain by and large do not enjoy science. man, i hated high school biology. but the volcano and earthquake class was half-interesting. so surely botany won't be that terrible. what i don't look forward to is that it's a lab science. all those labs were always the things that turned me off. anyway, after this, i'll be done with science for the rest of college.
and my only fun class is East Asian Philosophy. i'm hoping that it'll actually be fun. i'm hoping it'll be more of an actual philosophy class rather than just a history class.
lately i've been shifting in interests a little bit. for so long i've been really interested in apologetics and the more foundational theological issues. but just in the past few weeks i'm starting to come to more church-related issues. i definitely have begun to question a few things. don't worry--i certainly haven't lost my marbles. i still believe baptism is the point of salvation, i still believe in non-instrumental musical worship, i still believe the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ended around the end of the first century, i still believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and is the sole authority in matters of faith and practice. however, i'm starting to wonder if even though we say we don't believe in a clergy/laity system, we still basically practice it in the way we handle hired preachers (don't even get me started on this one, i could write a book--and i just might!). i also wonder if church buildings don't actually do us more harm than good. i definitely think we've put far too much stock in appearance (suits and dresses and how dare you stand behind the pulpit without a tie, etc.). i definitely think we do not focus on repentance as the key to winning people--instead, we just seem to win them to the "peculiar" beliefs about baptism and instruments without ever really winning them to Christ. i wonder if we're really organized the right way, but i won't get into that one. i certainly wonder if we aren't a little too inviting to middle-class America to the point that we're almost uninviting to any other class of people. i also wonder if we aren't put together in such a way that actually caters to people that are only half-committed or not truly committed at all to Christ Himself, but only to religious habits that salve their consciences. anyway, not to get on a soapbox--just to say that i'm lately paying more attention to these kinds of issues. i don't think it's a permanent shift. i still think the theoretical issues are important and i have plenty i'd like to say about them. i'm sure i'll return to them soon enough.
carla starts school next week too. i'm worried a little. i'm very proud of her and i want her to succeed. i just hope we'll find solace and comfort in each other rather than add to each other's stress. i hope we'll view each other and provide for each other a soft place to fall from the surrounding busy-ness.
devon is amazingly smart. he doesn't turn four until next week, and today he was already comprehending some basic addition and subtraction problems. and in the past week and half or so, he's already started to read a couple words after very carefully sounding them out.
devon had to come with me to OU just yesterday. i had a few things to get situated for next week (and still have a couple). but we went to the bursar's office, and there were about 345987206428 people standing in line. and it was one of those zig-zag-up-and-down-the-velvet-ropes kinds of lines. so i could reach out about 6 inches and touch about 5 people in any given direction. well, devon was incredibly well-behaved for a kid who had to stand still in a line for a long time. but during the 937 hours we were standing in line, he decided to sing at the top of his lungs. he opened with "twinkle, twinkle, little star." then, he made up some song that went "i wonder what that star is, wibbly wobbly, wibbly wobbly" (and repeat nearly a dozen times). i drummed something on his chest and asked him what it was, and he recognized that it was a videogame theme (GoldenAxe from the old Sega Genesis--he and i have played it several times on our old computer). well, he then proceeded to "la la" the melody to the theme. Then he ended with "Fly Me To The Moon" as performed by Frank Sinatra. He got one "good job," lots of huge grins, i think one person applauded, and several people chuckled. i found myself trying hard not to laugh hysterically during his never-ending "wibbly wobbly" song. he also wasn't one bit embarrassed to just talk about anybody to me out loud and right in front of them. "That man has a beard just like you, but wouldn't it be funny if girls had long beards!"
tuesday, while i was online reading class notes, he barged into the bedroom and announced "cows just give you milk right out of their penises!" i felt the need to pause my studies momentarily and correct him.
well, this post has been crazy long. but that's okay, i rarely give out this much detail about my life. i also haven't done a "really cool list" in a long time. i have enough pics to do several of them, i just haven't done them. maybe soon. i'll just ask--is there anyone who'd actually enjoy it if i'd do some more "really cool lists"? you should bear in mind that since it's my journal, i'll probably do them even if everyone hates them. and i should probably bear in mind that probably no one is still reading at this point. anyway--i'd like to poll the audience nonetheless.