Return From My Spring-Break Hiatus

Although I didn’t post over my Spring Break and I didn’t do everything that I wanted to do, I definitely found a great deal of relaxation over the break, and I do have some things to report.

First of all, I managed to get some more dental examinations done, for better or worse.  I got a new retainer to maintain the work my braces did last year, and I also visited the dentist, who got everything cleaned up.  Sadly, however, I also learned that I have a pair of molars on my lower jaw that are withering because they have no corresponding teeth on the upper jaw, and the lack of pressure has caused my body to respond by allowing those extra molars to decay.  Inevitably, they will fall out, but for now, they are simply changing colors (bleh!).  Anyhow, that’s enough of that.

I did also manage to do some writing on Kenushi Ryu, though it wasn’t a whole lot.  I managed to finish the fourth chapter of the book, bringing the narration to a critical point in the novel; a lot has already happened, some of which will take the rest of the series to fully unpack for the characters and the reader.  The transition to chapter five also includes a change in the point of view for the narration to what will become the second of the the two protagonists of the story.

I also did some valuable thinking on the language that I’m trying to write for Kenushi Ryu.  It was suggested to me by a friend who is more knowledgable of languages than I am that I write my my language as a syllabary.  Let me clarify:  so far, I’ve been trying to write my language from the ground up, writing my own alphabet and going from there.  I’ve specifically been trying to build a phonetic alphabet, with a single letter for every consonant and every vowel sound, which is a lot of work, especially since there are many vowel and consonant sounds that are not even found in the English language.  So, a in contrast, a syllabary is a language where every symbol has a different meaning.  This has given me a great deal more to think about, but I have also in the meantime decided that it might be possible for me to simply write the first novel in the Kenushi Ryu series without any references to the ancient language and then incorporate it as the series progresses, after I have had more time to work on it.

Finally, here’s what I believe to be a comprhensive schedule for my upcoming week:

Monday:

-Writing About Literature – Reading  (Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison)

Tuesday:

-Writing About Literature – Reading and online comments of the reading.

Wednesday:

(Nothing)

Thursday:

-Music Theory – Assignment

-Human Language – Assignment

Friday:

-Music History – Movie Response Papers (delayed until next Monday on 3/30)

-Writing About Literature – Reading

I will continue to try to keep my “Kenushi Ryu” page as updated as possible.  Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

thefaithfulmind

Weekly Schedule and Other Recent Activites

Here’s what I have going on this week:

Monday:

Writing About Literature – Reading

Tuesday:

Music Theory – Assignment

Wednesday:

Writing About Literature – Reading

Thursday:

Music Theory – Assignment

Friday:

Writing About Literature – Reading

Keep in mind that I have also been asked by my French Horn instructor to try to practice at least 30 minutes a day.

Anyhow, I went home again this weekend and got to go sledding on the hill of one of my friends’ house.  I got a mouthfull or so of the powdery snow, got to go flying down the slopes of the hill as speeds that I couldn’t even run, and it was a very relaxing activity.  After that, we watched The Iron Giant, played Catchphrase for a little while, and then watched The Princess Bride.

Oh, and I got to go to another friends’ house on Friday night before all of the snow started.  We played hide n’ seek for awhile until the two friends that I was playing with…well, let’s just say that they took a couple of years off of my life due to fright.  After that, we elected to play some Halo 2 against each other.

Ordinarily, I would probably be little panicked right now because I didn’t get much done this weekend, but I instead get the feeling that I needed the downtime.  Overall, as evidenced by my schedule, this week is going to be pretty uneventful, thankfully, so that will give me a chance to get ahead on writing my next essay for Writing About Literature and studying the Bible more.

Also, as a final note, I’ve picked up a couple of books from the library of the house that I live in.  One of them is called Be The Change by Zach Hunter, a 15-year-old Evangelical Christian who is spearheading an effort to end worldwide slavery and oppression.  Of course, the title definitely caught my attention since lately God has been teaching me that all the knowledge that I do have is useless unless I put it into practice in addition to helping me understand that while I can’t fix the many problems in our world that I observe, I can make a difference.

Secondly, I picked up Lee Strobel’s most recent work of journalism pertaining to Christianity, entitled The Case for the Real Jesus and, as usual with Strobel’s works, I’m just gobbling it up and enjoying it.

I really, really want to get some substantial work done for Kenushi Ryu soon, but I can’t make any guarantees.

Anyhow, that’s how I’m doing.  God bless!

SfC

The Last Few Days In Brief

This will just be a post where I catalog what I have been doing for the last couple of days.

On Thursday, I went up to my old high school to give a message at one of the Christian organizations that I participated in before I went to college.  In the process, I was asked to be a moderator and reader for a trivia team game that night, which I accepted.  So, I returned to my home until Thursday afternoon, at which point I returned to the high school to moderate for the game.  Overall, I enjoyed the experience.  One of the players on the teams I moderated for told me after the game, however, that I wasn’t a great moderator because I made quite a few mistakes in my pronunciations of different words (for a brief example, I pronounced Butane ‘but-ane’), but the same player told me that I was still a good moderator because I made people laugh.  While I am glad that my easy-going attitude counted for something, I am also resolved to be certain and review the questions more carefully the next time I am asked to help again.

Then, yesterday, my brother and sister-in-law were preparing to leave for my sister-in-law’s parents’ house, so by the encouragement of both of them (and my sister), I came with them and spent the night at their house.  In addition, I went to Friday Night, a youth gathering of my sister-in-law’s old youth group.  It was a very fun experience; they played several board games, did a race game with toddler-age wooden railroad tracks, and other various goofing and playing around.

Other than that, I’ve been playing my brother’s Gamecube for the last couple of days.  Having never owned a game system in my family (other than an old Atari, which does still work), I have spent the majority of the last couple of days playing either Mario Dance Dance Revolution or Super Smash Brothers Melee with them.  I have also read through a significant chunk of Eragon, in an attempt to finish it before I return to college.  I am also reading through the book of Luke in the Bible.

That is a pretty quick summary of my life for the last couple of days.

Have a great day!

SfC

Christmas Gifts and Two Kinds of Healing

For the past few days, I have managed to do a couple of the things on my list of things to do during my Christmas Break.  I have plowed through several of the minor prophets in the Old Testament.  For now, I have paused in Micah 3 with the hope of completing the Old Testament and perhaps one or two of the Gospels before returning to college.  In doing this, I will give myself a significant opportunity to complete the goal that I set for myself last February:  to read the Bible through in a year.

Last night was the night that my immediate family got together and opened our Christmas presents as well.  I must admit, there were several presents that I had become aware that  I would receive, but a couple others were a total shock.  Here are the material blessings I received for Christmas:

• The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell – I began reading it in a coffee shop early on in the semester and was quite engrossed in it.  Perhaps one of my favorite parts of it, however, is that at the beginning, McDowell points out that the purpose of the book is to answer questions and not to argue people to Christ.  I think that the lack of this understanding has been the cause for many failed witnessing opportunities, especially in our day.  Of course, I would hope that, in the near-future, I will get the opportunity to read it cover-to-cover, though it is a sizable read.
• Pilgrim’s Progress by Paul Bunyan – I must say that this gift was a bit of a surprise.  To be perfectly honest, I don’t know much about it except that C.S. Lewis wrote another book entitled Pilgrim’s Regress while he was an atheist.  I suppose that I will learn as I read!
• A Christmas Card – from my parents.  From what one of my siblings told me, they spent quite a bit of energy picking out excellent cards for each of us, and I liked it a lot.  It had money in it, but that was little more than icing on the cake.
• A Calligraphy and Sketching Kit – from my siblings.  This was an absolute shock.  The calligraphy kit was hit first; it contains old-fashioned pens with ink cartridges, some paper for my calligraphy practice, and a book on how to get started with calligraphy.  Of course, my siblings were quite aware that I am trying to write a language for Kenushi Ryu and hoped that I would find it fun and useful.  They also said that, at the very least, they would take it if I had no interest in it.  Too bad for them that I have a great deal of interest in it!  The sketching kit appears to be quite similar: some different styles of pencils, a guide on sketching, and some sketch paper.  These will probably hold my interest for some time.
• The Casting Crowns Album “Peace on Earth” – I’m a fan of Contemporary Christian Music, as I have stated in the past, and I was very grateful to receive this for Christmas.  I must admit that, in recent years, I have found that Holiday music completely floods the airwaves from about Thanksgiving through the New Years, and this has steadily made me a bit of a Scrooge toward hearing Christmas music everywhere I go.  However, I think that I was able to maintain a distance from the excessive Christmas music enough that it didn’t quite lose its appeal.  Anyhow, I digress; this is a good album for anyone who likes the classical Christmas anthems in addition to some new ones.
• Finally, I received some miscellaneous gifts from my friends:  one gave me a box of dark chocolate, and another gave me a t-shirt that she had made in her art class.  She made one for everyone else in our circle of friends (we call ourselves the “Rat Pack.”)  Another gave me a bag of Coal Candy because I’m evil (so she says).

These were the Christmas gifts I received from my immediate family.  Apparently, we are expecting to go to our distant relatives’ home for Christmas over the next couple of weeks, so I’m not entirely certain whether I should expect anything from them, but I am very grateful for what I have already received.

In my last post, I also mentioned that I had my wisdom teeth extracted five days ago.  My situation has changed little from my previous post: I’m still taking pain medication, though I’m not taking it every spare minute that I can.  My main problem right now is the swelling in my cheeks and some yellow-colored bruises at the site of the swelling, no doubt from where they held my mouth open to extract the little devils.  Another unanticipated problem has been a recurring stench of my breath that makes me feel that I should be quarantined for something.  Other than that, however, my healing seems to be proceeding on schedule.  I ate a cheeseburger with some fries for lunch without any pain or anything like that, a few of my stitches have detached, and everything seems to be okay.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There is another matter that I have refrained from posting about for some time.  Someone very close to me recently lost his/her job, and as more information has become available to me, there has been plenty of speculation within my family as to why this has happened.  From my very limited perspective, however, this event has been the convergence of many agendas from several people within the community for some time.  On one hand, this person I am close to was a teacher and gave out some deficiencies part-way through the year.  The result was that some parents began gossiping about this person, tearing this person down.  It also appears that one of the people in charge desired for this person to lose their job in order to bring in another who was “in” with the boss, though this is comparatively less certain.  In the end, this person was essentially fired for insubordination and because his/her department was an embarrassment.

I do have a few comments on the reasoning given for this person losing his/her job.  It appears that this person was in the sights of the boss for some time, so it is quite possible that the boss invented situations where “insubordination” was the only possible result.  If not, this job area is an area where any more-than-cursory examination of a worker can reveal all kinds of “insubordination,” depending on how much you are looking for it and precisely how you define it.  As for being an “embarrassment,” this has set the precedent that a single bad performance of anything in this school warrants the firing of the person or personnel in charge of that department.  I can tell you from experience that the school is constantly an embarrassment as a couple of the contests that they went to, not to mention our sports teams’ occasionally “embarrassing” performance, yet the personnel in charge of these departments have received little if any punishment for such occasions, let alone losing their jobs.

In summary, the whole situation boils my blood in a way that nothing else every has.  Honestly, it makes me ashamed to be associated with this school in any way.  It also shatters the trust that I had for the boss and for the school’s board members.  Sadly, a couple of my closest friends are closely related to one of the board members, and I don’t know what to think about them or their family anymore.  It…it sickens me that this would happen at all, and the pain is amplified by being caused to someone so near to me.

I’ve often wondered how some people go about their lives holding grudges against other people, organizations, people groups, etc.  Now, it is a daily war within my soul to subdue my desire to never speak to these people again, let along forgive them.  One scripture that continuously recurs to my mind is “Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37),” and I have come several times to the point where I forgive those involved in this…conspiracy (for lack of better words).  However, the ongoing suffering of this individual brings the battle to the forefront of my mind again and again.  This is the spiritual battle that I wage right now, and I fear that I am at a lose as to how it can be won, save by attrition.

This is the vulnerability and struggle that is being played out within my faithful mind.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

SfC

P.S.  In an attempt to jump-start my desire and drive to read, I will be creating a new page where I keep track of my reading log, the books that I have read and hope to read in the near-future.

Wisdom Tooth Extraction and Other Christmas Activities

I hope that my readers had a good Christmas with their families!

Yesterday, I got my wisdom teeth surgically removed.  Overall, I must say that the experience wasn’t so bad.  My biggest fear going into the procedure was lucidity; I don’t like the idea of not remembering what I’ve said or done.  The pain involved was a concern, for sure, but the thought that I might not remember something that I’ve said or done disturbs me.  Anyhow, that fear was about as unwarranted as my fear of pain; I have vague memories of trying to communicate with another guy in the Recovery of the building and of being wheel-chaired out to my mother’s vehicle to take me home.  My mother has also told me that I offered for her to stop at McDonald’s and get herself lunch and that I would be okay waiting in the van, but I have no memory of this.  Beyond this, my memory of yesterday afternoon grows clearer as yesterday wore on, and I’m happy to say that I am completely lucid and aware at this time.  With the help of some painkillers, I have also been able to avoid the worst of the pain that is associated with the surgery.

I must admit that the phase of using gauze pads to promote the blood clotting in my mouth was an unexpected discomfort, but I had stopped bleeding before I went to bed last night, so about my only physical restriction at this point is that I can’t eat burgers or any hard foods.  Instead, I have been on a steady diet of milkshakes, yogurt, and homemade pudding for the last 24 hours, though this isn’t exactly unneeded; I discovered after I had been home on break for a week that I had actually gained more weight (in terms of fat and mass, to be painfully truthful) since I came home from break than when I was at college, which seems backwards somehow.

Anyhow, that is what I have been experiencing for the last day or so.  Before that, I will admit that I have been doing scarcely anything that I set before myself to do over Christmas Break.  I have mainly been playing a few sci-fi computer games and watching Star Trek: Voyager.  However, I am hoping to change that in the next several days.

That’s about it for now.  God bless your day!

SfC

The Final Countdown Concludes

As of now, I am writing again from my house in my hometown.

Monday morning, I turned in my History paper and took my history final.  I feel quite good about it, though I also haven’t seen my grade for the class yet.  Nevertheless, I am confident that I did well and that my grade in the class will be a High B/A.

Wednesday, I took my French Horn jury.  For my scale, I drew B flat, which wasn’t a positive thing because B and B flat are the only scales that I can’t play two octaves on yet.  I tried to do the second octave, but it simply wasn’t in me, so I just played the first octave back down and called it good.  Afterwards, I played “Rondo” by Arnold Cooke, and did decent at it.  The judges all gave me “Average” marks, which is different for me since, in the past, I would take a solo to High school music contest and walk away with all high marks.  However, as of my junior year in high school, I had braces, which messed up my playing.  As of last spring, though, after having adjusted well to the braces, I got them off and my playing suffered again.  To top it all off, I didn’t do much practice over the summer, so I was basically starting from scratch this fall.  With that in mind, it’s a wonder that I was able to do as well as I did.

Anyhow, yesterday, I had my music theory final.  I felt that I did well on it as well.  We had two hours to do it, and my problem with music theory tests have always been that I don’t have enough time.  However, two hours was plenty of time even for me and I was able to finish it with time to spare.  Also, I recieved my music composition project back after the final and had 100% on it, which is very exciting.  I’ve checked online this morning and my theory grade, though it isn’t fantastic, is well within “passing” territory, and I’m okay with that for a first-semester class.

Now that I am officially on Christmas Break, I have made a rough list of everything that I want to do over break.  This includes the return of my Reading logs, which I had for a brief time back in the summer.  Here’s what’s on my reading list for the Christmas Break:

• the Bible:  Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum
  (I’m actually anticipating the possibility of reading even further than this; I’m still hoping to have the Bible read in a year, and I started last February, so I’m close)
• Eragon, Eldest, and Brisinger by Christopher Paolini.
• Letters to a Young Evangelist by Tony Campolo.
• The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
  (I actually did a good deal of reading on this during the summer and even several weeks into the semester.  However, it eventually lost my attention, and I had other things that I needed to accomplish.  Hopefully, I will continue reading in it and maybe finish it.)
• A House United by Francis Frangipane
• And the Place Was Shaken by John Franklin
• Finish Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Of course, this list isn’t in any order of priority, nor do I expect it to be comprehensive.  As I think I implied in an earlier post, I have a lot of book-reading friends and they will probably give me plenty more reading material for my break.

I’m also hoping to do plenty of writing.  There’s plenty of work to be done on my artificial language for Kenushi Ryu, and it would be very exciting to have my language in a form where I can start translating by the end of the break or sooner.  I also have a writing excercises book, The 3 A.M. Epiphany, that I haven’t had much of an opportunity to use since I bought, but I’m hoping to give some of those a shot.

Finally, I hope to do plenty of practicing on my French Horn over break.  My capacity for this will be limited, seeing as how I will be getting my wisdom teeth out also, but I am anticipating a window of time for the last couple of weeks of break where I should be healed enough to practice.  However, I’m not stating any firm expectations; I’m very uncertain as to how the wisdom tooth extraction will affect me, so I will just have to play it by ear and see what happens.

Finally, of course, I hope to be posting more frequently on my blog here as well.

Have a great day!

SfC

The Final Countdown Continues: 8…7…6…5… (Looking Ahead)

Hello, reader!  As of right now, there are only four things left for me to do between now and next Friday.  The most urgent of these are to write a paper for my history class that I have mentioned several times this semester, where I discuss how, in Paul Fussel’s words, “The real war will never get into the books.”  I am to state whether I agree or disagree and provide evidence for it.  Similarly, once I am done with my paper, I will proceed with studying for the exam that I have tomorrow morning.  Once these two things are done, then I will have two days to practice for my French Horn jury and then another two days to study for my Music Theory final.  I’m expecting the music theory final to present a challenge, but I will study quite a bit over the next several days to be as prepared as I can be for it.  Once the Music Theory final is done, I have some house-keeping things to do with the house that I’m staying at, and then I’m heading home for Christmas Break!

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about this.  I am also very happy to state that God has been doing some extraordinary things in my mind and heart, and He has filled me with His peace.

However, my Christmas Break isn’t going to be all fun-and-games.  I’m going to a surgeon the week of Christmas to have my wisdom teeth examined, and then I will return later that week to have them removed.  Needless to say, I might be posting excessively on my blog here over those couple of weeks, seeing as how I anticipate that I won’t be communicating verbally very much for a few days.  That might be for the better; I have heard one story in particular of a girl I know who was using some of their extra-strong painkiller and thought she could fly.  Nothing bad happened to her, but I’m just warning the reader that, if I make a very bizarre, uncharacteristic post anytime after Christmas, then please disregard it until such a time arrives as I have the sanity to delete it.

Other than this, I hope to be reintroducing the reading log that I had started in the summer but have allowed to fall by the wayside since the semester began.  I will, of course, have additional books to add to it, seeing as how every time I return home for a weekend, my bibliophile friends instantly start informing me of the excellent books that they have read recently.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate it; it gives me a great deal of happiness to have so many fellow book-readers.  I just need to get into it a little more myself.  I also anticipate the restarting of my Reading Log with the hope that it will carry through the Spring semester and ever more.  I might have to retry a couple of times, but I am an enormously persistent person.

I also expect that I will keep using a to-do list throughout the Christmas Break; I have surprised myself with the level of productivity that I have been able to accomplish the last semester by simply setting daily goals of what I want to accomplish.  However, instead of most of my to-do list consisting of studying, it will consist more of writing, reading, and the many things that I like to occupy my extra time with.

For several weeks, I have been wanting to start an on-going series of posts that I make in which I discuss some of the thoughts that have been going through my head recently.  I have the ideas written down on paper (somewhere) and have simply been unable to sit down lately and state my thoughts.  I have also recently seen a meme that I have seen go around from time to time consisting of a list of the most banned books in the world and listing which of these banned books you have read.  Posts on the current world economic situation, the Depression of the 1930′s, and current politics are also on my “to-write” list for my blog.

Naturally, I expect that I will be making some good headway in the writing of my novel.  For the last couple of weeks, working on the language for my book has been my highest priority; I’ve reached the point where I’m decided that, if any further work on the novel proper is to be done, it must be done after I have a good idea of what my language is going to be like.

In short, I’m looking forward to the Christmas Break and the many opportunities that it brings with great anticipation.

SfC

Break

So, I thought I would just do a quick post (quick for me, anyway) and explain what’s going on now.

As of yesterday, I am officially on Thanksgiving Break.  To be perfectly honest, it isn’t official Thanksgiving Break until Monday, but our 5-day Break is sandwiched between two weekends, nearly doubling it in size.  Anyway, I managed to get everything done that I could do before yesterday.  All I really need to do for my classes is to finish reading Pride & Prejudice for British Literature, finish Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley for history class and to simply make sure that I don’t forget everything that I’ve learned over the last semester.  Sometime over next week, I’ll be getting a paper prompt for British Lit. class for our final paper, and the first day back from break, I should be getting a paper prompt for History as well.  I’m not going to worry too much about those things over Break, but I will endeavor to do what I can to be prepared for all of this.

Anyhow, I have returned to my home.  I walked into my room yesterday to find it nearly completely cleaned up, which is not at all how I left it, so I definitely owe my mother quite a bit.  Yesterday, I also moved a filing cabinet into my room and will be spending at least some of today organizing all of my papers and stuff.  I was amazed when I was going through these stacks of papers yesterday at all of the stuff that I have.  I even found a few sets of song lyrics that I had forgotten about.  Anyhow, that’s my agenda for today.  I also hope to take full advantage of the time I am given and do some writing for my book.

Anyhow, that pretty much sums up what I’m doing right now.

SfC

An Overview of Camp

For the past week, I have been at a church camp that I have attended since I was in Junior High school. However, instead of going as a camper like I did for a couple of years, I have gone for the last three years as a junior counselor at a young elementary age camp.

Over the years, I have become well acquainted with the close circle of people who counsel there on a regular basis; many of them are my age or slightly younger. We all share the same interests, at camp and away from it, and I believe this to be why I have become such a good friend with the people who go there as well. Of course, there are senior counselors (people several years older than me) there as well and they are very great to get along with.

However, this year was exceptionally good, and the quality of the camp is always decided by the campers. Twenty-three young campers accepted Christ into their heart throughout the week and others that had been Christians in the past renewed their commitments. In addition, they were mostly easy to get along with, so there were no major discipline issues. Several of them displayed great insight and very deep questions as well as greatly perceptive minds and joyous hearts.

My role in the team of the counselors for the week had a couple of parts: I was the assistant to the drama/skits class, one of the classes which they have for the campers throughout the week (others include archery and puppets, which I have helped with in the past, as well as canoeing, arts & crafts, fishing, chess, and various other activities). I took my MP3 player with me, so they used my Pink Panther music (to go along with their theme of mystery) as well as a couple of other songs for Late Night Antics. I also ended up being their sound techy because their real techy was also one of the hosts of the Late Night Antics and he couldn’t host and manage the sound at the same time, so as a result, I have also received a basic understanding in how to operate a soundboard and the various parts of an audio system.

There were other good experiences as well; the guys that I counseled with were all into the same sorts of things that I am, so we had some very good conversations about many things, including our common faith. One of these friends in particular (who had also read Lewis’ Mere Christianity) said that he has come to realize that if Christianity could be summed up in one word, it would be Love; that, in all of our efforts to spread Jesus’ name (and to convert atheists especially), the focus must not be on proving them wrong (to show that we are right, which is selfishness), but to love them first and foremost (in the Christian sense of wishing them well and not harm, even to the point of sacrifice). That is the kind of thinker this friend of mine is, and it was good to have these conversations.

In addition, although I didn’t read a tremendous amount from the Bible, I did end up reading three-fourths of Mere Christianity again, as part of my reading log. Another counselor there advised me to buying and reading Why So Many Gods. I don’t know if I can, seeing as how I already have a tremendous reading line-up. However, I was grateful for the reference.

I also got into a little brainstorming session with one of the other younger counselors there, who helped me come up with ideas for navies in the novel I am writing as well as thinking about how having magic and humanoid races with special capabilities (flight, living underwater, etc.) would affect navy combat in different situations. Also, I got some ideas (most of which are still raw) for personality traits from a couple of campers.

I believe that the speaker for the camp is also worth mentioning. He is a scientist and a professor of science at some college (not sure which one), and he believes that science and biology are evidence for a creator and actually provide evidence for Christianity (which I agree with). Anyhow, he used scientific experimentations (like using pH indicators to change colors of liquid and other such things) to teach the children about God and sin. He was a very effective communicator to me (perhaps because I am older and understood more of the scientific experiments than the campers) and to the campers as well.

He is also an acrylic painter and headed up the painting class at camp, where he produced a fantastic portrait and sparked my own interest in the arts. You see, I have always been interested in being an artist as one of my hobbies, but I have never really had an opportunity. I hope to learn how to effectively paint over time, to teach myself, really, though anyone with any advice would be quite welcome to give it.

Overall, I have returned from the camp feeling much, much better. Of course, there is much more that I could talk about, but when I try to put it all to words, it only falls short of relating how wonderful the whole experience was. So, I will simply leave this post where it is and state that there really is self-actualization in putting the good of others before yourself.

SfC

Noah and some Theological Thought

Thursday evening, I went to see a musical about Noah. I had uncertain expectations; I couldn’t help but wonder, “A musical about Noah? Will it really resemble anything like the biblical account?” But I’m here recounting that I was pleasantly surprised by the performance.

Of course, it is definitely something to hear the announcer at the beginning of the performance basically state that the musical was made as a direct inspiration from the Bible as well as stating the hope of the staff of that the audience might have a personal encounter with God. In my mind, anyway, that was something I don’t hear very often.

Anyhow, the show began by showing a “typical” day with Noah and his sons, their wives, and Noah’s wife…and, of course, it begins in song. Then, Noah hears God’s voice, informing him of God’s judgment on the world. After this, Noah and his sons begin to work on planning the Ark as the friends of the family react to the announcement of God’s judgment. Some of the creative license that they took involved Noah’s visit to a nearby city, which is shown as being a bastion of adultery, prostitution, greed, and many other types of evil (think of another Sodom and Gomorrah for the general idea, or if you are more bold, think of an American city at nighttime). Finally, Noah is confronted by Lahobbe, the King and self-appointed god of the city, who denounces Noah’s belief in Jehovah God and banishes him from the city. Throughout the time of the construction of the Ark, Noah and his family are oppressed by Lahobbe and his evil servants, who draw away the friends of Noah’s family by tempting them with security and sin. Eventually, when the Ark is completed, the first Act concludes with the Ark being completed and the final preparations by Noah and his family for entering it, which included the bringing in of live animals (horses, camels, llamas, cats, birds, turkeys, etc. etc.)

The first scene of the second Act showed Noah’s family entering the Ark and the subsequent beginning of the judgment. Lahobbe and his people continue to persecute and threaten Noah’s family right up until the door of the Ark is closed immediately before the flood begins, during which Noah’s family hears the final cries of the people that moments before had hated them and rejected God. The rest of the second Act involved the Ark voyage and the many tribulations encountered by the survivors. Finally, the narrative ends with the Ark’s perch on Mount Ararat and Noah and his family building an altar to God in praise for His deliverance, after which God sends a rainbow as a symbol of his promise to Noah’s family. The last part of the musical involved the stripping away of parts of the Ark until all that’s left is a cross, out of which Christ emerges and gives a short monologue summarizing his earthly ministry and how his second coming relates with God’s flood of judgment.

I found the overall play very interesting. They certainly took some artistic license, though I was satisfied that they mentioned the logistical problems with feeding and managing hundreds of different kinds of animals from across the world and demonstrated the mental strain it would take to be trapped on a wooden boat for hundreds of days with an uncertain ending of the voyage.

It was also during my watching of this performance that I realized something: in the Bible, Christ talks of a baptism with water (which was brought by John the Baptist) and a Baptism by fire (which occurred on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Jewish Passover). Similarly, the Bible talks of a judgment of water (which occurred in the days of Noah) and a judgment of fire (which will happen in the days of Christ’s second coming). This thought seemed quite significant to me when I realized it and I am still mentally sorting through what more I can learn from this correlation. One obvious thought is that, if the twelve disciples realized this as well, it is no wonder that they expected Christ to return quite soon.

Anyhow, that was the musical about Noah that I went to. Overall, I would give it a 9.6/10. It wasn’t absolutely mind-blowing, but it was very good, and I would advise that anyone who is considering it ought to go see it.

SfC

Recharge the Batteries, or just change to Energizer?

It’s rather early in the morning where I am, so there aren’t a whole lot of particular things on my mind. I’ll just talk about some of my general summer activities.

The first couple of weeks after school, my older brother and I were getting the computer that I am now typing this post with working; he ordered a variety of different computer parts from Newegg.com.

The end of May and the first week of June were occupied by a trip to Washington D.C. that a history teacher from my high school organizes biannually. We toured the Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, and Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. I would say that these two locations alone made the trip worthwhile; for one, I got to learn about the genius of both men and the pride they took not in their political careers, but their knowledge of farming and cultivating food crops. Both men had very large gardens and Washington even fertilized his crops with Greek mud, cow manure, and several other natural fertilizers as well as operating an eight-year crop rotation to restore the nutrients to the soil that the tobacco crops he used to plant had taken. He also ceased growing tobacco and focused on grain; both he (Washington) and Jefferson believed that the United States would someday be the bread basket of the world. It disappoints me to see how America has done just the opposite; instead of being the nation that helps feed and strengthen other nations, I just see us feeding and strengthening ourselves at the cost of others. Anyway…

We also went to Montpelier, the home of James Madison, which was on one level, a disappointment. You see, our group was large enough that they split us up into two touring groups…and apparently, the group I was in had the “new guy.” It also didn’t help that the building itself was under major renovation, but the other tour group reported that they had the best tour guide ever, telling them all sorts of hilarious and interesting anecdotes about the Madisons. Our guide…well, there was one room we walked into in the house that he just says, “I really don’t know anything about this room.” I would love to go back when the Restoration project is done, though.

As a quick run-down, we also toured Virginia Military Institute, the National Archives, the U.S. Supreme Court , the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and the National Monuments, though we get drenched viewing the monuments. We also got surprise tours of Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania and the PSFS building in Philadelphia. All in all, it was a good trip.

Since then, I had been going to Summer School to participate in a Creative Writing class that one of my English teachers was leading. It was a great opportunity to just sit down and write for sustained periods of time as well as being around some of my friends that also love to write.

However, since then, I’ve detected in my feelings a level of disillusionment. Don’t get me wrong; I am getting some things accomplished over the summer that I had hoped to do: writing on my book (which I did very little during the school year), reading The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom, reading large chunks of the Bible, etc. However, I’ve also been busy, more than I am during a regular school session, it seems. I find that my family and I are traveling on the road quite a bit, and not to vacations (my family never takes vacations), either. We are going somewhere to buy something or do something and I’m getting dragged along for the ride. It just generally seems that I have less time to think and write now than I do than during school, which is a source of disappointment; everyone looks forward to summer so they can just relax for awhile, but this sort of relaxation eludes me.

Anyway, I am counseling for a church camp in a week or so, and that is usually that closest that I get to having a vacation, and what better sort of vacation that playing with a bunch of 7-8 year olds for a week? They just seem to suck up all your previous worries until you find that they are all you’re worried about! I do look forward to it, though, and I am glad that there’s still six weeks or so left in summer, so I’ll just have to make the most of them.

SfC