A New Blog!

As mentioned in my previous blog, I have been planning on creating a blog where I will talk almost exclusively on matters of faith, Christianity, and that sort of topics.  Well, I have created it:  The Faith Journey of a Christian Man.  Head on over some time!  I’ll post a link to it on my blogroll.

Hope you enjoy!

SfC

A Respite, and Possible New Blogs

Well, I had my Medieval Philosophy test yesterday.  Though I don’t have the grade back yet, I’m strongly confident that I got an A on it.  After that test, I have a week or so where I have a chance to catch my breath and get ready for the end of the semester.  Today is also the day that we workshop one of my stories in my Creative Writing class and one of my classmates said that she really enjoyed it and had a lot of comments, so I’m looking forward to that.

I found a link to an advice page for bloggers the other day that suggested that, when you are running a blog, you should keep to a central idea or theme within the context of the blog.  The problem with having a variety of themes and ideas all within a blog is that people will be more likely not to read your blog because the focus isn’t something they are interested in.  Now, when I first realized that WordPress allowed its subscribers to create multiple blogs, I thought that sounded ridiculous; why would anyone create a second blog when they have one already?  Why couldn’t they just have multiple discussions on multiple ideas within the context of a single blog?  Now, while I do still think that having multiple blogs is a little goofy, I also acknowledge that it would help me in the organization of my thoughts if I had separate blogs.

I have been thinking and hoping for some time that I would like to start a blog that I create where I can talk specifically and exclusively of my religious thoughts, probably calling it something like “The Faith Journey of a Christian Man,” because though I do talk of religion and my faith definitely has a presence in the posts I make on The Faithful Mind, I have at times wanted to make a post on an explicitly religious topic that would feel out-of-place on this blog.  In addition to this, one of the main reasons why I started this blog was to show how intellectual honesty and religious conviction can exist harmoniously, and I still believe that completely.  I think the solution is simply that I will continue to discuss a somewhat larger variety of topics on this blog and my religious convictions will still have an active role, but I do want to start a blog at some point where I can explore those convictions more deeply, including the questions and conflicts that I face in the spiritual realm.

In addition, as I have stated since the day I started this blog, I have been writing a book series entitled Kenushi Ryu.  Perhaps it would be better to create a blog who’s deliberate purpose is to provide updates and bounce ideas in direct relation toKenushi Ryu.  In addition, I’ve been working with a wiki in one of my classes this semester and realized how practical it would be to create a wiki where I put the notes and ideas that I conceive for my book.  So, that is another possibility for another blog that I’m considering: a place where I talk exclusively about Kenushi Ryu, and perhaps even build it like a wiki.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts about my blog.  If I do create another blog, then I will post a link on this one.  If you have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions/snide comments, please share .

SfC

P.S.  Another note.  I am considering restarting my Monday Musician sequence.  I will need to find a source of more classical music, though I do think that if I do, I will also throw in some modern instrumental music in the regular running of the Monday Musician:  soundtracks from movies, instrumental pieces in general that catch my attention, etc.

Thoughts Abound While Life Proceeds

I suppose that the first thing I should give is an update on how life is going.  Classwork for this semester is wrapping up pretty well; the majority of my classes for the semester are going well, and I’m learning in them as well.  My classes mostly consist of literature – Early American Literature, Renaissance Literature, and Studies in Writing, a literary theory class.  In addition to these classes, I have a Creative Writing class and a Medieval Philosophy class, which may be the most interesting of classes that I have.  We’ve spent the semester studying Augustine, John Scotus Eriugena, Peter Abelard, and other philosophers from the Middle Ages, which I had no prior exposure with.  I suppose that’s why I find that class the most interesting.  My Creative Writing class is also pretty interesting in that I have used it as an opportunity to write stories set in the world of Kenushi Ryu and learn more about it.

For once, I have a little comfort in that I have plans for the future.  I’m going to take Spanish classes over the summer to satisfy my foreign language requirements for my major.  For this Fall semester, I’m taking an internship in publishing through the Missouri Review and also going to apply for a job at the college’s library.  Also, I’ve met most of my requirements for my English major and now I just need credits to graduate (for the most part), so I’m looking at taking some kind of minor.  So, that is how my schooling is going.

Oh yes, and as a final note, for my Studies in Writing class, I am going to use my blog here (as well as other electronic material) to create a project about myself.  Honestly, I’m not sure what that will look like, I’m getting some ideas and stuff.  Anyway, that’s how things are going for me.  To be honest, what I’ve really been wanting to do lately is to write some posts where I just discuss things (like I did with my posts on Free Will, Music in the West, etc.).  I don’t know when, but I’m hoping that I will find some time to do something along those lines.

SfC

The Next Three Weeks: The End of The Semester

Okay, so today begins the second-to-last week of classwork, after which there will be a week of finals.  Here’s what my next three weeks look like.

_____________________________

Monday, April 27 (today)

-Writing About Literature – discuss Research Paper ideas

Tuesday, April 28

-Music Theory – Assignment

-Human Language – Assignment

Wednesday, April 29

(nothing)

Thursday, April 30

-Music Theory – Assignment

Friday, May 1

(nothing)

_____________________________

Monday, May 4

-Music History – Paper

-English – Peer Review Research Essay

Tuesday, May 5

(nothing)

Wednesday, May 6

-Music History – Hour-Exam

-English – Peer Review Research Essay

Thursday, May 7

-Music Theory – Project

Friday, May 8

(Reading Day – no classes)

_____________________________

Monday, May 11

-Human Language Final Exam

Tuesday, May 12

-Writing About Literature Research Paper Due

Wednesday, May 13

-Music Theory Final Exam

-French Horn Jury

Thursday, May 14

-History Final Exam

-History Paper

Friday, May 15

-Music History Final Exam

-Music History Short Response Essay

After that, I will probably spend the rest of Friday afternoon cleaning out my room, packing, and going home.

I also don’t yet know when my French Horn performance will be.  I will update my schedule here when I find out.  Suffice it to say, I have a whole lot to do.  I have started making a list of things I want to do over the summer and next fall, while the school year is still fresh on my mind and not bogged down by concerns over finals.

I have also done some more work on my book lately.  I have been drawing sketches of the capitol city on the island of Kenushi Ryu, and a friend will help come up with some concept art.  However, some of that will probably be suspended until after finals.

Since I’m already here, I’m going to go back through the new year’s resolutions that I made for 2009, and give an update on my progress in reaching them.

thefaithfulmind

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

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.

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

The Final Countdown! Commencing: 10…9…

I know that I already posted a music video today, and this doesn’t exactly fit in with the classical music that I have posted so far, but given the nature of this post, I thought it appropriate.  This is actually another song that I played in high school; we played it for our pep band games, so we played it quite frequently.

So, today is the first day of the last week of regular class, thus my excitement…and my extensive list of things that I have to study and work on for the next week especially.  Here’s how things look for me:

The Final Countdown:

10.  Music Theory – Assignment
- Due Tuesday Morning (tomorrow)

9.  English – Final Exam
-Wednesday

8.  Religious Studies – Final Exam
-Wednesday

7.  Music Theory – Assignment
-Thursday

6.  Music Theory – Music Project (bars lines of personally composed music, a parallel double period)
-Thursday (due at the same time as the assignment)

5.  English – Paper
-Due Friday

4.  History – Paper
-Due next Monday

3.  History – Final Exam
-Next Monday

2.   French Horn Jury
-Next Tuesday or Wednesday

1.  Music Theory – Final Exam
-Next Friday

That’s how my schedule looks for the next couple of weeks.

Despite the imminent concern of my papers and exams, I won’t be postponing work on my book.  In fact, I’ve recently found myself being able to write more and better through a very simple practice that I have often started but have rarely been able to keep up with for an extended time: journaling!  I don’t understand why I find myself unable to consistently write in a journal, seeing as how I have often noticed how journaling helps not only me but many other writers in their endeavors.  Anyhow, for about a week now, writing in my journal has become a part of my to-do list, which is part of the maturation process of my to-do list.  Originally, it’s purpose was to force me to cut down on wasting time.  By now, it has matured to the point that it helps me stay focused on studying and gives me the freedom to do some more recreational stuff throughout the day, like journaling, drawing, and doing some stuff for Kenushi Ryu.

Speaking of which, I have also made some progress on writing a language for my book.  It isn’t much, but I’ve simply started writing down consonant and vowel sounds from the English language and have been determining the symbols, which will compose the alphabet for my language, as well as determining what sorts of sounds each symbol will represent.  However, I’m hoping to use some innovations for this new language: for starters, I’ve decided on having basic consonant and vowel sounds like in the English language.  What I’ve thought of for the vowels, however, is that I will have two categories of vowels:  (4) basic vowels and (2) modifying vowels.  Each vowel (basic or modifying) has its own sound, but the modifying vowels, when placed directly in front of  a basic vowel, will produce a different sound.  In addition, a modifying vowel can modify itself and each other, so that, in the end, all 17 vowel sounds in the English language (that I’ve accounted for, anyway) are properly capable of translation into the new language, which I have called the language of Origin (tentatively; as I’ve said before, this is all in progress and subject to alterations).

Those are the ideas I’ve been toying with.  Thanks for reading!

Have a great day!

SfC

Theology in Life: What I Have Learned This Semester

As of Monday, I’m back at college from the break.  I’ll confess that I didn’t do everything I should have done over break, but I did take home several books from my classes because I don’t really consider reading work, so I was able to get far ahead in reading for my History class, and that has given me a great deal of opportunity to catch up and get ahead in the rest of my classes.

Right now, I have only one chapter in one book left to read for my history class, and after our second paper and our final exam, I’m done with that class.  For British literature, we have some reading left to do, a quiz or two left, a paper, and our final exam.  Religious Studies, as usual, is my most relaxed class; I can’t see myself getting anything less than an A in that class.  Music Theory, also as usual, is going to be the class that I cram for in the end; I have at least two assignments left (probably three, to be truthful), a music project (I must compose 16 measures of music using proper partwriting rules, cadences, etc.), and our final exam, which is going to be a rough one, and my last exam wasn’t such a good grade, so my grade (and my decent GPA to keep my scholarships) might hinge on this class.  Other than that, my band sessions are over, and beyond my French Horn jury, I’m really done.

However, prompted by the proximity of the end of the semester, I have begun taking a retrospective look at my first four months of college.  To be quite honest, it has gone by quite quickly, and that frightens me a little when I consider that next semester, I will be taking some pretty advanced classes.  However, I have also learned a great deal, not only about my classes and areas of interest, but also about life in general.  Of course, being a man of faith and trust in God, my spiritual growth has often coincided with some major points of thought that I have had in learning about God and myself.  Here, I will relate some of them and some explanations and how these points have changed my thinking and lifestyle:

1)  God is Order: I am actually quite fascinated to discover and consider that the foundation of modern science is based on the premise that God has created reality with calculable, mathematical constants that we, as humans with minds and souls, have the capacity to discover and understand.  Even today, there is a number of scientists who look at Earth’s position in the galaxy and notice how ours is the perfect position in the universe not only to support and sustain life, but also to explore and understand life, both on this world and beyond.  This isn’t always the case, but many of the scientists who recognize this attribute it to a Creator who had us in mind when He made everything.

The practicality of this discovery was immediate as soon as I came to college: if God is a God of order and He created the universe to have and maintain a sense of order, then it follows that I should endeavor to have a sense of order in my life as well.  This has caused me to change the way I organize my living space — well, I guess I should clarify that statement because I didn’t have a sense of order for my living space to begin with before I came to college.  In addition, I now keep a to-do list of things that I want or need to do in a day and, by doing this, I am able to keep myself on task with my schoolwork and recreation, including the writing of my book.

Since I have mentioned, I will say that I achieved little if any progress on my book during the Break.  However, I will be doing some revisions on the book itself, and I hope to further immerse myself in it in the next couple of weeks, especially after the semester’s end.

2) God is Truth and Love:  John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and I have been doing some thinking about that statement these last few months, and the simple statements like, “God is love” and other cliches have also been on my mind.  That is, if Jesus is Truth itself, then as a Christian, it is my job to introduce people to Truth, not simply talk about them abstractly.  It also means that God does not lie, nor does He ever twist language to say one thing and mean another, because that is also a form of dishonestly that goes against who He is.

The practical implications of this are major.  If Christ is Truth and I am trying to be Christ-like, that means that I have a very high standard of honestly.  I’m not just talking about lying or even the occasional “White lie” (which is still wrong, in my opinion) that I ackoowledge as evil; I’m talking about when someone asks me to do something and I say, “Okay,” or “Whatever” without any actual intention of going through with what I’m agreeing to.  I must also be completely honest with myself, having the strength of character to tell myself when I have a problem, when I’ve overtaxed myself, when I’ve slacked off too much, etc.  By being Truth and Love to other people instead of simply telling them about it, I am opening the door for God to live not only within me but through me.  By being more like God, I make God’s image and his reflection through me clearer and more attractive.  Also, by becoming Truth, I am allowing God to transform my soul from the inside out, and by becoming Love, I am declaring my allegiance to the one whom I believe in.  This also means that it is our privilege to love others, to give to the poor, and to worship God.  That is, God has never demanded me to worship Him or do anything else for Him; for me, I do what I do as a privilege that God has given me by introducing me to Himself and informing me of Himself.

3) God is Community: The doctrine of God being a Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit confirms this idea, not to mention that the reason that God created the universe to begin with was community.  Also, if we humans are made in God’s image, then it is not surprising to me to see why much of Western society today is dysfunctional: we lack real community.  I’m not just talking about co-workers that you whisk by on your way to you cubicle, desk, or work site every morning, and I’m not even talking about the people that you talk with from time to time about last night’s game, the weather, the recent elections, or your schoolwork.  I’m talking about people you confide in, that you trust with your secrets, that you think about during the day and discover that you love that person, not in a sexual way, but in a communal, trusting, supporting relationship.  When the creation made in God’s likeness is not behaving in the way they were created to behave, dysfunction, disorders, and destruction always results.

Perhaps the most powerful example of how this has changed my perspective this semester has been through a simple prayer group that I meet with every Wednesday before our midweek services.  We just go to a sort of living room in one of the halls on campus and hang out for half an hour.  We spend the first of our time writing private prayer requests on note cards and then pass them around and exchange them.  We make sure that its random to make sure that sub-cliques don’t form in the group, and then we relate some public prayer requests.  After that, we split up into groups of 3-5 and just pray together.  It’s enormously simply, but it’s also one of the most powerful ways that I have found to become better acquainted with people I didn’t know three months ago, not to mention the relational satisfaction that it gives me when I can’t go home to visit with my best friends for weeks at a time.

4) God is a God of both Work and Rest: another very powerful and motivating discovery for me to make was that God did create us humans to be productive.  I mean, in the book of Proverbs alone, there is a great deal of condemnation for laziness and a great deal of commendation for hard and reliable work.  Also, the Creation narrative specifies that God created six days of the week for work and the seventh day for rest.  This means that God wants us to be productive and successful members of society insofar as we can be.  Of course, there are some things that we cannot take care of on our own: for many people right now, unemployment is a growing problem around the world because of economic problems across the globe, and many people are legitimately trying to get a job to now avail.  For anyone who might be reading this who fits into that category, I’m praying for you and I hope that God gives you a source of income soon.  On the flip side, however, God did commission us as humans to work, and I believe that doing our work well can be an act of worship to God if we really allow ourselves to do as the Bible says and work as though we are working for God himself.

For me, this means that I should apply myself with all of the attention and focus that I can manage to my classes.  This is also a matter of honoring my parents; as of right now, my parents are putting me through college, and one of my goals in high school was to obtain scholarships to help ease the load from my parents and honor them for what they are doing for me.  Now that I have these scholarships, it is my desire to honor my parents’ sacrifices to me, both now and for raising me, by keeping my scholarships and applying myself in school.  I am also currently considering becoming a French Horn tutor at a local high school next semester; right now, my sister gives lessons at a local high school, and she has been doing this for a diverse number of people since she was in college (several years ago).  I’ve mentioned it to her, and she said that, if that is my choice, she will suggest me to some of her former students and I can tutor them and thereby have a source of income to prepare for my future.

However, God did also provide us with a day of rest, and I have to extrapolate from that that God recognizes that humans are prone to burn-outs and need a break every now and then.  Of course, this isn’t to excuse people who went on Thanksgiving Break last year and still haven’t returned to productivity; this is to prevent what we call workahalism and to prevent people from being so consumed by their jobs that they forget that the most important thing in our lives is relationships, both with God and with other people.

5) My place as a Steward of God’s Gifts: Finally, God has been teaching me of my position as a steward over all that He has given me.  The reason I use the term steward is this, and maybe this context will help clarify what I’m talking about:

There are plenty of people who go about this life and say, “Oh, the good Lord has been good to me.”  They might be speaking about their relationships, their financial situation, their house, their children, etc.  However, when it comes right down to it, I think that for many people, saying that is just another form of bragging and saying, “Wow, look how good I have it,” or even, “Look how good I have it in comparison with yourself.”  I have truly come to believe that, when God gives us something – money, a car, a family, a friend, an acquaintance, a job, even our body – then he is appointing us as a steward over it, with the expectation that God may ask for it back, and it would be a slap in the face to God to accept something from Him and then give it back to him in the same state that we found it, or even in a diminished state.

So, what does this mean practically?  If I am a steward of my body, that means that God has given it to me for the purpose of using it, but He also expects me to take care of it.  Supporting this proposition is the idea of doing with my body what Jesus would, and I’d have to say that I have a hard time picturing Jesus gaining weight or eating fast food all the time simply because he would want to take care of his body.

Also, stewardship with money is a concept that I think would benefit society greatly.  If people looked upon money not as their own but as a gift from God that He gave us for His Earthly purposes instead of something for them to spend on their own worldly pleasure, then I’d be willing to bet that the following things could and would happen:

• Credit card debt would cease to be a problem,
• The national debt would stop growing and would start to be paid off,
• More donations would go to starving men, women and children who can’t expect even one square meal a week,
• More hospitals would be built,
• The housing crisis would dissolve because everyone would suddenly realize that God does not approve of debt (again, in Proverbs),
• Schools wouldn’t have to teach high school students personal finances because the students would already have the one concept that they need for financial management and security,
• World hunger would eventually cease to be a problem,
• Homeless shelters would be built,
• Churches would be sending out missionaries by the tens and hundreds of thousands, and
• People would know that, no matter how much money they have, it is all from God’s hand for God’s purposes, and I’d be willing to bet that Christmas would still be the biggest shopping season of the year because everyone would be so excited to give to those they love…within reason, of course.

Stewardship also applies to how I spend my time.

These are the sorts of things that I have been thinking about and learning about this semester.  I guess it’s all a part of becoming an adult.

God Bless!

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

Thoughts For the Weekend

To begin with, I haven’t spent much time in the last few days writing on Kenushi Ryu.  What little spare time I have had this week has involved finishing and perfecting my paper on John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV.  I feel satisfied, however, that the final product I turned in was the best that I could do, given the amount of time I had.  Of course, had I invested more time in it to begin with, it would have been even better, but I won’t beat myself up about that; I did what I could.

Anyway, we have moved on from the Romantic poets to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” for my English class.  I can’t say that I have read too much (it’s on my weekend to-do list), but from my initial impressions, Mr. Bennet is shaping up to be one of my more favorite characters.  He’s witty, but he also doesn’t show it off or flaunt it; he always knows more than he is letting on.  His is a sort of character that I would love to accurately portray in my book (in my own literary style, of course).

On this subject, in one of my history lectures a couple of weeks ago, the professor mentioned a book to the class whose name now eludes me.  It was a story of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency through the eyes of his advisers, secretaries, etc.  When asked why the writer of this book didn’t tell it from Roosevelt’s perspective, he stated that he felt that Roosevelt’s was a mind that he felt was too difficult to penetrate and understand, which is quite something for this particularly accomplished writer to say.  Of course, it is an historical fact that Roosevelt kept most of his thoughts to himself, meaning that he could make sudden decisions without foreshadowing it to anyone, not even Eleanor, his friends, advisers, or anyone else.  Again, this makes me say that such a mind is the sort of character I would love to write into my book properly.  Of course, as the writer that I have already mentioned, if I feel that I can’t do it well, then I feel that I ought not to try, but it would be something fun to attempt.

On the subject of my history class, we are in the finishing chapters of Bradley’s Flags of Our Fathers.  The thing that I found most striking about the novel was the way the Battle of Iwo Jima was described in such powerfully honest details, talking about the wounds that people sustained and the Japanese tortures on a captured American and all of that sort of thing.  Of course, I already made a post back in September (World War II and Counting the Cost) where I discuss the reality of all of this, but reading through the middle part of Bradley’s book definitely reinforced that newly-percieved reality.  Anyway, that’s something else that I have on my to-do list.

I had a concert with the college band that I am in Tuesday night and my mother, father, and sister all came up to watch it, which was a cause for joy.  Thinking about it right now just reminds me that in a week, I will be going home for a whole week for Thanksgiving, and the history instructor informed us today that he is canceling Friday afternoon classes so that we can go home sooner, which also makes me very happy.  Since the last couple of days have been taxing on my time, I also have a great deal of French Horn practicing to do this weekend.

Also, I have a Music Theory exam on Tuesday, which will require preparation, though I do feel more prepared for this one than I do the previous two.  Don’t mistake me, I will still be certain to study and prepare for it.  However, I am much more relaxed about this exam.

Religious Studies continues to be the class that I do the best in.  I just find myself asking how much of the extra time and energy I spent in high school learning about religious issues and theological understanding accounts for the amount of (unusual) proficiency I have found in that class.  Our guest speaker on Wednesday was a Muslim woman talking with us about Isalmic teachings focusing on modesty and our guest speaker on Monday was a Jewish Rabbi who mainly focused (per the regular professor’s request) on discussing why modern Judaism rejects Jesus as their Messiah.  First, though, he explained that Judaism is not a homogenenous religion, that it has many opinions about scripture and God.  Perhaps the most striking thing he stated was that modern Jews do not see their religion as the only way to God, that you don’t have to be Jewish to know Yahweh.  In fact, perhaps the most shocking statement he made (most shocking to me) was blatantly, “Jews are pluralist.”  He then went on to explain the following reasons why Judaism rejects Jesus as their Savior, as I have copied in my notes:

• Jews have a concept of God as being One (in contrast to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity), and Jesus being God violates their understanding of Yahweh.
• Jesus did not fulfill the full qualifications for being the Jewish Messiah as set forth by the Old Testament prophets (he did not become an earthly king, did not usher in Messianic Age, etc.)
• Jesus said that he had not come to “remove one stroke of ink from the law or the prophets,” yet Paul allowed Gentiles to become Christians without requiring circumcision, Sabbath rest, keeping of the Jewish Law, etc.
• Jews also believe that forgiveness is attained not through Jesus Christ, but by a change of behavior through following the law.

Anyhow, I found the lecture quite interesting and informative.  They have definitely given my mind something to munch on.

SfC

Some More Thoughts on Kenushi Ryu

So, I’ve been thinking more about my book lately.   Saturday night, I finally returned to my book proper (As opposed to simply working on stuff about my book, i.e. character sketches, maps, histories, etc.) and reread the first of it, revising a little bit as I went but mainly just rereading to remind myself precisely where I am in the story I want to tell and how far I have to go.    It was actually exciting; even being the writer of the story and knowing the circumstances under which the novel beings, I found myself thinking, “What’s next?  What’s going on?”  It definitely makes me wish that I didn’t have to wait until Thanksgiving Break (only two weeks away now!) until I get a really good opportunity to write consistently.

However, as I was walking today, I got to thinking and realized that there is a very important and legitimate question that I need to think about that has thus far evaded my consideration:  as I have stated in another post, the reason I want to avoid using Latin or another language is because I would feel obligated to explain how that language made its way into my book or how that language will make its way into our world (assuming that my novel takes place in a past reality in the same universe).

However, I have lately been wondering about how this approach can realistically work.  For a short and simple example, what symbols do the people of the Kenushi Ryu world use for mathematical questions, since Greek symbols definitely qualify as a past human language?  Of course, an easy way to avoid that would be to say that they don’t have developing mathematics like geometry or algebra or anything like that yet, but that wouldn’t really feel honest on my part as the writer.  Of course, once I get an ancient language drawn up and written into this universe, I could simply use those symbols as a basis for any such mathematical equations.  This isn’t extremely difficult to have a decent answer to.

A much better question, however, is the question of measurements.  As is already apparent in my maps, I’m using the standard of the American/British measurement system by using the mile.  I was also planning on using acres and other units of measure from that measurement system.  In addition to this, I was also considering using Metric units of measure without even considering the implications of all of this.  I really felt a little foolish that all of these considerations hadn’t crossed my mind before now.

So, right now, I’m considering what to do about measurements…and I’m also considering the possibility that I’m being too thorough in all of this and am simply overhthinking.

Leave your comments!  I’d love to hear from you!

SfC

John Donne, Holy Sonnet 14: “Batter My Heart, Three Person’d God”

For my Introduction to British Literature class, I have been assigned a paper about one of the authors that we have discussed in class thus far.  Here’s a quick list of the works that we have read and talked about in class:

• Beowulf
• Lanval - Marie de France
• Miller’s Tale - Geoffrey Chaucer
• The Passionate Sheppard - Christopher Marlowe
• The Nymph’s Reply – Sir Walter Raleigh
• Sonnet 18, 29, 130 – William Shakespeare
• Paradise Lost – John Milton (Books III & IV)
• The Sun Rising, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, and The Flea by John Donne.
• To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell
• Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
• Assorted Poems from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
• Tintern Abbey and Michael by William Wordsworth (Just finished today)

So, for my paper, I have been given three options:  1)  Discuss Unferth’s gift of Hrunting to Beowulf and take a stance on whether this was Unferth betraying Beowulf with a kiss or actually seeking reconciliation and back it up, 2)  Discuss the themes of justice in the medieval social order illustrated in Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale and how these themes relate to one of the three main characters-John, Abasalom, or Allison-and how each character’s transgressions against society are punished in the end, or 3)  To read and analyse John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV, explaining the argument and message.  Obviously, by the title of this post, I chose the third option.

So, as part of simply immersing myself in the text, I thought I would write it down in my blog.  In fact, I was thinking that poetry might compose a second weekly update that I do for my blog, to go along with my Musician Monday’s updates.  However, for now, I’ll just post Holy Sonnet XIV.  So, without further ado, I give you, “Batter My Heart, Three Person’d God:”

Batter my heart, three personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

So, for the introduction to my paper, I will be looking up some historical background to begin the paper.  This will be my major project for the weekend.  The paper is due on Wednesday, so I’m not in a terrible hurry to finish it this weekend, but I want to so I can read it and reread it and have friends read it, proof it, think about it, and just absolutely do the best I can to make it a great paper.

Anyway, that’s the main thing going on for me right now.  Other than that, this will be a rather relaxed weekend.  I have a large amount of reading to do in Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley for History next week; Religious Studies is fantastic; I’m pretty well caught up in music theory (even a little ahead); and I will need to be practicing my major scales for French Horn practice pretty extensively this weekend.

So anyway, that’s how things are going for schoolwork.  For Kenushi Ryu, I’m continuing to refine the map for Kenusha that I have already posted (if I have a newer version, I’ll just leave a UPDATE note on the post and upload the newer versions).  In addition, I’ve started working on a map for the Plains of Halsom region, as well as doing other various work.  I’ll keep the blog updated as I get more done.

In addition, I have borrowed from a minister The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel finally.  I have read The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith and found them both to be very thought-provoking books, and a very intellectual friend of mine owns The Case for a Creator and really enjoyed it, so that will likely occupy some of my free time for a time as well.

Have a great day and a great weekend!

SfC

A Regional Map for Kenushi Ryu

Over the last two weeks, I’ve managed to catch up on most of my schoolwork and have managed to stay caught up fairly well.  The Lord has given me a great deal of strength to perform the tasks that I need to perform, strength to do what I need to do in spite of my lack of motivation, tied together with what I will label Daylight Savings Fatigue.

As part of what I’ve managed to achieve in the last couple of days, I have created a page where I will try to consistently update with progress on Kenushi Ryu.  Here’s a couple of views of the regional map for Kenusha that I will be adding to the main “Kenushi Ryu” page:

Here’s the geographic map:

Here’s the geographic map overlaid with roads and settlements:

Of course, the settlement indicators are not the only settlements in the region.  To be defined as a settlement (in this map at this time, anyway), a population of 5,000 souls or more is required.  This includes for forts, though at forts, the garrisons of troops is included with the civilian population, mostly because the humans on Kenusha are not at all a militaristic society and their army is made up mainly of citizen soldiers.  Also, I use the term “forts” loosely to mean any settlement that acts as both a population center as well as a settlement with more-than-rudimentary defenses, a sizable garrison, and a local economy that’s partially or mostly devoted to producing war materials, so you’ll find more fletchers, engineers, barracks, and the like in forts.

Also, the large castle labeled “Kenusha” represents the capitol city for the human population.  It’s population is over 100,000, but not much more.  By that reckoning in addition to the other human settlements, there’s at least 195,000 humans in this region of the island.  However, as a rule of thumb, there’s about 5 citizens living in unmarked settlements to every 2 counted living in major settlements, including Kenusha, so by that reckoning, there’s 487,500 humans in this region…and this is, of course, an estimate; some of the marked settlements exceed 5,000 inhabitants substantially, so 500,000 is a more realistic figure.

Also, this doesn’t count the non-human population…but in order to go into that, I’ll need to describe those other races, and they are still a work-in-progress.

Anyhow, any comments of any kind are greatly appreciated.

SfC

UPDATE (11/9/08):  I’ve repplaced the older versions of Kenusha with a newer version; however, the only difference is that the plains of Halsom don’t extend as far south and the Sunken Lowlands don’t extend so far west as well as the addition of a compass star.

Happenings of Various Sorts: Studies, Writing, and Brief Comments on World Affairs

I return to my blog with some good news:  after a couple of weeks of focused effort, I am on the better end of the semester.  After a couple of weeks requiring unusual focus on my part, I have finished all but one of my midterms and exams for my classes.  It isn’t that I’m going to totally kick back and relax, but I can rest easier now than I was a couple of weeks ago.

I have an English exam on Monday (it was supposed to be on Friday, but the professor had an emergency and class was canceled), and then midterms are behind me.  My World War II class is back to status quo until the end of the semester, though we haven’t seen our grades from the midterm and our papers.  Music Theory is steadily improving; by investing more of my time and focus in it, I can comfortably say that I understand what is going on and am improving at doing it quickly (which is half the struggle of the class).  Religious Studies is showing itself to be more difficult on during this half of the semester; we finished Is Religion Dangerous? by Keith Ward (a very good read that, in my mind, reinforces my belief that, although people twist religion to selfish ends, it can be a fundamental and foundational force of good in the world) and now we are on to Religion: The Basics by Malory Nye, which is set up to be more like a college textbook…which makes it an overall thicker read.  In addition, we’re short on discussion groups for Religious Studies in the next couple of weeks, so we will be left to our own devices to understand the book, unless we decide to ask about it shortly before the lecture sessions.  Finally, my French Horn lessons are also going smoother, thanks to more time and thought devoted to figuring out everything.  It isn’t even really a hard task, just time-consuming.  I think I’m starting to realize that very few things in life are truly as difficult as they just time-consuming.

In addition, I have been making progress on my book as well.  I began using Photoshop to create heraldries for the many factions that will be in my world, as well as putting the finishing touches on one of the regional map.  I was also inspired earlier this week to begin writing down a rough race sketch for the humanity of Kenushi Ryu.  I will gladly share some or all of this progress, depending on if there is any interest in the readers.

However, I now find myself confronted with a gargantuan task in writing my book, a task that I have mentioned in previous posts.  Although I have, for all intents and purposes, decided that the creation of an artificial language for the purpose of use in my book will be highly positive, if not necessary.  That being said, all of the work that I have done on naming characters, cities, nations, and every other facet of my world has basically been creative, but random and, if I am going to create my own language, most or all of what I have already named will, for the sake of consistency, need to be renamed in the ancient tongue (or tongues?) of the world.  So, I find myself at a position where at least beginning the creation and forging of an artificial language seems necessary, yet I find myself faced with a project of such enormous proportions, I don’t even know where to start!  Of course, it isn’t to say that there is nothing else I can do before my language is alive; there’s still plenty of maps to be made and that sort of thing.  However, the sooner the language is created, the sooner I can forge on ahead with so many other facets of my world (Kenushi Ryu) with greater confidence.  Perhaps, if you (the reader) feel you have something to contribute to my efforts, even if it’s just encouragement, I would be very grateful!

Finally, for the last couple of weeks I have directly omitted writing anything about world affairs; the election, the economic downturn, etc.  I feel that I must explain that.

As for the election, I find myself completely disillusioned about the whole system.  That is to say, I believe that via absentee, I will cast my lot to John McCain, but I do not do so enthusiastically.  I must say that I do have my doubts about Sarah Palin; after all, in the words of Joe Biden (addressed to Barack Obama at the time, ironically) the Presidency “doesn’t lend itself to on-the-job training.”  I agree with that, and I believe that the Vice Presidency, a heartbeat away from the Presidency, is scarcely different and, no offense to Palin, but she doesn’t have the political experience of John McCain or Joe Biden.  I must restate that I do still find Obama to be a suspicious character.  To illustrate that, let me put it this way: when someone launches an attack on Obama, the media is all over it and, when McCain is attacked, there is little, if any acknowledgment.  Obama’s like the media’s poster boy.

Also, despite the enormous amount of coverage that the rumor of Obama’s foreign birth is getting on the blogs, the media hasn’t covered it, at least that I have heard of.  It is difficult to tell if this is because the bloggers are starting rumors to damage Obama or if the media coverage betrays skewed opinions and poor journalism.  Overall, a friend of mine spoke a few weeks ago of how disillusioned he was about the election, and I must agree, although for different reasons.  I have seen one too many times during this election phrases like “I will never vote for a Republican” (or it could just as easily be the other way around), which tells me that people aren’t really thinking about their vote; they’re casting their vote based on illogical biases that really don’t have anything to do with what a candidate believes and has everything to do with what party the candidate holds to.  In other words, I’m tired of people throwing their lot in to someone just because of their party affiliations…or worse, picking the candidate that talks better.  This is not saying that a good politician can’t communicate properly; it’s just that, from what I’ve observed, that’s all that Obama has.  He doesn’t have as much experience as McCain, and I’m monstrously suspicious of Obama; if nothing else, am I the only one whose noticed that his supporters practically worship the guy?  That, to me, is deathly frightening.

Well, no matter.  The election is in 10 days (not including today) and mine is just one vote in something like 300,000,000, albeit there will probably only be about 50-60% voter participation (maybe 70%, since this is a major election).  And trust me, I would love to learn that I’m wrong; I would love to hear of voter turnout at 80 or even (gasp!) 90 percent.  It sickens me that people take for granted the democratic form of government and let their potential votes fall silent.  Anyway, this is likely going to be my last post about the election; it seems like most everything that is worth saying has been said a million times.

As for the economic downturn; well, from my limited knowledge of economics, let me say that I honestly believe there is little either candidate can realistically do to reinforce the economy unless they can come up with some new way to restore investor confidence.  Every day Wall Street takes a hit, it’s suffering is echoed across the rest of the world.  When I think of the economic problem, I envision a suspension bridge; a single chord in the middle has started giving slack and lowering and the increased strain on the rest of the bridge is forcing the entire structure closer to the abyss.  I do think that, if one major stock market in the world collapses, that it won’t be the end of the world.  If two crash, then it will be more difficult to recover, but it will be possible.  Three, and we’re getting precariously close to a world-wide crash.  Four or more, and I honestly think that the whole world economic system will implode upon itself.  What will that look like?  I have no idea, and it isn’t something I want to think about.

Anyway, like I said about the election, it seems that most of the things worth saying have been said, so I will let that be for now.

Take care, and God bless!

SfC

P.S.  Don’t forget, if your interested in seeing some of the materials I’ve been able to construct for my novel, let me know!

Schoolwork Overload

Okay, confession time.

Last Saturday, I honestly slacked off.  Completely.  I didn’t do a thing all day.  It was probably the first day since I came to college where I just did absolutely nothing all day (nothing productive, anyway).  I had emotional reasons for this, but that is really irrelevant; the point was, as of this last week or so, I’m just paying through the nose for my day-long vacation.

For this post, I’m just going to go over some of the things that I need to be doing.

To begin with, I’m continuing and almost caught up in reading my history books.  I’m continuing to read in War Without Mercy and, in addition to that, we have been assigned a paper where we discuss the effects of racism and prejudice among each of the combatants in WWII.  This doesn’t seem to be too difficult for me, though; I can write decent papers and have been paying attention in class, so this isn’t too difficult.  Even so, it is a time expenditure.

Religious Studies isn’t much of a time expenditure, thankfully, nor is my English class, though we are starting Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, which is 42 pages of our anthology book.  This will take up quite a bit of time in the next few days, but other than this recent development, my English class is simple enough.

Music Theory is a different story entirely.  To give you some perspective, I took some tutoring from the graduate French Horn professor at the college and she explained to me that he (the Music Theory professor) was an Ivy League graduate and has the same expectations from his students.  In addition to this, he’s getting up in years (no disrespect meant at this; in fact, I think he’s pretty cool) and therefore has difficulty imagining music as not being second-nature.  My sister has given me some of her old worksheets from the class, so from that, I can make the grade.  The problem is, even then, I’m still struggling mentally with wrapping my brain around everything.  In accordance with this, I’m devoting myself to studying an extra hour every weekday not including the completion of my assignments and at least one hour during the weekend (more when I can manage).  Basically, my tutor explained to me that I understand the concepts, but I basically just need to be able to recall and register everything faster and think more abstractly, which will come only with intensive practice.

My personal French Horn lessons are also attaining a level of priority.  I’ve set myself up to practice the horn at least 4 times (30 minutes each) every week in preparation for my jury.  Basically, a jury is where I go in and play a selected solo for the brass staff at the music school.  In essence, it’s just like my high school music contest, only now I actually get a grade for it and that grade goes on my GPA.

To top it all off, next Wednesday is basically Exam day; History and Religious Studies Exams that day and Music Theory and English Exams the next week.  Admittedly, I have plenty of time to do all of these things; it is the mental strain of discipline that is the struggle for me.  In addition to all of this, I also want to increase the amount of time I spend writing on Kenushi Ryu (as always) and spending my time more efficiently.  As I might have already shared here, my dad explained to me that, once I’ve been in college for a couple of years, I will be amazed at all that I am able to do in comparatively less and less time.

Anyway, just thought I’d share how my life is going.  Have a great day!

SfC

General Progress in Schoolwork and Kenushi Ryu

Happily, I can now report that many good things have been happening this week.  To begin with, I have spent the last couple of weeks reading The American Homefront:  1941-42 by British journalist Alistair Cooke for my World War II class.  It tells the story of America at the beginning of World War II told from the perspective of a naturalized American journalist who traversed the entire length of the country, going through each of the major regions (the East Coast, the Deep South, the Gulf Coast, Southwest, the West Coast, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, and New England) and investigating what people’s takes on the war were.  Of course, he used some good journalism practices also; instead of just asking people, what do you think of the war (which he believed elicited well-meaning but untrue sayings like, “I think we’re doing the right thing for our country), he would ask things like, “How has the war impacted your life directly?”  From this, he learned about the aspects of the American economy at war, often centering around urbanization around industrial cities (which would lead to overcrowding and major logistical issues as such), mass migrations from farming communities (leading to fewer crops at a time when the government was asking for more than ever) and numerous other effects.  Though it was a rather thick read, I enjoyed it; it conveys the truthful aspects of the War that some modern historians tend to romanticize into something that isn’t true.

In addition to my World War II class, I believe I have been making progress in my Music Theory class.  Though the first few weeks have been rough, I believe that my last couple of assignments have been high-scoring grades with a more-than-reasonable degree of certainty.  The graduate French Horn instructor, through whom I take lessons, heard of my standing grade and has given me some tutoring notes and worksheets to help me in the class also.  It is a strange feeling; I have not since very early elementary school found myself in a position where I needed tutoring.  A part of me says that I should be better than that, but my more reasonable side reminds me that I really do need all the help I can get.  It is a rightfully humbling experience.

Finally, I am happy to also report that I have continued to make progress in drawing the various maps for my book.  I believe that the time has properly come for me to showcase some of my progress.  So, here is the current map that I have created for my fledgling high fantasy world:

To go along with the map (though I won’t post them now), I have some Word documents where I describe the variety of races that inhabit this land (and I have deliberately omitted elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. from my domain simply because they are vastly overdone in the high fantasy genre, though I will be having some undead-variety creatures).  I hope to go into greater depth with each of these races, describing their history (to an extent; there are other secrets that will remain locked away until the later parts of the story), their appearance, characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and everything else.  I will also mention that this island is only a small (yet critical) locale in the world that I am creating, though I have not been so productive in producing a more comprehensive World Map (yet).  In addition, I hope to have posted later on some zoomed in maps of the regions you see labeled on the map, going into detail as to where major settlements and strongholds are, in addition to which races inhabit each region.

In addition to this, I have finally decided that, whatever course my world takes, it is too epic to not have its own language.  With this in mind, I’m hoping to discuss with my circles of influence (my linguist friends in addition to english teachers, fellow writers, and anyone else who might have something worthwhile for me to consider) exactly what I should be going for in my composed language.  I’m even considering taking some classes next semester or so in linguistics, in addition to perhaps a foreign language or two, to give me a better idea of what I need to consider in the course of my language composition.

Of course, I also recognize that the task of creating a language is a mammoth undertaking in and of itself, not to mention the possibilities and consequences of mistakes and ultimate failure.  Perhaps this will help illustrate to you, the reader, the precise dimensions of the story that I hope to tell…or at least provide you with a more comprehensive idea of what I hope to achieve in my writings… , and also why I expect this to be something that takes my whole life to craft.  However, I do have a strong work ethic; if you aren’t going to do something right or well, then in my mind, it would be better to leave the task to someone else.

Finally, I would also like to relate that socially, I am doing much better.  Even readers that might have been paying attention to this blog for some time will probably find some surprise in this statement, which I feel I must elaborate on.  For a couple of weeks at the beginning of the semester, I felt quite severed from others.  It was a strange and constrictive time for me because I felt so disconnected from those that I cared for the most, resulting in a disconnected feeling towards the new acquaintances that were becoming my friends.  However, though I do still feel distance, I do not feel a total loss of connection, as I did before.

Oh, and my birthday is in a few short weeks, which is a cause for excitement as well.

Have a great day!

SfC

UPDATE:  I added a newer version of my map, which includes two new islands.  Other than that, it is basically the same thing, though the thought also occured to me that, if I do craft my own language, then I will likely rename these regions.  Enjoy!

UPDATE (11/9/08):  I uploaded another updated version of my map, adding a compass star.

(Finally!) Some Progress on my Novel

Okay, so it isn’t precisely a whole lot of progress.   Since college started, I have mangaed to write another couple of pages on my novel.  I’ve stalled out at the end of a chapter, deciding how to bring the battle that is being fought to the proper conclusion.

In addition to just the writing, I have been reworking some of the details of the novel: I completely erased a race that I deemed excessive and have renamed several regions of the island (which is called “Kenushi Ryu”) as well as, using Photoshop, zooming in on and giving detail to the regions.  I hope to have a more detailed map of each region as well as a sort of political map, i.e. the locations of major settlements, roads, ports, fiefs, and any number of other major landmarks in a medieval fantasy world.

Finally, I am enthralled to report that, as of this morning, I believe that I have composed a theme for my book.  It is still quite rudimentary (only 8 measures), but I believe that what I currently have will be the main musical phrase in any sort of musical composition that accompanies my novel.

I’m praying that God will give me the spare time to do more and more work on my novel, but I also recognize that classes and studying is a priority.  With that, I will now go read John Donne’s “the Flea” and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” before I go eat lunch.  Have a good day!

SfC

P.S. Perhaps later, I will make another post about politics, specifically on something I learned about Barrak Obama.  But that’s for later!

Everything I Want to Be…Mostly

Occupationally speaking, I’ve been thinking a bit lately about exactly what I want to do, so this list is an attempt at compiling everything that I want to do as an adult (who’s out of college, living on my own, etc.)  I’ll list the occupation and then leave a brief description idicating where I was inspired to have that occupation.  Several of them will likely be occupations that I have in the past considered but now no longer expect or desire; in such cases, I will indicate if the occupation is no longer a goal of mine.

*=I no longer expect to pursue this career

^=I’m not entirely certain on these careers; I’m still thinking about them

Railroad Engineer*

This was my first great aspiration, birthed out of of my love for railroads and trains when I was very young.  I would spend hours on end playing with trains and found an especial enjoyment in constructing the most advanced, complex railroad track I could with the materials I was given.  Of course, I was always wanting more railroad pieces which I could use.  This passion illustrated the creative side of my mind, which continues even in small things like building Lego structures and vehicles (and once again, I never have too many pieces!)

Architect*

This was my Junior High hope and expectation.  At the time, I had a very narrow view of what sort of work architecture consisted of; I failed to realize that there were landscape architects (which even now sounds like a very interesting career) or that architects are called in to design a variety of buildings for a variety of purposes.  However, at the time, I also failed to recognize the intense level of mathematics that would be involved in such a profession, not only for designing a building but to ensure its integrity.  When I did realize the level of mathematics that would require such a full-time profession, I elected to seek a career elsewhere…though as I indicated earlier in this paragraph, I might still have a vague interest in such a career.

Writer

This is my current aspiration.  Actually,  I highly doubt that I will make it through life as a full-time writer, unless my series of fantasy novels are tremendously successful.  It might end up being something more of a hobby.  I have also considered some of the many different careers that could fit into the generic heading of writing; Newspaper editing sounds like something I might enjoy, though the current trend in the United States favors other medias of news.  Poetry might fit in with part of a music composition/singing career (mentioned later).  Journalism is also a possibility; the university I am attending has a successful journalism school, so I may take greater advantage of that.  However, for now, I now that I will be a fantasy fiction writer.

Beekeeper^

Another smaller occupation goal out of my younger years.  I’ve always had a fascination for bees, which resulted in a desire to own a bee farm.  This isn’t something that I have thoroughly studied yet; it’s just something for me to consider as I become an adult.

Gardener/Farmer

Again, this isn’t really a full-time occupation so much as it is a hobby.  I want to grow my own vegetables when I am an adult…and perhaps even a few livestock.

English Teacher^

With all of these hobbies that I have mentioned, this is probably the first day-job of the professions I have considered.  If I become a teacher, though, I want to go into it not just because of the pay (highly unlikely) or because of the retirement (probably won’t retire until I’m 90, anyway, if I live that long); I want to do it for the sake of students.

History Teacher^

My attraction to and fascination with history has caused me to examine the possibility of being a history teacher as well.  Of course, I can’t teach history and English at the same time, so if I had to choose between them…well, I would have to think about it for quite a bit of time.

Music Composer/Songwriter

I love listening to music.  I’m finding learning about the syntax and structure of music in one of my college courses quite difficult, but I still actively consider the possibility of a career in music as a composer or possibly a songwriter for the Contemporary Christian Music genre.  There is still much for me to learn, but it is still a possibility that excites me!

Entrepreneur

I know that this goal doesn’t seem to fit too well with the rest of my career goals, which mainly focus on creativity, which entrepreneurship seems to focus on management and other such things.  Even I started a business, I don’t know what it would be.  Even so, I have this strange desire to own a business, perhaps for the sake of providing for others.

Missionary

As a Christian, I recognize the need to fulfill the Great Commission and spread the gospels to the ends of the Earth, and I have considered this possibility quite thoroughly and have, at times, expected that this is what I will end up doing.  Honestly, I do have some reservations, but if I feel God moving me to such a mission, then I will go joyously; it’s something I would enjoy!

Minister/Pastor

This I really do expect to do at some point or another.  I’m really not worried about the position; I just expect to be a Christian teacher and try to help other people learn about God and teach them what I know.

I’m not realistically expecting this, but I have also considered the career of a Singer.  I’m not saying I’m expecting this; I’m just acknowledging it as a possibility.  Let me be clear, though, that I’m no Steven Curtis Chapman.

Of course, this isn’t exactly a comprehensive list.  There are other careers that I have sought and probably others that I have recently actively considered, artistry being the least of them.  However, this is probably good enough a list for the time being.  Thanks for reading!

SfC