Mín Englisc Blog

Sorry for the lack of posting lately; I've been rather busy.
During my world literature class today, Dr Kohns mentioned a most amusing text: a poem by Tennyson. In this poem, a man asks someone (whoever it is, I don't know) for immortality; as this person is able to grant it, immortality is granted. However, the guy forgets to ask for perpetual youth, so he just keeps getting older and older forever — talk about an unfortunate request!

Suharto, longtime dictatorial president of Indonesia, has died.

A quote from my logic homework, in which I have to identify whether an argument is proper:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Therefore, women have no reason to fear serial rapists.

A pity that the conclusion isn't correct! I know what FDR meant, but it's always seemed like a rather silly statement to me.

Having forgotten class yesterday, I got up this morning and left my room, only to discover that I'd forgotten to attend chapel. We're allowed four misses per semester, so it's not much of a big deal, but I heard that today's was quite good...

Because I slept so little over the weekend, I ended up sleeping late this morning, awaking only at 10 AM. That's good, except for the fact that I have a class at 9:30! I decided just to skip it, since I'd missed so much already. I'm just thankful that I've only had this happen twice before (one of which was an afternoon class, due to a nap), despite having three semesters with class at 8 AM every day.
This evening, I received word of the death of a woman whom I didn't know too well: Betty Eger of Lafayette RPC. She was very dear to a family at Belle Center, and perhaps even closer to the Blackwoods, to whom she was almost a grandmother. I could write more, but it couldn't compare to Charity's superb account.

Praise God (הַלְלוּיָהּ) for a great CYAWC! We had a long journey (14 hours round trip), and I'd guess that it cost me about $100 between entrance fee, gas money for driver, and lost wages because someone else worked for me. Still, I can't imagine missing it...I had prayed about the conference in the days beforehand, and I'd asked others to pray too, that it might go well. Everything was just as I expected! Nothing happened surprisingly well, but nothing happened unhappily, and I'm excited about everything that I can think of. Perhaps the highlight of the conference was near the end: a group of us stayed up until past 3AM this morning, singing psalms in the "aquarium" room of the basement.
This weekend was especially a blessing because of so many friends being there. Until I began college, almost all my friends were Indiana RPs, while since beginning college I've made many good friends here too — it's a blessing! Still, it's not perfect: the small number of Indiana RPs at Geneva means that many of my friends in one group have little or no idea of my friends in the other group, and that therefore it's really hard to have lots of both groups together. However, with the usual high number of Indiana people there, nearly all of my Indiana friends were there, while we had such a huge number of Geneva people — approximately 45, nearly 1/3 of the entire conference and by a good deal the largest single college representation — that most of my closer friends here were also present. It was this way in high school, but not for long, as soon many of my older friends were leaving to go to college. I'm now at that blessed point where most of my younger friends are now at "my level", while most of my older friends haven't yet gone to a "higher level" — a blessed point for sure, but all too short. It won't be like this, I expect, next year.
Overall, the only hard time was this morning, as we left. Although I stayed up so late and spoke with so many people, I'd not had the chance to give farewell to everyone whom I'd wanted to greet; in the end, the only reason I was able so to do was because we left slightly late. It's hard when you really want to have a last-talk with someone that you'll not see for some months but are accidentally unable to have such a talk. However, as everything worked out, I'm thankful, and the "only" reason that leaving was hard is that I left. It's still really hard leaving all these dear friends, but it's significantly easier than it once was because I now live with many others.

Well, I was going to post yesterday...but didn't get around to it. I ended up spending the evening visiting with the residents o fmy loor from last year, especially the RA, an watching a movie with them: ''Hair Spray'', a musical that seemed to me more of an opera with occasional spoken parts. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing, either.
Today is a day for packing, preparation for the CYA Winter Conference that begins this evening north of Kokomo, Indiana. Due to my class schedule, I'll be among the last to leave; my vehicle isn't supposed to leave until at least 3:30 PM. At least this gives me plenty of time to prepare for this as well as for my afternoon classes. I must say: it's nice not to have any Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes until after lunchtime!

First post all week, I know...it's interesting getting used to everything. I hope that I enjoy my English class, more than anything else: it seems that I'm the only non-English-major in the class! Tonight, I read three books of the Iliad, one-eighth of the book. It will be nice when we get to The Brothers Karamazov: I can make do with Homer, but prose is nicer.

Back to school. It's going to take some adjustment to go to church in the morning; it's far easier to get used to afternoon worship only than it is to get off it...

It's my last night home. We leave late tomorrow morning for Pennsylvania, as my semester begins on Monday and we want to have some time with my grandfather in Pennsylvania before my parents return home on Saturday. I've been busy today: packing, opening electronics (using a wireless mouse for the first time ever), going to the bank (in order to pay a debt to my parents, I withdrew eight dollars in nickels :-), attending the District Roundtable for local Boy Scout adult leaders, watching (in stages) the entirety of the A&E miniseries Pride & Prejudice, and more. And not to mention Calvin: this morning I finished the final pages of Calvin's Institutes, concluding with his opinions of civil government on page 1,521. I'm very glad to have completed it before the end of the break: it would not do well to begin a class on a book without having read said book.
Overall, break has gone very well. I had an outstanding time in Indianapolis during its first week — as always, leaving was difficult — and a nice relaxing time since then. Many of you know that I enjoy travelling and seeing new places and things, and three times I went new places: on Christmas Day, touring eastern Ross County and visiting a corner of Highland County for the first time; on the 27th of December, seeing northern Darke County for the first time (everyone else in my family had attended a wedding reception there, but I was gone that day); and Wednesday, viewing much of the county from the air for the first time.

Pickrelltown, in the southeastern part of the county

I'll be glad to be back at school, and I don't expect to miss my family any more than I would otherwise, but I know that I'll have good memories of this break. Next time of excitement: pray for good weather for travelling next weekend, as that's the College Winter Conference, and surely the weather will affect who can and who cannot attend.

Having completed his pilot's license, Isaac is allowed to take other people flying with him. With today's good weather, he fulfilled his promise to fly me around for a while: we flew all around the county, seeing various villages and plenty of countryside. I truly enjoy being a passenger in an airplane — especially at takeoff, when I can slip the surly bonds of earth!

Today Isaac turned 17. Moreover, he officially became a pilot, passing the official checkride middle of the day. This is undoubtedly his most important birthday (other than 17 years ago!), as he got the first major step in his career complete.

Today was my last time to worship at Belle Center for Christmas break. Dad preached from Micah 6 (?) and from John 15 in our two services. I didn't realise that we were eating with some other people in the congregation and thus staying at church the whole time between services. Among other results, this meant that I took my Jewish translation of the Bible that I enjoy: it worked well for Micah, but didn't do anything for John, of course; I had expected that I'd be able to take a Christian Bible to the evening service.
Facilities today were unusual, as we worshipped in the basement due to a heating failure. We were thankful for the weather (a high of over 50º today!), as all we had were space heaters. This wasn't solely during our service; someone had posted signs before the Presbyterian service (9:30 AM) noting that "By direction of the Holy Spirit (and because of no heat), we're going to worship in the dining hall today." This is the third time in barely a year that I've had this happen:
• Thanksgiving service at Rose Point in 2006, with a heating failure; we worshipped in the library, which has a gas heater
• Three weeks ago at Southside Indianapolis, with the gas being cut off to the sanctuary; we worshipped in the fellowship area, which hadn't been cut
• Today at Belle Center, apparently a heating failure

Yesterday went nicely, as the Ohio Caverns were quite impressive. Although the largest known system in the state, the Caverns are rather small, being entirely located (except for two long and skinny tunnels, which we didn't have a chance to visit) under a single small hill. However, the passageway winds and turns, giving far more length than might be expected: a full mile of cave underneath just a few acres of ground. Until yesterday, I only had a good memory of one other cave, the Lost Sea Cave in Sweetwater, Tennessee, which the junior high group visited overnight when Covfamikoi was at Johnson Bible College. This was radically different: although much smaller, and although it has no lake (though a stream flows 100 feet below the cave's lowest point, and there's a reflecting pool) it has far more formations and colors. What's more, the passageway isn't muddy, so I didn't come out covered in red :-) I saw two pictures from the cave before visiting it: the one that I posted, and the "Crystal King", a huge stalactite near the deepest part; it was nice being able to see both of them.

And by the way: Monday is Isaac's 17th birthday; he's hoping to earn his pilot's license with a "checkride" late in the morning!

You know what's frightening? It's only a week until I have to return to school! What's more, I get it later: some colleges begin this Monday, the 7th January. Among these is Findlay University north of here; people from church pay attention to their schedule, as a Findlay student worships here during the schoolyear — it's rather odd for there to be a person at Belle Center for 2/3 of the year, and yet I've only met her a couple of times.



Tomorrow, we hope to be doing something, although not sure what...perhaps going to the Ohio Caverns while Isaac's busy elsewhere with his Cub Scout pack. He's been really busy with his flying lately: flying for several hours in the last few days (including circling over our house yesterday while we waved at him!), taking a big test this morning, preparing for that test over the last few days.

Over the past few days, I've been rather busy with some things, notably reading much of Calvin. Despite taking a break from it today, I'm slightly more than 1,000 pages into the 1,520 pages of the total work. I'd like to finish it by the weekend. Tonight, meanwhile, I ordered some of next semester's class books online. This semester, I have five classes: with one, I own all three books; with another, I'm borrowing one and buying the rest; with yet another, I bought all four books tonight; with a fourth, I'm going to try to borrow the book; and with the fifth, I bought one book and will try to borrow the other. It's complicated, but it does save money over simply getting everything at the campus bookstore.
Last night, I had a highly enjoyable time watching a movie for the first time: O Brother, Where Art Thou? It's amazing how silly some movies can be, yet without being stupid!

Happy new year!