Wow... I thought yesterday was perfect, but that rising humidity actually meant that today would be the opposite. It's raining again in Longview, with scattered thunderstorms.

Talked with my mom yesterday. Cell phones are funny things when it comes to signal reception sometimes.

Plans are moving forward for our little concert on Friday. Slope, Coda and I will be opening for Tisdale, a very talented local band. We are so excited. Last night we went down to Quad 4 and enlisted the services of Lucky, an agreeable fellow who plays drums. We've played at 2 AcoustiCafe's before but this next ElectriCafe will be our first with a drummer. And last I heard, we'd roped another 41er, Ian, into playing bass for us. Slope is working on getting a CD of our song line-up to the players, and I'm working on chords and lyrics memorization. No good to be singing from a paper!

Tisdale's local popularity, combined with this weekened being an aero science Preview, makes me expect at the very least 100 people to be there at any given time. Scary. :D

So today is pretty straightforward. Classes, work, history assignment, 3 music reviews for the paper, and an article on why LETU students go to the symphony, also for the Yellowjacket. I took a little poll at Monday dinner and got some interesting results.

And tonight is the first meeting of the Webb Society, the history club I joined. Dr. Coppinger will be coming and talking about grad school. :-) 9 PM if you are at LETU and remotely interested.

Well, sadistics starts in 20 minutes. Better get ready. :D

There's a sadistics test tomorrow.... the last one didn't earn me any standing ovations so this one, yeah, had better be better.

Let the studying commence...

You Are 30 Years Old

30 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

Because AIM is evil!

I'm doing a week without it. Try it and be rid of the epidemic!

First off the weather was *beautiful* today. About 70 degrees, pure sunlight with no clouds, and a nice little breeze that came and went just as the day needed to keep thoughts of humidity out of mind.

My three classes went well, though Texas & the American West dragged for a little. The room was entirely too hot and I was tired by 3 PM... and it's an 80-minute class... blah. But anyway.

I worked out solo today. Aduma and I go to Solheim on MWF's, but I am usually fairly consistent with hitting it in the "between" days. I ran around the loop with my iPod and then worked out on some of the lifting machines.

After Texas/West got out, I sat in my room for a bit and decided I should do *something* outside because it was so pretty, so I pulled my roller blades. Hadn't used them all semester, so it was fun. I skated down to the statue/gravesite and then remembered that the best skating spot was the parking lot behind Glaske. So I rolled back there and had fun going as fast as I could in little circles or trying to do tiny jumps off the curbs.

And today wasn't the finest day in Geoff's life, so he wanted to get off-campus. This, coupled with Dex's news that SAGA was nothing special tonight, convinced me to accompany him. We decided to drive from Wal-Mart to the Mall and see what struck our fancy.

I remembered Papacita's from the Winter IMPACT Retreat, so we went there. Had a nice time chatting about Geoff's trips to E3 and other random things. Then we totally couldn't figure out whether to pay at the table or pay up front. The lady came to clean up our table and the waitress came by to pick up our tabs and lo and behold, we were gone. Needless to say, she was flustered that we hadn't paid and probably offended that we hadn't tipped her.

We got it figured out and gave her a nice tip. And then, yeah, we came back.

I also found a hilarious post by a fellow on-campus named Wilson... ah, how I wish I had conceived and penned this gem...

Oh, and today at work they had Death by Chocolate! It was so cool!!!

Basically every year the LETU Admissions staff makes whatever chocolate delicacies they can and brings them for a Valentine's Day bash. Well, after they finished with their party, Mr. Townsend called all the student workers back for a little break. (Thank you Mr. Townsend!)

We ate all sorts of chocolate cake, brownies, and other tasty thing I don't know the names of, while we were quizzed on famous Hollywood couples of the past. A powerpoint slide went through 31 couples and we were to write down their names if we could. I came in third place with 18 individual names, which I thought was good, considering most of these were throwbacks to the very beginning of Hollywood history. (And yeah, I wasn't about to get the name of Archie Bunker's wife. Or what was Mr. Brady's name...)

So, that was way way cool and Schmoopy Day is officially awesome, at least for me after it was filled with chocolatey goodness. :D

That's what our student body president called Valentines day. No outlandish campus decorations happened, but it was common to see red hearts on a lot of windows and roses being toted by many.

Slope involved me in a little scheme for Karen. He had three others and I stand in separate campus locations, bearing an envelope with a gift and directions to go to the next spot. I don't know where Karen finally ended up, but when she came to me she had a rose and was absolutely beaming.

Schmorgan said today should also be called Singles' Awareness Day. :D

That could be, incidentally, acronized as SAD. Curious.

In any case, for those not in this not altogether unhappy condition, a very happy Valentine's day.

Thursday evening the high schoolers arrived on campus for this year's Heritage weekend. It's a scholarship competition, where 100 or so high schoolers are invited based on their SAT scores. On Monday at work, I signed my suite up to host one of them, and agreed to work with the Admissions department on Friday during the interview sessions.

Two years ago I was invited, and went trembling into the interview and essay competititons. I ended up not winning, but looking back it was good times. Last year I was the student rep for one of the interview committees, asking questions and rating the students' responses.

This year I served as a door monitor, and wow, I had so much better of a time with it.

I arrived at the Advancement Center at 1 sharp. It's LeTourneau's alum buiding, so it has a nice lobby and coference room. The committee members arrived shortly after and set up.

My job, as door monitor, is just to ensure the students coming in that they are in the right place, and to talk to them. The poor students were, as I remember being, incredibly nervous going into the interview, and reeling from it afterwards.

Normally I am so shy about being forced to make small talk with complete strangers but for some reason it just clicked yesterday. I really enjoyed just talking to about a dozen high school seniors from all over the place. They were from North Carolina, Houston, New Mexico, even one guy flew from Vienna, Austria.

I got to talk to one guy's mom during his interview, just to find out that his sister is already a student here. I was surprised at how many little brothers of current students were Heritage scholars.

Some of them were very much at ease (one girl from Chicago said that if I ever visit there I should eat pizza. She recommended a few restaurants.) Others were nice but so very uptight, and it was a really good feeling to get one sincere laugh out of them. I really think it was better preparation for an interview than even getting to see the questions.

So that was a 4-hour work session better than my typical one.

I finally broke down and got an iPod mini 2 days ago. Been wanting one for a while, and when I learned about the educational discounts they give to college students, I said, "Now that's just cool."

So I got one. It's lime green, has my name laser-engraved on the back, and is about the size of my flip-top cell phone. When I opened it, my first words were "Wow... it's so tiny!"

Essentially, an iPod mini is a 4 gig hard drive with a screen and media player controls on the front. You can download anything you want from your computer, and charge up the batteries, by just plugging it in the USB port of your computer.

I am already extremely happy with this little thing. It makes work and exercising in Solheim go by *so* much faster. Sometime soon I may even put an audiobook on it... the Psalms would be especially cool.

So that was my happy little diversion of the past few days, which haven't been easy. I had two tests yesterday, one in Western Civ and one in Texas & the American West. I think I did OK on both... as always, better on the essay than on the multiple choice because you can make stuff up on the essays. :D

Actually no, I don't make up stuff, and to be honest, all that information about Texas Indians in my essay was actually legit stuff. Let us hope that it was enough to make up for the multiple choice questions.

After 45 multiple choice questions, 7 short answer paragraphs and 2 essays in one day... shouldn't people deserve a break? If not legions of cheering fans and free chocolate? :D

Well OK. Didn't get those either, but still had a good day.

I always stay so focused on what I need to get done, what I haven't done yet. If you go ask any LETU student how they are doing, they will usually begin spouting off the upcoming week's tests and assignments that are due, usually ended with some state of mental or physical exhaustion.

It gets tiring to hear, and discouraging to live that way. I've gotten into the habit of smiling big and saying "Fantastic!" or something like that, just because it's different, and for crying out loud, there's no reason it shouldn't be true.

Yesterday I actually sat down and thought, for the flip side, of all the things I *had* accomplished that day, and was actually impressed. If we spent just 25% of the time thinking about our accomplishments and blessings that we do thinking about the *next* day's toils, life would just be so much cooler.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

And on that note, it is time for cranberry juice.

Pebble and I just got finished watching Saving Private Ryan.

It was my first time to see the full thing in near-DVD quality, unedited in length.

Watching that movie makes my problems seem very, very, very small. I have bits and pieces of my life laying around on my desk. Albums I need to review for the newspaper, a dead battery for a guitar amp, worn socks, a pocket Bible, a picture of my family, the chocolate-covered coffee beans I got for Christmas.

I take them all for granted way too much. I was particularly struck by Captain Miller's final words to Private Ryan: "Earn this."

And to know that their sacrifice was for more than one man. The sacrifice of those veterans was for all Americans.

And as much of a hell as it must have been to hold a bridge like that from 4 tanks, or to storm a fortified beach, at least those men knew they had a nation behind them, supporting them. (And I realize Saving Private Ryan is perhaps a dramatization, but the point remains.)

It got me thinking about how good my life really is. I have a personal Savior who went through far more trial and pain than any soldier ever did. Why? Because He had to endure it all *without* the favor of His Father.

Would those soldiers have given their lives if their nation considered them as they did the enemy?

How unthinkable it is that He would die for us anyway.

"Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."

We can never earn the blood shed for us, but we can live with a growing appreciation, respect, and adoration for the One who shed it.

Ah, yes. Just sitting here, listening to some quiet jazz from Rhapsody, studying my statistics homework, drinking a hot latte in the peace and quiet of a room with all the roomies gone. I like them, don't get me wrong, but having a little space is cool now and then, you know.

I just submitted the Heritage application!

'Tis a big load off my mind. Must've spent a good 8 hours on it. In the email saying they received it, the internship director reminded the applicants that they only have 50 slots and that it would be wise to "investigate other opportunities" until a decision is made. LOL. Guess it would be smart not to wait on applying elsewhere. But not tonight!

I have tons of Spanish and I can see Mr. Morales will own me on this next exam if I am not able to dump a semester's worth of Spanish vocab into my head in the next two nights.

To spoof The Emperor's New Groove...

"Uh oh."

"Let me guess, there's a Spanish exam up there."

"Yup."

"With treacherous vocab lists?"

"Yup."

"And hair-splitting grammatical conundrums around every corner?"

"Yup."

"Bring it on..."

So today was dominated by my application to the Heritage Foundation. I want it to be just right and the deadline is coming up, well, tomorrow. Big stuff, and I'll be glad when it's out of the way.

So other than that eating my day... went to church this morning and then Gizmo's in the evening. We picked up food from a nice deli (McAlister's) and then came back to watch "The Saint." It's some Val Kilmer movie that I found rather unimpressive. The movie essentially consisted of muddled plot and Kilmer masquerading as various European citizens. It's one of those undercover spy flicks, but in order to succeed, they have to be really smart, intelligent movies. This one wasn't.

Anywho, the group then started up a game of poker with chips supplied by Kimberly. I took music requests from Fuego and Monica and played them from Gizmo's computer. Much Dr. Pepper and spoons of cookie dough made the evening quite tasty.

And so tomorrow the grind starts again. El espanol y Sadistics. Blah. At least there's a newspaper meeting that night... hmmm, might have to bring the marshmallow guns again. ;D