Keep it going

Hey everybody, Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away!  I know we're all crazy busy, so I'm posting something.  It's long past time someone posted something on here.  (DEL, I know.  For those who don't understand that, don't try)
I expect a few Thankfulness posts on here by the end of the month!  I want to know what everyone is thankful for this year.  Never fear, I am not excluding myself from this expectation.  Rachael, you can just rant, you have my permission. :)
Also, I'm working on part II for my Dostoevsky paper on Suffering, Love, and Redemption.  Please pray for me as I write this.  It's not a whole novel yet, but it is going to be more than a short blog post.  If anyone is interested in reading part I (my senior spring Torrey paper), I am emailing it to the wandering franciscans gmail account.  You should be able to access it easily by logging into the google account for this blog.  For any outside readers, comment with a request if you wish.  Part II is going to be more theological and drops the academic formality.  The thoughts also flow from my intellectual discussion with Dostoevsky's writings, but he will not be referenced.  But enough of the teaser trailer.  Good things to come.
How's the planning for the trip to Idaho coming along?  Oh, and if you haven't sent a friend request on facebook to a few of the new Franciscans, then you should!
A servant of El Elyon,
Sam

My mom

So, my mom went to a neurologist last Friday.  My siblings and I had put together a list of the symptoms we've noticed over the past couple years or so, and the neurologist looked at the list and gave his expert opinion.

He thinks that the capillaries in my mom's brain are probably restricting the blood flow to some extent... and that along with that, an Alzheimer's process may be beginning.  He said that the two commonly go together and that the treatment is the same.  He's giving her some medication which will ideally keep the downward trend from going any further.

I would have expected that I would be feeling incredibly dismayed about this; as it is, well, I think what's going on is that I've been dismayed about this for the past couple years and to hear it diagnosed at last isn't really a surprise.  I'm just hoping that the treatment really works.

I don't know how much I've told any of you about the symptoms my mom's been showing.  None of them are severe enough to make her nonfunctional.  Heck, several of them are simply a change from certain rather superhuman levels of brain function to normal levels.  For example, she misspells words sometimes now.  My mom never misspells words, no matter how obscure.  Never.  Until these last couple years or so.  But it's been incredibly worrisome, watching things decline, knowing that if they keep declining she will be nonfunctional.

Anyway, just thought I should tell you all about this.  Prayers appreciated.

-Melanie

Graduate School

Though it is much too soon after moving here to Riverside to give a fair assessment of my circumstances, I'm going to attempt to summarize what has been going on. 
Apartment life is good. I love my roommate dearly. She's like a big sister to me, and since I've never had a big sister that's definitely appreciated in my new environment. The major difficulty is making myself cook. With practice I will get accustomed to making food for myself every day, but I have already had to learn to fight the urge to go out to eat all the time when I just don't feel like making something. It does get a little quiet around here especially compared to living in a dorm, but every day at 4:00 I hear the ice cream truck when the kids get home from school and remember that there's a world out there.
My program has been treating me very mildly so far. I have two classes and I spend about 15 hours a week doing my TA job between leading discussions, grading and attending the lecture for the class. No homework of my own yet, but that will come soon enough.
The few friends I've made remind of people I used to know from high school and it's a harder transition to go back to public school than I anticipated. After 12 years of it prior to Biola I thought it wouldn't be a big deal but I was wrong. While they are very likable people, it is bothersome to me that they consider their research the most important thing in their life and it would be the end of their world if they didn't make it through the program to get their Ph.D's. My values completely conflict with theirs and while God has already given me several opportunities to share my faith, it is hard being one of the few Christians around here. The lack of Torrey is killing me. While we all had a differences and our points of view didn't always align, we could at least try to discuss them reasonably knowing that on the fundamentals we absolutely agreed. This week I will be attending a couple of different Christian group meetings on campus to see if I can get connected with other Christians. Not to mention, I'm a little homesick.
My life really isn't that depressing and I know that as things get busier and I meet more people, the easier the transition will be. Please be praying for me as the quarter (yes, the semester system is long gone) gets underway.


Lydia

Story game?

Who wants to go on a story adventure with me???

So here's the idea:  We do a "play by post" sort of story-telling adventure.  Any one of us can post.  In your posts, write a little piece of a story!  Describe the world around you, describe what happens to us, and describe your own actions.  Describe other Franciscans' actions sparingly, however.

I'm not sure yet what world it is.  It could be our own world.  It could be an alternate world.  It could be Narnia.  :)  Nor am I sure yet what the first conflict is.  Whoever decides first wins.  :)

As for our characters... we are all, roughly, ourselves; but we don't have to always act exactly like we would in real life.  Furthermore, we have... special powers!  ^__^  Specifically, we're all shapeshifters!  Remember the clay animals Megan gave us first year?  At will, you can change into your animal (except life-size and real) and back!  So Sarah and I are black cats; etc.

Rachael, did Megan ever give you an animal?  If not, either Megan or you can pick an animal and go from there.  :)

Megan, there are two options.  Pick what you want.  A)  You can pick an animal for yourself and stick with it.  OR... B)  I think it might be fun to make you our master shapeshifter... in which case you can shift into the form of any clay animal you've ever made (except real).  I would enjoy seeing what you did with your superpower.  ^__^

So who's with me???

A Good Day

I already posted some status updates on Facebook about my wonderful day; but I'm going to tell the story here.  God blessed me today.  :)

So it was just last Sunday that the crippling part of my grief for all of you passed and I realized that I was excited about, well, doing things again.  This has been carrying over, and I started reflecting vaguely on how I was going to spend my time... this semester's pretty light for me, 13 units... I wondered about getting a job... I've pretty much depleted my spending money... so I was pondering whether I should do some looking, but I didn't want to grab anything with crazy hours.

Well, when I woke up this morning, I got online and went to my USC inbox.  The first thing I saw was an e-mail from a professor.  He said that he is teaching EE 357, Basic Organization of Computer Systems, this semester.  I took that class last semester from my favorite professor, Professor Redekopp, and loved it.  This professor said that he was looking for a grader and had my name recommended to him by Prof. Redekopp.  There are 23 students in the class, so it's not some intense 100-student GE - if I were to have chosen a number, I would have probably said low 20's.  I think most of you know I graded for Circuits two years ago, and I loved it.  Ever since I've been interested in a grading job, but I didn't know where to look at USC.  Since USC has a large graduate program, normally graduate students wind up doing the grading.  So this was a totally unexpected, unsolicited, but much appreciated job offer out of the blue.  I sent an excited reply immediately, and almost immediately I got a reply back.  Just like that, it looks like I have a job.  I just need to e-mail a secretarial-type person and meet with the professor on Monday to find out the details.

Well, then I looked at my next e-mail.  Professor Redekopp had sent out an e-mail about a week ago telling all the former 357 students that he was looking for an undergraduate student to help him do research on system architecture and how it affects energy usage.  So far it sounded very exciting to me... I had been thinking about wanting to take advantage of the research at USC but didn't know where to look to join in... and the topic is interesting to me, and as aforementioned, Prof. Redekopp is far and away my favorite professor at USC, someone I would love working with.  But his e-mail said he needed the student to know Linux and Apache, skills I do not possess, so I regretfully did not answer the e-mail.

But this morning, I got a personal e-mail from Prof. Redekopp, asking if I had gotten his earlier e-mail and if I was interested - and if I would be interested in learning Linux and Apache.  *cue excited squeals and floating on a cloud all day!*  So in other words... even though I don't already have the skills, he's willing to take me on to help him with his research while I learn Linux and Apache... which are very useful skills for an EE major anyway, things I was thinking it would be good to learn!  And so I have a chance to do research this semester!

So even though it might be pushing crazy... I think I will be accepting both of the joyous proposals I woke up to.  It'll be work, but I do have more time than normal, and, well, they're just so perfect!  Such gifts!

Then I, you know, got up and went about my day.  Did some homework.  Went to class.  All that good stuff.  In between classes, I had to work on a partner project for one of my classes.  Different sections are due at different times, but it's all this weekend or Monday, so if I didn't finish, I was going to have to drive back tomorrow to work on it.  But my schedule is such that I don't have to go to school tomorrow otherwise - I have a couple optional discussion sections on Friday, but I'm comfortable in those classes so far.  Well, I finished the project just ten minutes before class - another gift.

In the hallway just after working on that project, on my way to class, I ran into Prof. Redekopp!  This was the first time I have seen him this semester; it's not like it's an everyday thing.  Big campus, you know.  He said he got my e-mail and asked me what I thought about it; I told him I expected I would do both.  (I had thanked him for the recommendation for grader along with telling him I was interested in the research.)  He asked if I really thought I could do that and I said I thought so because my schedule was light this semester.  He asked, "Really?  I heard you were taking both 454 and 457 this semester," which showed more knowledge of my affairs than I had expected.  :)  At which point I rapidly explained that I only had 13 units and my other two classes were easy, and he nodded, smiling, and we hurried off in our separate directions.  :)  But that was yet another nice thing, a gift from God.

Finally, this evening was the first day of choir practice for the season at church.  I drove over straight from school and got to sing.  Of course I know I love choral singing; but sometimes I forget just how much.  And we're singing some amazing songs.  If the rest of my day had been a bust, that could have picked me up a long way.  As it happens, it wasn't a bust.

So that was my exciting day.  And now it is quite late and I should get some sleep.  Tomorrow I will try to get ahead on homework and chores - so that I can have lots of time to do my JOB! and my RESEARCH! and sing in CHOIR! next week.  ^__^

-Melanie

Reflections on Resurrection

In early July, my family read a book aloud together. I was the only one who had not read it before and after finishing it once through with them I immediately read it two more times on my own and once aloud with Brett. If you have not read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, go read it now before you even finish this post because it is that good.

In his book, Lewis writes in first person as a character living inside a story of the eternal choices people make between life and death. Some choose death over life because they do not wish to give up something or someone they hold more precious than God himself. As Traherne commented in his Centuries of Meditations, It is not that they love other things too much, but that they do not love the things they desire enough and they do not love God. A weak and decrepit passion can only become wholesome and true when it is first killed and resurrected in submission to Love.

I had the opportunity in early August to be a camp counselor for my sister's high school youth group. As the youth pastor had difficulty finding willing volunteers, I was the only leader of eleven high school girls. I was definitely intimidated. My sister was with me, of course, and she reassured me that this particular group was going to be more interested in me braiding their hair than in serious conversation. The topic for the week was "Growing up in your faith" as in 1 Peter Chapter 2. These girls took to a moderate Torrey style discussion with ease. And what should they talk about with me but the idea that every choice you make between sin and good is a matter of life and death and that the Christian life is not merely a part of life on earth, but is life itself. I was blessed beyond possible description by their openness and their serious thoughts and at how God had used parts of The Great Divorce to help me minister to them, half of whom were strangers to me before that week.

Everything that has been circulating in my head about this book climaxed beautifully, when God gave me an opportunity to be baptized just a few days ago. When I was growing up, I attended a church that held the attitude that physical symbols like water baptism and the Eucharist were not only completely unnecessary but tended to distract from the things they point to. Though we left this church right before I graduated from high school, I came to adopt this perspective myself. But, when I came to Torrey and read Calvin in our On Knowing God semester, my opinion on the subject promptly changed. I have been waiting for the past two years for an opportunity to be baptized and the church my family is now going to is, ironically a church plant from the church we used to attend, holds a very different view of baptism. The pastor who baptized me and my siblings this past Saturday, along with my dad, ended up being my sister's youth pastor, who had asked me to come and be a counselor for the high school girls at camp.

As I reflect on the unity of the events of this summer, there is a theme that emerges. Death coming to life. I accepted Christ when I was four years old and can truthfully say that I was given such grace that I never questioned my faith, at least not until we read Nietzsche. God has used this summer to re-teach me the gospel and I am glad for it, because I believe it is a story I will need to hear over and over again for the rest of my life.

Greetings

So, apparently I am mostly back from the dead...sorta.  Maybe.

It has been a rather insane summer.  I spent the time before I went to Torrey Cambridge frantically finishing up the coursework that I didn't finish before the end of the semester.  I did in fact get everything done necessary to official graduate, so that was good.  Then I went off to England.  That was AMAZING.  I truly love that country.  I did lots of wandering all over central Cambridge, which is a lovely city.  I was part of an amazing group, which among other things planned a real-time game of Mafia (alas, it was never executed).  I also got hooked on Dr. Who because a group of us watched the latest season (or is it only half a season...I'm fuzzy on that).  After Cambridge, I spent a lovely ten days in London with Rachael and Leah in a very small hotel room in a delightful hotel (the owners were a Serbian family, and they were really nice).  We also took a whirlwind visit to Paris (got on a train at some ridiculously early hour and came back on the last train the next day).  That was an interesting adventure.  The train left early enough that the tube wasn't running, so we figured we'd take the bus to the train station.  The only problem with that plan was that the website that we were looking at for the bus schedule failed to tell us that the bus stop closest to us was out of service.  Thus ensued a period running around London at some ridiculously early hour trying desperately to find some way to get to the train station before our train left without us.  That was...interesting.  Paris was amazing.  We had originally planned on going up the Eiffel Tower on our first day, but we ended up going the second day.  It turned out that was a change for the better.  While we were at the top of the tower, we got to watch a proposal (and the security freaking out at the friend who set it all up before the couple arrived).  That was really amazing.  When I got back from England, I was home for a couple of days and then left again, this time for Supai.  And now we get to a tale of Sarah's stupidity.  I thought about taking my asthma meds with me to Supai, but thought "Nah, I'll be fine."  Famous last words.  We were waiting in line for the helicopter when my allergies started bothering me.  Apparently it has been far too long since I've been around alfalfa.  Since I didn't have any of my meds with me, allergies led to asthma flaring up, which then led to bronchitis.  Or so I thought.  I went to the doctor and got antibiotics and thought that was that.  I was back in the next week because I wasn't getting any better.  And then the next week, this time armed with a chest x-ray.  At that point I found out that I had viral pneumonia.  That suddenly made sense of why I wasn't getting better like I should have been.  Happily, it is the walking sort of pneumonia, not the ICU sort.  Apparently, if it had been bacterial pneumonia and my lungs were in the shape that they are in, I would be in the ICU.  fun. Anyway, that is my summer so far.  Right now I am basically on bed rest for at least another week (hence the pleas for ideas of things to do on facebook).

I gotta say, I miss you guys a lot.  It has been really hard transitioning back into life at home knowing that this isn't just for the summer, but for reals this time.  It still feels a bit surreal.  It's hard because although I know this is where I am supposed to be for now, I have no idea how long that will be the case, or what comes next.  

One thing that has been interesting about being sick is that I have been watching a lot of movies in my quest to stay relatively immobile without dying of boredom.  There are so many broken things in our culture, and yet some of the stories that Hollywood tells are deeply true.  Most often they seem to be a strange mixture of both.  People are desperately searching for answers, but have no idea where to look.  It is interesting to see how Hollywood tries to answer questions about the value of human life, about love, about what it means to grow up, about honor, about family, about justice, and about so many other deep questions.  I think what has surprised me most is how, in the midst of chaos and bad morals and brokenness, so often the deeper story and the answers it gives is spot on.

Anyway, that is my ramble for now.
~Sarah

Waves of Change: Thoughts from C.S. Lewis and life after Biola.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and a little reading, and most of my thoughts have come together into one thread. That thread is the topic of change, and this thread is beginning to weave a pattern. This pattern began months ago at graduation, has carried through many recent conversations, and has now coincided with my recent readings.

One of the many things that I love about books is that they don’t change. Sure, they may wear out, but the story it contains remains the same. A few weeks ago I turned back to one of my favorite stories, looking for the same beauty and comfort that I experienced when I read it the first few times. As I turned the pages of C.S. Lewis’ novel Perelandra, I understood a different aspect of the story that I had missed. The story itself had not changed, of course, but my understanding of it became much deeper. I blame Torrey for that.

When I first read Perelandra, I understood at some level that the book was about the struggle between Good and Evil, purity and corruption. The reader is wrapped up in a desperate battle where the fate of the world is hanging in the balance, and defeat seems certain. I believe that the story of the struggle, both ideological and physical, is deeply true, even if set in a myth. It taps into a place in my soul that I care about passionately.

But the thrilling truth that I missed was that the power of the temptation lies in the desire for stasis. For all the people like me that eat the same breakfast cereal in the morning for months or years, this is a powerful temptation. And for everyone else, I believe that everyone needs some static thing that forms their very basis for defining reality. Often this can be a location, like your bedroom, where you go to hide when life becomes overwhelming and you just need a place where you know you are safe and all the bad things in the world are on the other side of the door. For others, it can be a person that understands and comforts, no matter what’s going on. Whatever this “stasis point” is, its presence is everything, and without it life and emotion are uncertain drifting.

Now take Perelandra. For those who haven’t read it, the characters in the novel live on floating islands made of plants, and the whole world is a temperate sea. No one in the novel is particularly attached to any one floating island, and the concept of territory on an endless sea is almost meaningless. All the characters live on a constantly shifting landscape, and live a life of simple subsistence where all good things are recognized as coming directly from God’s hand. However, there’s one temptation: the Fixed Land. There is one solid island in the world, but living on it is forbidden.

And so the temptation presents itself: one can live an idyllic life constantly adrift at sea, or defy God Himself and live on a Fixed Land. Just like the choice between eating of the Tree or not, the choice seems simple to those who know the consequences of evil.

Besides, is it really so hard living atop a floating paradise, even if it does move from wave to wave? When all the really delightful things are atop the waves, why cling to a Fixed Land?

But think about it a moment. Do you really want to live a life where you fall asleep one night and wake up in the morning to completely different scenery? Do you really want to live not knowing where your next meal is coming from? What about school? A job? Why should things change so often? Isn’t something permanent much better than a temporary setting? See, we become attached to things we consider to be permanent. Houses, churches, friends, jobs and many other things that we don’t want to change. And they’re painful to give up, there’s no denying that.

But as I’m learning, clinging to something that I want to be permanent when God has a wave coming for me is wrong. The Paradise of God’s will floats on His ocean of plans for me, whether that be calm or turbulent for me. What’s even worse in a way is trying to project my expectations onto that next wave. I have all sorts of expectations for what God wants for me. I’m willing to follow His Will, as long as it aligns with my expectations. Those last sentences sound really silly, don’t they? We say that God knows what’s best for us, and we may even believe that in our heads. And then in our hearts we plan for what we think is the best course for us, and God has to roughly show us that we’re wrong. And in the end, we were struggling for a perceived good when God had something so much better in store.
I’ll just leave you with a few verses from Proverbs:

16:9—A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
20:24—A man’s steps are of the Lord, How then can a man understand his own way?

I Miss You + RROTW

[posted by Rachael]

EDIT: Hey guys, I have recently developed a severe allergy to tomatoes. I have a rash on my hands and feet, my joints ache, and my top lip has swollen ridiculously. I have to wait until I get some money before I go to the doctor to have the allergy tested. Please pray that it is temporary and only a result of my cold. I personally would hate to have to avoid tomatoes for the rest of my life. I know God can heal, I believe He can heal me, and I ask that it is His will that He does heal me.

Well, first things first. I had my first day of grad school yesterday. Dear God, I miss Biola. I miss everyone. I walked through the campus, alone, friendless, missing the people I know and love. My heart aches for my second home. And for my second family, you guys. It just hit me yesterday and today, I'm not going to school where I used to, I won't see my friends as often as I used to, I don't know who's a Christian, people smoke. Everything is so different. I actually cried about it today. I miss you guys. A lot. Seriously. We HAVE to keep up with our get-togethers. Plus I'm going to make a concerted effort, once I get a steady paying job, to visit each and every one of you wherever you are in life. I feel so terrible, to not have realised what good friends I had, what amazing people you are. Thank you so much for being there for me these past few years. Always know that my house is open to you all, just drop me a line and you can swing by for a visit.

Okay, onto the rant. I HATE PEOPLE!!!!! So, you all know about the project car my father and I have been working on for the past 10 years. We finally got it all fixed up (there were some minor details here and there engine-wise). Dad had it parked across the street from our house. And... BANG!! Some jerk hit and runned us. We think it was our gardener's truck actually, but we have to measure it first. We got the police to come out and take a report, but they didn't check the back of the gardener's truck even though we'd asked them to. Oh well, we're going to measure it and if it matches the same height as the marks on our car we're going to have a talk with our gardener about it. It's not even a little scratch either, they dented the front fender really good and scraped a great deal of paint off. The really frustrating part is, when you paint a car, you have to wait for a few years for it to fully cure before you can wax it and we had finally gotten to the point where we were about to put the first coat of wax on the car. Well, that's screwed. And to top it all off, our insurance doesn't cover hit and run accidents, so we are out the money to fix the car, unless our talk with the gardener changes things.

So, I have a couple of prayer requests: The first is for me at school to not become so discouraged. The second is for the car thing to be resolved in a manner that is fair and just to both parties.

Thank you guys again for your amazing friendship. I miss you all, you're like family to me.

Great News + RRotW

[Posted by Rachael]

Well, my life has been interesting lately. Very much of it (all of it really) has been God blessed. So a quick overview of Europe. Followed by a small rant of the few weeks after Europe. Followed by God's latest blessing and showing of His providence.

Cambridge was AMAZING! So relaxing. I made new friends there and was able to strengthen bonds with people I had known, just not as well. Aside from lots of reading, there was lots of exploring. I went off solo on a bike most days, finding nature preserves and the like. I found the pond Lord Byron, as well as other famous Cambridge residents I can't remember, used to swim in. I found a goose on her nest near a stream. I almost got kicked by a cow :D I rode one day through a shady area of town which is totally not as shady as anything I've found over here in the states. Leah C. (she's a Comp Sci and Physics major who's in Torrey and on the archery team) and I went to a cathedral in a town nearby called Ely (pronounced "eely"). It was gorgeous. I wish we had been able to go to evensong there. We did go the evensong at the King's College Chapel in Cambridge though.

Then, after Cambridge, Leah, Sarah, and myself went to our hotel in London. It was great! Free breakfast and wonderful service. The only real downside was that even though it is a non smoking hotel, cigarette smoke still filters in from somewhere, so half of the time my sinuses were inflamed and I was choking. We did so much walking I bruised the bones in my feet. Leah's purse got stolen, so we had to go the US embassy and get a replacement passport, but other than that it really didn't cause too much disappointment (well, other than the camera that was inside with all of our day's pictures inside). We got to see a ton of sights: Big Ben, British Museum, British Library, Warwick Castle, Houses of Parliament, Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral, Evensong at Westminster Abbey, Greenwich Observatory, National Maritime Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, MI5 (that's their local sort of FBI), Scotland Yard (they're kinda FBIish too), Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the Tower of London (though we didn't go inside, to darn expensive), the Eiffel Tower (yes, we went to France, and there was a marriage proposal at the top of the tower, it was cute!), and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. BTW the marching band at Buckingham is enough to make you weep (and I generally *sorry Lydia* don't like marching bands), they played Pirates of the Caribbean and .... *drumroll please* a James Bond medley of songs! They were amazing and put most of the bands I've heard in the States (including the military bands) to shame.

Okay, now onto me being home. No sooner I get home than I get sick.Violently so. I have lost ten pounds already because I have no appetite and what little I have eaten gets... "revisited". I'm on the mend, but GRRR [in case you haven't noticed, this is the rant part] I HATE being this sick. It has sucked away my last few weeks of freedom before school starts. I'll be lucky to have this thing fully licked by the time school starts on Monday. Stupid cough that cough medicine doesn't help. I haven't been able to sleep lying down in days. I have to find new inventive ways of sitting up to sleep. One night I sit one way, then my body learns and if I try to sleep that way the next night I wake up every fifteen minutes hacking and coughing.

But in good news: I had a job interview today about a position at my new school. I was scared to death of having to jump right into a teaching job my first week at graduate school. I like to think (maybe delude myself) that God and I have a small "Gideon's blanket" relationship. If He opens a door, that means He wants me to go through it. I've made some bad decisions on that assumption, but God is amazing at correcting those. Anyway, so I get to the interview today and the professor basically asks me if it would be alright for me to wait until Spring semester to start teaching. He'd like me to get my feet wet in the graduate studies part of the program first. I was elated. I was praying for either a "you're hired" or "you're not" statement and what I got was "you are guaranteed a job a bit later after you've adjusted to the culture shock". I cannot be happier. I am on air. I love God and all of His mercy and grace.

There was a bit of sadness today though. I couldn't talk about God in the meeting today. I wanted to. I wanted to tell the prof all about His providence for me and His planning, but I had to keep my mouth shut. I'm going to miss Biola. I'm missing all of you, my friends, already. Please keep me in prayer: Pray that not only am I healed of this illness but also that my relationship with is God strengthened even while at my new school and that I can be a good witness for Him while there.

Adieu.

Bad News

I don't even know why this came to mind, but I felt compelled to share.

I lost.

P.S. Yes, you may delete this post.

Reflections on Farewells

[Posted by Melanie]

One of my very earliest memories – from the time when I was three or four – is of going to a friend’s Beauty and the Beast-themed birthday party.  She was my best friend, I remember that.  But I can’t even remember her name anymore, because one of my other earliest memories is of going to her going-away party.  She moved away, I stayed behind, and soon I forgot everything except the vague memories of her party, kept alive by the Beast pin in my drawer.

After that, life was pretty stable until I entered second grade.  I homeschooled during the week.  I had my two best friends at church, Jill and Jeanne.  I was comfortable and happy.

In the following eleven years, from the start of second grade until the beginning of college, I had best friends move away and/or graduate and move on nine times, including Jill and Jeanne.  In one of the remaining years, I had no best friends.  My only stable years – the second-plus year of the same best friend – were fifth grade and tenth grade.  Well, sort of eighth and ninth grade, if you count my regular access in junior high to my best friend of ninth and tenth grade while we were riding the bus together.  But since she was in high school, she couldn’t eat lunch with me, so I had my “lunch best friends” and my real best friend separately.

Anyway, I hardly ever got two consecutive years with the same friend.  Saying good-bye became a constant theme of my life.  I’ve never moved, but the people I most loved regularly did.  It never stopped hurting, either.  It’s probably the single thing I most hate in life, saying good-bye, not knowing when I’ll see them again or if it will ever be the same.  I know:  sometimes you see them again and it’s as if no time at all has passed, and you can laugh and talk and be happy together just like old times; but other times, you see them again and everything has changed, and you can’t seem to talk to each other anymore.  The old happiness is gone.

I did, of course, get fairly good at dealing with that particular variety of pain.  Still, the summers after those farewells inevitably stank.

Then I entered college, and there was Francis.

Francis, the most vibrant community of friends I ever had.  Francis, the friends where I never had to go home at the end of the day and say good-bye even for a few hours.  Francis, the friends I did life with.  For three years, I lived, ate, did homework, went to classes, went to parties, discussed the most important parts of my life, and generally did life with the beloved members of Francis.

The next year I went to USC, and that was hard.  It was another horrible good-bye, not seeing you every day.  But you were still there.  Francis was still there, doing life together, and I knew I could visit when things got rough.  And I did.  And I had prepared myself for the good-bye for so long.  I knew what the farewell would be like; I’ve done it so many times before.

But it turns out I haven’t done a farewell like this before.  Not like this.  Not after four years of such close friendships.  Not so many people I love all at once.

This is the eleventh time I have said good-bye to my best friends in my twenty-two years.  Eleven times, but I find that none of the first ten fully prepared me for this.  It's impossible to get used to this feeling.

Hurray for cars and cell phones and Internet; in that, at least, this farewell is the easiest of the eleven.  But not even those things can make this easy.

I miss you, my friends.



In high school, a staple part of saying good-bye was that in the months immediately before and after the farewell, I would start writing sad poetry.  It helps a little, at least.

Today I recognized that it was time to revive that little tradition, to mourn in the way I’m used to.  So here’s the hasty little poem-like thing I wrote up today: 

There is salt in the cool air that blows in my window 
There is salt in the water that runs down my face 
I never saw such a beautiful August 
‘Tis a joy to be alive 
‘Tis a joy to be here 
Or would be if you were not gone.

Another prayer request for you all

My beloved uncle Rich Buhler has pancreatic cancer.

Please pray for him and for his seven grown-up children and for all of us and for everyone he has touched.  It is a wide list.  He is a dear, dear man, kind and warmhearted, one of the most extroverted and joy-filled people I know.  He is also a Christian talk show radio host.

Some of you know his youngest son Keith, my beloved cousin who is also a Torrey grad, who has worked at Wheatstone every year, and who got married just a couple months ago.

So yes, pray.  Pray for his healing and for his joy to be constant through his suffering.

New Franciscan welcome?

As I think all of my fellow Franciscans already know (?), I was thinking of holding a welcome party for the new Franciscans during Torrientation / Orientation week.

So here are my initial planning questions:

First, does anyone know what the Torrientation / Orientation schedule is?  We need to find a time when the new Franciscans could do it without being overwhelmed.

Second, who will be in the area and able to come if the time works out?  How hard would it be for the time to work out?

Finally, what do you think we should do?  I was thinking something simple and non-exhausting, like taking them out for dinner (our treat).  Does that sound like a good idea to the rest of you?  (Input welcomed from those of you who won't be around, too.)  Where do you think we should go?  The Denny's, to connect with old tradition?  Somewhere else?  ...Lydia, another possibility, but one that I would in no way want to push on you or your family, would be to visit your house - would you and/or your mom want to play host to about sixteen random Torrey freshmen?  We could also play Mafia or Apples to Apples if they wanted, but then again that might be too much during Torrientation - what do you think?  Mostly I just want to be able to get to know them, tell some nervous Torrey freshmen that we love them, we're there for them, and it's not as scary as all that, give them advice if they want it, and give them a chance to relax as a group during a hectic week - whatever you think will help accomplish that.

Any help planning this would be really appreciated.

If no one posts a response to my question about the Torrientation schedule, I'll probably e-mail Janna in a few days and ask her, but I'd rather not bug Janna if someone already knows.  :)

Can you believe there will be new Franciscans in less than a month?  *cue warm fuzzy matronly feelings*

Apartment in Riverside

I never can remember who I have told what individually, so I'm telling you all corporately. I am the proud renter of an apartment about four blocks from the UC Riverside campus.

I emailed Patrick in late June, recent Biochem grad from Biola/Torrey now studying Genetics at UCR, and asked him if he or his wife knew anyone who needed a roommate. A few weeks later he forwarded an email to me from a girl in the Statistics department who I contacted right away and who allowed me to come see the apartment and meet her personally. Her two requirements for a roommate that she told me on the phone: 1, agree to set up a cleaning schedule so that one person isn't doing all the work and 2, call her if I'm going to be out late or go home on a weekend so that she doesn't worry about me. 

Since then it has been one surprise after another. The apartment is beautiful and fully renovated, in a small building and not a huge complex, in a quiet neighborhood, reasonable rent, and within walking distance from campus. My apartment-mate, Tatev, is finishing up her last year and is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She's originally from Armenia and has been extremely warm and hospitable to me and my whole family.

My parents, as a housewarming gift to me and Tatev, decided they would landscape our yard, which was previously a four foot tall forest of trees surrounding a cement patio. About 88 man hours later, this is should give you an idea ofwhat the backyard looks like now:

From my bedroom window

I will not be moving into the apartment until early September and I feel extremely blessed with all of the opportunities God has given me. Also, you are all more than welcome to come hang out at my place some time!

Peace and Joy,
Lydia

Better yet...

Seriously.  Read the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.  Individual titles:  The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge, and Beyond the Shadows.  Immediately.

It is imperative.

Emotional daze.

Joy.

Overwhelming love for the characters and the story they told and what it all means.

Yeah, I finished the trilogy about ten minutes ago.  And now I have not more words but fewer, for the moment...

Melanie out.

Wow, this book...

I won't say that much about it now because I'm in the throes of severe book-longing.  You see, I just finished the first book in a trilogy my brother has been saying for years is just amazing.

I have no words.  I will try to find them later.  For now... oh-my-goodness-it-blew-me-away-it's-so-very-very-good-superlative-extraordinary-wonderful-amazing-exhilarating-I-haven't-read-anything-this-good-in-years-except-maybe-some-old-favorites-I-was-re-reading-and-I'm-not-so-sure-about-them  *whew!*.

So all I'm really trying to say is, Wow, The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.  So you should all go out, beg, borrow, or buy a copy of the first book, The Way of Shadows, and read it.  Fair warning:  It's very dark at first, pain without meaning, no hope in sight, a horrifying atmosphere, and everyone doing evil of one sort or another, including some serious sadism, murder, and rape, and at first I didn't really like it much.  But to quote the author in a Q&A in the back:  "There is darkness and grit in these books, but I think that's balanced and ultimately overcome with hope and redemption.  It's simply a matter of whether you think hope is wan and weak, or robust.  Is your idea of hope when a brilliant girl who does all her homework wants to ace a test?  Is your idea of redemption turning in a coupon at the grocery store?  Hope isn't vibrant unless it has to be chosen over despair.  Redemption is cheap unless there's a suffocating darkness in which even a hero is tempted to hide.  I see these books as a fight to escape from darkness to light, which is reflected in the titles."
In my opinion, he accomplishes exactly what he describes here.  It's beautiful.

Hm, guess I had more words than I thought.  But I'll have more still later.

That's my book recommendation to all of you.  ...Now if you'll excuse me, I've got two more books to read before I can next eat or sleep or e-mail you or generally do anything.  Um, yeah, I'll try to be a little more moderate than I just implied, but it'll be difficult.  So long.

The Beatles and Friendship

A not-so-random piece of trivia: yesterday was Ringo Starr's 70th birthday.  I know this because the radio station that's on all day as I work mentioned it.  The DJ also said that the Beatles song "I get by with a little help from my friends" was written by John and Paul specifically for Ringo to sing.  With these bits of information in my head, my thoughts then wandered down a lovely path that started with the title of a Beatles song.
I started thinking about how my friends influence my life, and how grateful and blessed I am.  And more specifically, how blessed I was to have you all as part of my Torrey group and as part of the Biola community.  How different my college experience would have been without the all-nighters, birthday parties, Apples-to-Apples, roommates, after session sessions, beach days, park afternoons, phone calls, and so on and on.  I've had much more than "a little help from my friends."  Sadly, the lyrics to the Beatles song are rather shallow and often distinctly inapplicable to our friendships ( "I get a little high with my friends"), and I really wish the song did a better job.  I'm not going to write my own song about friendship, but I thought that I just might put this post together to say "thank you" again to my wandering chums.
Over the last two days I've had a few phone conversations that were very thought-provoking.  The first conversation took place last night, and among many other things, my friend and I discussed things at Biola that helped shape us and make us into the individuals that we are today.  I remembered many things that I had semi-forgotten, and put pieces together about those events that I hadn't before.  Without going into specifics, I'm amazed at the timing of the events and the growth that I experienced at Biola.
When we're in Heaven, I believe that God will spend eternity showing us how He worked and the goodness He created and brought forth throughout the universe, in the world, and in each individual's life.  The intricacies upon intricacies will keep us praising Him for all eternity, because His works are infinite.  Yesterday I experienced a small portion of that eternal banquet, and I'm grateful for that.
The second conversation happened a few hours ago, and a different friend and I discussed events that had taken place since May.  It rapidly became clear to me that God was working just as diligently and beautifully in our lives over the last few months as He had at any time previously.  We say that we believe that God never changes, but seeing Him work is always a real thrill to me.
Thank you my friends for sharing so much Goodness, Truth, and Beauty with me.  You all have been His willing instruments in my life and I thank you for it.  May you all see God work in your lives, and may you all be blessed by Him.
A servant of El Elyon,
Sam

The Well Intentioned, But Ignorant, Dogmatist

This past week my parents, my brother and I helped out with my sister's youth group. Anna's youth pastor, Richard, dedicated a whole week to "Bible Boot Camp" in an effort to get this group of kids excited about learning the BIble. The first day was all about benefits of knowing what's in the Bible. The second day was on the Old Testament. The third day was on the New Testament. And the last day was on how to do a Bible Study on your own. So cool.
One of the speakers at Bible Boot Camp was a man who I will call Bob. The reason I bring up Bob is because in meeting Bob, I encountered what I will hitherto refer to as "the well intentioned, but ignorant, dogmatist." Allow me to illustrate. 
Bob taught the youth group kids that in order to go to heaven, you must believe in the Triune nature of God, the inerrancy of scripture, the ecclesial calling of the church and the redemptive power of Jesus' death and resurrection. While I think we can all agree, as Christians, that those things are important, I doubt that misunderstanding something as complicated as the Triune nature of God will keep people out of heaven. If this was the only thing Bob said that bothered me, I wouldn't have bothered mentioning him, but wait, there's more.
Bob also mentioned, when talking about other religions, that Muslim's worship a rock, that the Book of Mormon is nothing more than a plagiarized King James Bible, that no one in history ever claimed to be God besides Jesus, and that Satan is actively working through these other religions to lead Christians astray.
It gets better. Bob also said that you have to be wary of Darwinists because they'll lead you to believe that science proves the earth is billions of years old. Scientists just lie all the time anyway. There is no proof to believe the Big Bang theory, it's a fantasy. Stellar evolution has never been observed, we've never observed the formation of larger elements from hydrogen, and there is no archaelogical proof that the earth is older than 10,000 years. Perhaps my favorite comment that he made all week is that Stephen Hawking is just a nut and you don't have to listen to a word of his theory because he only does it in order to disprove God.
Needless to say, Bob is more than a little misinformed. I don't know where he got all his information, but he's wrong about 90% of the time.
His goal, of course, was a good one: to give confidence to these young kids that their religion is trustworthy and that there are answers out there no matter what opposition they encounter. However, what do we do, as educated young adults, with Christians like this? How do we approach people in the church who have wonderful intentions and who never waver in their faith, but who give inaccurate information and reasons for why we can be certain of our faith?
I admit I don't have an answer to my questions, which is why I'm writing to you. We all know that we will encounter, not just ignorant people who DISAGREE with our worldview, but ignorant people who AGREE with our worldview. How do you avoid "in-fighting" and how do you gently approach people who are just wrongly informed? I'm truly baffled by this man and would appreciate your help.

Lydia

Compulsiveness... TeeHee!

-Rach
Hey everybody, I'm compulsive so I went through and attached labels to all of our posts. So when you make a new post feel free to use some of the labels I made. You can see them on the left side of this blog page. And when you're making a post, at the bottom right of the post where it has the little box that says "Labels" there's also a "Show all" link to push and it will reveal all of the labels that there are. If you make a new one please capitalize because my compulsiveness is driving me nuts o_O!

I have even made a label called RROTW which of course stands for Rachael Rant of the Week ;-D

Book recommendation: Stephen Lawhead

I believe that some of you have read some of Stephen R. Lawhead's books.  Those of you who know him will know that he is one of the most successful living (or at least recently living) Christian fantasy authors.  In all of the books I have read by him, he attempts to portray a Christian society and what it would look like.  Some of you will have read Taliesin, Merlin, and Arthur, his trilogy about King Arthur and Atlantis.  :)  In my opinion, the quality of his works really varies - some of them are splendid, among the best, and some of them are pretty weak.  The splendid ones - well, they're really worth reading - exciting storyline, good characters, and some really thought-provoking themes.

Well, I just re-read a sci-fi duology I own by him:  Empyrion, composed of The Search for Fierra and The Siege of Dome.  I remembered it was very good and recommended it to a couple of you.  ...It was significantly better than I remembered.

My head is overflowing with thoughts about what a Christian society should be and what role it should play in the world.  He packed in a lot.  We could have a great discussion on it.  And it's a rollicking good yarn, too.

And in his Christian society... there is dancing!  ;)

If any of you who are nearby want to read it, you may borrow it.

-Melanie

Adventure planning!

SoCal folks, please look on the wall for the Getty trip event I made and let me know your opinion about times and whatnot!  ...I can't figure out why only five posts are visible on the wall and the older ones seem to have vanished into an abyss; let me know if you know a way to change that...

I would like to propose that those of us who are in the region from now on choose one weekend each month to attempt to get together - no problem if for whatever reason (trips, busyness, doctoral work...) you can't make it, but something nice if we can.  Obviously the proposal to make one or two events a year serious get-togethers for all of us however far afield we may be still stands - but I was thinking that regular low-pressure "come if you can and invite whoever you want" events would be really nice.

If the current time stands, the June get-together is next week, Saturday the 26th, for a Getty adventure!  :)  ...But please, let me know if something else would work better.

I'll be in touch via Facebook and e-mail.

-Melanie

Weird Case of Insomnia

I'm having a rough time sleeping and do you know what insomnia leads to? Lydia online until she's tired enough to sleep. 


My sister is finally out of school, my mom is off of work until August, my dad doesn't start teaching summer school for couple weeks so the whole family is home. I've had so much time at home lately though that I'm starting to get cabin fever, which is a bad sign since I don't have any plans for the summer and I don't go to Riverside until September. I'll definitely have to take a proactive approach to fix that.

Most of  my time lately has  been spent  figuring out my housing situation for this coming year. Unfortunately, I should have been trying to secure housing starting April when I was accepted.  Fortunately, the housing staff has been extremely helpful and it looks like I'll be able to live on campus, it's just a matter of making sure I call regularly  until I've actually selected an open apartment and signed the housing contract.

Other than that, my life has been very quiet except for occasional outings with people including Brett, Rachael and my family. Tomorrow will be a day of much more excitement as I am going to Biola to turn in my transcript request and diploma request, hopefully crash Evan in the chem lab, and say goodbye to some of my favorite spots around the campus. 


By the way, if any of the rest of you are feeling sad about graduation, major changes in life, or feeling like you weren't ready to let go, don't worry, you're not alone. My excitement is mingled with grief and it is comfort to know that all will be well even when emotions are contradictory. 


Well, before I write an obscenely long post, I bid you all good morning and I am off to see if I can shake this insomnia.

Rachael Update :D

I got the radiator in my car yesterday. I'll put some pics in this post when I get them off of my camera. We were afraid that the fans that attach to the radiator weren't working. But, after driving my beauty around today and coming home the fans finally started for about two seconds, so they were alright. In other car news, I accidentally left the door open and keys in the ignition all night last night so the one light was on but thankfully the battery was fine.

And now, for the most important part. *Drumroll please* I was admitted to Cal State Fullerton's Applied Mathematics Masters' program. Woohoo!!!! I cannot wait to start (well actually I can. I'm happy with the relaxation time that this summer has afforded me).

Update from Ellene! :)

I have wonderful news everyone! The Registrar found my senior petition! Yay!
It's actually a good story. So after calling the registrar (again) to see if they happened to find my
petition yet, they said they hadn't, but they would try and call back once they found it.
After I hung up, I prayed that God would help them find it and everything would be ok. A few minutes later, my graduation counselor called back and said that she found my petition and that the petition was fine! She said she would mail it to me that day! God is sooo good everyone (and very speedy apparently in this case!).
I was also wondering a random thing. Who in our group coined the name "The Wandering Franciscans" for us? Was it Sarah? For some reason, I thought it was Sarah.
Also, I was wondering another random thing. Do you guys remember that YouTube video where on of the old Torrey students made a funny video called "Ten Things to Love About Biola"? The guy is getting married to someone we all know and I just can't to remember his name or his finance! I remember Sam or Lydia telling me during our last Denny's outing (and oh what fun that was! ) and I was so surprised and happy for him, but I just can't remember either of their names. Does anyone (ie Sam or Lydia in particular) remember who that was? I'm not sure why I care so much, but I'm just curious and happy for them! :)

I hope that you are all doing well and having fun with your jobs, cars, quilting and families!

~Ellene

New Adventure of the Week from Ellene

Obviously I forgot that our wonderful blog is the new place to post our "adventures of the week." Oops, but it is here and on bubbs. :)

I was inspired by Lydia's effort of sending us all those lovely adventures of the week two long summers ago!

So this summer has been a summer of trying to stay in shape physically and mentally. I have been doing my 

MCAT prep and doing Tae Bo. Tae Bo hurts if you haven't worked out in a while like me. Last week I made the mistake 

of doing Tae Bo two days in a row: the 28 min "Flex Express" and the 46 min "Cardio" session. My thighs still hurt

from doing those terrible squats and I did this last Tuesday! lol

MCAT wise, I'm still trying to figure out how to incline problems correctly. I'll get it with some more practice.

Oh and I just saw "Shutter Island" on pay per view---I definitely recommend it. It will keep you on the edge of your seat

the entire time! I also saw Toy Story 2--I'm very excited for Toy Story 3!

Keep posting adventures friends!

~Ellene

P.S. Please pray that the Registrar finds my senior petition--they've seemed to "misplace it." :(

RROTW (Rachael Rant of the Week)

Well it's a rant and a status update all in one.

This summer has been great so far. I don't feel like I have been wasting time in front of the TV like I did during inter-term. Even though I have been spending quite a bit of time watching TV with my father, playing facebook games, and playing World of Warcraft.

I have been starting to read the books I need to have read for Torrey Cambridge. Poetry always takes so much longer than I expect it to. I should have had 100 pages read by Tuesday of last week; I have 30 pages left to read. Grr.

I, along with Elizabeth and Jenn (last names preserved for privacy [that's right "preserved" not "reserved" because I'm cool like that]), have been learning to quilt over at Nikki's (the archery coach's) place. The pattern is called Autumn Leaf and I am using purple and yellow fabrics, not because I am very fond of those colors, but because Nikki had a lot of extra fabric in those colors and they work well together. Later this summer, I'm going to get Elizabeth to teach me to crochet and will hopefully make the other three sun dresses that I have had fabric for for over a year.

I am planning on doing NaNoWriMo this year. Maybe at some point Meru I could borrow that book your sister got you :D

Later this summer, after Cambridge, my father and I are going to get a puppy so he can have a dog and I can have one.

I still don't know if I've been accepted to Cal State Fullerton. But to occupy my time I've been working on a Yahtzee project with one of the math professors for about a year and we're still working on it. Hopefully soon we'll have it published in some sort of journal.

And now to the part everyone has been waiting for.... The RANT:

So, my father and I think that we have found the problem with my car. Recall: the problem where it doesn't start in the rain and if I drive through a puddle it shuts off. We think it was the starter solenoid (it puts power to the starter in a car). So, being the poor little family we are, with my dad being very mechanically inclined, we go and buy a brand new starter... which I HAVE TO REPLACE MYSELF!!!

Meaning I have to cram my arm into a tiny space, suffering multiple scratches and bruises, to unbolt the old starter. Then we have to jiggle it around and maneuver it very carefully to get it out of the tiny space it rests in. Then we unbolt the bracket that holds some wires to it and buy the new starter. Well, now I have forgotten which way the bracket attaches and looking at the car isn't helpful, neither is the manual which is for the 1990 CRX, but I have the '91 (and the Honda dealer said there was no difference, boy were they WRONG!). Okay, so we just didn't attach the bracket and I put the new starter back in. This means that I had to shove my arm back into that tiny space, suffering more scratches and bruises whilst replace the bolts of the starter.

Alright, that problem has been taken care of. Now onto the battery terminal which has been corroded beyond all recognizable shape. I take that off and put a new one on. Not too bad.

And the piece d'resistance (that's French ;D) is the radiator. Which has been broken for two years. The tank up top was cracked so it would hold antifreeze for a while until the pressure became too much and then it would blow the antifreeze out the crack at the top. So every two weeks or so I had to put a cup of antifreeze in my car to keep it topped off. Well, dad decides that since I'm working on my starter I may as well learn how to replace a radiator too. So, I crawl underneath the car and take out the plug to let the old radiator drain.

The trouble is, that on the bottom of my car is a plastic shield. So the radiator doesn't drain straight into the pan, the antifreeze hits the shield and travels further back underneath the car. Well the shield is black so I can't see where the antifreeze is draining to until it starts overflowing the shield. Let me tell you, that was sooo messy!! Okay, so the radiator has been drained. Time to unplug all of the electronics, but leave on the two fans attached to the radiator. Then I take off the two huge hoses attached to the radiator, so far so good. Then we unscrew it from everything it was attached to. Done.

Then we pull the radiator out of the car... then we Pull the radiator out of the car... then we PULL the radiator out of the... s#@t, it's not coming out of the car. So I get on my back and crawl underneath the car, unscrew that stupid plastic shield, get antifreeze all over me because it had drained fully from the radiator but not from the shield, and try to find the problem. Turns out, one of the fans attached to the radiator slides into a connector on the bottom of the radiator. That connector is stuck ON THE METAL FRAME OF THE CAR!!!!! So I have to lever the connector back out from under the frame with a HUGE screwdriver while my father yanks and pulls with a crow bar on the radiator from above.

Finally we get the radiator out of the car. It can't get any worse right? But wait  - there's more!!! We had ordered a radiator from AutoZone (I knew all along that was a big mistake); AutoZone being an hack of an auto parts store masquerading as a "speed shop" (what speed shop carries spark plugs for a lawn mower? Seriously?). So we take the new, shiny, aluminum (that's actually a great feature) radiator out of the box... and we compare... and we take the fans off of the old radiator and try to fit them to the new one.... and try to fit them to the new one... and try to - you can see where this is going right? So, the new one is the wrong one.

It turns out that the new one was for an automatic without air conditioning (contrary to popular belief my car does have an air conditioning system, it just doesn't work that well). But when we had called them and ordered it we told them I had a manual car with air conditioning. They told us *imagine a sickly sweet voice here* "Oh, it doesn't matter, the radiator is universal". It's not.

We went to six different places to find the radiator we needed. Obviously the first five places didn't have our radiator, so we finally asked who their supplier was and we went direct to the supplier to get our radiator which was more expensive, made of copper (not as good at cooling as aluminum though perhaps more durable), and didn't have the lifetime warranty that AutoZone's radiator had.

I have yet to put the radiator in my car. That is my task for tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it all goes.

Phew. That's been my summer in a nutshell so far.

Best... word... ever!

I used to think that defenestration was the best word ever.  As of this week, thanks to my sister's sharing a link to Kristin Cashore's blog (a most excellent author who keeps an excellent blog)  I have seen the light.  The best word ever is not defenestration.

It is apokolokyntosis.

Pronunciation:  a-POCK-a-LOCK-in-TOE-sis.

Meaning: the act of turning into a pumpkin.

Isn't it fabulous?

Also, apparently Seneca is awesome.  After some other boring poet wrote The Apotheosis of the Divine Claudius, he wrote The Apokolokyntosis of the Divine Claudius.  Yay.

I hope all of you give this word the appreciation it deserves.  Especially you, Megan.  You are the single biggest reason why I post this here.  Enjoy it.

-Melanie

Greetings from Sam

Well, first post ever by the King of Amusing Giddiness, and it's not going to be nominated for a Pulitzer.  I have a few ideas for some thought provoking stuff, but that's for later.  I'm still getting my feet wet.
I did go visit Torrey Berkeley for the first time, which was fun.  There was a Torrey Alumni dessert event that drew about eight, excluding myself.  It was fun to talk to a couple that knew Ms. Schubert as students.  I was a little disappointed that there weren't more people there, but it was fun.  The Torrey Berkeley program itself only had 18 students this year.  People don't think that Berkeley is as cool as Cambridge, evidently.
In non-Torrey news, I have a job full time for the summer.  Woot.  I'm not wildly excited about what I'm doing (grunt and go-fer type work), but I'm blessed with good co-workers (including my brother Jake) and money so I can pay for things like car insurance and stuff.  God is good.
Anyway, I would like to share some stuff that I've been thinking about Dostoevsky, but that will have to wait.  My recent reading of Tom Clancy novels just doesn't compare with the awesome stuff that we've read in Torrey, although I won't deny that Clancy novels are more entertaining (and designed to be, of course) than, well, most of the Torrey canon.  Chesterton and a few others were still pretty entertaining, though...
Blessings to everyone, and thanks for reading my rambling first post.
A servant of El Elyon,
Sam

P.S. I still have a fair number (23) of the "Adventure of the week" francis thread posts in my bubbs inbox.  Does anyone else have any so that we could collaborate our collections and piece it back together somewhat?

And the dreams take flesh! O__O

Just thought I'd share a couple of the wild academic dreams I [Melanie] decided I would try following through on this summer.
First, I followed through on Dr. Yeh's post on Bubbs a while ago about the free Greek course Gordon-Conwell was offering.  So I'm starting to learn (koine - New Testament) Greek.  I'm not being super-consistent and disciplined about it, but every so often I crack the ol' book.  It is exciting and fun.  It brings me joy.  I am enough of a grammar nerd that learning to decline nouns brings me warm fuzzies - "Oo, I've never had to do that before!"

Secondly, well, I'd already decided, long before that, that when I finished listening to The Chronicles of Narnia on audiobook from my library, I'd get the Pimsleur Japanese audiobooks and start learning Japanese.  So now I'm learning Japanese too.  Spoken only.  Sometime I want to also seriously study the writing system, etc., but right now that sort of language study is reserved for Greek.  Haha.  Learning two languages at once is fun!  ^__^  Not as suicidal as it sounds because Pimsleur is such a very different method from textbook study, so my brain kind of devotes different resources to them.

Third, well, I've been working on writing my novel.  Some of you know I got 50,000 words written during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, in November), but that was not enough for me to finish even the first draft.  I'm at 70,000 some now, about half done, I think. (Yes, I've been working at a much slower pace, but really not nothing, especially since I also worked a little on my other novel, which now stands at about 60,000 words, or about 5% of the way done, haha, that one's going to be much longer.  I know, I didn't want to split my attention either, but sometimes the muse is stubborn and won't let you work on just anything.)  Today I read a book called Writing the Breakout Novel, given to me by my sister Marcy for my birthday.  It contains seriously good novel-writing advice from a professional writers' agent.  So now I have a lot to think about and edit.  Whee!  But it was actually pretty encouraging - it seems I've been doing some of the major stuff really right, and he gives good advice for how to improve other specific things.  Advice is helpful, advice is good.  Now I get to change my perspective.  And improve the beginning.  And edit out some relatively tame scenes.  And... yeah.

Finally, for my Torrey reading pleasure, I decided that I would begin, at my own leisurely pace, reading through the Morgan House curriculum.  So far I've read about five books of The Iliad.  It astonishes me how much more there is in it than I knew as a freshman!  Seriously!  ...If any of you want to join me in this leisurely venture and get some of that discussion itch scratched, it would make my week.

So that's some of what I've been up to in my spare time.  Who knows how many of these adventures I will actually drive myself to follow through on when time becomes a little more scarce... but I'm enjoying them for now.

What have all of you been up to?  What dreams do you want to pursue?  I know Megan's starting to learn the flute... teh awesum... But yeah, now that we're released and can do practically anything we want (haha, yeah right, but in all seriousness, there is some more freedom available to us now... and jobs and the like... but also some more freedom...), what wacky things from your "bucket list" will you start / have you started doing?  Alternately, what crazy adventures do you want to have this week / have you had this past week?

...Hey, anyone in SoCal want to randomly go to the Getty with me?  No, I haven't made any plans yet, but it hit me when I asked that question that I could!  ^__^

-Melanie Joy

News and Prayer Request from Lydia

My family just returned from Palo Verde, CA where we were visiting my grandmother (my mom's stepmom) and holding a memorial service for my grandfather (my mom's stepdad). I know I shared with you about a year ago that my grandpa was sick and we didn't expect him to make it until Christmas. He did make it to Christmas and passed away on May 12, 2010 due to congestive heart failure. 

Grandpa Gary fell in love with Corrine, my mom's mother, married her and adopted all five of her kids over forty years ago. They had another child together, Patrick, who passed away last year in 2009. Corrine passed away due to heart attack in 1994. My grandpa remarried to Margaret in 1996, his now surviving widow.

My grandpa accepted Christ when he was a child, but was resistant to God throughout his life because of the 50's notion he grew up in that said that God thought you were a sinner if you smoke and drank and cussed. We believe he is with the Lord.

Please be praying for my grandma, my mom and my mom's siblings (my aunt and uncles). Grandpa Gary has five living children, Bill, Bob, Jeanile, Dawn, and Glen, nine grandchildren, Bill's two kids, Bob's son, Dawn's two sons, Glen's daughter, and of course me, Tim and Anna, and three great grandchildren.

~Lydia~

Places...

Edit. Posted by R. A. Murphy: So I'm getting ready to go to Torrey Cambridge (i.e. I'm procrastinating. I should be reading right now) and I decided that now would be an apropos time to post places I've been in the country and in the world. Mainly because I want some gauge of what places I need to go to still :D

The States:



Europe:



The World:


create your own visited country map

Quotes of happiness

By popular demand - meaning Ellene's request - I (Melanie) will now proceed to post my happy quotes, mostly from session or other Francis get-togethers, with a smattering of other happiness thrown in!  Enjoy the silliness!  Except for Ellene, who couldn't open it, all the Franciscans should have it in their BUBBS inbox or in Francis Chatter... but anyway, here it is and here it shall remain without contributing to any low space limits!  And yes, it is long.  This is because we had a lot of fun!  :)

“I’m a comma-happy lunatic.”  -Sam

“I’m an ideal Nietzschean woman.” –Sam

“My leg is a child of God!” –Dr. Jensen

“You got forty parking tickets and then you got hit by a car.  The tickets are no longer in effect because you’re dead.” –Dr. Jensen

“When I went in there, I liked the Bible and my classmates; now I hate them both.”  -Dr. Sanders

“What are you doing here?  You belong in the land of green chosenness.”  -Dr. Sanders

“So I just had to get my heresy in for the day, I’m good now.” –Evan

“Obviously I can’t reach out and poke the hate.” –Sarah P.

“You can’t get much more dead than decapitated.”  -Dr. Sanders

“The devil – not the devil – the gospel – “ –Dr. Jensen

“I hate you, Socrates.  Go away!”  -Miss Howington

“Why should I believe that misery craves mercy?  Because they both start with m!”  -Miss Schubert

“Aw, drat.  Your little man won out.” –Sarah P., to Melanie

“There’s somethin’ scratchin’ around in my barn.  It’s obviously either a possum or a dragon.” –Dr. Sanders

“These quotes are delicious, just like synaesthesia!” –James

"Angels do pick up hills and chuck 'em."  -Megan

"...or we're flogging a dead fairy horse." –Dr. Sanders

"These people are rectangular, these people are circular." –Dr. Sanders

"Even if she's wisdom on divine caffeine..." –Dr. Sanders?

"God is a carrot." -Megan

“(Insert name of male university faculty member here) is pretty adorable, I guess."
"Yes, some guys are adorable." -Evan

"Some of the things you say are helpful.  Half of them aren't..." –Ellene?

For this next one, keep in mind that the antecedent of this is water:
"Think of this as the bubonic plague."  -Evan
Yes, that's right - think of water as the bubonic plague.  That's really what he said.

"And the fact that all my skin is falling off." -Evan

"There's a line in hell about that." 
(OK, actually, the punctuation should be "in Hell"... oh well.)

"That was you making the damned jokes."
(referring to a comment in class about "all those damned souls" - meant literally, of course.)

"Except that I'm a fool.  But that's OK." -Evan

"If you eat oatmeal I promise you you will be alive." -Ellene

"There comes a point in every man's life when he needs to stop doing calc and go to bed." –Evan   (Ah, ain't that the truth.)

"I was making a chart of hell and I didn't finish." –me

"My favorite number is pi + i because it's kind of like me: It's complex; it has rational and irrational parts; and the rational part is imaginary." -Peter

"Make me a channel of Your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.

O Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul."

-Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi


"Oh! Green. Purple. God. That's cool." -Dr. Peters

"In Torrey, we make it less likely you'll be happy - unless you want to be Happy." -Dr. Reynolds

"I am mud! I writhe!" -Marcy

"Think of this [water] as the bubonic plague." -Evan

"I love you. I don't want to take anything anymore. I don't want to trample anything ever again. I did wish that you would stick with me wherever I ended up, but I don't wish that anymore. I couldn't possibly wish my fate on you. I won't wish it. But please... at least... at least, during the time I have left... I want -- I want to be near you until the time when I must go away. I want to be with you till the end."
--Kyo Sohma, Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya

"Je suis, ergo sum." -Moon, The Real Inspector Hound

From Heretics by G.K. Chesterton:

"It is inspiring without doubt to whizz in a motor-car round the earth, to feel Arabia as a whirl of sand or China as a flash of rice-fields. But Arabia is not a whirl of sand and China is not a flash of rice-fields. They are ancient civilizations with strange virtues buried like treasures. If we wish to understand them it must not be as tourists or inquirers, it must be with the loyalty of children and the great patience of poets. To conquer these places is to lose them. The man standing in his own kitchen-garden, with fairyland opening at the gate, is the man with large ideas. His mind creates distance; the motor-car stupidly destroys it."

"Blasphemy depends upon belief and is fading with it. If anyone doubts this, let him sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor. I think his family will find him at the end of the day in a state of some exhaustion."

"We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour. Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain. He is Man, the most terrible of the beasts. That is why the old religions and the old scriptural language showed so sharp a wisdom when they spoke, not of one's duty towards humanity, but one's duty towards one's neighbor. The duty towards humanity may often take the form of some choice which is personal or even pleasurable. . . . But we have to love our neighbor because he is there - a much more alarming reason for a much more serious operation. He is the sample of humanity which is actually given us."

“I'm not sure how to spit this section up although it does seem that some needs to go in each part...” –Sarah P.

“An apple a day keeps anyone away if you throw it hard enough.” –Steven Colbert

“If you get lost, try going to the other side of the planet.”  -a sign in Super Mario Galaxy

“so, theoretically, I'm in favor of a public spectacle of gory butchery, but practically, I'm against the death penalty.”  -Chris

“yet another way that those barbaric Biolans need to be taught how to properly kidnap someone…” –Chris

Genesis 1-11 session, August 28^th:

Dr. Sanders:  “It’s more containerological.”

Dr. Yeh:  “I’m slowly erasing the cosmos.”

Dr. Sanders:  “Could Adam have made a mistake?  Like here comes a snake, and Adam names it a wombat?”

(speaking as Adam and God respectively) “ ‘Bitey?’ ‘The last one was Bitey.’ ‘All right, Bitey Two.’ ”

“What about the God of Bobby the Philistine?”

“The Sonless God and the Sonful God can’t be the same person.”

“It’s not a swamp of nasty idolatry, it’s just a channel toward the real God.”

"I got some bad news for you, lady. The universe doesn't give a rip about you. It's gonna grind you under its mechanistic heel."

Sam:  “Here’s the nightly God broadcast.”  Dr. Sanders:  “Yeah, and it’s equally available to all human beings – both human beings – on earth.”

Evan:  “Do not eat that tree.”  Hannah:  “The whole tree – don’t eat it.”

Timaeus session 1, September 2^nd:

Dr. Spears?:  “I now know that I don’t know.”

“but it’s really a sort of giant intellectual tank trap.”

(singing) “One of these is not like the others.  Only a boy tree frog knows.”

Me:  “We mixed Same and Different.  It was hard.”

Timaeus session 2, September 4^th:

Dr. Reynolds:  “Never marry the guy who can’t smile about the Christmas candle.”

“It’s just dumb.  You should get drunk and make it go away.”

“So Plato’s singing (sings), ‘It’s a jolly holiday with Moses!’ “

“Ha ha, you’re taking this worthless money!  I’ve fooled you again!”

Aristotle session 1, September 9^th:

Megan:  “Principle of pre-stuff.  Stuff is the stuff.”

Dr. Sanders:  "If God made something from nothing, where did He get the nothing?"

“When I say the inferno I don’t mean Dante’s work, I mean hell.”

On why everything changes except Aristotle’s ideas:  “ ‘Cause his ideas are nothing in particular.”

“If you try hard enough, you can be anything you can be!”

“It’s kind of sad how much you lose when you become a horse.”

Aristotle session 2, September 11^th:

“cow-apult”

“cattle-pult”

Rachael:  “No, you giggle while you’re dying.”

Dr. Jenson: "The bear habitat that I am going to build in the alley behind my house..."

Megan: "And the tumor turns into the earth!"

Aquinas session, September 18^th:

Sam:  “That’s not blue!  False advertising!”  Dr. Campbell:  “We just wanted to see a big strong man write in purple.”

Dr. Campbell (as a fake pull question):  “If you take all the atoms out of a rock, do you still have a rock?”

Megan:  "So He creates His creation machine and then plugs it into Himself?"

Bacon session 1, September 23^rd:

Evan:  “Jesus loves you [Morgan House, compared to Gentiles] too, just through us [Johnson House, compared to Jews].”  *Dr. Yeh makes a comment about the “heresy meter.”*

Evan: "Socrates was the master ninja of deduction."

and a little later... 

"I mean, Jesus was a ninja."

Bacon session 2, September 25^th:

Sam: "Wait, we just went from natural philosophy to Ratatouille..." Me: "...in about five..." Me and Rachael: "...seconds."

Evan:  “I’m used to being attacked by lots of girls at once.”

Newton session, September 30^th:

Miss Hocke:  “What happens if the fixed stars move?”  Mary:  “Then we all die!”

Traherne session 1, October 2^nd:

Sam:  “The liver’s pretty cool.  This is way cooler.”

Traherne session 2, October 7^th:

“post prandial perseflage”

?: “I miss Mr. Plato.  Where is he?” Hannah:  “He got a job!”  ?: “What?”

Dr. Yeh:  “Yes, Felix the Cat means Happy Cat.”

“Let’s go to the third century.  Every time I say that I feel like I’m traveling through time.”

Colleen:  “I don’t remember anything you said.  I am so sorry.”

Edwards session, October 9^th:

Dr. Sanders:  “There’s the world.  It’s like a grid.”

“God’s got a lot of potential.”

Sarah R.:  “No, He’s not lonely!  He’s got the triangle!”

Dr. Sanders:  “Whatever the Father does with the Son, it won’t scratch the same itch as creation.”

“Like one of those chocolate fountains – the greatest possible good.”

“Mr. Freeman was talking smack about how the Son was too weak to beget the Father.”

Haydn session, October 14^th:

? (sniggering):  “It’s [the cow is] so stupid!”  (Miss Schubert wants a more charitable description.)  Mary:  “It’s kinda slow.”

Blake session, October 28^th:

Mary:  “I wish he were still alive, so we could say, ‘Blake, what were you thinking?’ “  Vicki:  “ ‘What were you taking?’ “  Rachael (laughing):  “She has hit the hammer on the nail.”

Prelude session 2, November 4^th:

Lydia:  “I love sunrises.”  Dr. Sanders:  “But look what it… It burns away the imagination!”

Dr. Sanders:  “I was reading from the yada-yada version.  Blah blah blah is a later rendition.”

“Fairly precise about what he’s ambiguous about”

Emerson session, November 6^th:

(Hannah describes an old conversation)  Hannah:  “I have a tension headache.”  Hannah’s roommate:  “I have attention deficit disorder.”

Moby-Dick session 1, November 11^th:

Dr. Vincent:  “Master it?  I thought he tried to kiss it.”  Rachael:  “Close enough.”

Darwin session 1, November 18^th:

?:  “Maybe the girls don’t like long necks.”

Megan:  “Man wants to put himself up there where Hitler is.”

Darwin session 2, November 25^th:

Dr. Sanders:  “I’m from the South, I don’t know if all Yankees know about lard.”

“He wrote a book called Origin of Species where you can’t tell what a species is.”

Frost session, December 2^nd:

Miss Schubert:  “What human hibernates?”  Megan:  “It’s a lifestyle choice.”

…and I seem to have slacked off on writing quotes for our Ezekiel sessions – however…

Ezekiel session 2, December 11^th:

Me (singing to the tune of “Father Abraham”):  “Ezekiel’s temple / Had many cubits / Many cubits had Ezekiel’s temple / I am one of them / And so are you / So let’s just praise the Lord! / One cubit …”

Morgan House sessions:

Aw, man, looks like I was really lazy about writing down quotes on Fridays!  But here are a couple…

Edwards session 1, September 12^th:

Dr. Sanders:  “Dan and Ed’s Excellency Adventure”  (Dan = Dante, Ed = Edwards)

Blake session, October 3^rd:

Mary:  “Poetic genius is electricity.”

Dr. Campbell:  “I’m just reading Blake, the same way you’re reading Blake, which is, ‘What are you saying, Blake?’ ”

Context lectures:

           

            “Intro to Greek Philosophy,” Dr. Reynolds, September 11^th:

            “It’s like trying to marry Sauron and ending up with Gollum.  It’d be OK if you were the Dark Lord…”

            “Protestants in Purgatory,” Dr. Sanders, September 30^th:

“Not only did I slap Brother Odo that time, but I always want to slap Brother Odo.”

“The smokers have the third level.” … “No, no, smoking doesn’t send you to hell, it just makes you smell like you came from there.”

Ezekiel context lecture, Dr. Sanders, December 4^th:

“Hebrews is basically the writer holding the Old Testament and shouting ‘JESUS’ at it.”

Other times:

Lydia, in the circuits lab, doing Classical Mechanics homework:  “Newton, why weren’t you just stupid?”

One night in the Circuits lab…:

Me:  “You don’t expect to have something that we can see from earth named after you, do you?”  Lydia:  “Well, only on very special occasions.”

Lydia:  “Well, that explains a lot.  People from Washington are on the moon.”

Sarah P.:  “The moon makes a very loud noise when you hit it.”

Lydia: “I have moon dust all over my hands, actually.”

Sarah:  “Smart people never die.  They simply move to the moon.”

At a certain party…:

Kate, to Sam:  “You’re not Cleopatra, are you?”

Ellene:  “I am crazed!  I’m so excited!”

Lydia and Shaya in tandem:  “Oh!  Oh! I know!  How about if you fall down on the beach with someone to pick you up with fireworks and a full moon and red roses!”

Me to Sam:  “I wish you could get manly and emotional.”

Janelle, in Facebook chat, about Mrs. Rinks:  “you know at night she went zzzz....BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA...zzzz”

Me, in Facebook chat, to Chris, summarizing our day’s conversation:  “You will take advantage of your boringly monocultural kids to have people to play oldstyle roleplaying games with, and along the way you will master trig and calc for a second time, eat Fuji apples, train your cats to speak Russian, and complain about this sentence. :)”

And that is all the quotes I have for you today, though not all the quotes I've got somewhere!