A continuation/follow up on my previous religious discussion.
I have been thinking about writing this post for a couple of days now; I just never got around to it. The sermon at church today, however, inspired me enough to prompt it.
Over the past couple of years, I have been focused too much on what I didn't have. I got so frustrated over this point that I all but quit being Christian. I went to church only because I felt obligated, but I didn't participate in any of the outside activities that make up a Christian lifestyle. I avoided my Christian friends, I didn't pray, didn't read the Bible. I gave up on God because he didn't give me what I wanted.
I missed the point of Christianity completely.
During the past few days,however, I have been reminded of what it means to be a Christian. A friend of my from middle school posted a facebook note that discussed spiritual deepness. His observation was that there really isn't spiritual deepness to the Bible, but rather a simple command that can be summed up in two lines ""Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" and "Love your neighbor as yourself."
What exactly does loving your neighbor mean? It means being concerned with their wellbeing over your own. It means not letting resentment get in the way of serving others. It means not judging someone's life decision or excluding them because of how they chose to live. It means seeing people as God's image and treating them accordingly. See Christ in others; Be Christ to others.
It's time for me to remember that point and act on it.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
It's easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole world. - Al Franken
Today was pretty good day. I drove home in the morning and came home to an empty house. This surprised me because even if mom was out, Daisy (our dog) should have been at home. Turns out Mom had taken Daisy to the vet because she has pancreatitis. The vet has her on an IV, and hopefully she will get better soon and come home.
Once I found out all this was going on, I ran some errands. I renewed my licence so I finally have one that does not have the "under 21 until" stamp on it. Woohoo big girl licence :). After that I was able to finally go pick up my new glasses. (I say finally because I should have had them 3 weeks ago, but the people at the store were somewhat incompetent. They got my prescription wrong and chipped the glasses frames so they had to order new lenses and new frames.)
After that I went home and worked on my portfolio for Truman. Not going to lie, that is kind of a ridiculous waste of time. At least on my part. I hope something good comes out of it for someone...
The rest of the day I have spent trying to get stuff together for this trip. I made a shopping list, which somehow seems to get longer and longer as I buy more things. I need to sit down and really think about what I need for this trip so I don't end up taking too much. Easier said than done.
Once I found out all this was going on, I ran some errands. I renewed my licence so I finally have one that does not have the "under 21 until" stamp on it. Woohoo big girl licence :). After that I was able to finally go pick up my new glasses. (I say finally because I should have had them 3 weeks ago, but the people at the store were somewhat incompetent. They got my prescription wrong and chipped the glasses frames so they had to order new lenses and new frames.)
After that I went home and worked on my portfolio for Truman. Not going to lie, that is kind of a ridiculous waste of time. At least on my part. I hope something good comes out of it for someone...
The rest of the day I have spent trying to get stuff together for this trip. I made a shopping list, which somehow seems to get longer and longer as I buy more things. I need to sit down and really think about what I need for this trip so I don't end up taking too much. Easier said than done.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
My take on our JINS discussion
This post is more about England in the 1500s and less (not at all) about Panama. But there is some Biology stuff at the end...
Today we talked about an article by Jan Knippers Black entitled "Introduction: Understanding the Persistence of Inequality." Her main point was that there are three basic ideas about why Latin America is so poor. The first is the Corporatism theory which places blame on the Iberians who colonized Latin America. The argument which we discussed in class said that it was the Spanish and the Portuguese who were responsible for introducing the hierarchical social structure that resulted in the exploitation of the poor. We compared Spain and England's governing and religious policies. I have issue with the idea of calling England a protestant country. When Columbus got to the Americas, England was still very much a Catholic country. It did not split from Rome until 1534 for issues more complex than just Henry VIII wanting a new wife. First of all, he wanted a son for a legit reason. England had very recently come out of a civil war. Henry had no legitimate son, a problem because up until that time in history England had no example of a woman successfully inheriting the throne. The only time a woman had inherited, there was a huge civil war between Matilda and Stephen. Henry wanted to avoid that at all costs. Creating the chance for a son was not Henry's only motivation for cutting ties with Rome when the opportunity arose. Henry also wanted more control over his own country and its wealth. When Henry split from the Catholic Church, the hierarchical structure was still very much in place; the difference was that the king was now the head of the Church and not the pope. This is an important point because we discussed that it was the hierarchical structure in Spain that created the problems in Latin America and if England had colonized it, that wouldn't be a problem and they wouldn't be as poor. I disagree for a couple of reasons. One, for the reason explained above. England was very much hierarchical so the same thing may have happened. Two, for the most part we seemed to be using the United States as an example of what happens to a British colony. The U.S. was hardly the only British colony and if we look at the examples of Ghana (which was briefly mentioned in class) and India we see two places that were colonized by Britain but still remain poor. I didn't really have enough a problem with either of the other two to discuss them more in depth. Part of this was also to show off my knowledge of Henry's split with Rome. It's a topic I have studied a lot over the years so I like to talk about it when possible.
Bio Lecture today was a little depressing. We talked about the carrying capacity for humans on the earth and discussed all of the horrible things we are doing to the earth. What stuck out to me most was that male sperm count is down in the U.S. because women taking birth control pills urinate out some of the extra hormones/chemicals from those pills which doesn't get filtered out in the water purification process. So men end up drinking it and have fewer sperm because they have extra feminine hormones. We also talked about how the Aral Sea has pretty much disappeared and how the Sea of Galilee is going to become a salt water lake if they don't start working to conserve water.
Today we talked about an article by Jan Knippers Black entitled "Introduction: Understanding the Persistence of Inequality." Her main point was that there are three basic ideas about why Latin America is so poor. The first is the Corporatism theory which places blame on the Iberians who colonized Latin America. The argument which we discussed in class said that it was the Spanish and the Portuguese who were responsible for introducing the hierarchical social structure that resulted in the exploitation of the poor. We compared Spain and England's governing and religious policies. I have issue with the idea of calling England a protestant country. When Columbus got to the Americas, England was still very much a Catholic country. It did not split from Rome until 1534 for issues more complex than just Henry VIII wanting a new wife. First of all, he wanted a son for a legit reason. England had very recently come out of a civil war. Henry had no legitimate son, a problem because up until that time in history England had no example of a woman successfully inheriting the throne. The only time a woman had inherited, there was a huge civil war between Matilda and Stephen. Henry wanted to avoid that at all costs. Creating the chance for a son was not Henry's only motivation for cutting ties with Rome when the opportunity arose. Henry also wanted more control over his own country and its wealth. When Henry split from the Catholic Church, the hierarchical structure was still very much in place; the difference was that the king was now the head of the Church and not the pope. This is an important point because we discussed that it was the hierarchical structure in Spain that created the problems in Latin America and if England had colonized it, that wouldn't be a problem and they wouldn't be as poor. I disagree for a couple of reasons. One, for the reason explained above. England was very much hierarchical so the same thing may have happened. Two, for the most part we seemed to be using the United States as an example of what happens to a British colony. The U.S. was hardly the only British colony and if we look at the examples of Ghana (which was briefly mentioned in class) and India we see two places that were colonized by Britain but still remain poor. I didn't really have enough a problem with either of the other two to discuss them more in depth. Part of this was also to show off my knowledge of Henry's split with Rome. It's a topic I have studied a lot over the years so I like to talk about it when possible.
Bio Lecture today was a little depressing. We talked about the carrying capacity for humans on the earth and discussed all of the horrible things we are doing to the earth. What stuck out to me most was that male sperm count is down in the U.S. because women taking birth control pills urinate out some of the extra hormones/chemicals from those pills which doesn't get filtered out in the water purification process. So men end up drinking it and have fewer sperm because they have extra feminine hormones. We also talked about how the Aral Sea has pretty much disappeared and how the Sea of Galilee is going to become a salt water lake if they don't start working to conserve water.
Yesterday, all my troubles seem so far away
I didn't get around to writing a post yesterday because
1. I was too busy working on my AWESOME JINS paper
2. I listened to a lecture on ESL in our FABULOUS ENVS class
3. I participated in our FANTASTIC Bio Lab
4. I attended the STUPENDOUS potluck at Chad's house
(I am using lots of adjective here because I am not supposed to use in the VERY FIRST LAB REPORT I HAVE EVER WRITTEN that I will be writing soon/eventually.)(Also I am hyper because I didn't get a lot of sleep last night so I am trying to keep myself awake.)(And I do not use caffeine so I cannot rely on that to help me stay awake.)
Yesterday is pretty much outlined in the list above, but those who would like more detail keep reading.
1. My JINS paper is not that good. But I did work on it because I am an overachiever and I work ahead like that.
2. Dr. Sally Cook came to talk to our class about the challenges of ESL (english as a second language) teaching. I was surprised about how little Spanish she said we would need to know in order to interact with the kids at the school. Even though they don't know a lot (if any) English at this point, if they know that we know Spanish, they will use it as a crutch and not learn as much. Looking back at my experience learning Spanish, I can understand how that would happen. She also talked about how after a couple of weeks working with a student, we may notice a backslide in their learning. She said that is normal, and I think that is something that should be told to high school Spanish teachers...
3. Lab was way more fun yesterday then it was the first time we did it. The procedure was similar (read exactly the same) as last time so we all knew what we were doing. Since we all knew what was going on, we were able to talk a lot more which was fun because I got to know the people in that class a lot better. We shared stories about high school, college and mutual acquaintances. I enjoy Bio Lab and Lecture more than the other classes because it is so small (we have 5 people). It makes group work really easy, and everything is laid back.
4. We had a potluck last night so we could get to know everyone better. Fantastic idea. It was so much fun, and it was great to interact with people outside of the classroom. The conversations varied from coolest places we have been (which included Italy, Spain, Ireland, Israel etc.), pop culture (Avatar, South Park, blogging and facebook) to ants mating (apparently all ants mate while flying. Betcha didn't know that. Unless you are Will Petry.) We also tried to guess Marc and Chad's ages. Someone guessed 55 for Marc and Chad just laughed, so I'm pretty sure they were wrong. (I checked facebook and he graduated from high school in 1980, which makes him about 47. (Chad is 37, if I remember correctly, if anyone wanted to know.) Eventually numbers dwindled down until there were about 10 of us left. Then Chad started to tell us about times he was bitten by things like black widow spiders and 14 ft. long snakes. Yep, definitely an interesting evening.
1. I was too busy working on my AWESOME JINS paper
2. I listened to a lecture on ESL in our FABULOUS ENVS class
3. I participated in our FANTASTIC Bio Lab
4. I attended the STUPENDOUS potluck at Chad's house
(I am using lots of adjective here because I am not supposed to use in the VERY FIRST LAB REPORT I HAVE EVER WRITTEN that I will be writing soon/eventually.)(Also I am hyper because I didn't get a lot of sleep last night so I am trying to keep myself awake.)(And I do not use caffeine so I cannot rely on that to help me stay awake.)
Yesterday is pretty much outlined in the list above, but those who would like more detail keep reading.
1. My JINS paper is not that good. But I did work on it because I am an overachiever and I work ahead like that.
2. Dr. Sally Cook came to talk to our class about the challenges of ESL (english as a second language) teaching. I was surprised about how little Spanish she said we would need to know in order to interact with the kids at the school. Even though they don't know a lot (if any) English at this point, if they know that we know Spanish, they will use it as a crutch and not learn as much. Looking back at my experience learning Spanish, I can understand how that would happen. She also talked about how after a couple of weeks working with a student, we may notice a backslide in their learning. She said that is normal, and I think that is something that should be told to high school Spanish teachers...
3. Lab was way more fun yesterday then it was the first time we did it. The procedure was similar (read exactly the same) as last time so we all knew what we were doing. Since we all knew what was going on, we were able to talk a lot more which was fun because I got to know the people in that class a lot better. We shared stories about high school, college and mutual acquaintances. I enjoy Bio Lab and Lecture more than the other classes because it is so small (we have 5 people). It makes group work really easy, and everything is laid back.
4. We had a potluck last night so we could get to know everyone better. Fantastic idea. It was so much fun, and it was great to interact with people outside of the classroom. The conversations varied from coolest places we have been (which included Italy, Spain, Ireland, Israel etc.), pop culture (Avatar, South Park, blogging and facebook) to ants mating (apparently all ants mate while flying. Betcha didn't know that. Unless you are Will Petry.) We also tried to guess Marc and Chad's ages. Someone guessed 55 for Marc and Chad just laughed, so I'm pretty sure they were wrong. (I checked facebook and he graduated from high school in 1980, which makes him about 47. (Chad is 37, if I remember correctly, if anyone wanted to know.) Eventually numbers dwindled down until there were about 10 of us left. Then Chad started to tell us about times he was bitten by things like black widow spiders and 14 ft. long snakes. Yep, definitely an interesting evening.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
So I could be working on an Essay...
Or I could update my blog.
Yesterday, Angie and I met with Marc to finalize our idea for our project and iron out details of asking for permission to work on the dig/use images from the Archeological Park etc. It was a productive meeting, and I feel like I have a much better idea of what our project actually is and who will benefit. I had been a little confused about the logistics of who controlled what at the site where we are working. Apparently at this park there is a museum and an already excavated site that are open for the public. Over to the side of the park, there is a NatGeo funded dig. NatGeo is extremely jealous of the information it gathers so the finds from the dig are going to be pretty hush-hush until they are ready to publish. The pamphlet that Angie and I are putting together will only include information from the museum.
That evening I met with my Bio class (all five of us) to design a lab for Wednesday. We are comparing tyrosinase and DOPA reaction rates in Apples, Bananas and Avocados at room temperature and kept cool. Yep. That will be lab...
Bio lecture was pretty interesting this morning. We learned about cowbirds, an invasive species of bird that takes over the nests of other birds, knocks the original eggs out of the nest and replaces them with their eggs. Then the other bird parents end up raising the cowbirds young as their own. The study we were looking at involved warblers, I want to say. They were 1/2 the size of the cowbirds, so they were not able to keep up with the nutrient demand of the cowbird and their own health. There population was declining so some biologist did some biological stuff and fixed the problem (if you want technical details, let me know, and I will get those to you).
In History/JINS we finished up the discipline presentations. Again, it was cool to see what other people are studying, why and how. We also managed to waste quite a bit of time talking about our blogs and finals. I think there's a possibility we're going to try to publish a book about this trip as a class, but I don't know if that was actually decided. We'll see...
In other news, I got a very early (2 weeks early) birthday present today. My friend Tony sent me a Yale shoot glass :). I was pretty excited because I bought him a Truman shot glass for his 21st birthday in September and then realized I didn't actually own a shot glass myself. But now I do, and it is prestigious. Also, we are having a potluck tomorrow to get to know each other a little better. That will be fun.
Blast, I am now out of stuff to say so it is off to work on my scintillating essay.
Yesterday, Angie and I met with Marc to finalize our idea for our project and iron out details of asking for permission to work on the dig/use images from the Archeological Park etc. It was a productive meeting, and I feel like I have a much better idea of what our project actually is and who will benefit. I had been a little confused about the logistics of who controlled what at the site where we are working. Apparently at this park there is a museum and an already excavated site that are open for the public. Over to the side of the park, there is a NatGeo funded dig. NatGeo is extremely jealous of the information it gathers so the finds from the dig are going to be pretty hush-hush until they are ready to publish. The pamphlet that Angie and I are putting together will only include information from the museum.
That evening I met with my Bio class (all five of us) to design a lab for Wednesday. We are comparing tyrosinase and DOPA reaction rates in Apples, Bananas and Avocados at room temperature and kept cool. Yep. That will be lab...
Bio lecture was pretty interesting this morning. We learned about cowbirds, an invasive species of bird that takes over the nests of other birds, knocks the original eggs out of the nest and replaces them with their eggs. Then the other bird parents end up raising the cowbirds young as their own. The study we were looking at involved warblers, I want to say. They were 1/2 the size of the cowbirds, so they were not able to keep up with the nutrient demand of the cowbird and their own health. There population was declining so some biologist did some biological stuff and fixed the problem (if you want technical details, let me know, and I will get those to you).
In History/JINS we finished up the discipline presentations. Again, it was cool to see what other people are studying, why and how. We also managed to waste quite a bit of time talking about our blogs and finals. I think there's a possibility we're going to try to publish a book about this trip as a class, but I don't know if that was actually decided. We'll see...
In other news, I got a very early (2 weeks early) birthday present today. My friend Tony sent me a Yale shoot glass :). I was pretty excited because I bought him a Truman shot glass for his 21st birthday in September and then realized I didn't actually own a shot glass myself. But now I do, and it is prestigious. Also, we are having a potluck tomorrow to get to know each other a little better. That will be fun.
Blast, I am now out of stuff to say so it is off to work on my scintillating essay.
Monday, January 25, 2010
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