So I had my candle lit for an hour or two and it came time to blow it out. Not wanting the smell of the smoldering wick to taint the pleasant smell of Apple Crisp in the air, I got real close to the candle, took a deep breath, and blew hard. This shouldn’t have caused any problems. Sadly, I forgot that I was blowing not only on the wick, but also on the wax. Wax flew on my face, my laptop, my desk – all over the place.

So, I have learned my lesson. Do not use excessive amounts of air when extinguishing candles unless you want a wax bath.

And now, I need to head toward bed. I’ve got my EE-201 (Circuits class) final tomorrow at the bright early hour of 8 am. I’m going to read my Bible and maybe a little bit of Robert Whitlow’s The Sacrifice before my head meets my pillow.

I know I’m jumping the gun a little bit, posting this before I’m done with the first quarter, but finals week at MSOE generally leaves one with significant free time to spend as he chooses. So…here’s what my schedule looks like for next quarter. You can click any class title at the bottom to see what it’s about.

EE 290 : Combinational and Sequential Logic : Robles, Teodoro C.
HU 411G : German II : Stahnke, Carma M
MA 230 : Discrete Mathematics : Griggs, Edward J.
SE 280 : Software Engineering Process : Suri, Deepti
SS 455 : International Relations : Gloyer, Gilbert J

Okay…I know I haven’t posted in a while and you’re probably wondering what’s going on in my life. This week is finals week, and thus, I’m almost done with the first quarter of my sophomore year. Maybe I’ll get on here some time over thanksgiving break and post more details about my life.

Anyway…the reason I got on here is to tell all you AIM users to quit spreading around stupid rumors like this one:

Dear AIM users,

Because of our overloading of our servers, we are being forced to extract our non-active AIM users. Because this is a free service, AOL has exceeded the budget for the AIM service. We are asking that you send this exact message to 20 other AIM users to ensure us that you’re an active AIM user. Our system tracking devise will pick up this message to keep you on our active list. You have 72 hours to complete this task or your service will be canceled immediately. Starting January 1st, 2005, we will be charging a small fee for registering of a screen name for AIM. Thank you for your time and for using AOL or AIM.

Sincerely,

Mark Jenkins
AOL Owner and Founder

Messages like this one pop up all the time because some bored geek thinks it would be funny to make people think they’re going to have to pay for AIM. Why they would feel compelled to so something so stupid I’m not quite sure…then again, do spammers need motivation?

Do a simple google search if you don’t believe me and want more information.

I’ve been told I should post on here again, as it’s been a while since I’ve said anything about what I’ve been up to lately. In short, I’ve been busy with homework and friends and my web projects including this web site have pretty much dropped to the bottom of my priority list. Stan sent me an update for PageSite and I’d like to set up my web site with that one of these days, but when I find free time, I end up spending it in other, more exciting ways. Maybe I’ll try and get on here once in a while and write a little more about what’s going on with me.

I put up a page as a launch-pad for my dad’s web sites. This is my attempt to connect his different web sites to one another, not only for the sake of search engine rankings, but also so that people can have one central location from which they can find any of his other projects.

This past weekend I went home and did a bunch of work. I set up DSL for Creative Change, did some networking, and helped Bob Kay with his beer label web site. It was good, though the weekend went by quickly. It was nice to make some money instead of spending it for once. I’m going home this weekend again to do some more work and watch my brother’s last cross country race.

Tomorrow I have an EE-201 test (Linear Circuits) … that should be interesting. I’m going to go for a run in a little bit then do some studying with Adam for that exam. Pray that it goes well!

God bless!

Here’s my schedule for anyone who’s interested in knowing what I’m up to during the day. It only includes classes, not any other events like prayer, Bible Studies, etc.

Key:
EE 201 : Linear Networks: Steady-State Analysis : Swiontek, Thomas J.
HU 410G : German I : Stahnke, Carma
MA 343 : Matrix Methods and Linear Programming : Griggs, Edward J.

PH 220 : Physics of Heat, Wave Motion and Optics : Schwartz, Ruth A.
SE 283 : Introduction to Software Verification : Schroeder, Patrick J.

As of about 36 hours ago, I’m done with my first week of school. It was a fun-filled, yet quite hectic week. I had little time to sit and relax because I was running around doing all sorts of Intervarsity and first-week activities. This year is looking like it will be a good one, even if it is a lot of work. I’ve made some awesome new friends and am continuing to meet new students.

Last night, at Intervarsity’s Outloud event, an IV staff worker from somewhere up north came and gave 3 “good” reasons to not be a Christian. Though the reasons were valid, it seemed to take a little bit of a stretch to explain them. I think it could have been a much more effective outreach if the approach had been different. Why do we need to tell people why not to be Christians in order to attract them to Christianity? That’s another problem. There was little, if any, mention of sin and our need for a Savior. The root of the Gospel is not about whether or not we want to be with God, whether or not we want a relationship with Him, but our sin and his grace. Christ came not to give us a relationship with God, but to save us from our sins and restore our relationship with Him…to restore communion with Him. In short, I don’t think the guy speaking last night said anything blatantly erroneous, but he didn’t clearly present the whole picture, the Gospel in its entirety.

During the question and answer session which followed the guy’s talk, a girl made a comment about it being difficult for some to follow Christ if their family members are condemned. In other words, how God could let one’s unsaved loved ones suffer eternal death? The love we feel for one another cannot begin to compare to the love Christ has for each and every person in this world. Go back to the commonly quoted John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” God loved the world. God’s love is perfect. God loves every human ever created infinitely more than we do. If, then, we experience hurt and anguish for our lost loved ones, consider how much more sorrow Christ experiences after shedding His blood for their sins. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” While God loves everyone deeply, people reject Him, continue to live in their sin, and, as a result, are destined for hell.

It’s 1:15 am now and I’m having trouble organizing my thoughts so I’ll quit writing there. Hopefully it will make some sense to you.

Well now that I’ve finally gotten around to writing this, it’s September 12th. Regardless, it has been three years since the World Trade Center attack. This morning, Stan reminded me of a flash presentation that our friend Tim Dupree put together about Todd Beamer (famous for saying “Let’s Roll” over the phone before aiding in preventing the fourth plane from doing further damage). The inspiration of the presentation was a series of banners my dad created for use in a town parade whose theme was Heroism.

Check out the presentation –>

Let’s Roll! – In Memoriam of 9/11/01

My first three days here at MSOE have passed quickly. It took nearly all day Wednesday to load up the cars, drive up, unload my stuff, and put together the beds. I went to bed around 1 am and woke up at a bright and early 8:30 and helped the new freshmen move in. Then, today, I slept in until 10:30 or so and, after taking my time getting ready and eating a bland MSOE lunch, I helped more freshmen move in. That was really fun for a number of reasons. It’s great when you’re on the receiving end of such assistance, as it speeds up the move-in process significantly, with, say 4 people carrying your stuff on dollies, instead of 1 or 2. I also got to meet a lot of new people. I’ve forgotten most their names, but at least they’re now familiar faces and they’ve seen my face, which sets up for good relationships in the future.

Between helping students move in, hanging out with friends, eating, and a wide variety of other activities, I haven’t had much time to organize the stuff in my room. This evening, Adam and I finally got around to doing some of that and our room is getting cooler and cooler. It feels significantly more “homey” than my room last year, as there isn’t as much empty space. We’re allowed to have microwaves this year, so I picked one up at Best Buy this evening and it’s all set up and ready to use.

Well I kept getting distracted while writing this, so I’m going to leave it at that for now. I miss my friends from home…all like 3 or 4 that I hung out with frequently, but I’m meeting a lot of new people here and hanging out with friends from last year, so it’s all right.

Okay well I guess I could go and write about all sorts of things right about now, but I don’t really feel like getting into the details of my life at this point in time. Let’s just say that friends are priceless and I’m thankful for every one I have. It’ll be cool hanging out with all my MSOE friends back at school, but I’ll miss everyone from home, even Stan‘s school buddies. I’ve hung out with them enough times now that they’re almost like my friends…in some sort of weird way.

Anyway…I bought Sanctus Real’s newest CD, Fight the Tide, yesterday while I was at Walmart buying some stuff for school. I’ve got two days to pack up all my stuff and get ready to go back. I’m not really ready for it. I’ve had an awesome summer doing all sorts of crazy things, working now and then, relaxing, whatever and I don’t particularly want it to end. I’ll quit complaining though and accept the inevitable.

I don’t have much else to say right now…I’m tired and have a headache and have to go to the dentist tomorrow so I should get to bed.

As my brother was jogging to the park after school today, he stopped by our house to pick up a frisbee and invited me to go with the team to play Ultimate Frisbee. After a brief thought, I changed clothes and jogged up to the park. We played for a half hour or 45 minutes and I really had a blast. It’s the most exercise I’ve done at any give time in the past few weeks, probably this summer. I enjoy running and all, but sometimes it’s so hard to run without a goal. Ultimate is nice in that it gives me some incentive to run and push myself.

After a game and a half of Ultimate, the guys had to head back to school. I came home, ate dinner, and weaved my way through traffic all the way to River Forest, where Stan goes to school. Immediately, I hopped in his van and we headed out to Midway. We returned to his school about 2 hours later, due to a delay in the flight of the girl we were picking up. If you’re ever bored, go through the arrivals loop over and over at Midway. You’ll find yourself feeling like you’ve spun around in circles a few too many times. I don’t think it’s healthy. Stan had a floor meeting so I had to head on home relatively early. I’ll probably go back to visit him next Tuesday evening so we can have a chance to actually hang out and not drive in a circle and yell things at random bad drivers.

The other day, I finished Catacombs. Don’t waste your time reading it…It wasn’t all that exciting and quite depressing, as reviewers on Amazon suggested. Anyway…after some *careful* searching through the online card-catalog deal my library has I decided to check out Robert Whitlow’s The Sacrifice and Sigmund Brouwer’s Out of the Shadows. I’d like to read them both before going back to school, so I don’t have to worry about returning them while I’m in Milwaukee, but I’m not so sure that’ll happen. There’s always the option to renew them, too. So, we’ll see.

I’m a bit tired so I think I’m gonna slowly move toward getting to sleep.