Semester Post: Fall 2014

Here I am, sitting in the Arizona Room on the 2nd Floor of the Student Union. I haven't posted a blog on here since this Spring, and I can't even remember the last time I worked on a draft--I could certainly look that up, but I can't be bothered. I figure I might as well take a swing at making a post on here.

When I first started this blog, it was with the intention of having stuff to blog about and having people respond to it in some form. And I guess I tend to feel a little grumpy over having not much of the former and... Well, I was going to post some more paragraphs about this, but I don't feel like doing that anymore.

"Alright, so what's happened since you last posted, Larry?"
Okay...

• Spring semester wasn't too bad. Could've been better grade-wise, but I'm also getting to the point where I just want to be an actual contributing member to society instead of a poor college student who can't help but feel like a glorified leech. (I'm sure I have a draft post on here where I tried to talk about it, but this bullet point more or less sums it up.)
• I've brought this up before on my Facebook, and a lot of my friends already know this, but my uncle Billy Wright (brother-in-law to my mother) died. In the spring of this year, it was discovered that he had cancer--it was concentrated around his liver and pancreas, but eventually spread to other areas of his body. Now, I remember the sort of condition my grandfather was in when he was in his late 70's and 80's--Billy was, as far as I could tell, in better shape as he was. The last time I saw my uncle, the cancer had debilitated him to such a point to where he lost a lot of weight, could barely walk around, was probably not completely aware of what was going on (or at least getting to that point), and was certainly feeling miserable. I'm just glad that he was able to die in his sleep.
• I was elected President of the UofA Chapter of InterVarsity. Or, in other words, no one else wanted that position, and myself and another friend were the only two that didn't even bother to put their name in for leadership that the higher-ups in the chapter felt had potential (for me, I've had some administrative training in the chapter, I guess, and I might have a bit of a leg-up with regards to Student Government). And it looks like the position of Treasurer might've been absorbed into mine, mostly because I ended up with the checkbook (later than I wanted, but that's life). And I really wish I knew who to blame properly over some of this administrative idiocy--I'm still not technically the Chapter President, and I have to wait for that to get cleared up (I've been waiting since the end of the semester, but only properly knew about it somewhere in early July)!
• We had a decent showing during New Student Outreach--or at least for the parts I participated in. I'll only know for sure as the semester gets going, but overall growth seems healthy. Tonight is the first Small Group of the semester, and I am excited! And hungry. No, seriously, I've barely had any lunch, but I don't want to have to spend anything right now!
• And I can't be bothered to post my schedule on here, unless you want to know. 

Chapter Camp/Catalina Island Trip #2: #ICanHasFaith?

Before I begin, I just decided to look over my last blog post about this subject (here, for my trip in 2013) just to see what all I said about it. Honestly, while there is content in that post, it's really a whole bunch of nothing/not all of it is on-topic. To summarise what all happened, members of different InterVarsity Chapters from the Southwest (more specifically, Arizona [University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and maybe Northern Arizona University], New Mexico [New Mexico State University and New Mexico Tech... I think], and a couple of colleges/universities from California) all came to Campus By the Sea in order to study the Bible. In my case, some members of my chapter that had never gone to Chapter Camp before, for different reasons, were studying the first half of the Book of Mark in a manuscript form. That basically means that we were all given the Book of Mark in loose-leaf form, broken down by page and line number (there's no Mark Chapter 2, Verse 3, for example, but Page 12, Lines 16-20), with us studying each portion during different sessions, coming up with questions for them, and doing our best to answer them through what we've just read beforehand in the manuscript and in the Old Testament (and through the aid of Bible Dictionaries and such, if need be). We were not intended to use our preconceived notions of the Bible to answer them, but try to go at it from a more-or-less fresh start. Of course, we all more or less knew what all would happen, but it was more of a way to prevent any "Oh, our church teaches it this way..."/"Oh, I've always been taught that such-and-such meant..." kind of deals. Now, that's not to say that's all of what we did--we had plenty of breaks to keep from going too crazy; were free to play, hike around, and enjoy ourselves when time allotted (and even go on a trip to the nearby town of Avalon); and we were encouraged to have constructive fun with our sessions.

For this trip (March 15-21), things were more or less the same. I knew what to expect--the trip to Tucson to the camp, the general routine of the time there, how we'd be studying... The first relevant change was that, now, I would be studying with InterVarsity members from other campuses (the previous Mark 1 students now numbered 4, for different reasons, and that seemed the situation for the New Mexico students). Secondly, going in, there was initially one thing already weighing on my mind.

The hashtag #ICanHasFaith derives from an exercise we all did (sort of a way for us to get to know one another)--using a piece of coloured construction paper, cut-outs from various magazines, and our own imagination, we made a picture of the two sides of ourselves: what people usually see in us at first glance, and who we really are. For me, "First Glance" was mostly A Face In the Crowd, and me twisting a phrase from the movie "Men In Black"--"Anonymity is his name; silence, his native tongue"; almost fittingly enough, no one else picked up on the reference. The other side, aside from tidbits about myself that I could find/had the presence of mind to just write on it was that hashtag (I would've gone for a LOLCats parody of I Can Has Cheezburger, but I found no picture of a cat and my drawing skills aren't that great, so I went for the next best thing). During the Small Group before Ash Wednesday, the members of our Small Group were given the task of giving something up for Lent. I chose Doubt; I don't know how well that's been going, but it's good as a reminder not to be so skeptical. The Thursday before, God put on my heart something that's been plaguing me since before I moved to Arizona (I had to have been around 8 at least). From the moment I understood the basics of Christianity, aside from a period between the ages of 17 and 20, I've always been a Christian, in the sense that I believed in God, that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, and all of the other basic tenets of the faith. The problem was the idea of faith. Even at that age, I wasn't always satisfied with just believing. There had to be something solid behind it that I could perceive. Things were/seemed manageable until the age of 17. By that point, what remained of my relationship with God became so distant I was trusting more in philosophies that made more sense to me that I was molding into my own personal faith than what the Bible was saying. Thankfully, things between God and I were patched and my relationship with him is stronger than it was before, but my willingness to give areas of my life up to Him is still not where it should be. As a symbolic act, we all placed a nickel in a cup, reminiscent of the poor widow who gave up her two coins (basically, all she had to give) for the Temple renovation/upkeep. As with the coin, there was another side to it: faith that this symbolic act both had real actual power behind it and that wasn't for nothing. That I wasn't just tossing it into the cup with the hope that things will change, only for the same issue to be cropping up next year.

Plans for a New Interstate

During the spring semester of this year, after learning about the organisation known as Imagine Greater Tucson, I decided I wanted to join as a volunteer. Admittedly, I haven't done a whole lot--practically nothing, really--though I still want to get involved when I can, out of interest in what they want to do, experience I could gain from it, and possible networking.

(More information: 1--azstarnet.com, 2--YouTube Link)

Last week, I went to an event that was discussing the CANAMEX Trade Corridor (see below map) and its' relevance to Tucson.



(Above image was found here)

Although the map indicates that CANAMEX will go through Tucson, the discussion I went to last week implied that, while it may be the most likely route, it comes down to us to decide whether or not we want it.



(Above image was found here)
As the caption above states, part of the reason for Interstate 11 is to alleviate congestion on the highways--Interstate 19 is already 20% commercial traffic, and is proposed to increase to 50%. Considering that this is connects to the Nogales Port of Entry (which, apparently, is pretty narrow), which leads into Northern Mexico (all of Sonora, including the capital Hermosillo and the beach town of Puerto Peñasco, southwest of Sonoyta)... Well, this is going to be part of the solution of quite a few possible problems down the road. Whether or not the actual extension will be at all the same as the proposed version, one thing is true: this extension will more than likely affect Tucson, and the hope is that it will not be for the worse. Ideally, we can capitalise on our status as a port city (think more along the lines of trains and airports), along with trade from Canada and Mexico (factoring in the deep-water port in Guaymas, Sonora--apparently, the ports in Los Angeles are at full capacity, so the port being located where it is will benefit from trade from both Asia and Europe, especially once the Panama Canal widening project is completed), in order to strengthen Tucson's economy. While we probably don't want to become the next Phoenix--no offense to our neighbour to the north--growth is inevitable; either we manage it responsibly or it manages us.

Escuela de Verano, Verano Grupo Pequeño, y Mi ex-hermanastro que Abandonó la Escuela Secundaria

Como usted puede o no puede tener en cuenta, de todas las materias escolares básicas por ahí, matemáticas suele ser mi peor. Por lo tanto, estoy en una clase de álgebra en la escuela. Oficialmente, está catalogado como "Algebra de Colegio con el análisis de datos", pero incluso para mí no es tan difícil - no es la clase más fácil que he tomado, pero estoy seguro de que voy a pasar. Quiero decir, son cosas que he aprendido antes (aunque me falta el actualización), así que no es como que estoy teniendo que trabajar con nuevos conceptos. Y. una vez que haya terminado (y obtener la transcripción), por fin voy a ser catalogado como un Sénior! Cualquier clase de matemáticas me quedo de aquí en adelante (porque, en realidad, nunca termina ...) probablemente será Estadísticas y tal.

Otra de las cosas que estoy haciendo para el verano es el Verano Grupo Pequeño con InterVarsity. Estamos estudiando el libro de Eclesiastés, y para aquellos que no tienen ni idea de lo que se trata todo esto ... Básicamente, el rey Salomón está pasando por una crisis de mediana edad. En vez de querer un Ferrari y/o chicas sexys (quiero decir, estamos hablando de por lo menos uno de los chicos más ricos de la región de la época - ya lo tiene), es la meditación de la vida. Al principio él está sonando muy emotivo sobre todo - todo tiene sentido, todo a cambio de nada, etc, y luego nos damos cuenta que hay más a él. Como hemos estudiado, los principales puntos que hemos encontrado son:

• No actuar egoísta porque no se puede llevar con usted
• Las cosas que haces aquí abajo puedes ser arruinado por sus herederos
• Trabajar sólo por ese sueldo no vale la pena - usted debe trabajar para lo que te va a encantar.

Acabamos de terminar el capítulo 5, de 14, y, teniendo en cuenta que nunca he leído esa parte de la Biblia, me alegro de estar haciendo esto. 

No puedo recordar si he publicado nada aquí sobre mi familia ensamblada o si estoy confundiendo con algo que no me había fijado. - Dios sabe que tengo bastantes de ellos que nunca he publicado, algunos de los cuales están más allá de su fecha de relevancia. Por lo tanto, cuando digo "mi ex familia ensamblada", es porque mi padre se divorció de mi ex-madrastra año pasado. Pero yo estoy mencionando esto porque, el día del padre, decidí llamar a mi padre. Durante la conversación, mencionó que mi (ex) sobrinastro Leavi (el hijo de uno de mis hermanastras, Jessica) se trasladó a Atlanta con ella y su novio (También debo mencionar que Jessica está embarazada con el niño a su novio) para ir a la escuela secundaria allí con la esperanza de obtener una beca de baloncesto. No voy a pretender que los dos de nosotros realmente se llevan bien - la única razón por la que importa para él en un nivel más alto que una persona al azar que oigo hablar es de los lazos familiares residuales, y lo consideraré una buena señal si él siente lo mismo - pero aún así contar esto como una buena noticia. Mi (ex-) hermanastro Luke, por su parte, decidió abandonar la escuela secundaria, que ahora trabaja para McDonald. Por lo que he visto, él nunca le gustó la escuela. Por un lado, por lo menos él tiene un trabajo (que, no importa qué, es más de lo que puedo decir) y estoy seguro que tiene sus razones, aparte de que no le gustaba la escuela - tal vez su madre (mi ex-madrastra) y lo necesitaba el dinero. Por otro lado ... Siempre me he criado con la idea de que me iba a la secundaria, graduados, llegar a la universidad y conseguir por lo menos una maestría (y, en realidad, sólo conseguir una licenciatura, en esta economía, no será suficiente). Siempre he sido muy inteligente - mis calificaciones fueron siempre una especie de dudoso, sin embargo. Pero yo nunca he llegado al punto donde quería abandonar. Y voy a admitir que, aunque soy capaz de empatizar con otras personas, esa capacidad no es tan fuerte como lo es con los demás. Así que, como un descargo de responsabilidad, ya sé lo que voy a decir puede hacer que me suena como un pendejo, pero...
Sinceramente, tengo la tendencia a creer que alguien que abandonó la escuela secundaria, a menos que tengan una razón válida (problemas económicos, problemas de salud, que necesita para cuidar de un familiar, o la intimidación ha llegado a un punto crítico) y/o haga que su vida lo suficientemente juntos (fuente estable de ingresos, su propia casa, etc), es probablemente perezosos y/o incompetentes. Sí, la escuela secundaria no es fácil, pero no tiene la intención de ser fácil y tampoco lo es la pobreza y la falta de progreso en el trabajo. Y, a menos que usted es muy afortunado, no se puede ir demasiado lejos con sólo un diploma de escuela secundaria, y menos que eso es una mala idea. Si alguna vez decidieron formar una familia con ese alrededor de su cuello, no iba a funcionar muy bien. Por supuesto, si me entero más acerca de sus circunstancias, podría ser más comprensivo. Pero si Lucas realmente quiere hacer algo de sí mismo, teniendo algo más que un diploma de escuela secundaria es esencial.

Summer School, Summer Small Group, and My (ex-)Stepbrother the Dropout

As you may or may not be aware, of all of the core school subjects out there, math tends to be my weakness. As such, I'm in an Algebra class for school. Officially, it's listed as "College Algebra with Data Analysis", but even I have to call it not that hard--not quite an easy A, but I'm sure I'll pass. I mean, it's stuff I've learned before (although I need the refresher), so it's not like I'm having to work with new concepts. And. once I'm done (and get the transcript), I'll finally be listed as a Senior! Any math class I'll take from here on out (because, really, it never ends...) will probably be Statistics and such.

Another thing I'm doing for the summer is the Summer Small Group with InterVarsity. We're studying the Book of Ecclesiastes, and for those who have no idea what that's all about... Basically, King Solomon is going through a midlife crisis. Instead of wanting a sports car and/or hot chicks (I mean, we're talking at least one of the richest guys in the region of that time--he already has it), he's meditating on life. And at first he's sounding pretty emo about it all--everything's pointless, it's all for nothing, etc. And then we find out that there's more to it. As we've studied, the main points we've found were:

• Don't act selfish because you can't take it with you
• The stuff you do down here might get ruined by your inheritors
• Working just for that paycheck isn't worth it--work for what you'll love. 

We just finished Chapter 5 of 14, and, considering that I've never read that part of the Bible, I'm glad to be doing this.

I can't even remember if I've posted anything on here about my Step-family or if I'm confusing it with one of the drafts--Lord knows I've got enough of them that I've never posted, some of which are past their relevancy date. So, when I call them my ex-stepfamily, it's because my dad divorced my ex-stepmother last year. But I'm mentioning this because, on Father's Day, I decided to call my dad. During the conversation, he mentioned that my (ex-) stepnephew Leavi (the son of one of my stepsisters, Jessica) moved to Atlanta with her and her boyfriend (not to mention that Jessica's pregnant with her boyfriends' kid) to go to high school there with hopes to get a basketball scholarship. I'm not going to pretend that Leavi and I are really close--about the only reason I care for him at a level higher than some random person I hear about is out of residual familial bonds, and I'll consider it a good sign if he feels the same--but I still count this as good news. My (ex-) stepbrother Luke, on the other hand, decided to drop out of High School and work for McDonald's. From what I've seen, he's never really liked school. On the one hand, at least he has a job (which, no matter what, is more than I can say) and I'm sure he has his reasons aside from not liking school--maybe his mother (my ex-stepmother) and him needed the money. On the other hand... I've always been raised with the idea that I'd go to High School, graduate, get to college and get at least a Master's Degree (and, really, just getting a Bachelor's Degree, in this economy, won't cut it). I've always been pretty smart--my grades were always sort of iffy, though. But I've never reached the point where I wanted to drop out. And I'll admit that, while I'm able to empathise with other people, that ability isn't as strong as it is with others. So, as a disclaimer, I know what I'm about to say might make me sound like a jerk, but...

I honestly have the tendency to believe that someone who's dropped out of High School, unless they've got a valid reason (economic issues, health issues, needing to take care of a family member, or bullying has reached a critical point) and/or have their life sufficiently together (stable source of income, their own home, etc), is probably lazy and/or incompetent. Yes, High School isn't easy, but it isn't meant to be easy and neither is poverty and lack of job advancement. And, unless you're really lucky, you can't go too far with just a High School Diploma--not having even that is a bad idea. If they ever decided to raise a family with that around their neck, it just wouldn't work too well. Of course, if I find out more about their circumstances,  I might be more sympathetic. But if Luke really wants to make something of himself, having something more than a High School Diploma is essential.

Porque era tan perezoso para escribir de vi viaje a las Islas Catalinas...

En primer lugar, para cualquier persona que pueda haber estado esperando que publicar algo acerca de mi viaje:
Sí, lo había planeado escribir eso. Sin embargo, debido a la pereza, siendo ocupado con la escuela, y otros factores que no puedo pensar, yo nunca lo publicó. Había conseguido incluso tomar 161 fotos durante esa época - no todos de calidad profesional, pero suficiente todavía - y que esperaba se aproveche de ellas antes de pensar "No vale la pena" (si así lo desea, sin embargo, voy a publicar un enlace a la carpeta donde está). En cualquier caso, era una maravilla poder salir de Tucson / escuela por una semana y en realidad tienen una vacaciones de primavera. No me malinterpreten, me encanta Tucson y realmente me gusta la escuela ... más o menos (ver más abajo para más información), pero yo estaba pasando una semana con básicamente todos mis amigos en la escuela en la isla bonita. De los amigos, de una manera llegué a conocer a mi grupo de estudio superior (estábamos estudiando el primer semestre del Evangelio de Marcos, por lo tanto, Marcos 1). (Yo estaba a punto de escribir algo más, pero probablemente voy a esperar hasta que esto pensé en escribir se vuelve más significativa o se aleja.)

Pero, ahora que he regresado de su viaje, he encontrado un nuevo problema: aunque me gusta la escuela y el mayor / menor estoy estudiando para, en cierto modo me parece que el viaje me dio el impulso para salir de la país por un tiempo para un viaje de misión. Antes de que me salvó por Dios, una de las cosas que me atrajo a Gracia a las Naciones fue la posibilidad de ayudar en una iglesia o dos en Hermosillo, México. Eso nunca ha pasado, aunque ahora he estado trabajando como voluntaria en el Centro de Alcance - que posiblemente se involucren más con la comunidad de refugiados si tengo el tiempo. Y luego está el factor de que muchos de mis amigos en InterVarsity han ido en estos viajes - principalmente a China. Michelle va a Kenia y Vi se va a China durante el verano, y Molly (la hermana menor de Vi, compañera de Marcos 1, y una amiga) que, hasta donde yo sé, se va a Vietnam el próximo verano. Debe tenerse en cuenta que la evangelización en China se llevó a cabo en su mayoría cerca de una de las universidades (por la vida de mí, no puedo recordar dónde) y no recuerdo que haya ninguna represión por parte del gobierno. La idea de ir a China no le sentó demasiado bien conmigo, sobre todo porque yo no hablo el idioma ... y, en definitiva, quiero ir a Europa!

Para ser honesto, lo que mucho de esto se reduce a que, aunque estoy muy contento donde estoy ahora mismo, yo también estoy buscando algo nuevo. No creo que me puede llamar "estar cansado de la escuela", aunque sólo sea porque es un sentimiento con ganas de hacer algo nuevo en lugar de no hacer nada. Podría ser que estoy cansado de desempleo, pero lo que quiero hacer algo significativo. Si significa evangelizar / voluntario para ayudar a alguna iglesia en un país extranjero / lo que sea, siendo un pasante por alguna organización local relevante para mi trabajo principal, o remunerado ... Y cualquier cosa relacionada con el viaje de la misión tendrá que pasar el año que viene, porque tengo una clase más que tengo que terminar en el Pima College y luego he terminado con esa parte de la escuela! Y luego, por supuesto que voy para mi maestría ... sí, tomando un tiempo libre para recargar y renovar me podría hacer algo bueno.

Because I was too lazy to blog about the Catalina Island Trip...

First off, just to get it out of the way:
Yes, I had been planning to blog about that trip. Due to laziness, being busy with school, and other factors that I can't think of, that was never posted. I even managed to take quite a few pictures, and I planned to use that in there. Long story short, it was great to be able to get out of Tucson/school for a week and actually have a Spring Break. Don't get me wrong, I love Tucson and I don't actually mind school too much (see below for a disclaimer), but I was spending a week with some of my friends basically all of my friends on campus on this pretty island. Of those friends, I sort of got to know my Mark 1 group (studying the first half of the Gospel of Mark) better. (I was about to write something more, but I'll probably wait until this thing I thought about writing becomes more meaningful or drifts away.)

But now I've come back with something else: as much as I like school and the major/minor I'm studying for, I think the trip sort of gave me the urge to get out of the country for a while for a mission trip. Before I got saved, one of the things that drew me to Grace to the Nations was the possibility to help out at a church or two at Hermosillo, Mexico. That's never happened, though now I've been volunteering with the GO Center--I'll possibly get more involved with the refugee community if I have the time. And then there's the factor that several of my friends at InterVarsity have gone on such trips--mainly to China. Michelle is going to Kenya and Vi is going to China over the summer, and Molly (Vi's younger sister and fellow Mark 1 group member) who, as far as I can tell, will be going to Vietnam next summer. I should state for the record that evangelism in China was mostly done near one of the universities (for the life of me, I can't remember where) and I don't recall there being any crackdowns by the government. The idea of going to China didn't sit too well with me, primarily because I don't speak the language--I'll need to check to see how important that really is, although I have an issue with going to a different country where the locals don't speak English--it feels rude of me to expect that from them... to heck with it, I want to go to Europe!

To be honest, what a lot of this comes down to is that, while I'm pretty happy where I am right now, I'm also looking for something new. I don't think I can just call it "being tired with school", if only because it's a feeling wanting to do something new instead of doing nothing. It could be that I'm tired of unemployment, but I want to do something meaningful. If it means evangelising/volunteering to help some church in a foreign country/whatever, being an Intern for some local organisation relevant to my major, or gainful employment... And any mission stuff will have to happen next summer, because I've got one more class that I need to finish at Pima College and then I'm done with that part of school! And then of course I'm going for my Master's... yeah, taking some time off to recharge and refresh might do me some good.

Update--January 13-19

Last week, Large Group (InterVarsity) started up for the semester--something that, of course, I was looking forward to. For the next couple of weeks, the theme is essentially "Sex from a Christian/Biblical Point-of-View", an awkward subject but something that needs to be addressed. Large Group meetings are on Thursday, and I ended up going to a Leadership (Planning) Meeting the day after, where apparently I'll be an apprentice for Small Group leader--there will be several others that are in a similar situation, including the younger sister of one of the current leaders of my Small Group (who, unsurprisingly, will be a co-leader of that group). Although my previous experience with actual leadership--being the Vice-President of my High School Drama Club--was not successful, I'm feeling more confident about this. It'll be a progressive build-up--slightly more duties assigned to me before I'm officially a Small Group leader. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous, but I also know that God has big plans for me. Edit: apparently, I won't be a Small Group Co-Leader, and I'm not too sure what Molly's going to be doing (maybe Co-Leader of that group?).  However, while I won't have any leadership positions, I'll hopefully have a chance to sharpen up my skills for next time.


Another thing is that I will be going on what's called The Daniel Fast starting on the 22nd of this month and lasting for three weeks (the link provided is a list of the foods I can and cannot have during this time). This is the second time I've gone through this, and I managed through it--though my body seemed to compensate by me eating more fruits. The idea behind it isn't just to go through a fast, but to become closer to God in the process, which is an endeavor I hope to be fruitful, considering the previous paragraph.

Spring 2013 Schedule and Other News

Monday/Wednesday/Friday:

• GEOG 302: Introduction to Sustainable Development
• "Introduction to Sustainable Development is a foundational course in understanding the policies and strategies that constitute 'smart' regional development in US metropolitan areas." So, basically, it's a class needed for my minor (Regional Development) that'll discuss ecologically-beneficial concepts with regards to developing metro areas.
• 10:00 a.m.--10:50 a.m.

• POL 413: Human Security. I don't even know what it's about... From 1:00 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.
• These two are going to be in Harvill Building.

 Tuesday/Thursday:

• SGPP 300A: Politics, Policy, and Governance: America and the World. From 3:30 to 4:45, in the Social Sciences Building (which I know pretty well).

I couldn't be bothered to write a Christmas blog post, so here it is... So, I got an electric razor (though, technically I already have one, the other razor isn't that good--really, most of the time, I just want to trim my beard when it gets too thick), 2013 calendar, University of Arizona key fob, The Amazing Spider-Man DVD (the newest one/the one with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone)... If you count my new phone as an early Christmas present, there's that... Really, that's about it. I mean, not that I'm complaining--I only specifically asked for the razor and DVD.

To be honest, even before I started this blog back in 2011, I was really hoping that there would be at least some activity going on here--a comment every once in a while, vaguely frequent readers... you know, stuff like that. While I'm not 100% sure about the latter, pretty much none of my posts have comments on them. If I went a month without them, that'd be one thing. I've had this for a couple of days over a year. Sure, on my part, I update infrequently--this is the only post for December that I've made, for example-- and there really isn't much that happens that could make this blog the most interesting, but the lack of feedback really hurts the incentive to write, especially my Rosethorn story. I'm still going to keep this, but I'm thinking of using my WordPress account that I needed for Struggle for the Presidency to post my story (and the ideas I have for it) and leave this as my personal blog--I'll edit in the link for that later on.

Death and Divorce

Last night, I heard from my mom, who had heard from my Aunt Connie--my father's sister--that my paternal grandmother--Zelpha--would be going to a hospice (if she isn't there already) and my father and stepmother were planning on divorcing. Of course, this isn't good news, but my feelings on this are complicated. I'm going to see if I an write about this and still seem halfway human about it. Note--December 8, 2012: we were misinformed. She won't be going to a hospice--it was just to the hospital, and now she'll be going to a rest centre. I can't be bothered to go through the rest of the paragraphs to edit it all out; a lot of it still applies, even though my grandmother won't die. It was just something I wanted to get out of the way.

I wasn't even born yet--probably not even yet conceived--when my first grandmother--Marie--died. You see, my mom was almost 39 when she had me (via C-Section, and I was 3 pounds, 10 ounces), and my maternal grandmother was almost 75 when she died. I was one years old when my maternal grandfather--Clinton Curtis--died, and was around the same age. So, by the time I was old enough to remember anything up to this point, all I had was one set of grandparents. From what I understand, my Dougan Grandparents would've been great to know had they been alive long enough for me to really know. I might not have always gotten along with them, but I'd nonetheless love them anyhow. Thankfully, I have a rough idea of what they were like in their children--my mom, aunts, and uncles. My paternal grandparents, on the other hand, never seemed that close with me. Not to say that they didn't like me, but... I'll be honest when I say that Grandma Zee's death isn't affecting me as hard as it "should" be, even though she's my last surviving grandparent--my grandfather Earl died when I was 13 after having suffered a stroke/collapse the year before and slowly weakening. I'm not exactly that good about grieving normally as it is--even though "we all grieve differently", I still feel out of place in that regard. On the other hand, I guess, after not even having a proper full set of grandparents throughout my life, it just feels less like I'm losing someone I care about and more like an inevitability I should just accept.

When I really think about this, it makes me wish I had some grandparents I could properly miss. I mean, sure, there was Grandma and Grandpa Dougan, but it's more of a "I wish I could've actually met them before they died" sort of thing than actually missing them. For that matter, I'm not so sure I was really close with anyone aside from my mother and certain members of my family until somewhere around 7th grade. It wasn't so much that I didn't understand love, but friendship seemed an almost half-distant concept until that point. So, when I lost my grandfather, I understood it but it never really struck me like it would a normal person. Then again, I'd probably grieve harder if one of my close friends died--someone I interact with often, someone I'm comfortable talking with... someone I actually know.

Another thing is that, for some reason, my father and stepmother decided to have a divorce after around 12 years of marriage. To be honest, though, I haven't really paid that much attention to their relationship. I sort of just assumed that things were okay, though I haven't been over there at their house since... Thanksgiving 2010? (So, yeah, basically, if they're a Nester or married into that family/in-law, I'm pretty much distant from them.) And I'm sure I've written about this before, but it would appear that nobody I actually know that's part of my step-family is Christian. I'm not even sure who all even believes in a god for that matter.

Election Day and some brief thoughts on it

I'm happy to say that this was my second time voting in a Presidential election. The first time, the candidate I chose was the chairman of a third party--think smaller and more obscure than the Green Party. I wasn't going to vote for McCain, especially after he chose Palin as his running mate, but I wasn't so sure about Obama at the time (that, and I wanted to use that as a loophole). This election, however, I voted for our President. Having received a mail-in early ballot (which I'm sure will be my preference from now on), I never actually voted on Election Day.

Yesterday was actually a good one--the video reports for this series was due that day for Public Policy and Administration, and all I did was help alphabetise them, along with Kate (the second Preceptor), and Kerrie and Amy (the T.A.'s), which took less time than the last time any of us had to sort them. Once I was done with that, I needed to speak with my advisor about what classes I'd need to take, which went well. Having no other classes that day--my Struggle for the Presidency class finished last Thursday--I barely did anything until around 7 p.m. when I went up for Small Group (part of InterVarsity). Great news: we have a newish member--Ariel, and she's a history nerd like me (which is a definite plus). We discussed the Last Supper, prayed over Vi and Molly's dorm (well, the entirety of Coconino, to be exact. And Vi and Molly are the two sisters whose room we have Small Group in.) And, of course, nerding out a bit while I was hearing about the election results (and eventually finding out that Obama won) was the icing on the cake. [Edit--11/21/2012: Although, when I first wrote this, I hadn't seen Ariel before, as I later found out she's no stranger to Vi and Molly. As of today, I'm already glad to know her. Also, she's not just a history nerd, but, really, I'm not complaining.]

(I know that such thoughts have gone through my mind before, but I'm sure it must be odd that quite a few of the people I'm working with are women. I'm the only guy among the Preceptors and T.A.'s, I'm usually the only guy in Small Group--there's a greater gender balance at Large Group, though--and there's only one other man in the Grace Outreach Rock Solid class at church. I mean, it's odd, but I'm okay with that.)

Of course, for every silver lining, there has to be a cloud. I honestly can't remember if I've ever written about this, or if I'm confusing it with a post I decided against publishing, but my father does not like Obama. So you can probably imagine his reactions when he found out who won. I'm not always that great at detecting sarcasm, or when someone's just joking around, and it's especially worse when it's via the internet, but I'm not sure how serious his desire to be part of a secessionist movement is. And as much as I love him, or at the very least feel obligated to do so, that's simply treason in my opinion. Whether he'll get over it or not, I don't know. [Edit--11/21/2012: As clarification... he's an Republican-turned-Tea Partier, and while I'm not a member of any political party I'm at least to the left of him. And, yes, he's still bitter about the election and is probably, at minimum, sympathetic to secessionist movements. My views on such groups being treasonous still remain. I keep feeling as though more developments will come up; how bad, I don't know.]

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The Theory of Revolution

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Week of September 16-22

(Edited on 9/20/2012)

When I initially wrote this blog at around 11 p.m., I was having a hard time falling asleep. It was somewhere around midnight that I could even do so, meaning that I had around 5 hours of sleep, probably even less. An hour later, I caught the 6:15 bus, transferred to another one, and arrived somewhere before 7 a.m. I bought some breakfast at Bruegger's Bagels, having only had a cup of coffee at home. Actually getting through security at the County Courthouse wasn't too bad, and I had filled the necessary form within 5 minutes of arrival, as I was to be there by 7:30. Within the hour, my group had left to go to the City Court. We then met with the judge, the plaintiff (a Tucson Police Officer), the defendant (who was convicted of a D.U.I. with Blood Alcohol Content over the legal limit), the Prosecutor, the Defense Attorney, and the Bailiff (there might've been someone else, but I can't remember). Of the potential jurors, we were narrowed down to a final six--the rest were either dismissed or asked to be part of a different jury. As far as names of the Plaintiff and Defendant are concerned... I probably shouldn't release that. Long story short, the defendant was found guilty of being over the legal limit (above 0.13, and our legal limit is 0.08), but we couldn't technically find her guilty of driving while impaired. It was over before 4:40, and my Struggle for the Presidency class would have been over by then.

Wednesday afternoon, I had a Study Session for Exam One in POL 206-- the class I'm a Preceptor for. Yes, I know I've mentioned that Preceptorship fact before... I guess that's a habit of mine. Anyhow, I figured that 10-15 people would show up, we'd just have a question and answer session, clear up a few things, and it'd all be good. There was around 40 students, at maximum, who came--we had to move from the prescheduled 3rd floor room in the Main Library to near what's called Manuel Pacheco Integrated Learning Center, or the ILC, which is basically a huge computer lab/part of the library. Though I completely forgot to go over the actual exam before I did all this, I knew from my experiences from spring semester and what we (Teacher's Assistants and Preceptors) discussed two days ago what to expect--the fact that the multiple-choice part of the exam wasn't that long was also very helpful. Once my mind shifted gears from "Oh, it's just questions and answers." to "They're looking for more details!", I gave them an overview of what'll be on the Exam and what all to expect without giving away too much. Admittedly, during that time and when it was over (even when I was trying to sleep, no less!), I was nervous over the idea that I said more than I should've. (On the other hand, when I was in this class as a student, I didn't even bother to show up to the study session, if there was one. Didn't hurt, though.) I have no idea how the other Preceptor, Kate Worland, fared. I'll try to remember to ask her how it went, and the exam itself for that matter.

As for my current writing project, Rosethorn, I'm hoping to have Chapter 4 done by the end of the week. As much as I hate to say this, it'll probably be shorter than the other chapters so far. This one is where the main characters--Alexander, Erin, James, David, and another character yet-to-be featured--and the rest of the first years are Sorted. I hadn't planned on who all those would be, aside from Katie Bell and Cormac McLaggen (both canon characters), the four I already mentioned, and the "dog pack"--Lucas Thompson and friends. As there's typically 40 in total, that's 30 more I have to figure out and 30 more that'll be there permanently. Yesterday, I started to write down some idea for the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor; in Harry Potter, ever since Voldemort/Tom Riddle was denied the job, there was supposedly a curse placed on it that no teacher would be there holding that job for more than a year. So, in other words, the line of succession went like this (warning: spoilers ahead--read at your own risk):
(Character I need to make up [tentatively named Gérard Macmillan]) --> Quirrel --> Lockhart --> Lupin --> Moody Crouch, Jr. --> Umbridge --> Snape (Slughorn was the Potions Professor in Half-Blood Prince) --> Amycus Carrow. After the Battle of Hogwarts, with the death of Voldemort, the "curse" is broken. I should  also state for the record that, yes, the Rosethorns and the Carrows are related by marriage--adding to what I said in Chapter 3, Flora and Hestia (the Carrow Twins) are third cousins to Alexander and Leo. Given what I have right now for the full story, I can't say too much about it but the Rosethorns are not proud of Alecto and Amycus Carrow (both of whom are Death Eaters); they love the rest of the family, though, and they feel likewise.

Grace Outreach: The GO Center is almost ready to open!

As a bit of background information, my current Home Church (Grace To The Nations) was originally known as Grace Chapel starting from the late '60s (where the current Small Chapel is today) up until the late '90s. Beginning as a church that strove to reach not only the unsaved/those that had fallen from the things of God but the sort of people the average church at that time wouldn't necessarily associate with (hippies and the like), it became one that reached out towards literally dozens of nations and the Hispanic community. For a while, however, we had a dream of not only reaching the International Community outside of our border, but the one in Tucson. Soon, that dream will be realised.

In a partnership with Tucson Refugee Ministry (along with a bunch of of other groups and churches that I can't remember off the top of my head), we will open the GO Center in a couple of weeks!

• Our primary goal is to reach out and help two groups: Refugees and similar internationals, and local students (6th-12th grade, for the moment) that need tutoring.
• For the refugees, we'll be helping then with their English skills, how to find a job, helping them understand our culture, and other essential tasks. Likewise, I for one hope that the other volunteers here will be able to learn something from this group. Also, while we hope that those who don't know Christ will eventually become a Christian due to our influence, this is something they will hopefully choose on their own--we will not force this on them. For some, however, this conversion is precisely why they've had to leave their homes--something we're obligated to take into account.
• While we already have a thriving Youth Ministry, and from what I understand we had a school of some sorts here, we don't/no longer have dedicated tutors for our children. With this, they can have a place to do their homework, find people to help them, and (provided their work is done) can have a place to play and relax.

If anyone in Tucson is reading this and knows anyone who needs such assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Current Situation (Late August--Mid-December)

Today, I started Fall Semester at the University of Arizona. I am currently a Preceptor for POS-206 (Public Policy and Administration), which was one of my previous classes in Spring Semester. My main duty there will be finding videos relevant to the class--my first one will have to do with "Culture". My second class, POL/COMM 410 (Struggle for the Presidency), deals largely with Presidential campaigning from 1960 onwards. We will discuss the various strategies employed and watch movies related to this, among other things. Once a week, we are to write a 700-1200 word essay on each movie or a relevant topic.

As such, I'm sure I'll be pretty busy. I understand that I don't really blog a whole lot, and my Rosethorn story is afflicted by writers' block in regards to my current chapter (please help if you can...), but my schoolwork/preceptorship is my primary focus. Struggle for the Presidency will be over on November 1st (just in time for Election Day!), so I may be able to find time to post at that point. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that this blog will be dead between that time.

Speaking of lack of updates... Last week, I went in for a group interview for Cactus Grill--one of the restaurants at the Student Union. Considering my previous lack of success in the job market save for being a Waver/Mascot for Liberty Tax Service, this was excellent news. Everything looked great as far as my chances there were concerned, but there was a scheduling conflict. They'll let anyone else that's hiring there know that I'm available, but that's the only real good news about it. Still, at least I have my foot in the door. So, if anyone in Tucson knows of anyone that's hiring (preferably on the East Side on a bus route or near the University of Arizona) let me know. Other than that, the only thing that's really going on is that I've been working on a script for a Thanksgiving play at Grace to the Nations (see "Jesus is Coming" for an idea about how long it'll be). It's not finished yet, and if it's anything like that script, it'll be different than how I first planned it, but I will post it once it's completed.

A fairly uneventful summer

As I said in "Summer Classes", I was taking College Algebra and, in about a week, an Economics class. To be honest, aside from that and church, I haven't really done a whole lot. The highlights of my summer thus far have been going to see Men in Black 3 and going Downtown on the 10th of June. Speaking of which, I'm going to see the next Spider-Man movie (The Amazing Spider-Man) this Friday.

Due to that, I haven't been posting as much as I would've wanted to. I mean, that is the point of having a blog, right? I haven't even finished Chapter 2 of Rosethorn (my Harry Potter fanfiction), though I'd like to do that by the end of the week. I figure that this is mostly because I don't really know how to write it, as I'm having a bit of a mental logjam regarding it (not true writers' block, but it's coming to me in fits and starts, and a lot of it is stuff that'll happen later on. Speaking of which, I finally got to watch Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince last weekend--I've only read about it and seen bits and pieces on it on YouTube and such. Due to that, I came up with several new ideas that should be interesting.

I'm glad to be done with that math class--math has never been my best subject, and the fact that I had 5 weeks to go through it instead of approximately 4 months was a bit annoying. And, really, I have a feeling that I'll have to take it again this Fall due to my probable grade in it. On the plus side, if I did that I'll have a better idea about how to do the homework and such. Tomorrow, I start my Economics class, and I'm feeling more optimistic about that.

Mixed Nuts

 

(Copyright: Bennett at Chattanooga Times Free Press. Yes, I know that much is obvious, but I felt obligated to add that)

First off, I know this sort of thing has been covered by thousands of different blogs all across the Internet--it's a Tuesday/Wednesday, I was bored, and I wanted to post something. And Happy 4th of July, everyone, though I'm clueless about what I want to do for this day. :/ Anyhow...

It's just bizarre that some of us Americans still believe that President Obama's... well, not a U.S. citizen. I mean, you'd think that, given the fact that he went through the gauntlet of being nominated for Democratic Party candidate back in 2008 (not to mention everything else that happened previously), someone would've pointed this out--something like, "Hey, guys, I hate to break this to you all, but this Obama guy? No can do--he's from Kenya, not Hawaii." But, no--he was eventually elected. Now, I'm not saying the every Birther is a racist, but I'm confident that, when you peel back the layers behind their argument, there's a definite racially motivated seed. And I'm sure some will yell at me for dragging race into this, but let's be honest: if President Barack Obama were, say, President Barry O'Brien--a man of Irish-Scot descent with ancestors going back to long before the Constitution was even dreamed of (and one of them fought alongside General George Washington himself!)--no one in their right mind would call his citizenship into question. But, because Obama's dad wasn't an American (and dared to be black, no less), this sort of thing happens. And, knowing the gullibility and downright hardheadedness of Americans Humanity, this will not die out even when I'm old enough to be a grandfather (I'd say around age 60). Now, look, as far as I'm concerned, people are free to criticise Obama for faults--they may be blown out of proportion at times, misunderstood, flat-out made up, or honestly legitimate. I may not agree with much of it, but if someone bothers to point out a legitimate one, at least they're making a conscious effort instead of pulling things out of thin air. So, when I still see people, including my dad, bring this sort of thing up (and act like the Birth Certificate/Certificate of Live Birth/whatever-the-hell-it-was is fake), I can't help but laugh--they're basically grasping at straws at that point. Disagree with his policies, say what you want about his views on abortion or whatever, insult his favourite beer if you must, but don't make yourself look like an ignorant moron when you do it, please! It makes the rest of us Humans look bad, and we've got a bad reputation already.

TUSD students who don't qualify to graduate---want to walk anyway

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For a good job, you need at least a high school diploma--and preferably much better than that.
       
Some TUSD students will be ending their high school careers without that critical piece of paper but they still want the privilege of walking at graduation with their classmates.

The students we talked to are from Tucson High.  They say they passed their classes, they just couldn't pass the math part of that standardized AIMS test.  They say they're confident they'll meet that requirement later, so they should be able to walk.

(Sigh...) And for those who didn't read the article I linked to, some of these students have "had five chances to take AIMS and pass AIMS". Five chances, people. Look, as I said in my earlier blog, I'm not that great at math, so I'm not yelling at them about that, but even I managed to pass it without having to take it 5 times. Heck, I don't even remember it being that hard--not the easiest (and maybe I'm just saying that because I'm smarter than the average 21-year-old Arizonan), but not the hardest thing in the world. And even if "the tutoring didn't reflect what they saw on the test", there's a chance that it was their fault for using bad tutors--I'd think that, after the second or third time of not passing that portion, they'd go to someone else. While, in my opinion, a graduation ceremony is mostly tradition and catharsis (most of the meaning is one's diploma), it's also a symbol that a student went through high school, got good enough grades to get there, and passed the state test. If you did, you did; if you didn't, you didn't--simple as that. In the real world, rarely is anyone rewarded for work they didn't do--not being able to pass this test, even after five tries, should not let someone get a free pass at graduation.

Summer Classes

From May 29th to July 2nd, I'll be taking College Algebra (MAT 151) and from July 9th until August 12 I'll be taking Macroeconomic Principles (ECN 202). All of these are at Pima Community College--Downtown Campus.

If I've never said this before, let me say this: I am not good at math. For as long as I can remember, at best I've been mediocre. So, with that being said, I'm not very optimistic towards my possible College Algebra grades (if I manage to get a C in it, I'll have to remind myself to thank God as hard as I can). As for Economics, I'm feeling slightly more confident about it--the thing about that is that I'm taking it instead of ECON 200 at the U of A (I've already taken ECN 201 back in summer of 2010, and I got a pretty decent final grade on it), as ECN 201 and 202 satisfies the ECON 200.

I'll see about writing another post sometime this month. To be honest, there really hasn't been a whole lot going on this month--Steve, a friend of mine, graduated from Pima College (he got his Certificate in HVAC--Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) and, of course, spring semester is over. Rosethorn, the story I've been working on... I'll be honest and say that I'm looking for some motivation to do it/an audience to read it. I have all these random ideas about it that are either written down or floating in my mind, I know I've only posted one chapter (and then there's the link for the ideas that I've written down in Rosethorn Ideas and Notes), and I really want this to be more than an idea I had that went nowhere. I might take a break from it, focus on working on a script or two, and write about the things I originally planned for this blog to be about. Besides, I have no deadlines when it comes to this.