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

Link

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.

An article by Gustavo Arellano

There is nothing remotely Mexican about Potato Olés—not even the quasi-Spanish name, which has a distinctly Castilian accent. The burrito was more insulting to me and my heritage than casting Charlton Heston as the swarthy Mexican hero in Touch of Evil. But it was intriguing enough to take back to my hotel room for a taste. There, as I experienced all of the concoction’s gooey, filling glory while chilly rain fell outside, it struck me: Mexican food has become a better culinary metaphor for America than the melting pot.

Taco USA: How Mexican food become more American than apple pie