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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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.