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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.