Greek

I got my Greek exam back today. I made a 76, which isn't bad for me-engineer taking language-but I really thought I was going to make a B on that exam. This week our prof introduced principle parts of the verbs. The principle parts of a verb are the first person singular conjugation of the present, future, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, and aorist tenses of that given verb. Surprisingly enough this is one of the few things we have learned in the past month that really makes sense to me. I think I understand it because the parts change one section at a time, so that I can see a clear progression in forms from the present through to the aorist. On a completely different not, three exams till spring break!

The Weekend

Aggie Eagles is done! I just not a big fan of being a herder for an entire weekend. This weekend I was in charge of moving and keeping accountability of 38 high school eagle scouts through a series of events and a basketball game. It really wasn't that bad, its just that, not only did out basketball team play a completely limp game and lose to Nebraska, but this weekend was one of those weekends where there is an explosion of homework all due on Monday. After we sent the Eagles home (we were done by about 6:30) I did a bit of homework and then went and saw a the Spiderwick Chronicles at about 11:30. The movie was okay, the story was pretty weak, but the company was great. It was also my last weekend at Westminster for about a month as I have an FTX this weekend, and then I am going home for both weekends in spring break. If I go home for Easter as well, then it will be an entire month of which I will be absent.

The music to which I listen

Music is an important part of my life. At any given moment I am usually either listening to it, or it is playing itself back inside my head. The band that had managed to make it to the top of my list right now is Relient K. Relient K plays music in a style similar to blink 182 and is on those bands that, while all the members are Christians and they look at life from a clearly Christian perspective, stay away from the CCM label. I didn't begin to start liking Relient K until my second year in college, probably because I needed to grow up some to appreciate much of what they sing about. One of their most common themes is the emotional ups and downs in life (being guys a lot of them are about girls-who woulda' guessed?) and how many times, even when we strive to live our lives doing the right thing, it still seems like we are messing up stupid things and getting just about everyone mad at us. I have to say it is a welcome dose of reality compared to much of what I see in CCM, even some of the groups I like.

Army Lab

Today I had the wonderful privilege of teaching a squad of ms I's and II's (read freshman and sophmores) the squad attack. The squad attack is one of the basic battle drills we learn to be able to do almost as a formula which are the basis for our squad sticks at LDAC. Squad sticks is where you as a squad leaders leads your squad in a short (less than 2 hours) missions and are one of the more important parts of your evaluation. While the squad attack is terribly complicated, there are a lot of good teaching opportunities involved. It really felt like my squad was getting a pretty good handle on how to execute the drill and better yet, I was able use many of the teaching opportunities to give them tools they can use in many other drills. I hope that I did good enough to get a an "e" on my evaluation. (E stands for excellent, the highest possible rating)

Phillip is healed!

That's right poor little Philip isn't blind anymore. Philip is on of the main characters in our Greek primer and he was hit in a fight at a festival and became blind. So for the last maybe four months he has been riding to Epidiarus (sp?) so that he can go to the temple of Aesculapius to be healed. So yesterday he took this drink from the priest and was left to sleep in "the holy place". Today he had a weird dream and offered Aesculapius his knuckle bones to be healed. And then when he woke "he could see both the heavens and the sun rising above the crest of the hills and the tree moving with the wind." It is interesting reading out of a primer, cause many times the sentences don't sound quite right, especially when they are translated very literally.
PS I am impressed, my spell checker had Aesculapius in the dictionary!

Sunny and clear

As some of you may know, I do bible studies for some of the cadets in my outfit. Last night I was doing a bible study for the sophamore class that went really well. I am going through the book "Knowing God" by GI Packer and we were on a chapter focused on God's wisdom. The chapter went through how we can see God's wisdom working in the lives of the Patriarchs as well as our own lives. The point he was driving home was that the trials that we go through have a purpose. I was encouraging to see how God started with someone as weak as Abraham and built him into the figure. The best part of the night was that the one sophamore I was teaching to really seemed to go from not understanding the point, to getting it and then really appreciating the power of what was said. Oh and the weather here after the storm has been beautiful-not too hot and not too cold.

Exam!

I'm off to the wonderful heat transfer exam. To borrow from those most eloquent poets
"Arts and crafts is all I need
I'll take caligraphy
and make a fake degree"

-Relient K

Love?

In the spirit of Valentines I wanted to share some thoughts on "Love"
I don't know if my experiences with love have been especially similar or dissimilar to others, but it seems first that I don't struggle as much with sexual temptation as emotional loneliness. We have all heard the talks about how hard it is to be pure and all that, but I hear precious little about how hard it is to be filled with a (not sure this is the right word) loneliness, that neither friends, or distractions, or even church and prayer, seems to be effective against. And then I start to say, "But I'm a Christian, I'm not supposed to be lonely/empty". Then I realize that this feeling makes me very vulnerable emotionally. Yes its true, I get moody when I'm lonely. And then it doesn't make things much better when I see guys who have little respect for women and don't think about honour in the ways I do, seem to get the satisfaction I so desire. What's wrong with me!? (Please don't answer that). I suppose patience and trust are my only option; patience with God's timing, and trust that He will fill my heart in one way or another. But that sure doesn't make me feel better now. Sigh.

Post 1

Sorry about the wait. I guess its been over a month. I am taking this free weekend to relax a bit, write a post, and catch up on some homework. The morning I went to the women's basketball game and watched us BTHO tu. It was very good bull. As you all know, Mitt Romney has withdrawn from the Republican primary, leaving John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul left. If you listen to the media, you will be tempted to believe that this race is already over and that the Republican party is going to nominate McCain. But one must remember that there are still over 900 delegates to be assigned, and with Romney no longer steeling votes from Huckabee, this race is still far from over. Well I still support Huckabee and hope for his eventual nomination. He is the only candidate who's ideas and passing excite me and matches what I would want to see in the president. And look at McCain; besides being historically weak on so many important conservative issues, McCain will be very hard to elect because much on the conservative vote will refuse to vote for him. I remain hopeful that we will not be subjected to a McCain vs Clinton race and will do my utmost to prevent such an occurrence.
To be honest, the outlook does look difficult, and in light of this situation my mother was wondering what I would do in the event of a McCain vs. Clinton, of even Obama presedential race. This race would leave me in quite a quandry. On the one hand, there is no way I will vote for either Clinton of Obama. But what about McCain? To be honest, I don't know. He would be good for the Army and the war on terror, but there are many domestic issues on which I don't trust or agree with his stated platform. That decision is one I hope to not make, but if I must, it will be sometime later when all the other options are clear.