My Liberal Post (sorry Dad)

Once upon a time I was up at work. There are many, many, many, many boxes up here, full of many things. These boxes sat upon a shelving apparatus against the wall. For many days I would look at this shelving unit and think to myself, "Sooner or later, physics will win." Sure enough, I was here one day and right as the air conditioner turned on, the side walls cracked straight in two, and the whole shelving unit came crashing down. I guess that extra air pressure on top just pushed it over the edge. Luckily I was the only one here and nowhere near the flotsam. (I wish I could use that word more often so I decided to start now.)

Well... new "more sturdy" shelves were purchased, assembled, and subsequently filled up with even more boxes. And now, I'm here alone and there is an ominous creaking noise coming from the shelves, and I have returned to the thought, "sooner or later, physicals will prevail..."

But what does that have to do with the price of tea in china?

Nothing.

This is my liberal post.

I just felt like I had too much to talk about and think about (i.e. shelves) and didn't want to nail down one specific topic. So I decided to start with the shelves and now I shall move on...

It's been a good start of semester so far. My classes (Psych of Marriage, Psych of Family, Cognitive Psych, Abnormal Psych, Stats Lab, Geology, and Tennis) have gotten off to a good start. The material is very interesting, the work load isn't overbearing, the professors are good, and I get coffee everyday. Plus, if the week is too crazy, I have at least 3 hours of tennis each week to "sweat it out" (which is a very healthy thing by-the-way).

So that's topic number 2. School = good so far. No real complaints. However, the computer lab leaves much to be desired. And that will be my transition into my third topic.

I am currently in a Lab class for Statistics. It's a requirement for the Psych Major. Each class we go down to the computer lab in the library and do statistical analysis stuff using Excel. It's not bad. But 50% of the time only 60% of the computers actually work, and 100% of the time we have the RE-download and RE-install the Statistical Analysis tool-pack for Excel, which on the ancient beasts that we have, takes at least 7 minutes of the 50 minute class period. It's a one unit class. Which means, it's costing me $68 dollars each week to take this class (pause and catch your breath for that little nugget). So for every minute of me being in class, I'm paying about $1.40 to be taught statistics. One would HOPE that my tuition dollars would actually be put to use to have working computers, the necessary software properly installed, and possibly a teacher that's on time once in a while. But maybe that's just in a perfect world.

World...transition to my final topic: the world. I want to see it. And the best part about it, my wife does too! We don't want to see the entire thing (although that would be utterly RIGHTEOUS!!!!) But we do want to live in another part, not in the U.S. This is going to take much time of prayer, research, and talking to the right people, but this is my formal announcement to you all. In two years we're gonna move away for a year or so. It won't be permanent and I won't tell you exactly where yet. But I did want to tell you. There's something about telling people about it and asking them to pray that makes it seem a lot more real. So this is me asking for you guys to be praying for us. We have two years to both finish school, raise enough support if needed, research, secure jobs and housing, talk to the right people, and pray. And now, voila...it's real.

Real.....it's what this blog is about. I want to be real. I don't have much to hide (except those bald patches on my cheeks where no beard grows yet). Some days I have one thing to talk about and share, and others it's just a little too much to condense. And still other days, there's so much that I can't even get my thoughts straight and there's a two week (or two month) lapse in writing.

So cheers to all who read this. And if nobody, well, at least it's out there. If you have any thoughts, connections, helps, or whatever, feel free to comment and let me know.