Academia
Cedarville Goes Casual
03/20/09 10:48 AM
In a move that no one
in the student body was really expecting, Cedarville
has officially declared every day as “Casual Friday”
... Sort of. We’re still only allowed to wear
t-shirts on Fridays, but will be allowed, starting
after Easter Break in April, to wear jeans on every
day of the week.
After polling prospective and current students, the majority stated that they would enjoy to freedom to express themselves in manners other than the conservative khakis and dress pants that have previously been required.
This is a decision that a lot of people, including myself, have been eagerly anticipating, though I didn’t think it would happen while I was still a student here. I never minded the dress code to the extent that I would complain about it (because I agreed to come here fully aware of what I would be required to wear), but I do prefer the comfort of wearing jeans, or even simply the ability to make my own choice. I have heard numerous people verbally complain (extensively) about having to wear khakis, and to them I say that they shouldn’t have come to Cedarville. I really just don’t like whining.
Now the dress code has changed, and a new class of complaining has been made: those that don’t want it to change. Why, I’m not sure. If they truly enjoy the comfort of their khakis that much, I encourage them to wear them. They have the choice. And now we have the choice to wear jeans. I also challenge them, if they’re going to so consistently gripe about this change in freedom, to continue to wear khakis for the remainder of the year. Heck, wear them all of next year if you’re really in that much protest over the matter. As they say, “Put your pants where your mouth is.”
The biggest argument I hear is that the “professional” dress that Cedarville used to require is what defines us as a University above all other Christian Universities. That’s not true though. What defines us as a University above other Universities is our character. Christians are known by their actions, not by their appearances. Additionally, the previous dress code disallowed jeans; it in no way promoted a professional look. I saw people wear horribly ugly cargo pants and/or jeans colored other than blue just to get around the dress code. These did not look professional in any way. A formal pair of dark jeans looks far more professional than cargo pants. If Cedarville did maintain its previous dress code to promote a look of professionalism, it was failing.
Hey, if you find yourself ever defined by how you look, or if you think you’re wearing khakis makes you “holier than thou,” I strongly suggest you rethink your mentality towards Christianity.
The other complaint I hear is that this is just the first step toward a downward spiral for Cedarville’s standards. This is equally ridiculous as Cedarville has been liberating itself to adapt to the culture for many years prior to this. You do realize men used to have to wear suits and women were required to wear dresses every day, right? Additionally, Cedarville is still one of only a few other Universities in the country that requires chapel five days a week. Even prestigious graduate school seminaries like Moody Bible only have chapel two or three times a week, and other institutions like Dallas Theological require significantly less consistent attendance at their chapels.
If Chuck’s decided the cafeteria was too full and built a new one in addition to the one we already have so we then had more selection, would you gripe about that too? “What? I have more choices now? But I only really needed pizza!” Hey, eat your pizza then. The rest of us are happy for the broader scope of choice. Stop imposing your own tastes and opinions on others.
Please, I’m asking all of you, stop complaining about Cedarville adapting and relating to the culture around it. There is nothing wrong with this change, and if anything it is beneficial for our school. If you truly dislike the decision that much, it does not have to effect you. It only effects those of us who want to express ourselves differently in how we dress. Now it’s our turn to tell you: “stop whining.”
After polling prospective and current students, the majority stated that they would enjoy to freedom to express themselves in manners other than the conservative khakis and dress pants that have previously been required.
This is a decision that a lot of people, including myself, have been eagerly anticipating, though I didn’t think it would happen while I was still a student here. I never minded the dress code to the extent that I would complain about it (because I agreed to come here fully aware of what I would be required to wear), but I do prefer the comfort of wearing jeans, or even simply the ability to make my own choice. I have heard numerous people verbally complain (extensively) about having to wear khakis, and to them I say that they shouldn’t have come to Cedarville. I really just don’t like whining.
Now the dress code has changed, and a new class of complaining has been made: those that don’t want it to change. Why, I’m not sure. If they truly enjoy the comfort of their khakis that much, I encourage them to wear them. They have the choice. And now we have the choice to wear jeans. I also challenge them, if they’re going to so consistently gripe about this change in freedom, to continue to wear khakis for the remainder of the year. Heck, wear them all of next year if you’re really in that much protest over the matter. As they say, “Put your pants where your mouth is.”
The biggest argument I hear is that the “professional” dress that Cedarville used to require is what defines us as a University above all other Christian Universities. That’s not true though. What defines us as a University above other Universities is our character. Christians are known by their actions, not by their appearances. Additionally, the previous dress code disallowed jeans; it in no way promoted a professional look. I saw people wear horribly ugly cargo pants and/or jeans colored other than blue just to get around the dress code. These did not look professional in any way. A formal pair of dark jeans looks far more professional than cargo pants. If Cedarville did maintain its previous dress code to promote a look of professionalism, it was failing.
Hey, if you find yourself ever defined by how you look, or if you think you’re wearing khakis makes you “holier than thou,” I strongly suggest you rethink your mentality towards Christianity.
The other complaint I hear is that this is just the first step toward a downward spiral for Cedarville’s standards. This is equally ridiculous as Cedarville has been liberating itself to adapt to the culture for many years prior to this. You do realize men used to have to wear suits and women were required to wear dresses every day, right? Additionally, Cedarville is still one of only a few other Universities in the country that requires chapel five days a week. Even prestigious graduate school seminaries like Moody Bible only have chapel two or three times a week, and other institutions like Dallas Theological require significantly less consistent attendance at their chapels.
If Chuck’s decided the cafeteria was too full and built a new one in addition to the one we already have so we then had more selection, would you gripe about that too? “What? I have more choices now? But I only really needed pizza!” Hey, eat your pizza then. The rest of us are happy for the broader scope of choice. Stop imposing your own tastes and opinions on others.
Please, I’m asking all of you, stop complaining about Cedarville adapting and relating to the culture around it. There is nothing wrong with this change, and if anything it is beneficial for our school. If you truly dislike the decision that much, it does not have to effect you. It only effects those of us who want to express ourselves differently in how we dress. Now it’s our turn to tell you: “stop whining.”
Comments
First Week Ramblings
01/09/09 04:40 PM
Passing Out
How many people have to pass out in chapel before we’re considered charismatic? I said at least ten, but Dave thinks we can probably get away with just five. Either way, I don’t think we’re up to charismatic yet ... But we’re gaining fast.I’m back at school again, and this week is the Spring Missions Conference. Yes, we’ve already had two people pass out. In chapel. On the same day. I think this may be a hint as to how stellar our speakers have been thus far, specifically two days ago when the two people passed out.
The first guy was the camera man. I’m guessing he locked his knees, but I think it’s more fun to blame it on the speaker who couldn’t even hold Jessica’s interest enough to keep her taking notes. And she always takes notes.
The second one was somebody in the back. I didn’t see them, but just as chapel was just getting out, Jesse Jones (my hero) flipped open his phone to view a text message. I then heard him mutter, “Oh, crap, somebody else passed out.”
“Wait, what? Besides the camera guy?”
“Yah, they’re in the back,” he replied as he threw his backpack over his shoulder and darted to the back of the chapel. Jesse is an EMT. He’s also a stud. And yes, ladies, I do believe he’s single.
Elevator
Campus Safety has it out to get us. By us I basically only mean the dorm of Brock. The elevator hasn’t worked all year, but at the beginning of this semester our RD sent out an email informing us that it has been turned on again. It was turned off at the beginning of the year due to “improper use.” We’re not sure what that means; all we did was put a bench and a lounge chair on it ... Repeatedly ... After they kept getting taken off, presumably by Campus Safety or Maintenance.Anyway, our elevator is back on, and Dave and I are making the most of it. We’re pretty lazy when it comes to stairs. However, the elevator is really creepy to use ... It makes all sorts of creaking sounds and sways back and forth as it crawls up and down. I honestly think we’re going to end up getting stuck in it one of these days. Dave’s motto is, “Never ride in an elevator with someone you wouldn’t be willing to make out with for a few hours if the elevator got stuck.” I’m not sure what this means considering he rides up and down with me regularly, but we inform anyone riding on the elevator with us of our motto, just so they know.
Kristi’s Still Small
It turns out Kristi hasn’t grown any over break. She still fits just as snugly as before in one of these chairs.
Classes, etc.
Except for lab, I’ve now attended all of my classes. I have all my classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and one of them (which is a five-credit class) is also on Tuesday, Thursday. I’m taking Calculus II, General Physics I, Discrete Math, and Programming Language Survey. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I think I’ll be able to handle it. This afternoon I finished putting all of my assignments into a calendar entitled “Schoolwork” on Google Calendar. I found a way to properly synchronize Google Calendar with iCal, which syncs with iTunes, which syncs with my iPod! Now my entire schedule and all my homework with me wherever I go!Random Quote
“Wow ... Well now I’ve seen everything!”“Really? Have you seen a man eat his own head?”
I don’t know if it was just too late at night or ... What, but this quote was about the only redeeming quality to this movie, which shall remain unnamed for security reasons.
Weekend
I’ve officially made it to my first weekend back at school. It’s Friday, and I’ve finished all classes for today. Kylee and I (and anyone else that decides to tag along) are going to see Seven Pounds tonight. Tomorrow I’ll start on getting ahead on all my homework.The first week always seems to be the worst. It’s when you’re experiencing that shock of going from waking up at eleven in the morning and doing absolutely nothing all day back to waking up with the sun to stress yourself out all day. But it always gets better. The semester is almost never as bad as the syllabi or prof make them out to be the first day of class (and one of my profs certainly made the class out to be awful ... But it won’t be).
All-in-all, it’s great to be back with friends and at the school I love. And I’m really looking forward to this semester. And, yes, I do realize this is the most random and unorganized post I’ve ever written. You’ll have to give me a break. It’s just the end of the first week, which both similar (in terms of your mind being fried) and completely different than (in terms of amount of stress and workload) than Finals Week.
Distraction
12/10/08 03:11 PM
It’s
Finals Week. Chuck’s is open continuously from 6am to
6pm. I can’t stand eating before 6pm, so I’ve
actually been eating in The Hive for Dinner, and I’m
not sure who actually gets up at 6am during Finals
Week when the first finals are never before 8am.
Anyway, six is just far too early to be social or
eat.
So I’ve been in The Hive all day, working hard. People have been drifting in and out, as have I. I had to leave for work at one, but other then that I’ve been here since I woke up. Kylee’s been here, Ryan, Dave, Gabe, Shannon, Kristi, Justin ... Maybe a few other people. I don’t know, my brain is sort of fried right now.
Anyway, everyone just left me except Kristi, who is sitting in the chair next to me, asleep. It’s making me very jealous. It’s not just that she’s asleep and I’m writing a paper. It’s more so that she’s so small that she is able to curl up into a ball small enough to fit in the chair ...
So I’ve been in The Hive all day, working hard. People have been drifting in and out, as have I. I had to leave for work at one, but other then that I’ve been here since I woke up. Kylee’s been here, Ryan, Dave, Gabe, Shannon, Kristi, Justin ... Maybe a few other people. I don’t know, my brain is sort of fried right now.
Anyway, everyone just left me except Kristi, who is sitting in the chair next to me, asleep. It’s making me very jealous. It’s not just that she’s asleep and I’m writing a paper. It’s more so that she’s so small that she is able to curl up into a ball small enough to fit in the chair ...
Really, should that even be allowed? Look at that! It
gets worse. As she’s continued to sleep (and
she’s quite
out),
she’s curled tighter and tighter and wiggled further
into the chair. It’s making me jealous.
The other day, just for fun, I
tried
being like Kristi and curling up into a ball on a
chair to fall asleep. It was about the most
uncomfortable thing I’ve ever done, and I’m not
exactly a big person. She makes it look so easy ...
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a better picture that
didn’t have the coat wrapped around her before she
woke up. Sorry about that, guys. Also, when Ryan came
back from getting the oil changed in his car, he
didn’t realize Kristi was in the chair, he just
thought it was her coat and that she had left. A few
minutes later, when she did one of her “curl tighter”
things, he freaked out.
Okay, that’s probably about all the distraction I
have time to muster up right now. I’ll try to be more
consistant in posting once this hectic week blows
over!
In closing, I wish I were as small, compact, and
travel size as Kristi is. Seriously, it just seems
like you could pick her up and carry her around with
you, or put her in your pocket. Put her in a
suitcase. Pretty much anywhere, she’d probably fit.
I’d better stop before I get in too much more trouble
... At this point I’m running on way too little
sleep, too much stress, and not enough
rationale.
Hypocritical RAs
12/08/08 08:58 AM
I have
no problem with RAs. I have no problem with police
officers. I really have no problem with authority.
Here’s what I do have a problem with: hypocrisy.
Especially when it comes from
authority.
This morning I had my last class in Old Testament Literature. During finals, we’re allowed to wear jeans to class instead of our usual Class Dress, which is basically anything but jeans. So, this week being finals week, I decided to wear jeans this morning. Sure, finals don’t technically start until tomorrow, but this week is finals week, so that was my defense. And considering 50% of the campus has the same mentality as I on this matter, I wasn’t too concerned about getting demerits for it, and I didn’t. But I did overhear a conversation entailing the demerits of another that made me want to stand up and shout!
I was sitting in my comfy rolly chair when it happened. Two girls were sitting in the row in front of me, one of which was wearing blue jeans, when a tall fellow, who was wearing black jeans, strolled up and sat in the chair on the end of the row.
Black Jeans Guy: Hey, you’re wearing jeans. I should write you up.
Blue Jeans Girl: It’s finals ...
Black Jeans Guy: Finals don’t start until tomorrow.
Blue Jeans Girl: Look around you. Everyone is wearing jeans today.
Random Girl: You’re wearing jeans!
Black Jeans Guy: No, these are black jeans. You’re wearing blue jeans.
Blue Jeans Girl: Your point?
Black Jeans Guy: The rule book says no blue jeans. Black jeans are fine. It’s okay though. You’re my friend, and it’s the last week, so I won’t write you up.
Random Girl: How considerate of you.
This conversation bothered me on so many levels. First of all, Black Jeans Guy was clearly going to let Blue Jeans Girl off the hook merely because they were friends. I was crossing my fingers the entire class, hoping he would turn around and try to give me demerits after class so I could give him the what’s-up. He didn’t.
Friend exceptions bug me, just like any amount of inconsistency bugs me, but the fact that he was actually trying to give demerits to someone else for wearing jeans while he was wearing jeans just made me want to jump into the conversation even more. I refrained.
I wanted to jump up and say, “Oh my goodness, do you not even understand the rules you’re supposed to be enforcing? The rule book says nothing about jeans whatsoever, no matter the color! Dr. Brown made a joke about it last year in chapel, but the rule book is silent on the matter.”
If he had talked to me after class, here’s what I would have said: “I’ll make you a deal. We walk to the SSC right now and get a Student Handbook. If the handbook says anything about jeans, specifically blue jeans, you can right me up for five demerits, if you want.” A dress code violation is only worth two demerits. “However, if black jeans are just as unacceptable as blue jeans, you and I are marching to your RDs office and you’re giving yourself demerits while I get none.”
Just for fun, let’s have a look at the Student Handbook, shall we? Yes, I actually have memorized parts of the Handbook just for moments such as these. It really would have made my day if he had talked to me ...
Men
Dress/sport shirt, sweaters/sweatshirts, slacks, and footwear (no long/short-sleeved T-shirts or shorts)
Women
Skirts, dresses, blouses, sweaters/sweatshirts, slacks, and footwear (no long/short-sleeved T-shirts, shorts, or leggings)
Since their seems to be a bit of confusion, let’s define “slacks” according to Webster.
slacks: trousers especially for casual wear
trouser: pant
pant: an outer garment covering each leg separately and usually extending from the waist to the ankle
As you may have noticed, as I certainly did, slacks mentions nothing of denim or color. In fact, if we took this definition completely literally, jeans may even be allowed! However, they aren’t.
It’s not so much that I care about the fact that jeans may or may not be allowed according to the Handbook. It’s that the RA used the “fact” that “the rule book says no blue jeans.” No, it doesn’t. I’ve heard RAs misquote the rule book numerous times, and it bothers me that those in authority that are supposed to be enforcing the rules on us don’t even have a proper understanding of the rules they are to be enforcing. This is why I memorize parts of the rule book. Now I just wish someone would call me out when I actually have a good defense like today ...
This morning I had my last class in Old Testament Literature. During finals, we’re allowed to wear jeans to class instead of our usual Class Dress, which is basically anything but jeans. So, this week being finals week, I decided to wear jeans this morning. Sure, finals don’t technically start until tomorrow, but this week is finals week, so that was my defense. And considering 50% of the campus has the same mentality as I on this matter, I wasn’t too concerned about getting demerits for it, and I didn’t. But I did overhear a conversation entailing the demerits of another that made me want to stand up and shout!
I was sitting in my comfy rolly chair when it happened. Two girls were sitting in the row in front of me, one of which was wearing blue jeans, when a tall fellow, who was wearing black jeans, strolled up and sat in the chair on the end of the row.
Black Jeans Guy: Hey, you’re wearing jeans. I should write you up.
Blue Jeans Girl: It’s finals ...
Black Jeans Guy: Finals don’t start until tomorrow.
Blue Jeans Girl: Look around you. Everyone is wearing jeans today.
Random Girl: You’re wearing jeans!
Black Jeans Guy: No, these are black jeans. You’re wearing blue jeans.
Blue Jeans Girl: Your point?
Black Jeans Guy: The rule book says no blue jeans. Black jeans are fine. It’s okay though. You’re my friend, and it’s the last week, so I won’t write you up.
Random Girl: How considerate of you.
This conversation bothered me on so many levels. First of all, Black Jeans Guy was clearly going to let Blue Jeans Girl off the hook merely because they were friends. I was crossing my fingers the entire class, hoping he would turn around and try to give me demerits after class so I could give him the what’s-up. He didn’t.
Friend exceptions bug me, just like any amount of inconsistency bugs me, but the fact that he was actually trying to give demerits to someone else for wearing jeans while he was wearing jeans just made me want to jump into the conversation even more. I refrained.
I wanted to jump up and say, “Oh my goodness, do you not even understand the rules you’re supposed to be enforcing? The rule book says nothing about jeans whatsoever, no matter the color! Dr. Brown made a joke about it last year in chapel, but the rule book is silent on the matter.”
If he had talked to me after class, here’s what I would have said: “I’ll make you a deal. We walk to the SSC right now and get a Student Handbook. If the handbook says anything about jeans, specifically blue jeans, you can right me up for five demerits, if you want.” A dress code violation is only worth two demerits. “However, if black jeans are just as unacceptable as blue jeans, you and I are marching to your RDs office and you’re giving yourself demerits while I get none.”
Just for fun, let’s have a look at the Student Handbook, shall we? Yes, I actually have memorized parts of the Handbook just for moments such as these. It really would have made my day if he had talked to me ...
Men
Dress/sport shirt, sweaters/sweatshirts, slacks, and footwear (no long/short-sleeved T-shirts or shorts)
Women
Skirts, dresses, blouses, sweaters/sweatshirts, slacks, and footwear (no long/short-sleeved T-shirts, shorts, or leggings)
Since their seems to be a bit of confusion, let’s define “slacks” according to Webster.
slacks: trousers especially for casual wear
trouser: pant
pant: an outer garment covering each leg separately and usually extending from the waist to the ankle
As you may have noticed, as I certainly did, slacks mentions nothing of denim or color. In fact, if we took this definition completely literally, jeans may even be allowed! However, they aren’t.
It’s not so much that I care about the fact that jeans may or may not be allowed according to the Handbook. It’s that the RA used the “fact” that “the rule book says no blue jeans.” No, it doesn’t. I’ve heard RAs misquote the rule book numerous times, and it bothers me that those in authority that are supposed to be enforcing the rules on us don’t even have a proper understanding of the rules they are to be enforcing. This is why I memorize parts of the rule book. Now I just wish someone would call me out when I actually have a good defense like today ...
Another Cedarville Experience
11/13/08 10:13 AM
It’s been a long week.
Lost somewhere in exams, papers, and projects is my
sleep. I’m not complaining or saying it’s a bad week,
time just seems to be moving very slowly.
Yesterday, I woke up early to go to work, as usual for a Wednesday. I left work a bit early so I could lay my head on the desk in class for a few minutes before it started. That never actually happened, because as I sat in my comfy rolly chair, Nathan walked up to our row and asked if anyone was sitting in the chair to my right. It was empty, so he sat down.
Dr. Miller, the professor who teaches multiple sections of Old Testament Literature, a class of several hundred students, tore his Achilles Tendon a couple months ago, and he’s had to hobble around in a cast with crutches since then. A hard thing to do for a man who loves to walk up and down the aisles of his class while he teaches. I think he was in an exceptionally good mood yesterday, as it appeared he didn’t have the cast on at all anymore and he was walking up and down the aisles before class started.
Nathan has a travel mug that he had sitting on the desk. Dr. Miller walked up to our row and picked Nathan’s mug.
“It’s not even full,” he commented.
“No, I already drank most of it this morning,” Nathan replied.
“You could go fill it up outside.”
“That’s right!” I jutted in, “they have that stand out there now!”
Usually I would have had to walk all the way back to the SSC, and I was in the Bible building, so that was just too far of a walk. But they have a coffee stand in the atrium of the Bible building that I had totally forgotten about! I reached towards my bag before realizing I didn’t have my travel mug with me today; I had taken it out of my bag the day prior.
“Aw, nuts, I don’t have my mug.” My dismay was evident.
“You could just get one of the cups they have out there,” Dr. Miller suggested. “Here, do you need a dollar?”
“Are you serious?”
Apparently he was, because he reached for his wallet, pulled out a dollar, and handed it to me. “I am so getting a cup of coffee then!” I leapt up from my chair and ran out of the classroom, off to get my Sumatra coffee.
It could have been that Dr. Miller was in an exceptionally good mood due to the lack of a cast on his ankle. It could have been that it was incredibly obvious how tired I was and that he wanted me to stay awake in his class. It could have been that he felt guilty because he still hasn’t followed up on our coffee date which we agreed to last year ... And the beginning of this year. But I like to think that, had all the previous elements been missing, he still would have handed me a dollar. That’s just how Dr. Miller is.
Which brings me to my main point: that’s how Cedarville is. When people ask me what my favorite thing about Cedarville is, or why they should come (or transfer) here, I always tell them to same thing: the professors. Sure, the social atmosphere is awesome as well, and that’s a huge part of college, but the purpose of college is to study and learn, so professors are pretty important, I’d say. And when you’re paying ... Well ... A lot of money for a better education, there had better be some reason you’re paying that much more.
It’s not uncommon to visit your professor’s house, or your advisor’s, or the head of your department’s. The professors here don’t just try to shuffle you through their class with a passing grade, they’re actually interested in whether you’re learning properly. They’re also interested in your personal life, and I’ve had numerous professors offer to pray for me or help me in any way they can.
It’s not always just little things like offering a dollar for coffee though. Last year, I was in a class of about eighty people. For every section this professor taught, he had all the students over to his house to enjoy a home cooked meal after the Final by his lovely wife. Around the time of the final, one of my fellow classmate’s parents died. Obviously, the professor allowed them to go home and take the Final at a later time. That wasn’t all the professor did though. He actually bought the student a plane ticket home as well so they wouldn’t have to drive.
Whether it’s a genuine interest in the personal life of their students, a willingness to serve them in any way possible, or simply a dollar to wake a student up in their class, it’s evident that the professors at Cedarville care about you and your academic career. And, while buying a plane ticket for a student is a pretty awesome thing to do, that doesn’t lessen the meaning of “little” things at all. That coffee basically saved my life this morning. Thanks, Dr. Miller!
That’s just one of the many reasons I love Cedarville.
Yesterday, I woke up early to go to work, as usual for a Wednesday. I left work a bit early so I could lay my head on the desk in class for a few minutes before it started. That never actually happened, because as I sat in my comfy rolly chair, Nathan walked up to our row and asked if anyone was sitting in the chair to my right. It was empty, so he sat down.
Dr. Miller, the professor who teaches multiple sections of Old Testament Literature, a class of several hundred students, tore his Achilles Tendon a couple months ago, and he’s had to hobble around in a cast with crutches since then. A hard thing to do for a man who loves to walk up and down the aisles of his class while he teaches. I think he was in an exceptionally good mood yesterday, as it appeared he didn’t have the cast on at all anymore and he was walking up and down the aisles before class started.
Nathan has a travel mug that he had sitting on the desk. Dr. Miller walked up to our row and picked Nathan’s mug.
“It’s not even full,” he commented.
“No, I already drank most of it this morning,” Nathan replied.
“You could go fill it up outside.”
“That’s right!” I jutted in, “they have that stand out there now!”
Usually I would have had to walk all the way back to the SSC, and I was in the Bible building, so that was just too far of a walk. But they have a coffee stand in the atrium of the Bible building that I had totally forgotten about! I reached towards my bag before realizing I didn’t have my travel mug with me today; I had taken it out of my bag the day prior.
“Aw, nuts, I don’t have my mug.” My dismay was evident.
“You could just get one of the cups they have out there,” Dr. Miller suggested. “Here, do you need a dollar?”
“Are you serious?”
Apparently he was, because he reached for his wallet, pulled out a dollar, and handed it to me. “I am so getting a cup of coffee then!” I leapt up from my chair and ran out of the classroom, off to get my Sumatra coffee.
It could have been that Dr. Miller was in an exceptionally good mood due to the lack of a cast on his ankle. It could have been that it was incredibly obvious how tired I was and that he wanted me to stay awake in his class. It could have been that he felt guilty because he still hasn’t followed up on our coffee date which we agreed to last year ... And the beginning of this year. But I like to think that, had all the previous elements been missing, he still would have handed me a dollar. That’s just how Dr. Miller is.
Which brings me to my main point: that’s how Cedarville is. When people ask me what my favorite thing about Cedarville is, or why they should come (or transfer) here, I always tell them to same thing: the professors. Sure, the social atmosphere is awesome as well, and that’s a huge part of college, but the purpose of college is to study and learn, so professors are pretty important, I’d say. And when you’re paying ... Well ... A lot of money for a better education, there had better be some reason you’re paying that much more.
It’s not uncommon to visit your professor’s house, or your advisor’s, or the head of your department’s. The professors here don’t just try to shuffle you through their class with a passing grade, they’re actually interested in whether you’re learning properly. They’re also interested in your personal life, and I’ve had numerous professors offer to pray for me or help me in any way they can.
It’s not always just little things like offering a dollar for coffee though. Last year, I was in a class of about eighty people. For every section this professor taught, he had all the students over to his house to enjoy a home cooked meal after the Final by his lovely wife. Around the time of the final, one of my fellow classmate’s parents died. Obviously, the professor allowed them to go home and take the Final at a later time. That wasn’t all the professor did though. He actually bought the student a plane ticket home as well so they wouldn’t have to drive.
Whether it’s a genuine interest in the personal life of their students, a willingness to serve them in any way possible, or simply a dollar to wake a student up in their class, it’s evident that the professors at Cedarville care about you and your academic career. And, while buying a plane ticket for a student is a pretty awesome thing to do, that doesn’t lessen the meaning of “little” things at all. That coffee basically saved my life this morning. Thanks, Dr. Miller!
That’s just one of the many reasons I love Cedarville.
Cotton Balls and Cramps
11/07/08 09:36 AM
I was never really good
at Chemistry. Better at it than at Biology, but still
not exceptional. Granted, I earned an A when I took
Chemistry in college, but this was from Kirkwood,
which doesn’t have the highest academic prestige, so
the A was easily achieved without completely
understanding the material ... The same goes for
Biology, which I also took there and received a B+.
That being said, I may not have the fullest
understanding of acids and bases and things breaking
down. (In fact, if the previous sentence really makes
no sense, that’s probably why ... I was just trying
to throw the words out to sound intelligent.)
I’m also the type of person that, if you tell me to do something (you don’t even have to dare me, really) and it’s not against my morals and doesn’t seem to have the potential to cause a fatality, I’ll probably do it. I’m always up for checking off experiences from my “Things To Do Before I Die” list. I guess that’s why I have black nails right now ...
Last night, we celebrated the Finnish holiday of Pyhäinpäivä (PUH-HAH-IN-PIE-VAH). The American equivalent would be All Saints’ Day, but while All Saints’ Day is always on November 1st, Pyhäinpäivä is on the first Saturday between October 31st and November 6th. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Last night wasn’t Saturday. That is very perceptive of you. We just realized this morning that Griffin actually gave us the wrong day to celebrated the beloved holiday of our ancestors, but we will try to forgive him. But since we didn’t get to celebrate Pyhäinpäivä last Saturday, we decided to celebrate it last night, the 6th, by watching The Office and performing several Finnish traditions with a large group of people.
It was a fantastic turnout. We had seventeen people show up to a celebration that they had never even heard of. During the commercial breaks of The Office, we muted the volume and partook together in the Finnish festivities we had planned just an hour before the party started. Such festivities included, but were not limited to the following:
I offered Ryan a rolly-polly baby Panda for Christmas, Shannon performed the interpretive dance, we sang Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in memory of King Valdemar, and I happened to be the oldest male present. So I ate a cotton ball. Not just any cotton ball, mind you, but probably the largest one in the bag; it was dark and I just reached in and grabbed one, but it happened to be enormous. After mustering up all my gumption, I stuck the cotton ball in my mouth and started salivating to get it wet enough to slide down my throat. It took me quite a while, but finally I tried swallowing. It got stuck half way. I grabbed the nearest cup of Mountain Dew and forced the cotton ball the remainder of the way into my stomach. There was much rejoicing, and I took my seat again as The Office came back on.
Had I paid closer attention in my aforementioned Community College classes, I might have known that the acids in your stomach can’t actually break down cotton for some reason (which leaves me thoroughly unimpressed with my own stomach), and I may have been more wary of eating a cotton ball. As it was, I simply thought it would digest and there would be no problems.
This morning I woke up with horrendous cramps (on top of an already very upset stomach) and a terrible headache. I tried sitting up in bed, but that seemed to hurt too much, so I just laid there for a very long time, eventually skipping my first class.
So let this be a lesson to all of you! I know Buddy eats cotton balls in Elf, and it looks like fun and that he doesn’t suffer any consequences from his actions, but trust me ... He does! Your stomach, intestines, and basically any part of your digestive tract don’t get along well with cotton balls.
See what you missed out on last night, Jon McGill?
I’m also the type of person that, if you tell me to do something (you don’t even have to dare me, really) and it’s not against my morals and doesn’t seem to have the potential to cause a fatality, I’ll probably do it. I’m always up for checking off experiences from my “Things To Do Before I Die” list. I guess that’s why I have black nails right now ...
Last night, we celebrated the Finnish holiday of Pyhäinpäivä (PUH-HAH-IN-PIE-VAH). The American equivalent would be All Saints’ Day, but while All Saints’ Day is always on November 1st, Pyhäinpäivä is on the first Saturday between October 31st and November 6th. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Last night wasn’t Saturday. That is very perceptive of you. We just realized this morning that Griffin actually gave us the wrong day to celebrated the beloved holiday of our ancestors, but we will try to forgive him. But since we didn’t get to celebrate Pyhäinpäivä last Saturday, we decided to celebrate it last night, the 6th, by watching The Office and performing several Finnish traditions with a large group of people.
It was a fantastic turnout. We had seventeen people show up to a celebration that they had never even heard of. During the commercial breaks of The Office, we muted the volume and partook together in the Finnish festivities we had planned just an hour before the party started. Such festivities included, but were not limited to the following:
- As is custom, the host must advise all invited guests to bring their own eggs. At the celebration of Pyhäinpäivä, all guests must laugh at anyone who actually brings their own eggs. This ceremony is in commemoration of King Albert’s (of Mecklenburg) practice of sending out edicts via carrier chicken.
- The oldest male must eat a cotton ball in memory of our ancestors that, in the Finnish blight of 1728, had to ingest their bedding and pillows to survive.
- All guests must pass the flaming grease cup. This symbolizes the flame of unity and also reminds us of an old Finnish legend in which a crew of sailors were caught at sea during a long December. The crew was forced to burn their stores of bacon and butter for warmth to survive and was able to outlast the winter. The cup of grease must be passed counterclockwise, each person saying to the person to their right what they would give them for Christmas, if they could give them anything.
- One volunteer, or victim chosen at random if no one should volunteer, must perform the traditional Finnish dance to keep the spirits at bay for the coming year. Since the traditional Finnish dance has long since been forgotten, the volunteer must improvise interpretively. The person must volunteer without knowing what they are agreeing to do, thus symbolizing the stark bravery of Finnish dancers.
- A song must be sung to commemorate the coronation of King Valdemar of the house of Bjelbo. The original melody has long since been forgotten, so any song that is well known, radio-worthy, and at least nine years old may be sung. And, in light of King Valdemar’s decree regarding the Great Minstrel Hunt of 1264, the song must be sung a capella by all guests present.
- There was a chicken virus that went around in Finland in 1355. At that time, whenever someone ate anything made out of eggs, they weren’t sure if the egg had been infected or not. The chance taken in eating things made with eggs is represented by a game of chance referred to as “Never Have I Ever” or, in Finnish, “Koskaan Olen Koskaan.” All guests must form a circle, placing an egg on the ground in front of them. One person says something that they have never done, and anyone in the circle who has done that thing must spin their egg. If the egg stops spinning while it is pointing at the person who spun it, they are officially out of the game. The last person remaining collects all the eggs at the end of the game.
- The Finnish are known especially for two things: Their love of unity and friendship, and their exceptional hip-grabbing ability. To celebrate, all members present must participate in an impromptu conga line from the party’s locale to the nearest seller of overpriced goods, through their place of business, and back to the party.
I offered Ryan a rolly-polly baby Panda for Christmas, Shannon performed the interpretive dance, we sang Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in memory of King Valdemar, and I happened to be the oldest male present. So I ate a cotton ball. Not just any cotton ball, mind you, but probably the largest one in the bag; it was dark and I just reached in and grabbed one, but it happened to be enormous. After mustering up all my gumption, I stuck the cotton ball in my mouth and started salivating to get it wet enough to slide down my throat. It took me quite a while, but finally I tried swallowing. It got stuck half way. I grabbed the nearest cup of Mountain Dew and forced the cotton ball the remainder of the way into my stomach. There was much rejoicing, and I took my seat again as The Office came back on.
Had I paid closer attention in my aforementioned Community College classes, I might have known that the acids in your stomach can’t actually break down cotton for some reason (which leaves me thoroughly unimpressed with my own stomach), and I may have been more wary of eating a cotton ball. As it was, I simply thought it would digest and there would be no problems.
This morning I woke up with horrendous cramps (on top of an already very upset stomach) and a terrible headache. I tried sitting up in bed, but that seemed to hurt too much, so I just laid there for a very long time, eventually skipping my first class.
So let this be a lesson to all of you! I know Buddy eats cotton balls in Elf, and it looks like fun and that he doesn’t suffer any consequences from his actions, but trust me ... He does! Your stomach, intestines, and basically any part of your digestive tract don’t get along well with cotton balls.
See what you missed out on last night, Jon McGill?
Suspicious Package Found at Cedarville
10/22/08 01:07 PM
Cedarville University
seems to have made it into the papers again. This
story is almost as amazing as the
Climate of Fear article reported a while back (the
parody of which, Climate of
Beer, was even better).
Apparently this is all they could find to report on ...
Here’s the situation: A suspicious packaged is found on campus by a staff member and is reported to the proper authorities. The bomb squad is apparently the proper authorities on such matters. The package is properly disposed of, Cedarville is in the news.
Let’s try to put this into a proper perspective ... So, you’re walking through the DMC, thinking of the best way to inform your class that the highest grade was a 79%, but it still doesn’t reflect your teaching (somehow), and you see a small, brown box off in a dark corner. I don’t know about you, but if that were me, I would first give my students a major curve because my exam sucked. Secondly, I would not assume the box was a bomb. This is Cedarville. Clearly there’s a legitimate explanation for the “suspicious” package. I’m not sure if the box looked at the staff member ominously, or if it just straight up said, “This Is Suspicious” on the front, but unless one of those two things is true (and believe me, a box with eyes is a cause for concern), I don’t think Campus Safety needs to get involved. Hey, but on the bright side, you now have an excuse to cancel class.
This evidently just goes to show how little Campus Safety really has to do, and how tired they are of simply handing out Parking Violations. They took this as their time to shine. The last time that happened was ... Sheesh ... With the Cadillitic Converters being randomly stolen off cars last year! So, Campus Safety gets this report of a suspicious package, goes to check it out, finds that it’s a harmless brown box, moves it to, of all places, the driving range on the outskirts of campus, and ... Calls Hazmat. Then they send out a campus wide email informing us they have the situation under control.
Good. Because we all were aware of the situation and very concerned. Of course, Cedarville being the small campus that it is, and not already having enough female gossip to go around, everyone starts talking about the package.
Of course, you can’t have a suspicious package without the news getting involved. So the nightly news came to campus to interview people and do a report on it. They decided to run it as a “bomb threat”, which I think should have meant we didn’t have school the next day, but we did. It wasn’t a bomb threat. It was a suspicious package. There was never even really talk of a bomb, except that the bomb squad was here ... Minor details.
So, what was in the package, anyway? Well, after the campus wide email regarding the suspicious package went out, a group of students who had placed the package (as suspiciously as possible, apparently) decided to come forward and admit their crime. They had placed the box in the DMC as part of a scavenger. I’m guessing it was the final prize. It contained a box of chocolates. After the group of students came forward, Campus Safety and the Bomb Squad turned the investigation over to local authorities. I’m not sure what that means, but if those guys are prosecuted for a scavenger hunt, they you know Cedarville has too much time on its hands!
But just think, if the staff member had just quietly taken the box with him or her, he or she could have had that entire box of chocolates to themselves, and no one would have been the wiser, and the people participating in the scavenger hunt would have felt severely shafted. Finders keepers.
Apparently this is all they could find to report on ...
Here’s the situation: A suspicious packaged is found on campus by a staff member and is reported to the proper authorities. The bomb squad is apparently the proper authorities on such matters. The package is properly disposed of, Cedarville is in the news.
Let’s try to put this into a proper perspective ... So, you’re walking through the DMC, thinking of the best way to inform your class that the highest grade was a 79%, but it still doesn’t reflect your teaching (somehow), and you see a small, brown box off in a dark corner. I don’t know about you, but if that were me, I would first give my students a major curve because my exam sucked. Secondly, I would not assume the box was a bomb. This is Cedarville. Clearly there’s a legitimate explanation for the “suspicious” package. I’m not sure if the box looked at the staff member ominously, or if it just straight up said, “This Is Suspicious” on the front, but unless one of those two things is true (and believe me, a box with eyes is a cause for concern), I don’t think Campus Safety needs to get involved. Hey, but on the bright side, you now have an excuse to cancel class.
This evidently just goes to show how little Campus Safety really has to do, and how tired they are of simply handing out Parking Violations. They took this as their time to shine. The last time that happened was ... Sheesh ... With the Cadillitic Converters being randomly stolen off cars last year! So, Campus Safety gets this report of a suspicious package, goes to check it out, finds that it’s a harmless brown box, moves it to, of all places, the driving range on the outskirts of campus, and ... Calls Hazmat. Then they send out a campus wide email informing us they have the situation under control.
Good. Because we all were aware of the situation and very concerned. Of course, Cedarville being the small campus that it is, and not already having enough female gossip to go around, everyone starts talking about the package.
Of course, you can’t have a suspicious package without the news getting involved. So the nightly news came to campus to interview people and do a report on it. They decided to run it as a “bomb threat”, which I think should have meant we didn’t have school the next day, but we did. It wasn’t a bomb threat. It was a suspicious package. There was never even really talk of a bomb, except that the bomb squad was here ... Minor details.
So, what was in the package, anyway? Well, after the campus wide email regarding the suspicious package went out, a group of students who had placed the package (as suspiciously as possible, apparently) decided to come forward and admit their crime. They had placed the box in the DMC as part of a scavenger. I’m guessing it was the final prize. It contained a box of chocolates. After the group of students came forward, Campus Safety and the Bomb Squad turned the investigation over to local authorities. I’m not sure what that means, but if those guys are prosecuted for a scavenger hunt, they you know Cedarville has too much time on its hands!
But just think, if the staff member had just quietly taken the box with him or her, he or she could have had that entire box of chocolates to themselves, and no one would have been the wiser, and the people participating in the scavenger hunt would have felt severely shafted. Finders keepers.
Using Apple Mail (Specifically) At Cedarville
10/17/08 12:17 AM
Sorry, I know, this is
the second blog post about mostly the same thing. But
I’ve found a better way to do it, and it didn’t seem
beneficial to simply erase my old blog post. But this
one won’t include pictures, it’s just a general
overview of what I think is a far more simplistic way
to combine your Cedarville email address with your
personal email address. I’ll use Apple Mail as the
third-party client of choice this time. (I know, it’s
not cross-platform like Thunderbird ... Deal.) You’ll
also need a Gmail account.
If you already have a Gmail account, skip this step.
You’ll need to register for a Gmail account here. Under the Accounts tab of Settings in your Gmail account, you’ll need to import your other email account via POP3. (Instructions for your POP3 settings should be provided by your email service.)
Now, after you’ve got a Gmail account (or if you already had a Gmail account), you’ll need to import your Cedarville email account as an additional POP3 account to your Gmail Inbox. You can do this the same way listed above, using the following POP3 information for Cedarville’s mail server:
Username: myusername@cedarville.edu
Password: mypassword
Server: pop.cedarville.edu
Port: 110
I shouldn’t have to say this, but obviously you should put your own username and password in ... Not the above. For convenience sake, you can check “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server” and “Label incoming messages: myusername@cedarville.edu”.
You now have all your email accounts in one place. However, it’s in a browser-based environment; you can only get to it when an internet connection is present. If you would like to retrieve it all through Apple Mail, all you need do is open Apple Mail and add an account. The newest version of Apple Mail knows instinctively how to setup a Gmail account, so all you’ll need to do is provide your Gmail username and password. The rest is done automatically.
Back in Gmail, if you want to be able to send mail from you Cedarville account through Gmail (only in browser mode ... Not from Apple Mail ... Sorry), you’ll need to add yet another server through Settings-->Accounts in Gmail. All you need do in this case is add your Cedarville email address as a “Send Mail As” account, check your Cedarville account, follow the link provided in that email, and voila, you can send email from your Cedarville account through your Gmail account.
And all this is free :).
There’s one more treat. In Apple Mail, your email will always be sent from Gmail, not Cedarville. There is a way to send mail from your Cedarville account the Apple Mail, but it’s kind of pointless. But guess what, you can get the GroupWise address book via LDAP into your Apple Addressbook. Here’s how:
In Apple Mail, go to Preferences. Click on the Composing tab. Click “Configure LDAP ...” Add a new LDAP server with the following information:
Name: Cedarville
Server: imap.cedarville.edu
Port: 389
Search Base: o=cedarnet1
Scope: Subtree
Now, when composing a message, you can start typing any name (you’ll need to wait a bit) and it will search the GroupWise address book and return any matches. It works pretty well :).
Enjoy.
If you already have a Gmail account, skip this step.
You’ll need to register for a Gmail account here. Under the Accounts tab of Settings in your Gmail account, you’ll need to import your other email account via POP3. (Instructions for your POP3 settings should be provided by your email service.)
Now, after you’ve got a Gmail account (or if you already had a Gmail account), you’ll need to import your Cedarville email account as an additional POP3 account to your Gmail Inbox. You can do this the same way listed above, using the following POP3 information for Cedarville’s mail server:
Username: myusername@cedarville.edu
Password: mypassword
Server: pop.cedarville.edu
Port: 110
I shouldn’t have to say this, but obviously you should put your own username and password in ... Not the above. For convenience sake, you can check “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server” and “Label incoming messages: myusername@cedarville.edu”.
You now have all your email accounts in one place. However, it’s in a browser-based environment; you can only get to it when an internet connection is present. If you would like to retrieve it all through Apple Mail, all you need do is open Apple Mail and add an account. The newest version of Apple Mail knows instinctively how to setup a Gmail account, so all you’ll need to do is provide your Gmail username and password. The rest is done automatically.
Back in Gmail, if you want to be able to send mail from you Cedarville account through Gmail (only in browser mode ... Not from Apple Mail ... Sorry), you’ll need to add yet another server through Settings-->Accounts in Gmail. All you need do in this case is add your Cedarville email address as a “Send Mail As” account, check your Cedarville account, follow the link provided in that email, and voila, you can send email from your Cedarville account through your Gmail account.
And all this is free :).
There’s one more treat. In Apple Mail, your email will always be sent from Gmail, not Cedarville. There is a way to send mail from your Cedarville account the Apple Mail, but it’s kind of pointless. But guess what, you can get the GroupWise address book via LDAP into your Apple Addressbook. Here’s how:
In Apple Mail, go to Preferences. Click on the Composing tab. Click “Configure LDAP ...” Add a new LDAP server with the following information:
Name: Cedarville
Server: imap.cedarville.edu
Port: 389
Search Base: o=cedarnet1
Scope: Subtree
Now, when composing a message, you can start typing any name (you’ll need to wait a bit) and it will search the GroupWise address book and return any matches. It works pretty well :).
Enjoy.
How To: Use A Mail Client Besides GroupWise at Cedarville
10/02/08 07:01 PM
Cedarville has this
thing ... Novell GroupWise. I don't mind Novell, but
it's not my favorite. It slows computers and networks
down. The problem is, when you have a campus with
thousands of comptuers on it, Novell is really the
best way to go as far as Networking Utilities go.
That doesn't mean you have to use their email client, GroupWise, though. But Cedarville says we do. Ick. So, a few nights ago, I set out to find the servers that Cedarville stores emails, the address book, and calendar. There's good news and bad news: The good news is, I successfully figured out the email and address book. The bad news is, the calendar may be internal ... Which means you're forced to use GroupWise to view it. But at least you can use something other than GroupWise for your email now! The following instructions are for setting up Mozilla Thunderbird, because it's the most popular (and probably best) client that I've had people ask for. I'll write instructions for other clients in the future (hopefully once I figure out a work-around for the calendar), and I may post a link to the Help Page created for this on Cedarville's website after I finish it. But for now, here you go.
The beauty of Mozilla Thunderbird is it works on most any OS you're using (Windows, Mac, or Linux), and it allows for multiple accounts (I use it to combine my school and Gmail accounts), so organization is much better ... It's all in one application :)!
1.) Download and install Mozilla Thunderbird from this website.
2.) The first time you run Thunderbird, you will see this screen:
Note: If you already have a Thunderbird account setup, open Thunderbird, select Tools->Account Settings... (Edit->Account Settings... for Linux). Select "Add Account ..."
Select "Email account" and click "Next >".
3.) Enter your Full Name and full Email Address (include @cedarville.edu) in the boxes provided.
4.) Select "IMAP" and specify imap.cedarville.edu as the Incoming Server.
5.) Enter mail.cedarville.edu for the outgoing server.
6.) Enter your full email address for both the Incoming and Outgoing User Names (include @cedarville.edu).
7.) Enter your full email address as the Account Name (include @cedarville.edu).
8.) Click "Finish >".
9.) Enter your GroupWise password and select "Use Password Manager to remember passwords" if you want Thunderbird to remember your password.
10.) Click "Get Mail" to retrieve your account information (folders and stuff) from the server.
Your email account is set up! Now to add the GroupWise address book ...
1.) In Thunderbird, click "Address Book".
2.) Select File->New->LDAP Directory ...
3.) Enter "GroupWise" for the Name.
4.) Enter "imap.cedarville.edu for the Hostname.
5.) Enter "o=cedarnet" for the Base DN.
6.) Make sure the Port Number is set to "389".
Now your address book is set to sync to the LDAP server! If you want your Cedarville account to automatically look in that address book, do the following ...
1.) Select Tools->Account Settings... (Edit->Account Settings... for Linux).
2.) Under username@cedarville.edu, select "Composition & Addressing".
3.) Under Addressing, select "Use a different LDAP server:
4.) From the drop-down, select "GroupWise".
I'll let you guys know when I get the calendar thing figured out. If you're a Mozilla fan, Thunderbird doesn't have a calendar feature. You either use Mozilla Sunbird (specifically for calendars) or Mozilla SeaMonkey (which is an all-in-one suite). Obviously, if you don't use Mozilla products, you can use the above configuration settings for any client ... If you have any questions, let me know.
That doesn't mean you have to use their email client, GroupWise, though. But Cedarville says we do. Ick. So, a few nights ago, I set out to find the servers that Cedarville stores emails, the address book, and calendar. There's good news and bad news: The good news is, I successfully figured out the email and address book. The bad news is, the calendar may be internal ... Which means you're forced to use GroupWise to view it. But at least you can use something other than GroupWise for your email now! The following instructions are for setting up Mozilla Thunderbird, because it's the most popular (and probably best) client that I've had people ask for. I'll write instructions for other clients in the future (hopefully once I figure out a work-around for the calendar), and I may post a link to the Help Page created for this on Cedarville's website after I finish it. But for now, here you go.
The beauty of Mozilla Thunderbird is it works on most any OS you're using (Windows, Mac, or Linux), and it allows for multiple accounts (I use it to combine my school and Gmail accounts), so organization is much better ... It's all in one application :)!
1.) Download and install Mozilla Thunderbird from this website.
2.) The first time you run Thunderbird, you will see this screen:
Note: If you already have a Thunderbird account setup, open Thunderbird, select Tools->Account Settings... (Edit->Account Settings... for Linux). Select "Add Account ..."
Select "Email account" and click "Next >".
3.) Enter your Full Name and full Email Address (include @cedarville.edu) in the boxes provided.
4.) Select "IMAP" and specify imap.cedarville.edu as the Incoming Server.
5.) Enter mail.cedarville.edu for the outgoing server.
6.) Enter your full email address for both the Incoming and Outgoing User Names (include @cedarville.edu).
7.) Enter your full email address as the Account Name (include @cedarville.edu).
8.) Click "Finish >".
9.) Enter your GroupWise password and select "Use Password Manager to remember passwords" if you want Thunderbird to remember your password.
10.) Click "Get Mail" to retrieve your account information (folders and stuff) from the server.
Your email account is set up! Now to add the GroupWise address book ...
1.) In Thunderbird, click "Address Book".
2.) Select File->New->LDAP Directory ...
3.) Enter "GroupWise" for the Name.
4.) Enter "imap.cedarville.edu for the Hostname.
5.) Enter "o=cedarnet" for the Base DN.
6.) Make sure the Port Number is set to "389".
Now your address book is set to sync to the LDAP server! If you want your Cedarville account to automatically look in that address book, do the following ...
1.) Select Tools->Account Settings... (Edit->Account Settings... for Linux).
2.) Under username@cedarville.edu, select "Composition & Addressing".
3.) Under Addressing, select "Use a different LDAP server:
4.) From the drop-down, select "GroupWise".
I'll let you guys know when I get the calendar thing figured out. If you're a Mozilla fan, Thunderbird doesn't have a calendar feature. You either use Mozilla Sunbird (specifically for calendars) or Mozilla SeaMonkey (which is an all-in-one suite). Obviously, if you don't use Mozilla products, you can use the above configuration settings for any client ... If you have any questions, let me know.
In High School and Visiting Cedarville? Read This First ...
09/26/08 02:09 PM
Greetings, youngins,
and welcome to our beautiful campus. We're glad
you're visiting, and we'd love for you to choose
Cedarville as your college destination in the years
to come. But here's the deal: We all know when you're
visiting. And, trust me, when you too become a
student here and find yourself looking at all the
guests, you'll see why it's blatently obvious that
you don't go here. So, here are a few tips for you to
follow while enjoying your stay at Cedarville. These
will help you blend in with the students better and
not stick out like an awkward, sore thumb. It will
also help you not annoy us quite so much ...
Lose the folders:
When you arrive, Admissions will give you a white folder which contains all of the information concerning you stay. Lose it as soon as possible. (Freshman, this actually applies to you too.) If you absolutely must carry the stuff with you, run down to our bookstore and buy a red folder. Just so it's not a white Cedarville folder. Seriously, we look for those. But an even better idea is to conceal the folder inside a ...
Backpack:
You're on a college campus. We're all business here. We go to classes and even do homework occassionally. So, how do we carry all our stuff around with us all day? In a backpack! Just like you do in high school, actually. So bring it with you. It's a place to stuff that white folder away, and it also makes you look like you mean business too!
Get rid of the lanyard:
I think you're only given these on CU Friday's, so they aren't as common as the white folders. But they're farm more visible. Get rid of it as soon as your guide turns their back to you. Honestly, girls, you can't expect attention from college guys if you have that wrapped around your neck. And, obviously, that must be what you want based upon what you choose to wear. Which brings us to ...
Dress code:
We don't have it on Fridays. We incorporate a lovely thing called "Casual Dress." So don't come wearing khakis and a collared shirt or you'll stand out in chapel and in Chuck's. On the flip side, still at least attempt to not look like a skank. Wearing your outfit with the least amount of thread probably isn't a good idea for two reasons: Since you're obviously still wearing it and haven't received demerits yet, you must not be a student here, and RAs will stop you far too often, thus souring your impression of Cedarville. Avoid contact with RAs at all costs ... They might give you a sour impression of Cedarville as well.
Along these lines, did you get a free Cedarville t-shirt? Don’t wear it. We all know what they look like, and you won’t be the only one who thought, “Oh, hey, I should wear this today.”
Lose the parents:
We know you love them. I love mine. And they love you. Now that we've established we all love eachother, and we're comfortable with that fact, lose them. Next to the white folders and lanyards, parents are the next biggest flag that says, "Hey, I don't go here." Not simply because of the fact that their parents. Obviously, I'll gladly walk around campus with my parents when they come visit. And many of the professors here are parents anyway. But parents, when visiting a college, have a tendency to ask too many questions, point at things and speak loudly about them, and ask you questions like, "So, what do you think?" "Do you want to go here?" "Chuck's was really good!" If you were a student, not a visitor, your parents would have heard from you that Chuck's, in fact, was not "really good" and they would not make the mistake of saying it quite so loud.
Still on the subject of parents, they slow you down immensley. When touring a campus, you really need to get away and explore for yourself. You're going to be here for four years, sans parents. You don't need them to help you on a tour. Additionally, when you're in the afformentioned Chuck's, your parents will slow you down in line. They'll try to talk to you about the day, the food, what you think of the college, and they'll forget that the line is supposed to be moving forward. Then it doesn't. Then you have plenty of angry Cedarville students in the line behind you, annoyed that you're here. And, honestly, we don't want to be annoyed that you're here! We want to like you! But when you make our life more difficult ... And it takes five times as long simply to get our food ...
Don't follow the tour guide:
A tour. Ah, someone walking backwards on the sidewalk in front of a group of fifteen people with white folders is predominantly the most obvious way to target visitors. Honestly, do you really want to know that ENS was built in 1992? Or that the SSC holds Chuck's (our cafeteria), the post office, the bookstore, The Hive (our campus restaraunt), Veccinos (mmm ... coffee), and the game room? Or that Milner is predominantly known as the Business Building? You'll figure all of that out on your own ...
Give yourself a self-guided tour with a couple of the friends you brought with you visit. You'll get to know all of the buildings better than you ever wanted to once you start having classes in them. Anyway, you'll probably get another "official" the first week of your Freshman year ... But you should skip that one too. Now, when you and your friends are giving yourselves a self-guided tour, be especially careful to ...
Know what you're doing:
Once you pull out that white piece of paper that has your schedule, a map of the campus, or a list of available classes you can sit in on on it, you're dead. If you absolutely have to look at that thing, go hide in a bathroom stall. It's a dead giveaway. Before taking your self-guided tour, find a corner somewhere to hide with your friends and look at the campus map. Memorize it before you arrive on campus (there’s a map at cedarville.edu), even write some information down on a sticky note if you absolutely need to. Anything so that you know what you're doing and where you're going.
There's a problem with that. How are you supposed to know what you're doing on a campus you've never even been to before? Answer: You're not. It's this fantastic this called "acting." Further explained in “Don’t draw undue attention to yourself.”
Don’t sit in your reserved section:
You have a reserved section in Chuck’s ... Don’t sit there. Could you be more obvious?
Don’t use the computer labs:
You can’t log on to the computers; you don’t have access. Walking in before realizing this will only make you stand out to the entire lab.
Don’t draw undue attention to yourself:
This sort of goes with “Know what you’re doing,” but I need to elaborate more. When you’re walking around campus, whether it’s giving yourself a tour or trying to visit a class, know where you’re going. Even if you don’t, you do. If you suddenly realize you’re lost, don’t stop in the middle of the sidewalk, look at the buildings, and say, “Wait, I think Apple’s over there ...” This is really only acceptable the first week of school, and, anyway, it would identify you as a Freshman even then, which is equally bad. If you realize your lost, just keep walking. If you make a full loop around the lake, who cares. Chances are nobody’s actually followed you that long, so they won’t realize you’re lost.
If you do get lost, don’t come to a class late. Not only is that annoying (I’m talking to YOU, students) for everyone who arrived on time (and for the professor), it makes you stand out. Then you go sit in the back. Everyone in class knows you don’t belong there. Oh, and don’t bring your parents to class with you.
When walking, be sure not to look around awkwardly, gawking at all the new attractions. Look ahead, or slightly down, and look up occasionally to nod at people you don’t know. It will make you look like you fit in.
Your cell phone is not your friend. Don’t pull it out to see if someone texted you, or to pretend your on the phone. We can tell you’re faking it and just trying to look cool.
I think that’s about it. Follow these guidelines and you’re off to a fantastic visit at Cedarville. Also, many of these tips can be applied to Freshman as well. Please understand, we students don’t hate you. Obviously, it’s awesome that Cedarville continues to grow so rapidly. But you must realize we break the bank every year to pay our tuition ... And we live here. You’re coming onto our turf. On the flip side, I’d love to have a CU Friday this year that hits, say, 750 visitors ... Then, maybe, they will see how horribly crowded our cafeteria is and how much our school has grown and they’ll build us another new one!
Lose the folders:
When you arrive, Admissions will give you a white folder which contains all of the information concerning you stay. Lose it as soon as possible. (Freshman, this actually applies to you too.) If you absolutely must carry the stuff with you, run down to our bookstore and buy a red folder. Just so it's not a white Cedarville folder. Seriously, we look for those. But an even better idea is to conceal the folder inside a ...
Backpack:
You're on a college campus. We're all business here. We go to classes and even do homework occassionally. So, how do we carry all our stuff around with us all day? In a backpack! Just like you do in high school, actually. So bring it with you. It's a place to stuff that white folder away, and it also makes you look like you mean business too!
Get rid of the lanyard:
I think you're only given these on CU Friday's, so they aren't as common as the white folders. But they're farm more visible. Get rid of it as soon as your guide turns their back to you. Honestly, girls, you can't expect attention from college guys if you have that wrapped around your neck. And, obviously, that must be what you want based upon what you choose to wear. Which brings us to ...
Dress code:
We don't have it on Fridays. We incorporate a lovely thing called "Casual Dress." So don't come wearing khakis and a collared shirt or you'll stand out in chapel and in Chuck's. On the flip side, still at least attempt to not look like a skank. Wearing your outfit with the least amount of thread probably isn't a good idea for two reasons: Since you're obviously still wearing it and haven't received demerits yet, you must not be a student here, and RAs will stop you far too often, thus souring your impression of Cedarville. Avoid contact with RAs at all costs ... They might give you a sour impression of Cedarville as well.
Along these lines, did you get a free Cedarville t-shirt? Don’t wear it. We all know what they look like, and you won’t be the only one who thought, “Oh, hey, I should wear this today.”
Lose the parents:
We know you love them. I love mine. And they love you. Now that we've established we all love eachother, and we're comfortable with that fact, lose them. Next to the white folders and lanyards, parents are the next biggest flag that says, "Hey, I don't go here." Not simply because of the fact that their parents. Obviously, I'll gladly walk around campus with my parents when they come visit. And many of the professors here are parents anyway. But parents, when visiting a college, have a tendency to ask too many questions, point at things and speak loudly about them, and ask you questions like, "So, what do you think?" "Do you want to go here?" "Chuck's was really good!" If you were a student, not a visitor, your parents would have heard from you that Chuck's, in fact, was not "really good" and they would not make the mistake of saying it quite so loud.
Still on the subject of parents, they slow you down immensley. When touring a campus, you really need to get away and explore for yourself. You're going to be here for four years, sans parents. You don't need them to help you on a tour. Additionally, when you're in the afformentioned Chuck's, your parents will slow you down in line. They'll try to talk to you about the day, the food, what you think of the college, and they'll forget that the line is supposed to be moving forward. Then it doesn't. Then you have plenty of angry Cedarville students in the line behind you, annoyed that you're here. And, honestly, we don't want to be annoyed that you're here! We want to like you! But when you make our life more difficult ... And it takes five times as long simply to get our food ...
Don't follow the tour guide:
A tour. Ah, someone walking backwards on the sidewalk in front of a group of fifteen people with white folders is predominantly the most obvious way to target visitors. Honestly, do you really want to know that ENS was built in 1992? Or that the SSC holds Chuck's (our cafeteria), the post office, the bookstore, The Hive (our campus restaraunt), Veccinos (mmm ... coffee), and the game room? Or that Milner is predominantly known as the Business Building? You'll figure all of that out on your own ...
Give yourself a self-guided tour with a couple of the friends you brought with you visit. You'll get to know all of the buildings better than you ever wanted to once you start having classes in them. Anyway, you'll probably get another "official" the first week of your Freshman year ... But you should skip that one too. Now, when you and your friends are giving yourselves a self-guided tour, be especially careful to ...
Know what you're doing:
Once you pull out that white piece of paper that has your schedule, a map of the campus, or a list of available classes you can sit in on on it, you're dead. If you absolutely have to look at that thing, go hide in a bathroom stall. It's a dead giveaway. Before taking your self-guided tour, find a corner somewhere to hide with your friends and look at the campus map. Memorize it before you arrive on campus (there’s a map at cedarville.edu), even write some information down on a sticky note if you absolutely need to. Anything so that you know what you're doing and where you're going.
There's a problem with that. How are you supposed to know what you're doing on a campus you've never even been to before? Answer: You're not. It's this fantastic this called "acting." Further explained in “Don’t draw undue attention to yourself.”
Don’t sit in your reserved section:
You have a reserved section in Chuck’s ... Don’t sit there. Could you be more obvious?
Don’t use the computer labs:
You can’t log on to the computers; you don’t have access. Walking in before realizing this will only make you stand out to the entire lab.
Don’t draw undue attention to yourself:
This sort of goes with “Know what you’re doing,” but I need to elaborate more. When you’re walking around campus, whether it’s giving yourself a tour or trying to visit a class, know where you’re going. Even if you don’t, you do. If you suddenly realize you’re lost, don’t stop in the middle of the sidewalk, look at the buildings, and say, “Wait, I think Apple’s over there ...” This is really only acceptable the first week of school, and, anyway, it would identify you as a Freshman even then, which is equally bad. If you realize your lost, just keep walking. If you make a full loop around the lake, who cares. Chances are nobody’s actually followed you that long, so they won’t realize you’re lost.
If you do get lost, don’t come to a class late. Not only is that annoying (I’m talking to YOU, students) for everyone who arrived on time (and for the professor), it makes you stand out. Then you go sit in the back. Everyone in class knows you don’t belong there. Oh, and don’t bring your parents to class with you.
When walking, be sure not to look around awkwardly, gawking at all the new attractions. Look ahead, or slightly down, and look up occasionally to nod at people you don’t know. It will make you look like you fit in.
Your cell phone is not your friend. Don’t pull it out to see if someone texted you, or to pretend your on the phone. We can tell you’re faking it and just trying to look cool.
I think that’s about it. Follow these guidelines and you’re off to a fantastic visit at Cedarville. Also, many of these tips can be applied to Freshman as well. Please understand, we students don’t hate you. Obviously, it’s awesome that Cedarville continues to grow so rapidly. But you must realize we break the bank every year to pay our tuition ... And we live here. You’re coming onto our turf. On the flip side, I’d love to have a CU Friday this year that hits, say, 750 visitors ... Then, maybe, they will see how horribly crowded our cafeteria is and how much our school has grown and they’ll build us another new one!
"Um, I'm An RA ..."
09/02/08 08:11 PM
While we
understand impersonating an RA is a demeritable
offense here at Cedarville University (dishonesty),
it’s rather tempting. After all, how hard can it
really be? My roommate and I have established that,
in order to portray yourself as an RA, all you really
have to do is awkwardly introduce yourself to a
stranger in the following manner:
“Um, I’m an RA ...” And continue on stating the demerit worthy offense being committed.
So, here’s my question to you. What’s wrong with you? It should really be the Engineers and Computer Science majors that have difficulty establishing friendships and socializing with people at a normal level, but it appears as though the RAs are the most socially awkward people on this campus. Generally speaking, when I feel the urge to introduce myself to a stranger sleeping in front of me in chapel, someone who just blurted the f-bomb in the hall, or a girl in a hauntingly low shirt, I extend the hand of friendship and start with something like, “Hi, my name is Alex.”
Where I’m from, the proper, polite way to introduce yourself to a stranger is with your name, not your job description. You don’t see me walking up to people and saying, “Hi, I attend Cedarville University,” or, “Hi, I’m a Lab Assistant.” Say I’m in a situation where someone needs to know my title. For instance, I’m in the lab and someone is struggling. Here’s how I would construct my introductory sentence: “Hi, my name is Alex, and I’m a Lab Assistant here. May I help you?” See? I first establish my name before constructing the remainder of my identity for you. We don’t want to let the entire cat out of the bag all at once.
Honestly, RAs would be so much more amicable if they would make an effort to get to know us before demeriting us. I believe I speak for the whole when I say it’s hard for me to respect someone who’s completely rude to me. After all, in confronting me, you’re asking for my respect. And, since I am another human being of the same age (if not older) as yourself, it would make sense that you too would show me a bit of respect.
On top of that, RAs need to seriously understand where their jurisdiction begins and ends--the school and the Handbook. (Also, the sooner you get off your power trip, the better.) You aren’t asked to enforce local law, and you aren’t asked to elaborate on the Handbook. Meaning, if it doesn’t specifically state something in the Handbook, you don’t need to make up a rule for it simply because you’re uncomfortable. Before awkwardly stepping forward and announcing to the crowd, “Um, I’m an RA ...” think to yourself: is anyone getting hurt? Is school property actually being damaged? Are moral laws being broken? If the answer to all of these questions is “no” and it’s just your own personal preferences and/or convictions being disrupted, you need to keep silent. (Unless you want to be part of a hazing ...)
Notice I didn’t actually mention anything about the Handbook. See, it’s more a set of guidelines, and this is understood by the entire student body and administration. Please understand that, yes, technically speaking, guys aren’t allowed to wear pony tails or nail polish and, technically speaking, no one is allowed to wear any form of denim (blue, black, green, or otherwise) according to the Student Handbook. But does anyone enforce this? Should anyone enforce this like a nazi? No. Actually, Dr. Brown poked fun at this fact last year in chapel, pointing out the ironic fact that our RAs let people get away with wearing green jeans but not blue jeans, even though both would technically be prohibited by the handbook. Heck, Dr. Brown’s favorite movie is V for Vendetta, an R-rated movie that is not on our list of approved movies.
Last night, Caitlin, Dave, and I were on the way back from the Labor Day fireworks when, out of the darkness, several water balloons splashed on the sidewalk ahead of us. A few more hit the people walking near us. We veered slightly off the sidewalk in order to avoid the water balloons, but we were walking in a large clump of other people (and we didn’t know them). We were also not even close to school property. The water balloons were coming from behind a wooden fence that enclosed someone’s house. Turns out there was an RA in the group ahead of us who was not happy with the water balloon throwing (do I even need to mention that it was a girl?). “Should I go back and talk to them?” She asked the other members of her group. They encouraged her to do so, so she turned around and stated, “Yah, I’m gonna go talk to them.” Dave and I (rather loudly) retorted our complaints on the matter, announcing that she should just leave the pedestrians alone. That, my friend, is just ridiculous. A water balloon? In downtown Cedarville, off campus? Thrown by a shadowed figure behind a white fence enclosing private property? That’s none of your business.
RAs need to understand that their job is exactly what our RD told us; to protect us, not to make enemies of us. Turns out you’re actually students here too. Yes, above us to protect us, but you don’t need to remind us of that fact unless circumstances require it.
Just to clear things up, I haven’t gotten any demerits recently, I’ve just been observing this, and the incident last night especially annoyed me. I don’t have a problem being rebuked for an immature action when it’s done in love or actual concern for my well-being. But when it’s done simply because you realize, “Hey, I have power over this situation, and that person is annoying me,” that’s where it just gets unnecessary and annoying. You could attempt to actually make an effort to introduce yourself before smacking us with “Um, I’m an RA ...” We don’t bite. No need to be afraid. And, honestly, it’s the job you signed up for. The job to protect us. Not the job to reprimand us.
“Um, I’m an RA ...” And continue on stating the demerit worthy offense being committed.
So, here’s my question to you. What’s wrong with you? It should really be the Engineers and Computer Science majors that have difficulty establishing friendships and socializing with people at a normal level, but it appears as though the RAs are the most socially awkward people on this campus. Generally speaking, when I feel the urge to introduce myself to a stranger sleeping in front of me in chapel, someone who just blurted the f-bomb in the hall, or a girl in a hauntingly low shirt, I extend the hand of friendship and start with something like, “Hi, my name is Alex.”
Where I’m from, the proper, polite way to introduce yourself to a stranger is with your name, not your job description. You don’t see me walking up to people and saying, “Hi, I attend Cedarville University,” or, “Hi, I’m a Lab Assistant.” Say I’m in a situation where someone needs to know my title. For instance, I’m in the lab and someone is struggling. Here’s how I would construct my introductory sentence: “Hi, my name is Alex, and I’m a Lab Assistant here. May I help you?” See? I first establish my name before constructing the remainder of my identity for you. We don’t want to let the entire cat out of the bag all at once.
Honestly, RAs would be so much more amicable if they would make an effort to get to know us before demeriting us. I believe I speak for the whole when I say it’s hard for me to respect someone who’s completely rude to me. After all, in confronting me, you’re asking for my respect. And, since I am another human being of the same age (if not older) as yourself, it would make sense that you too would show me a bit of respect.
On top of that, RAs need to seriously understand where their jurisdiction begins and ends--the school and the Handbook. (Also, the sooner you get off your power trip, the better.) You aren’t asked to enforce local law, and you aren’t asked to elaborate on the Handbook. Meaning, if it doesn’t specifically state something in the Handbook, you don’t need to make up a rule for it simply because you’re uncomfortable. Before awkwardly stepping forward and announcing to the crowd, “Um, I’m an RA ...” think to yourself: is anyone getting hurt? Is school property actually being damaged? Are moral laws being broken? If the answer to all of these questions is “no” and it’s just your own personal preferences and/or convictions being disrupted, you need to keep silent. (Unless you want to be part of a hazing ...)
Notice I didn’t actually mention anything about the Handbook. See, it’s more a set of guidelines, and this is understood by the entire student body and administration. Please understand that, yes, technically speaking, guys aren’t allowed to wear pony tails or nail polish and, technically speaking, no one is allowed to wear any form of denim (blue, black, green, or otherwise) according to the Student Handbook. But does anyone enforce this? Should anyone enforce this like a nazi? No. Actually, Dr. Brown poked fun at this fact last year in chapel, pointing out the ironic fact that our RAs let people get away with wearing green jeans but not blue jeans, even though both would technically be prohibited by the handbook. Heck, Dr. Brown’s favorite movie is V for Vendetta, an R-rated movie that is not on our list of approved movies.
Last night, Caitlin, Dave, and I were on the way back from the Labor Day fireworks when, out of the darkness, several water balloons splashed on the sidewalk ahead of us. A few more hit the people walking near us. We veered slightly off the sidewalk in order to avoid the water balloons, but we were walking in a large clump of other people (and we didn’t know them). We were also not even close to school property. The water balloons were coming from behind a wooden fence that enclosed someone’s house. Turns out there was an RA in the group ahead of us who was not happy with the water balloon throwing (do I even need to mention that it was a girl?). “Should I go back and talk to them?” She asked the other members of her group. They encouraged her to do so, so she turned around and stated, “Yah, I’m gonna go talk to them.” Dave and I (rather loudly) retorted our complaints on the matter, announcing that she should just leave the pedestrians alone. That, my friend, is just ridiculous. A water balloon? In downtown Cedarville, off campus? Thrown by a shadowed figure behind a white fence enclosing private property? That’s none of your business.
RAs need to understand that their job is exactly what our RD told us; to protect us, not to make enemies of us. Turns out you’re actually students here too. Yes, above us to protect us, but you don’t need to remind us of that fact unless circumstances require it.
Just to clear things up, I haven’t gotten any demerits recently, I’ve just been observing this, and the incident last night especially annoyed me. I don’t have a problem being rebuked for an immature action when it’s done in love or actual concern for my well-being. But when it’s done simply because you realize, “Hey, I have power over this situation, and that person is annoying me,” that’s where it just gets unnecessary and annoying. You could attempt to actually make an effort to introduce yourself before smacking us with “Um, I’m an RA ...” We don’t bite. No need to be afraid. And, honestly, it’s the job you signed up for. The job to protect us. Not the job to reprimand us.
Cedar Monster
04/24/08 03:49 PM
This afternoon, as
Caitlin, Moses, and I sat down to Lunch in Chuck's,
something outside the large glass windows caught our
attention. Something was swimming in the waters of
Cedar Lake. From our perch on high, it was hard to
make out exactly what it was; to me, it appeared as
though it was a snake swimming in the water, sticking
it's head above the surface every few minutes, just
to look around. Moses admitted that she had seen it a
day prior.
The "thing" appeared to have glossy rubbery skin that was difficult to look at because of the suns bright reflection off it. I guessed that it was black, or at least very dark gray. When it first caught our attention, I thought it was a piece of plastic bobbing in the water, floating to the surface every once in a while. But Moses told me she had seen it on the other side of the lake yesterday and earlier that day. After watching it slither (or so it appeared) through the water, I was next convinced that it was a snake. This assertion made Moses angry, because she kept pounding her fist on the table insisting "it has a fin!" Finally, we realized from our far away position, behind glass, we weren't going to be able to figure out what it was. We decided to clean up our dishes and go down to the water to check it out.
We strolled out of the SSC and up to the water's edge at about the same time that Alberto (henceforth referred to as Bertrude) arrived on the scene. He threw his bike on the ground and joined us lakeside. We all stood there for quite some time observing the finned creature; Moses was right. It was no snake. It certainly had both a fin at it's "rear side" and along the top of it. It looked like a shark, I now thought. Quite honestly, it was about the size of a baby shark. Bertrude made an offhand and completely illegitimate claim that the monster was some type of "carpe." What does he know.
We had three major suspicions. Either it's a baby shark, a dolphin, or the Loch Ness monster. Our only doubt was that we weren't sure if the Loch Ness monster had a fin on it's back or not. Upon consultation of a far more reputable source, Jenna Woestman, we learned that "the Loch Ness monster could have a fin. It pretty much looks like whatever people want it to look like when they think they see it."
I still think it's a baby shark. No matter what it is, consider yourselves warned ... the Cedar Monster lives in Cedar Lake, and it actually ate Bertrude while we were there (may he rest in pieces in it's tummy). Clearly, this must be the cause of the apparent "climate of fear" on our campus, because I can't think of anything else that would be causing it.
At one point as we stood on the grass beside the lake, a group of four girls was walking by on the sidewalk behind us as we stared in awe (crossing ourselves after Bertrude had been eaten). One of the girls said to the others, "Look at the size of that thing! What is that? A fish?" I turned around and looked at the group. "It's not a fish. It's a shark." One of the girls got such a terrified expression on her face that I nearly felt bad for saying it.
The "thing" appeared to have glossy rubbery skin that was difficult to look at because of the suns bright reflection off it. I guessed that it was black, or at least very dark gray. When it first caught our attention, I thought it was a piece of plastic bobbing in the water, floating to the surface every once in a while. But Moses told me she had seen it on the other side of the lake yesterday and earlier that day. After watching it slither (or so it appeared) through the water, I was next convinced that it was a snake. This assertion made Moses angry, because she kept pounding her fist on the table insisting "it has a fin!" Finally, we realized from our far away position, behind glass, we weren't going to be able to figure out what it was. We decided to clean up our dishes and go down to the water to check it out.
We strolled out of the SSC and up to the water's edge at about the same time that Alberto (henceforth referred to as Bertrude) arrived on the scene. He threw his bike on the ground and joined us lakeside. We all stood there for quite some time observing the finned creature; Moses was right. It was no snake. It certainly had both a fin at it's "rear side" and along the top of it. It looked like a shark, I now thought. Quite honestly, it was about the size of a baby shark. Bertrude made an offhand and completely illegitimate claim that the monster was some type of "carpe." What does he know.
We had three major suspicions. Either it's a baby shark, a dolphin, or the Loch Ness monster. Our only doubt was that we weren't sure if the Loch Ness monster had a fin on it's back or not. Upon consultation of a far more reputable source, Jenna Woestman, we learned that "the Loch Ness monster could have a fin. It pretty much looks like whatever people want it to look like when they think they see it."
I still think it's a baby shark. No matter what it is, consider yourselves warned ... the Cedar Monster lives in Cedar Lake, and it actually ate Bertrude while we were there (may he rest in pieces in it's tummy). Clearly, this must be the cause of the apparent "climate of fear" on our campus, because I can't think of anything else that would be causing it.
At one point as we stood on the grass beside the lake, a group of four girls was walking by on the sidewalk behind us as we stared in awe (crossing ourselves after Bertrude had been eaten). One of the girls said to the others, "Look at the size of that thing! What is that? A fish?" I turned around and looked at the group. "It's not a fish. It's a shark." One of the girls got such a terrified expression on her face that I nearly felt bad for saying it.
I Love Cedarville
04/18/08 10:38 AM
Am I the only one who
notices that Cedarville loves telling us how much the
buildings cost? The new BS building cost $14 million
to build. The Gym cost $15 million. The SSC cost $23
million.
Most of this doesn't even come out of our pockets, as many students like to whine that it does. In contrast to this whining about expenses and rules, I and my nine demerits (this semester) would like to point out a few reasons Cedarville rocks ... Compare this to, say, Bob Jones.
If you aren't aware of the current Cedarville "situation," I won't bother enlightening you too much. You can enlighten yourself by going here or here for Cedarville's opinion and here for the outsider's opinion. There's also some good information here from an anonymous point of view. I especially like this blog because they don't always give an opinion, they just state the facts (and cite their sources, unlike the outsider's opinion ...)
Cedarville has been getting some publicity as of late (thanks, Dayton Daily News and Columbus Dispatch)! On the front cover of the Dayton Daily News paper on Sunday, March 30th, there was a large picture of two Cedarville girls walking on a sidewalk. The headline? "Bible Profs Fired, 'A Climate of Fear at Cedarville U.'" Personally, I liked this rendition by David Sizemore all the more. I was shocked to read this article for two reasons. 1.) This happened at the end of last year and somewhat over the Summer. The Board of Trustees voted in January, making their firing decision final. It's over, people! 2.) I'm not afraid. Nobody's afraid. What "climate of fear?" You'd think that, well, since I live on this campus, I would notice if everyone were crying themselves to sleep every night.
Another irony is the fact that, when the newspaper was on campus, they were escorted by Dr. Ruby, and he had to answer all their hard-hitting questions. The reporters were under strict orders that they were not allowed to take photographs, but they could ask as many questions as they like. So, please explain to me how this article has a huge picture, front-and-center? Some people who are anti-Cedarville in this fight like to blame Dr. Ruby for the fact that pictures were taken, but I'll bet you one thing: They didn't take them while he was around! There are people on this campus all the time taking pictures; nobody stops you! All they had to do was come back later. But I'd like to speak to the reporters for a moment. Question: If you were trying to capture an image that would represent your "fearful" title, why did you choose to print a picture of two girls laughing and smiling, walking along happily with each other? Very fearful ...
The author of the article is apparently a Christian and felt it was her duty to write the article out of concern. She claims she wrote the article based on an "anonymous phone call." Your credibility is skyrocketing in my mind. I didn't see her interviewing me, though apparently she stayed on campus "researching" for four days.
There's two main groups up on Facebook, where all proper debates should take place. There's the "I support Cedarville" side and the "I want Cedarville destroyed" side. Some fans of the latter group may jump all over me, telling me all they really want is "the truth," not to destroy Cedarville, but let's think about the logic. What are you accomplishing by sticking your nose where it doesn't belong? Absolutely nothing! And as Cedarville Faculty continues to deny you any facts, and third-party sources keep making up stories to feed you, you just get more and more angry towards Cedarville. And for what? To satisfy your curiosity?
On the anti-Cedarville Facebook group, they proudly sport the banner under their description, "Opposing views are welcome but individuals will be removed from the group who are known to have no connection to the situation and/or who base their authority on anonymous sources." Interesting statement. It's false. I joined the group and posted on the wall, explaining to all the members that, no matter how much they kept asking, Cedarville would never give them "the truth" that they wanted due to simple ethics and legal confidentiality. I also explained that, no matter what, I supported Cedarville and didn't want to ask questions because I trusted Dr. Brown and the Board of Trustees. It's their job to work with these types of decisions, not mine. Only a few hours went by before my wall post was deleted and I was sufficiently blocked from the group. A further message from the group's creator informed me that he was glad I was "very informed [and had] read everything Cedarville has communicated to [me]." I replied and thanked him, of course. And, yes, it's true, I've read everything Cedarville has fed me. I've also read all the other information I can get my hands on to try to make sense of it and, quite honestly, I can't! Interestingly, the admin of this anti-Cedarville group is a Cedarville alumni who graduated last year. Guess what that means? He doesn't even live on campus anymore! I'm glad one of the people who has the most adamant voice against Cedarville in this situation isn't even in the middle of it anymore. Not surprisingly, most of the anti-Cedarville articles and information is from off-campus sources. That seems really credible.
What I find ironic is that this group and all its members are demanding that they deserve to know why these profs were fired when, in reality, they have no right. They say the firings were unethical and this gives them the right to know. (Really?) Apparently what they don't understand is that their demands are equally unethical, if not more so. I would say more so because the administration here at Cedarville obviously had a reason for doing what they did, and this group has no viable reason, except gossip, for their demands. They argue that Cedarville is hiding things from us and that they won't let us see all the facts. Ironically, however, this very group itself is hypocritical in that manner since they aren't accepting outside opinions either! And when an opposing view comes onto the wall, they are quick to delete it and block the user. Hmm ... Doesn't that sound suspicious to you?
I have now made my home at the pro-Cedarville group and am no longer afraid of being blocked. But I can tell you this: I've never felt so proud of being blocked from a group :). It made my week to know that I hit such a sensitive nerve that they didn't want what I said to get out. Heaven forbid people actually know the truth. The only truth they're very going to understand in this situation because, let me say this one more time people ... Cedarville will never, EVER give you this information!
Did I miss the memo saying Cedarville was a perfect college? Oh, wait. There wasn't one! There's no such thing as a perfect college. Turns out every college has issues like these. (I know, who knew, right?) I've about had it with people griping about the school. What happened to Philippians 2:14 "Do everything without grumbling or complaining?" Or what about Romans 1:29-32? "They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenenat-breakers, heartless, ruthless. Although they fully know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them." (Please don't take this as I think you should die ...) People hop all over our President for having a book on Postmodernism on his "Books to Read" list. Why is this a bad thing? Additionally, if we have a Chapel speaker come who has a very Postmodern point of view and, perhaps, isn't even 100% in line with the Cedarville's doctrinal statement, this doesn't mean we're ready to go to Hell. Cedarville isn't about spoon feeding it's students a worldview and saying, "Get out of here. Figure the world out yourself." Cedarville is all about presenting the truth from God's word and allowing us to mold our worldview based upon that guide. This way, when we get into the real world, we know how to react to situations on our own, we aren't dependent on a prof to tell us how to react. The anti-Cedarville groups want to the the truth about this so-called "faculty exodus" at Cedarville, claiming it is leading us down the path of Postmodernism, when in reality, the professors were probably fired for violating the Faculty Handbook. The administration at Cedarville has told us the firings were not based on a Theological issue, so they were probably based on misconduct and abuse of authority. Yes, that can get you fired. We really have no reasonable reason to think this isn't true, so making things up and demanding to know the "real" reason for the firings is just ludicrous.
In conclusion, I would like to say this publicly to Dr. Brown, the Board of Trustees, Dr. Ruby, Dr. Milliman, and everyone else in the administration taking all the heat for this: "I love you guys. I appreciate you guys. I respect your decisions, and as far as I'm concerned, this is a 'closed case.' I'm sorry the media and people off campus are printing slanderous things against you and defaming you verbally, but since when has the media actually given a proper representation of something? That doesn't sell stories ... So stay strong! I'm praying for all of you."
Feel free to post any arguments you have with this post. I'm quite open to all points of view, and I will not delete your comment. But no matter what you tell me, I will continue to support our administration. But to those of you who enjoy griping about the rules and expenses associated with Cedarville University and constantly trying to find the schools Biblical faults (and making them up when you can't find them), I wonder ... Why are you coming here?
Most of this doesn't even come out of our pockets, as many students like to whine that it does. In contrast to this whining about expenses and rules, I and my nine demerits (this semester) would like to point out a few reasons Cedarville rocks ... Compare this to, say, Bob Jones.
- We can watch movies rated "worse" than G. Granted, we can't watch R-rated movies in the Residence Halls, but that's not all bad, and if you really have a problem with that, just go to the DMC and watch it; that's not a Residence Hall.
- We're allowed to go to movie theaters.
- We're allowed to dance. (Look in the handbook, guys. It says nowhere in there that we can't dance.)
- We can listen to basically whatever music we like, including such immoral, hip-moving music as Jazz, Rock, and Christian Contemporary (Heaven forbid).
- We can play T and E10 rated video games. Question: What the heck is an E10 rating? I've never even heard of it ...
- We just have to be in our Residence Halls past curfew ... Not in bed with the lights out.
- We have open internet access and our emails aren't screened by Big Brother.
- Girls can eat a banana anyway they like. (If you don't get this one, don't think too hard about it ...)
- We're allowed to choose the Church we go to on Sundays, if we go at all.
- We (guys too) can wear necklaces.
- We can wear Abercrombie & Fitch.
- We can play Poker, just not for money.
- We can socialize (and date) in coed groups without a chaperone.
If you aren't aware of the current Cedarville "situation," I won't bother enlightening you too much. You can enlighten yourself by going here or here for Cedarville's opinion and here for the outsider's opinion. There's also some good information here from an anonymous point of view. I especially like this blog because they don't always give an opinion, they just state the facts (and cite their sources, unlike the outsider's opinion ...)
Cedarville has been getting some publicity as of late (thanks, Dayton Daily News and Columbus Dispatch)! On the front cover of the Dayton Daily News paper on Sunday, March 30th, there was a large picture of two Cedarville girls walking on a sidewalk. The headline? "Bible Profs Fired, 'A Climate of Fear at Cedarville U.'" Personally, I liked this rendition by David Sizemore all the more. I was shocked to read this article for two reasons. 1.) This happened at the end of last year and somewhat over the Summer. The Board of Trustees voted in January, making their firing decision final. It's over, people! 2.) I'm not afraid. Nobody's afraid. What "climate of fear?" You'd think that, well, since I live on this campus, I would notice if everyone were crying themselves to sleep every night.
Another irony is the fact that, when the newspaper was on campus, they were escorted by Dr. Ruby, and he had to answer all their hard-hitting questions. The reporters were under strict orders that they were not allowed to take photographs, but they could ask as many questions as they like. So, please explain to me how this article has a huge picture, front-and-center? Some people who are anti-Cedarville in this fight like to blame Dr. Ruby for the fact that pictures were taken, but I'll bet you one thing: They didn't take them while he was around! There are people on this campus all the time taking pictures; nobody stops you! All they had to do was come back later. But I'd like to speak to the reporters for a moment. Question: If you were trying to capture an image that would represent your "fearful" title, why did you choose to print a picture of two girls laughing and smiling, walking along happily with each other? Very fearful ...
The author of the article is apparently a Christian and felt it was her duty to write the article out of concern. She claims she wrote the article based on an "anonymous phone call." Your credibility is skyrocketing in my mind. I didn't see her interviewing me, though apparently she stayed on campus "researching" for four days.
There's two main groups up on Facebook, where all proper debates should take place. There's the "I support Cedarville" side and the "I want Cedarville destroyed" side. Some fans of the latter group may jump all over me, telling me all they really want is "the truth," not to destroy Cedarville, but let's think about the logic. What are you accomplishing by sticking your nose where it doesn't belong? Absolutely nothing! And as Cedarville Faculty continues to deny you any facts, and third-party sources keep making up stories to feed you, you just get more and more angry towards Cedarville. And for what? To satisfy your curiosity?
On the anti-Cedarville Facebook group, they proudly sport the banner under their description, "Opposing views are welcome but individuals will be removed from the group who are known to have no connection to the situation and/or who base their authority on anonymous sources." Interesting statement. It's false. I joined the group and posted on the wall, explaining to all the members that, no matter how much they kept asking, Cedarville would never give them "the truth" that they wanted due to simple ethics and legal confidentiality. I also explained that, no matter what, I supported Cedarville and didn't want to ask questions because I trusted Dr. Brown and the Board of Trustees. It's their job to work with these types of decisions, not mine. Only a few hours went by before my wall post was deleted and I was sufficiently blocked from the group. A further message from the group's creator informed me that he was glad I was "very informed [and had] read everything Cedarville has communicated to [me]." I replied and thanked him, of course. And, yes, it's true, I've read everything Cedarville has fed me. I've also read all the other information I can get my hands on to try to make sense of it and, quite honestly, I can't! Interestingly, the admin of this anti-Cedarville group is a Cedarville alumni who graduated last year. Guess what that means? He doesn't even live on campus anymore! I'm glad one of the people who has the most adamant voice against Cedarville in this situation isn't even in the middle of it anymore. Not surprisingly, most of the anti-Cedarville articles and information is from off-campus sources. That seems really credible.
What I find ironic is that this group and all its members are demanding that they deserve to know why these profs were fired when, in reality, they have no right. They say the firings were unethical and this gives them the right to know. (Really?) Apparently what they don't understand is that their demands are equally unethical, if not more so. I would say more so because the administration here at Cedarville obviously had a reason for doing what they did, and this group has no viable reason, except gossip, for their demands. They argue that Cedarville is hiding things from us and that they won't let us see all the facts. Ironically, however, this very group itself is hypocritical in that manner since they aren't accepting outside opinions either! And when an opposing view comes onto the wall, they are quick to delete it and block the user. Hmm ... Doesn't that sound suspicious to you?
I have now made my home at the pro-Cedarville group and am no longer afraid of being blocked. But I can tell you this: I've never felt so proud of being blocked from a group :). It made my week to know that I hit such a sensitive nerve that they didn't want what I said to get out. Heaven forbid people actually know the truth. The only truth they're very going to understand in this situation because, let me say this one more time people ... Cedarville will never, EVER give you this information!
Did I miss the memo saying Cedarville was a perfect college? Oh, wait. There wasn't one! There's no such thing as a perfect college. Turns out every college has issues like these. (I know, who knew, right?) I've about had it with people griping about the school. What happened to Philippians 2:14 "Do everything without grumbling or complaining?" Or what about Romans 1:29-32? "They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenenat-breakers, heartless, ruthless. Although they fully know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them." (Please don't take this as I think you should die ...) People hop all over our President for having a book on Postmodernism on his "Books to Read" list. Why is this a bad thing? Additionally, if we have a Chapel speaker come who has a very Postmodern point of view and, perhaps, isn't even 100% in line with the Cedarville's doctrinal statement, this doesn't mean we're ready to go to Hell. Cedarville isn't about spoon feeding it's students a worldview and saying, "Get out of here. Figure the world out yourself." Cedarville is all about presenting the truth from God's word and allowing us to mold our worldview based upon that guide. This way, when we get into the real world, we know how to react to situations on our own, we aren't dependent on a prof to tell us how to react. The anti-Cedarville groups want to the the truth about this so-called "faculty exodus" at Cedarville, claiming it is leading us down the path of Postmodernism, when in reality, the professors were probably fired for violating the Faculty Handbook. The administration at Cedarville has told us the firings were not based on a Theological issue, so they were probably based on misconduct and abuse of authority. Yes, that can get you fired. We really have no reasonable reason to think this isn't true, so making things up and demanding to know the "real" reason for the firings is just ludicrous.
In conclusion, I would like to say this publicly to Dr. Brown, the Board of Trustees, Dr. Ruby, Dr. Milliman, and everyone else in the administration taking all the heat for this: "I love you guys. I appreciate you guys. I respect your decisions, and as far as I'm concerned, this is a 'closed case.' I'm sorry the media and people off campus are printing slanderous things against you and defaming you verbally, but since when has the media actually given a proper representation of something? That doesn't sell stories ... So stay strong! I'm praying for all of you."
Feel free to post any arguments you have with this post. I'm quite open to all points of view, and I will not delete your comment. But no matter what you tell me, I will continue to support our administration. But to those of you who enjoy griping about the rules and expenses associated with Cedarville University and constantly trying to find the schools Biblical faults (and making them up when you can't find them), I wonder ... Why are you coming here?
Laundry Room Etiquette
04/02/08 12:30 PM
"Is this smart? Or am I
being an idiot?"
This question, among many others, appears impossible for Freshman males to ask themselves. Granted, I am a Freshman, and a male at that, but I'm one of the few who at least partially grasps the concept of being polite.
It's simply ridiculous to walk into a laundry room on campus and see the mounds of clothes strewn about the floor. My sheer frustration with the laundry room has led me to point out so simple etiquette rules that, quite honestly, aren't that hard to follow, guys! But somehow, people still manage to get into silent screaming matches with each other, throwing other's clothes on the floor to "spite" them.
So, let's begin:
Washing Machine Etiquette
Dryer Etiquette
Honestly, guys, it's no wonder girls say we're incompetent as males.
This question, among many others, appears impossible for Freshman males to ask themselves. Granted, I am a Freshman, and a male at that, but I'm one of the few who at least partially grasps the concept of being polite.
It's simply ridiculous to walk into a laundry room on campus and see the mounds of clothes strewn about the floor. My sheer frustration with the laundry room has led me to point out so simple etiquette rules that, quite honestly, aren't that hard to follow, guys! But somehow, people still manage to get into silent screaming matches with each other, throwing other's clothes on the floor to "spite" them.
So, let's begin:
Washing Machine Etiquette
- If a washing cycle has not completed, do not remove the clothes from the washer. Of course, by "completed" I mean the washer is completely done, not just almost done. Allow me to be a little more clear; if the washer still says "1 minute" or "2 minutes," this does not constitute as "close enough" and give you permission to pull the wet clothes out and throw them on the floor!
- If the washing cycle completes and there are other people in the laundry room, before pulling the clothes out and throwing them on the floor to collect the dirt back on them that they just washed got off, open your mouth and ask, "Does this washer belong to anyone?" That way, someone else can claim the clothes and empty the washer for you.
- If no one is in the laundry room, or no one claims the washer as their own, do them the simple courtesy of moving the wet clothes to an open dryer. Obviously, you would like it someone saved you this step, so why not do it for them?
- If there are no open dryers for you to move a load of wet laundry into, put them in a basket. Throwing them on the floor completely contradicts the point of a laundry room.
- If by some chance you forget your own detergent, it's not entirely ethical to use someone else's that they left in the laundry room for safekeeping. If there are other people in the laundry room, chances are you could ask and someone would be more than willing to let you use theirs.
Dryer Etiquette
- If a drying cycle has not complete, do not remove the clothes from the dryer. Of course, by "completed" I mean the dryer is completely done, not just almost done. Allow me to be a little more clear; if the dryer still says "1 minute" or "2 minutes," this does not constitute as "close enough" and give you permission to pull the still wet clothes out and throw them on the floor!
- If a drying cycle completes and there are other people in the laundry room, before pulling the clothes out and throwing them on the floor to collect the dirt back on them that they just got washed off, open your mouth and ask, "does this dryer belong to anyone?" That way, someone else can claim the clothes and empty the dryer for you.
- If you move someone else's clothes from a washer to a dryer, start the dryer
- If you move someone else's clothes from a washer to a dryer, put one of your own dryer sheets in with it.
- If there are no open dryers to which to move a load of someone else's wet laundry into, but there is a dryer that has completed it's cycle, unload this dryer and use it.
- Before purloining any open dryers, make sure those dryers are not already claimed by another in the laundry room. Washers and dryers both are on a first-come-first-serve basis, so if someone has been sitting, doing homework in the laundry room for the last 42 minutes, waiting for a dryer to finish, you're a complete jerk if you dash into the laundry room, grab your clothes from your washer, and shove them into that very dryer before the rightful owner of it can. Don't be that guy!
- When unloading a dryer of someone else's clothes, don't show them the same respect you would show your own (because we all know how guys treat their clothes), show them the respect a girl might show their clothes. This means do not pull the clothes out of the dryer and throw them on the floor! Find an empty laundry basket to put the clothes in.
- If you cannot find an empty laundry basket in which to put someone else's clothes from a dryer, place the clothes on top of something else, like a washing machine. (NOT the garbage cans, guys.)
- Never, on any circumstances, should you put someone else's clothes from a dryer that you want into a basket full of other clothes! Mixing clothes that do not belong to the same person is just stupid and irresponsible.
- If by some chance you forget your own dryer sheets, it's not entirely ethical to use someone else's that they left in the laundry room for safekeeping. If there are other people in the laundry room, chances are you could ask and someone would be more than willing to let you use theirs.
- Additionally, if you are taking clothes back to your own room, make sure you use your own laundry basket, or a laundry basket marked "Laundry Room." If the laundry basket has a name written on it, or even looks like a nice, unmarked laundry basket (unlike the one's provided by the laundry room) that someone actually purchased, do not take it back to your room with you! We understand, of course, that you mean to bring it back to the laundry room; no, you would never steal it. But we all also know that you'll forget to take it back for about a week, and you're causing the true owner of the basket large amounts of undue grief.
Honestly, guys, it's no wonder girls say we're incompetent as males.
In Which I Read Cedars and Laugh
03/28/08 10:14 PM
Tonight, Caitlin and I
sat down to read the highly anticipated and poorly
punctuated Cedars, our on-campus magazine. We flipped
to page twelve to read an article on the upcoming
event, Elliv, which is "one of Cedarville's most
popular events," claims Cedars. And, according to the
turnout and hype inspired by the event, I would have
to agree, even though I have yet to experience it.
Wouldn't you know it, they're changing it this year, much to the dismay of many, myself included. According to Cedars, "[Stephanie] Small [and] the 2008 Elliv committee want to eliminate the idea that the event is simply a popularity contest." Says Small, "We worked really hard to get a show that was for everyman, not just pointing out the popular kids but celebrating the year." In agreement with this, "Some awards have been changed, so instead of voting for the best campus artist or student athlete, students will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite piece of student artwork or the best athletic achievement."
"Oh, right," I said, turning to Caitlin. "Because God wants us to worship the trees instead of crediting the creator for his accomplishments."
Question. Is there something wrong with saying, "Wow, that was an amazing performance of Another Brick in the Wall. I say we give them Best Live Performance!"? Not to my knowledge. If someone does something truly spectacular, I don't think crediting them for it is a "popularity contest." And, honestly, wouldn't an award for Most Popular Student be a joke on a college campus. We're on a campus of nearly 3,500 students; anyone who sits in the balcony depressed over the fact that John Doe one Most Popular Student instead of themselves needs to be handed a band aid and shoved out of the Chapel.
God gave us all talents, some more than others in different areas. Why stifle them by not acknowledging them? So, instead, let's still have a $45,000 talent show and treat it like a Jr. High softball game; everyone's equal when Jesus is watching! After all, we wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings ...
Wouldn't you know it, they're changing it this year, much to the dismay of many, myself included. According to Cedars, "[Stephanie] Small [and] the 2008 Elliv committee want to eliminate the idea that the event is simply a popularity contest." Says Small, "We worked really hard to get a show that was for everyman, not just pointing out the popular kids but celebrating the year." In agreement with this, "Some awards have been changed, so instead of voting for the best campus artist or student athlete, students will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite piece of student artwork or the best athletic achievement."
"Oh, right," I said, turning to Caitlin. "Because God wants us to worship the trees instead of crediting the creator for his accomplishments."
Question. Is there something wrong with saying, "Wow, that was an amazing performance of Another Brick in the Wall. I say we give them Best Live Performance!"? Not to my knowledge. If someone does something truly spectacular, I don't think crediting them for it is a "popularity contest." And, honestly, wouldn't an award for Most Popular Student be a joke on a college campus. We're on a campus of nearly 3,500 students; anyone who sits in the balcony depressed over the fact that John Doe one Most Popular Student instead of themselves needs to be handed a band aid and shoved out of the Chapel.
God gave us all talents, some more than others in different areas. Why stifle them by not acknowledging them? So, instead, let's still have a $45,000 talent show and treat it like a Jr. High softball game; everyone's equal when Jesus is watching! After all, we wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings ...
My R.A. Is Canadian
02/24/08 03:51 PM
I was sitting in a
lounge when I got distracted by this girls shirt. It
said, "My R.A. Is Canadian."
Terrific. That's two marks against you. Not only are you wearing a shirt advertising your R.A. (I love you, Joe!), your R.A. is also Canadian ... why would you intentionally advertise this and be proud of it?
Apparently there's a "colony" of followers in Maddox; obviously, their R.A. is Canadian. I'm not sure why they're proud of this. I would have requested a room change between Semesters.
Terrific. That's two marks against you. Not only are you wearing a shirt advertising your R.A. (I love you, Joe!), your R.A. is also Canadian ... why would you intentionally advertise this and be proud of it?
Apparently there's a "colony" of followers in Maddox; obviously, their R.A. is Canadian. I'm not sure why they're proud of this. I would have requested a room change between Semesters.
Student Graders
02/23/08 01:15 PM
Student Graders have
recently become some of my least favorite people.
Now, I realize saying Student Graders are annoying is
like saying women are bad drivers. It's true; maybe
there are some good ones. But from what I've
observed, they hate me.
I just got a few papers back from my Spiritual Formation class. First, I would like to point out that the point of this class is to help you develop your spiritual life; it's not a composition class. Not only this, but my Professor has given no specifications for how your papers should properly be formatted, so taking me points off for poor spacing and formatting is ridiculous. Especially if the points you take off aren't because the spacing or formatting I choose to use is wrong, per se, it's just not to your liking.
I got four Reading Questions and one Reflections paper back today. Reading Questions are questions that my Professor has prepared, usually between eight and twelve, on the reading that is due for that day. We are supposed to answer the questions based upon what the reading says. Basically, they're questions to make sure we did the reading for Renovation of the Heart (Willard). The Reflections papers are our personal responses to the reading of Steering Through Chaos (Guinness). It's not a summary of the chapter, it's just our own thoughts and feelings about what we read (i.e. how can you get it wrong?). Three out of the four Reading Questions I got back I received a +10 on. One of them the grader gave me only a +9. Her reasoning for giving me a +9 instead of a +10 was some "improper" spacing on question six. I accidently hit enter one too many times. Oops! Had this been a composition class, I would have checked for that. As it is, shouldn't we be graded on how well we understood the reading?
The Reflections paper I also got a +9 on. How? Well, I used double-spaced paragraphs (like in my blog posts) instead of single-spaced-indented paragraphs. Nowhere is it specified what type of spacing to use. Also, my margins ... well, I don't know what I did wrong with the margins. She drew an arrow from the text to the side of the page and wrong "1" margin." What does that mean? The margins were 1", which is what they are by default. Is she saying they should be or shouldn't be? And why would I change the margins from Words default? I've never been docked for the default margin settings in any other class. Again, nothing is said about this in the Syllabus.
This wouldn't annoy me quite so much if I actually got docked points for the content of my papers. But I have to wonder, did she even read my reflections, or just look to see if it met her eyes approval? Maybe you think I'm overreacting, but let me inform you of one more thing I did to test this: It's also worth noting that, in one of the papers I got back today which I did receive a +10 on, I purposely completely made up two of the answers. Just to see if I would get points taken off. Guess what! I didn't! But apparently the formatting was OK for that paper.
Seriously, you guys get paid for this! The only Student Graders I actually like are the ones that help the Math Professors, and when I took DLD, that Student Grader was alright, but for the Bible classes I have yet to be impressed. I know, you guys get a lot of papers, but let me remind you, all of the papers I got back today were a single page. There's really no excuse for not being able to read one or two pages, especially if you're getting paid by the hour. Especially if someone else's grade depends on it.
Just to clear up any confusion, I'm actually not losing sleep over this, or even that mad, I just think it's silly :P. And I still love Cedarville. Just not some of their Student Graders :).
I just got a few papers back from my Spiritual Formation class. First, I would like to point out that the point of this class is to help you develop your spiritual life; it's not a composition class. Not only this, but my Professor has given no specifications for how your papers should properly be formatted, so taking me points off for poor spacing and formatting is ridiculous. Especially if the points you take off aren't because the spacing or formatting I choose to use is wrong, per se, it's just not to your liking.
I got four Reading Questions and one Reflections paper back today. Reading Questions are questions that my Professor has prepared, usually between eight and twelve, on the reading that is due for that day. We are supposed to answer the questions based upon what the reading says. Basically, they're questions to make sure we did the reading for Renovation of the Heart (Willard). The Reflections papers are our personal responses to the reading of Steering Through Chaos (Guinness). It's not a summary of the chapter, it's just our own thoughts and feelings about what we read (i.e. how can you get it wrong?). Three out of the four Reading Questions I got back I received a +10 on. One of them the grader gave me only a +9. Her reasoning for giving me a +9 instead of a +10 was some "improper" spacing on question six. I accidently hit enter one too many times. Oops! Had this been a composition class, I would have checked for that. As it is, shouldn't we be graded on how well we understood the reading?
The Reflections paper I also got a +9 on. How? Well, I used double-spaced paragraphs (like in my blog posts) instead of single-spaced-indented paragraphs. Nowhere is it specified what type of spacing to use. Also, my margins ... well, I don't know what I did wrong with the margins. She drew an arrow from the text to the side of the page and wrong "1" margin." What does that mean? The margins were 1", which is what they are by default. Is she saying they should be or shouldn't be? And why would I change the margins from Words default? I've never been docked for the default margin settings in any other class. Again, nothing is said about this in the Syllabus.
This wouldn't annoy me quite so much if I actually got docked points for the content of my papers. But I have to wonder, did she even read my reflections, or just look to see if it met her eyes approval? Maybe you think I'm overreacting, but let me inform you of one more thing I did to test this: It's also worth noting that, in one of the papers I got back today which I did receive a +10 on, I purposely completely made up two of the answers. Just to see if I would get points taken off. Guess what! I didn't! But apparently the formatting was OK for that paper.
Seriously, you guys get paid for this! The only Student Graders I actually like are the ones that help the Math Professors, and when I took DLD, that Student Grader was alright, but for the Bible classes I have yet to be impressed. I know, you guys get a lot of papers, but let me remind you, all of the papers I got back today were a single page. There's really no excuse for not being able to read one or two pages, especially if you're getting paid by the hour. Especially if someone else's grade depends on it.
Just to clear up any confusion, I'm actually not losing sleep over this, or even that mad, I just think it's silly :P. And I still love Cedarville. Just not some of their Student Graders :).
The Day That Bites
10/30/07 04:14 PM
It was all going good
and well until approximately 5 o-clock. We had even
attained FREE Tacos from Taco Bell (thanks to the Red
Sox doing something cool relating to Baseball and the
World Series ... whatever)!! However, when we were on
our way to the SSC, on our way to Chucks to stuff
ourselves even more (welcome to America), we saw a
LLAMA!!!! TWO llamas, actually. In front of the DMC.
We were amazed, so we took a picture.
We continued our journey to the SSC
to eat. Upon arriving at the SSC, we saw ANOTHER
LLAMA!!! I think it's a rare event to even see one
llama in or around a building in one day, but today
we saw THREE. And this final llama was actually IN
the SSC!! I whipped out my camera again and started
taking pictures.
Don't get me wrong, these llamas
were amazing. I loved seeing them in all of their
beauty. The part that bites is that Jenna is still
grounded from me, so I couldn't immediately send the
pictures to her and call her and tell her about my
rare sitings!!
This is the worst day ever ...
The Titanic, 2007
10/13/07 10:22 AM
I wandered my way over
to the SSC in hopes of putting my headphones in and
playing a game or two of pool with myself; however,
due to the large number of parents (and small
children) on the campus today, all pool tables were
and are currently occupied. And so, for the sake of
my beloved Grandpa (and others who keep griping about
this), I decided to finally report on the Canoe Race.
Originally, I had planned on writing this post and attaching descriptive pictures and a video of the race! Unfortunately, due in no part to the individuals manning (or womanning, in this case) the camera, all still photos and videos were lost. So it's actually going to be a bit hard to explain, but I'll do the best I can.
For all Freshman Engineering students at Cedarville University, we are required to build a cardboard canoe and race it across Cedar Lake on the Saturday of Homecoming weekend. Yes, this is part of our grade. It counts as roughly (if I remember correctly) half of the entire grade for (everyones FAVORITE class) The Engineering Profession. Essentially, the only real point of that class is this canoe race. But if you really want to know my opinions on that class, ask me personally and I'd love to vent about it.
I would also like to go off on a slight tangent here and point out that, after circling Cedar Lake multiple times within my first week of being on campus, I came to the conclusion that Cedar Lake is not actually a lake. It's a pond. In order to be a lake, it would have to have a fresh water source, be natural (usually), and be of "considerably size", according to Wikipedia (don't read this Professor Wheeler!). But there are signs all around the "lake" referring to it as "Cedar Lake". It's a pond. I'm sure of this. Ponds are small and man made. Cedar Lake is small and man made. But I digress ...
After receiving our instructions for the canoe race, each team was given a roll of cardboard and a roll of masking tape. That's all you get. I suppose that's why it's an Engineering project: You have to do all the measurements and calculations before making any cuts or you'll be sorry when you run out of material :).
We were all randomly assigned to groups of four. A video documentary was apparently filmed, so instead of actually trying to explain the construction process to you all, I'll just show you that sometime, if you're really interested. I'll just leave it at this: After putting close to, if not more than, twenty hours into our cardboard canoe in the evenings, we finally made her seaworthy.
We named our canoe the Titanic. Across the side, we wrote this in large letters. On the opposite side of the canoe we wrote, "NOTHING LESS THAN GOD CAN SINK US."
My FAVORITE part of the construction part was when we had just taped together the structure for the base of the canoe. We were in the Marshall lounge when the door burst open and three taller guys came strutting in. Chins high. Clearly, these were UPPERclassmen Engineers! There were about four groups in the lounge assembling their canoes, and I could just sense the wealth of knowledge that flowed into the room with these three. They strolled by each of the canoes, glancing down at them with a sort of, "Yah, I did that once ... ours looked better," glance. You know what I mean, right? Until, of course, they came to our canoe. They stopped and looked at our canoe and one grunted, "Ha, that won't float." A bit confused and set back, I wasn't sure how to react. So I just dropped the obligatory, "Uuuuuh ..." To which he replied, to his friends, not me, "Their base is too wide. It'll be one of the first ones to sink." They all nodded in agreement and, seeming content with their derogatory comments, they moved on and left the lounge.
I had the strong urge to punch a wall, but all of the walls in the Marshall lounge are made of cement, and that seemed like it wouldn't be one of my smarter ideas. So instead I just clenched my fists and teeth tightly, which the dentist has told me is bad since I broke a tooth doing that once and had to get it pulled. But I couldn't really help it. After passing these words of kindness onto my group, I said, "We're going to get across the lake guys. Let's do this!"
We finished our canoe. We were the third team into the water (Team 6)! The gun fired and Drew and I started paddling furiously.
I have yet to see those three again, and I probably wouldn't remember what they looked like anyway if I did see them again. But I hope they were at the race and remembered that our canoe was the one they said wouldn't even float. Fact: Our canoe made it across the lake. Fact: Since our canoe was wider than every other canoe, it actually floated HIGHER (it's amazing, the math behind that ...). Fact: Our team came in SECOND, overall.
Eat that.
It was a fun experience. But I think the best part about it was proving those three wrong. That was the most pleasurable part of the entire experience!
Originally, I had planned on writing this post and attaching descriptive pictures and a video of the race! Unfortunately, due in no part to the individuals manning (or womanning, in this case) the camera, all still photos and videos were lost. So it's actually going to be a bit hard to explain, but I'll do the best I can.
For all Freshman Engineering students at Cedarville University, we are required to build a cardboard canoe and race it across Cedar Lake on the Saturday of Homecoming weekend. Yes, this is part of our grade. It counts as roughly (if I remember correctly) half of the entire grade for (everyones FAVORITE class) The Engineering Profession. Essentially, the only real point of that class is this canoe race. But if you really want to know my opinions on that class, ask me personally and I'd love to vent about it.
I would also like to go off on a slight tangent here and point out that, after circling Cedar Lake multiple times within my first week of being on campus, I came to the conclusion that Cedar Lake is not actually a lake. It's a pond. In order to be a lake, it would have to have a fresh water source, be natural (usually), and be of "considerably size", according to Wikipedia (don't read this Professor Wheeler!). But there are signs all around the "lake" referring to it as "Cedar Lake". It's a pond. I'm sure of this. Ponds are small and man made. Cedar Lake is small and man made. But I digress ...
After receiving our instructions for the canoe race, each team was given a roll of cardboard and a roll of masking tape. That's all you get. I suppose that's why it's an Engineering project: You have to do all the measurements and calculations before making any cuts or you'll be sorry when you run out of material :).
We were all randomly assigned to groups of four. A video documentary was apparently filmed, so instead of actually trying to explain the construction process to you all, I'll just show you that sometime, if you're really interested. I'll just leave it at this: After putting close to, if not more than, twenty hours into our cardboard canoe in the evenings, we finally made her seaworthy.
We named our canoe the Titanic. Across the side, we wrote this in large letters. On the opposite side of the canoe we wrote, "NOTHING LESS THAN GOD CAN SINK US."
My FAVORITE part of the construction part was when we had just taped together the structure for the base of the canoe. We were in the Marshall lounge when the door burst open and three taller guys came strutting in. Chins high. Clearly, these were UPPERclassmen Engineers! There were about four groups in the lounge assembling their canoes, and I could just sense the wealth of knowledge that flowed into the room with these three. They strolled by each of the canoes, glancing down at them with a sort of, "Yah, I did that once ... ours looked better," glance. You know what I mean, right? Until, of course, they came to our canoe. They stopped and looked at our canoe and one grunted, "Ha, that won't float." A bit confused and set back, I wasn't sure how to react. So I just dropped the obligatory, "Uuuuuh ..." To which he replied, to his friends, not me, "Their base is too wide. It'll be one of the first ones to sink." They all nodded in agreement and, seeming content with their derogatory comments, they moved on and left the lounge.
I had the strong urge to punch a wall, but all of the walls in the Marshall lounge are made of cement, and that seemed like it wouldn't be one of my smarter ideas. So instead I just clenched my fists and teeth tightly, which the dentist has told me is bad since I broke a tooth doing that once and had to get it pulled. But I couldn't really help it. After passing these words of kindness onto my group, I said, "We're going to get across the lake guys. Let's do this!"
We finished our canoe. We were the third team into the water (Team 6)! The gun fired and Drew and I started paddling furiously.
I have yet to see those three again, and I probably wouldn't remember what they looked like anyway if I did see them again. But I hope they were at the race and remembered that our canoe was the one they said wouldn't even float. Fact: Our canoe made it across the lake. Fact: Since our canoe was wider than every other canoe, it actually floated HIGHER (it's amazing, the math behind that ...). Fact: Our team came in SECOND, overall.
Eat that.
It was a fun experience. But I think the best part about it was proving those three wrong. That was the most pleasurable part of the entire experience!
"So... What Do We Do Now?"
05/03/07 07:31 PM
Today, Thursday, May
3rd, was my last day of Lectures at Kirkwood.
Granted, I still have Finals left tomorrow and the
beginning of next week, but I generally consider
myself "done" as soon as the last lecture is over.
I was in Java class. It wasn't actually Lecture, it was Lab day, and we were all turning in our final assignments for the year. I turned mine in. After turning it in, I found five errors (none of which Jerry noticed while looking it over) and corrected them before the 50 minutes was up, then turned it in again without Jerry really noticing. (For the record, he wouldn't have really cared if he had noticed.)
Java class is always my most amusing class. And the most fun. Today, Jerry was checking over my program and set his keys down on my desk. After reveiwing my program he looked at me and goes, "Your average is wrong. Why is it 6?"
"Um... it's the average length of all the words. Why wouldn't it be 6?"
"It should be a decimal number."
"Why would it be a decimal? You can't have half a word!!"
"No, but say one document has 4.101 for it's average word count and another has 4.909. Both would look like 4 in your program, but there's a difference still. One is closer to 5."
"Ok, whatever... I don't agree with you though."
"Yah, well, it's your grade. And I'm the teacher, so I'm right."
"Fine, you're right, Jerry."
"Good, I won't dock you any points then. But don't let it happen again."
"What, like next semester?"
"Yah, like in Java 2."
"I'm going to a different college then, and I'll be learning from a better, higher paid teacher than you."
"Well then I might have to consider docking you points..."
He moved on to review the next persons program. He left his car keys on my desk. I heard from across the room, "How did you get 4.325 for an average word length?"
"I don't know. Isn't that right?"
"Well... technically no. Although, I guess it's more accurate than 6."
I shouted from across the room, "I heard that!"
"That was the point..."
"Yah, well, you left your car keys over here. You better watch yourself."
"Oh, no... my car keys?" Jerry said, trying to pull of a severely sarcastic tone. "Please don't steal my car." It worked. Jerry's never been one to have difficulty being sarcastic. He then stated, "I rigged my car for my Java 2 class, but none of them were stupid enough to go out there and try and steal it... Oops, I just gave it away! Now you won't either. Actually, knowing you, you still might."
It came about that 3:50, the end of class, came and went. It was a sad moment. But only a few people left the room. We were all having too much fun. At about 4:10, we decided it was probably time to leave the room. I removed my flash drive from the computer, grabbed my back pack, pushed my chair in, and slowly walked to the door. Sid was right behind me. I opened the door and held it for him, and we both walked out simultaneously, bumping into eachother on the way through the door. I arrived outside the classroom in the hallway. I stopped... I just stood there, staring ahead at the white wall. I slowly looked left, mind in a daze, everything starting to get dizzy. Empty hallway. I realized I had been standing their for quite a few seconds, possibly minutes, so I looked right. To my surprise, Sid was still standing their too, unmoving, staring ahead at the white wall. We both looked at eachother.
"So... What do we do now?" He asked.
"I'm not sure... I've never had this feeling before."
At this point, Michelle and Jennifer walked out of the classroom, nearly hitting Sid and I because we were still standing right in front of the door.
"What are you two idiots doing standing out here?" Michelle said in the most loving tone.
"Do you have an evening class?" Sid asked.
"Yah, so I can't go home." I replied. "Well, I mean, I could go home... but I shouldn't."
"Yah, you always have the option," Sid said.
"We're going out for supper to celebrate Java being over," said Michelle about her and Jennifer.
"Celebrate? We're not really sure what to do," Sid stated.
"About what?" Jennifer Asked.
"I don't know. I mean, I feel like my life has no more meaning," I said, blankly. The door opened behind us and Jerry walked out.
"Shouldn't you guys be gone? I thought I kicked you out minutes ago."
"Alex and Sid are having an emotional breakdown."
"Oh?" Jerry asked. "Why?"
"Usually when we leave Java class, we have projects that are due, so we go program more Java. But we just turned in all our projects. We don't know what to do now!" I blurted out to Jerry. He grunted and laughed.
"They need help," said Michelle.
"There is no help for those two. You guys are ridiculous. Get a life," he said as he walked down the hallway to his office, still laughing. Michelle and Jennifer started walking down the hall to the doors.
"Are we really that lame?" Sid asked, turning to me.
"I think so..." Sid and I attempted to follow Michelle and Jennifer, but at a significantly slower pace because we couldn't seem to find any motivation to move quicker. I could tell Sid was trying to hold back the tears with each step away from the classroom we got. I was too. We started talking about VisualBasic. We got to the doors and stood there for another ten minutes talking about programming, since we didn't actually have anything TO program. Sid finally left. I went to the bathroom.
So... what do I do now? Socialize?
I was in Java class. It wasn't actually Lecture, it was Lab day, and we were all turning in our final assignments for the year. I turned mine in. After turning it in, I found five errors (none of which Jerry noticed while looking it over) and corrected them before the 50 minutes was up, then turned it in again without Jerry really noticing. (For the record, he wouldn't have really cared if he had noticed.)
Java class is always my most amusing class. And the most fun. Today, Jerry was checking over my program and set his keys down on my desk. After reveiwing my program he looked at me and goes, "Your average is wrong. Why is it 6?"
"Um... it's the average length of all the words. Why wouldn't it be 6?"
"It should be a decimal number."
"Why would it be a decimal? You can't have half a word!!"
"No, but say one document has 4.101 for it's average word count and another has 4.909. Both would look like 4 in your program, but there's a difference still. One is closer to 5."
"Ok, whatever... I don't agree with you though."
"Yah, well, it's your grade. And I'm the teacher, so I'm right."
"Fine, you're right, Jerry."
"Good, I won't dock you any points then. But don't let it happen again."
"What, like next semester?"
"Yah, like in Java 2."
"I'm going to a different college then, and I'll be learning from a better, higher paid teacher than you."
"Well then I might have to consider docking you points..."
He moved on to review the next persons program. He left his car keys on my desk. I heard from across the room, "How did you get 4.325 for an average word length?"
"I don't know. Isn't that right?"
"Well... technically no. Although, I guess it's more accurate than 6."
I shouted from across the room, "I heard that!"
"That was the point..."
"Yah, well, you left your car keys over here. You better watch yourself."
"Oh, no... my car keys?" Jerry said, trying to pull of a severely sarcastic tone. "Please don't steal my car." It worked. Jerry's never been one to have difficulty being sarcastic. He then stated, "I rigged my car for my Java 2 class, but none of them were stupid enough to go out there and try and steal it... Oops, I just gave it away! Now you won't either. Actually, knowing you, you still might."
It came about that 3:50, the end of class, came and went. It was a sad moment. But only a few people left the room. We were all having too much fun. At about 4:10, we decided it was probably time to leave the room. I removed my flash drive from the computer, grabbed my back pack, pushed my chair in, and slowly walked to the door. Sid was right behind me. I opened the door and held it for him, and we both walked out simultaneously, bumping into eachother on the way through the door. I arrived outside the classroom in the hallway. I stopped... I just stood there, staring ahead at the white wall. I slowly looked left, mind in a daze, everything starting to get dizzy. Empty hallway. I realized I had been standing their for quite a few seconds, possibly minutes, so I looked right. To my surprise, Sid was still standing their too, unmoving, staring ahead at the white wall. We both looked at eachother.
"So... What do we do now?" He asked.
"I'm not sure... I've never had this feeling before."
At this point, Michelle and Jennifer walked out of the classroom, nearly hitting Sid and I because we were still standing right in front of the door.
"What are you two idiots doing standing out here?" Michelle said in the most loving tone.
"Do you have an evening class?" Sid asked.
"Yah, so I can't go home." I replied. "Well, I mean, I could go home... but I shouldn't."
"Yah, you always have the option," Sid said.
"We're going out for supper to celebrate Java being over," said Michelle about her and Jennifer.
"Celebrate? We're not really sure what to do," Sid stated.
"About what?" Jennifer Asked.
"I don't know. I mean, I feel like my life has no more meaning," I said, blankly. The door opened behind us and Jerry walked out.
"Shouldn't you guys be gone? I thought I kicked you out minutes ago."
"Alex and Sid are having an emotional breakdown."
"Oh?" Jerry asked. "Why?"
"Usually when we leave Java class, we have projects that are due, so we go program more Java. But we just turned in all our projects. We don't know what to do now!" I blurted out to Jerry. He grunted and laughed.
"They need help," said Michelle.
"There is no help for those two. You guys are ridiculous. Get a life," he said as he walked down the hallway to his office, still laughing. Michelle and Jennifer started walking down the hall to the doors.
"Are we really that lame?" Sid asked, turning to me.
"I think so..." Sid and I attempted to follow Michelle and Jennifer, but at a significantly slower pace because we couldn't seem to find any motivation to move quicker. I could tell Sid was trying to hold back the tears with each step away from the classroom we got. I was too. We started talking about VisualBasic. We got to the doors and stood there for another ten minutes talking about programming, since we didn't actually have anything TO program. Sid finally left. I went to the bathroom.
So... what do I do now? Socialize?
Entropy vs. Atheism
04/04/07 07:45 PM
Let's start with a few
definitions to make things clear.
The Law of Conservation of Mass: Mass is neither created nor destroyed in any ordinary chemical reaction. The mass of substances produced (products) by a chemical reaction is always equal to the mass of the reacting substances (reactants).
The Law of Entropy: There is an inevitable tendency towards disorder within a closed system as potential energy gets "spent". "The physical Universe's macrocosmic proclivities of becoming locally ever more dissynchronous, asymmetric, diffuse, and multiplyingly expansive.
Entropy: A measure of the amount of disorder in a system.
_______________________
Let's Start With Entropy:
The Law of Conservation of Mass, put simply, (because let's face it, an actual definition is never put simply) basically says when you have a chemical reaction, you can't lose any atoms or molecules. If you start with carbon, you'll have carbon in the final product as well in some way, shape, or form. It may look different, and it may act different, but you can never just lose it.
The Law of Entropy simple says everything is constantly moving towards a state of disorder. Let's face it, if you leave your room for three weeks, the next time you go in there it's not going to look cleaner. In fact, it will be messier. It will be more disorganized until you put some energy back into it to reorganize it. Sadly, it's a law of nature and, thus, cannot be argued with. Just learn to deal with it.
With these two facts of life staring you in the face, keep in mind they are LAWS. There's no question about it. They've been proven millions of times. Any scientist you talk to will tell you, "Yes, those are laws. They cannot be disputed." So what does that mean for Evolution?
Evolution suggests that we're constantly evolving, becoming more developed and more complex. How does that work with the Law of Entropy? I usually define the evolution theory as, "Nothing exploded and created everything. Perfectly synced, perfectly built, perfectly organized. The everything that we know as the infinite(?) universe."
First of all, you're suggesting that in one instant things didn't become more disordered. No, in fact, everything came into perfect order, all at once. I can't get my mind to grasp that, and I've tried. That contradicts the Law of Entropy, and I don't think that the Law of Entropy was also "created" in the same instant the entire universe was.
Second of all, we're contradicting the Law of Conservation of Mass. According to that, I can't react two simple molecules together and gain or lose ANY of them. They must all stay intact. And you're saying, somehow, someway, absolutely NOTHING had a chemical reaction with NOTHING, exploded (because that's essentially what a chemical reaction is), and created all matter as we know it. Once again, you're contradicting yourself, and science says that if there's even a shred of evidence to contradict a law or theory, for instance, the Theory of Evolution, that theory is no longer acceptable. So why do we still accept Evolution and teach it in our schools when it's contradicted? Maybe I'm missing something... please point it out to me if I am. I'm open to opinions.
Sydney Harris, a popular, syndicated columnist once said, "There is a factor called 'entropy' in physics, indicating that the whole universe of matter is running down, and ultimately will reduce itself to uniform chaos. This follows from the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which seems about as basic and unquestionable to modem scientific minds as any truth can be. At the same time that this is happening on the physical level of existence, something quite different seems to be happening on the biological level: structure and species are becoming more complex, more sophisticated, more organized, with higher degrees of performance and consciousness."
I don't understand how you can say that. How can you say, "Well, yah, it is a law. But only here. Over there it's not really a law." It's like saying, "Well, officer, I'm from Montana, and we don't have speed limit laws there, so why do I have to follow your speed limit laws here?" You just do. It's a law. How much more obvious do I have to make it?!
I asked my Chemistry teacher, who introduced me to the Law of Entropy, "This is a law, right?"
"Yes."
"How does this work with the Theory of Evolution than?"
"Yah, the thing is, it really doesn't. Scientists will try and tell you it does, but it's bogus. They can't work together."
_______________________
And Then Move On To Atheism:
If you can convince me, and make me comfortable with the fact, that there is no God, couldn't be a God, and even shouldn't be a God, I will consider atheism.
Laws of science are great and all that, but they beg another question. Where does the law come from? What force makes that law a law? And how is it that the universe is infinite? How is it that something can't have an end? Everything has an end. This minute has an end. This hour, day, week, month. Life. Our minds are not built to grasp the concept of infinity, no matter how much Calculus tries to prove it. More importantly, that matter which we cannot gain or lose in a chemical reaction? Where did it come from in the first place?
Sure, a star is a burning ball of gas. And a gas is free flowing molecules that continuously circle around each other. And a molecule is a bundle of atoms. And atoms are built up of protons, neutrons, electrons, and a nucleus. So what? Where did the nucleus come from? What makes the nucleus? You can't even SEE the nucleus!! How do you even know it exists to hold the matter you're sitting on together?
How is it we have feelings? What are feelings? Where do they come from? From your emotions. What spawns emotion? Your brain waves, which are your thoughts. What are thoughts? Where do they come from? Are they molecules of some kind too? If so, how do they contain information?
Why am I not an atheist? After all, it would be so much more fun if I didn't have to believe in God, right? Life would be easier, and I could do whatever I wanted. No rules to bog me down... nothing. I'm not a Christian because my family are Christians. I'm not a Christian because anyone has made me a Christian. I'm not a Christian because I read my Bible, go to Church on Sundays, or pray before I eat a meal. I'm a Christian because science leaves too many question unanswered. There are too many open doors that scientists claim they can answer, but if you throw enough ten letter words that nobody knows the definition of into your explanation, of COURSE you sound like you know what you're talking about!! Among other things, I'm a Christian because, to me, it's the most sensible religion! Where did all these things come from? A supreme being, a being far beyond our comprehension, just like infinity, created them. That's why they don't make sense to us. Honestly, think as hard as you can. Give me another explanation that works as well as that one and I'll consider believing it. I'm a Christian because believing there is a supreme being, God, who created me and is watching over me and cares about me more than I could ever fathom seems a whole lot less scary to me than believing I'm alone and lost in this world. Just another nobody. Is that using God? I think so. But isn't that exactly what he wants?
When I think of atheism, I think of free falling without ground to ever be hit. You're falling, falling, falling... nothing to catch you, no reason to be falling, no reason to even exist, you just ARE. In the words of one of my good friends, "We're like rocks.... STUCK on the river." We don't serve a purpose, we just look kinda pretty. And some of us not even that.
I don't mind heights, but I hate falling. Especially when I don't know how far I'm falling. There's absolutely no point to do anything if you're an atheist. Sure, live for the moment, and do what feels good now. But the inevitable will happen someday. Just like everyone else you know, you too will die. What happens then? Do you believe in reincarnation? That's submitting to a higher being to reincarnate you, and then you're not a true atheist anymore. How do you KNOW you'll reincarnate? That's putting an awful lot of faith in a guess and hope! Are you just going to die and cease to exist? In a black nothingness? What does that mean? Where did that black nothingness come from? Are you going to have some sort of after life? What governs that after life? What made you die in the first place?! What makes you EXIST in the first place?!
Honestly, there are too many unanswered questions that no scientist will EVER, no matter how hard he or she tries, be able to convince me of an answer. I'm saving these questions for Heaven, because I'm convinced someONE must have had a say in the creation of me, everyone around me, and everything around me, and He'll know the answer to all of these questions.
Being an atheist would scare me. I, for one, hate being alone. Atheism seems lonely to me. I feel comfortable and safe knowing that I have a God who is watching over my life. I don't just think that, I can feel it. You can't know what I mean unless you experience it for yourself, because there's absolutely no way of describing it. It seems to me that believing in God is the only sensible solution. The only solution that works. And the only belief that doesn't scare me. So why is it that Christianity is the most targeted religion for persecution?
I can't understand why, if you are going to be an atheist, you would have morals. Seriously, if you're not believing in anything, and you're not living for anything but for yourself, others, and the moment, why have morals? Think of how much fun you could have. But what do you even try to base those morals on? A feeling in your heart that tells you, "Hey, maybe you should do this. That would be a good idea." OK... once again, where does that feeling come from? But basing a moral on a feeling is dangerous ground for yourself and those around you. I, for one, know how unstable feelings are. One minute you may say, "Hey, I am NOT going to touch that girl because... well, I don't know why, but it somehow just seems wrong is all." But what about when it's really late? And you're tired. What if she's wearing a really tight skirt, or a low cut shirt? What if she's just looking especially beautiful that day? What if she leans forward? Are your feelings changing now? Basing a so called "moral" on a feeling will most certainly hurt you, and will also those around you. My morals are based on convictions I have from the Bible, which is one of God's ways of communicating to me. Basing your morals on someone elses convictions doesn't work either, because either that persons convictions may change, or, like I stated earlier, you might get tired... you can't trust your own feelings.
Does all this make you uncomfortable? Does it scare you? It scares me. I don't think these are little questions. They're huge, life changing questions, and the answers, according to an atheist, are very vague, if not impossible. I could go on for quite a while, but I think the imagination is the most creative way to form any idea, so I'll leave the thoughts up to yourself. I don't have all the answers. I don't have hardly any of the answers.
Why am I not an atheist? Because I can't answer the question, "Why?"
The Law of Conservation of Mass: Mass is neither created nor destroyed in any ordinary chemical reaction. The mass of substances produced (products) by a chemical reaction is always equal to the mass of the reacting substances (reactants).
The Law of Entropy: There is an inevitable tendency towards disorder within a closed system as potential energy gets "spent". "The physical Universe's macrocosmic proclivities of becoming locally ever more dissynchronous, asymmetric, diffuse, and multiplyingly expansive.
Entropy: A measure of the amount of disorder in a system.
_______________________
Let's Start With Entropy:
The Law of Conservation of Mass, put simply, (because let's face it, an actual definition is never put simply) basically says when you have a chemical reaction, you can't lose any atoms or molecules. If you start with carbon, you'll have carbon in the final product as well in some way, shape, or form. It may look different, and it may act different, but you can never just lose it.
The Law of Entropy simple says everything is constantly moving towards a state of disorder. Let's face it, if you leave your room for three weeks, the next time you go in there it's not going to look cleaner. In fact, it will be messier. It will be more disorganized until you put some energy back into it to reorganize it. Sadly, it's a law of nature and, thus, cannot be argued with. Just learn to deal with it.
With these two facts of life staring you in the face, keep in mind they are LAWS. There's no question about it. They've been proven millions of times. Any scientist you talk to will tell you, "Yes, those are laws. They cannot be disputed." So what does that mean for Evolution?
Evolution suggests that we're constantly evolving, becoming more developed and more complex. How does that work with the Law of Entropy? I usually define the evolution theory as, "Nothing exploded and created everything. Perfectly synced, perfectly built, perfectly organized. The everything that we know as the infinite(?) universe."
First of all, you're suggesting that in one instant things didn't become more disordered. No, in fact, everything came into perfect order, all at once. I can't get my mind to grasp that, and I've tried. That contradicts the Law of Entropy, and I don't think that the Law of Entropy was also "created" in the same instant the entire universe was.
Second of all, we're contradicting the Law of Conservation of Mass. According to that, I can't react two simple molecules together and gain or lose ANY of them. They must all stay intact. And you're saying, somehow, someway, absolutely NOTHING had a chemical reaction with NOTHING, exploded (because that's essentially what a chemical reaction is), and created all matter as we know it. Once again, you're contradicting yourself, and science says that if there's even a shred of evidence to contradict a law or theory, for instance, the Theory of Evolution, that theory is no longer acceptable. So why do we still accept Evolution and teach it in our schools when it's contradicted? Maybe I'm missing something... please point it out to me if I am. I'm open to opinions.
Sydney Harris, a popular, syndicated columnist once said, "There is a factor called 'entropy' in physics, indicating that the whole universe of matter is running down, and ultimately will reduce itself to uniform chaos. This follows from the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which seems about as basic and unquestionable to modem scientific minds as any truth can be. At the same time that this is happening on the physical level of existence, something quite different seems to be happening on the biological level: structure and species are becoming more complex, more sophisticated, more organized, with higher degrees of performance and consciousness."
I don't understand how you can say that. How can you say, "Well, yah, it is a law. But only here. Over there it's not really a law." It's like saying, "Well, officer, I'm from Montana, and we don't have speed limit laws there, so why do I have to follow your speed limit laws here?" You just do. It's a law. How much more obvious do I have to make it?!
I asked my Chemistry teacher, who introduced me to the Law of Entropy, "This is a law, right?"
"Yes."
"How does this work with the Theory of Evolution than?"
"Yah, the thing is, it really doesn't. Scientists will try and tell you it does, but it's bogus. They can't work together."
_______________________
And Then Move On To Atheism:
If you can convince me, and make me comfortable with the fact, that there is no God, couldn't be a God, and even shouldn't be a God, I will consider atheism.
Laws of science are great and all that, but they beg another question. Where does the law come from? What force makes that law a law? And how is it that the universe is infinite? How is it that something can't have an end? Everything has an end. This minute has an end. This hour, day, week, month. Life. Our minds are not built to grasp the concept of infinity, no matter how much Calculus tries to prove it. More importantly, that matter which we cannot gain or lose in a chemical reaction? Where did it come from in the first place?
Sure, a star is a burning ball of gas. And a gas is free flowing molecules that continuously circle around each other. And a molecule is a bundle of atoms. And atoms are built up of protons, neutrons, electrons, and a nucleus. So what? Where did the nucleus come from? What makes the nucleus? You can't even SEE the nucleus!! How do you even know it exists to hold the matter you're sitting on together?
How is it we have feelings? What are feelings? Where do they come from? From your emotions. What spawns emotion? Your brain waves, which are your thoughts. What are thoughts? Where do they come from? Are they molecules of some kind too? If so, how do they contain information?
Why am I not an atheist? After all, it would be so much more fun if I didn't have to believe in God, right? Life would be easier, and I could do whatever I wanted. No rules to bog me down... nothing. I'm not a Christian because my family are Christians. I'm not a Christian because anyone has made me a Christian. I'm not a Christian because I read my Bible, go to Church on Sundays, or pray before I eat a meal. I'm a Christian because science leaves too many question unanswered. There are too many open doors that scientists claim they can answer, but if you throw enough ten letter words that nobody knows the definition of into your explanation, of COURSE you sound like you know what you're talking about!! Among other things, I'm a Christian because, to me, it's the most sensible religion! Where did all these things come from? A supreme being, a being far beyond our comprehension, just like infinity, created them. That's why they don't make sense to us. Honestly, think as hard as you can. Give me another explanation that works as well as that one and I'll consider believing it. I'm a Christian because believing there is a supreme being, God, who created me and is watching over me and cares about me more than I could ever fathom seems a whole lot less scary to me than believing I'm alone and lost in this world. Just another nobody. Is that using God? I think so. But isn't that exactly what he wants?
When I think of atheism, I think of free falling without ground to ever be hit. You're falling, falling, falling... nothing to catch you, no reason to be falling, no reason to even exist, you just ARE. In the words of one of my good friends, "We're like rocks.... STUCK on the river." We don't serve a purpose, we just look kinda pretty. And some of us not even that.
I don't mind heights, but I hate falling. Especially when I don't know how far I'm falling. There's absolutely no point to do anything if you're an atheist. Sure, live for the moment, and do what feels good now. But the inevitable will happen someday. Just like everyone else you know, you too will die. What happens then? Do you believe in reincarnation? That's submitting to a higher being to reincarnate you, and then you're not a true atheist anymore. How do you KNOW you'll reincarnate? That's putting an awful lot of faith in a guess and hope! Are you just going to die and cease to exist? In a black nothingness? What does that mean? Where did that black nothingness come from? Are you going to have some sort of after life? What governs that after life? What made you die in the first place?! What makes you EXIST in the first place?!
Honestly, there are too many unanswered questions that no scientist will EVER, no matter how hard he or she tries, be able to convince me of an answer. I'm saving these questions for Heaven, because I'm convinced someONE must have had a say in the creation of me, everyone around me, and everything around me, and He'll know the answer to all of these questions.
Being an atheist would scare me. I, for one, hate being alone. Atheism seems lonely to me. I feel comfortable and safe knowing that I have a God who is watching over my life. I don't just think that, I can feel it. You can't know what I mean unless you experience it for yourself, because there's absolutely no way of describing it. It seems to me that believing in God is the only sensible solution. The only solution that works. And the only belief that doesn't scare me. So why is it that Christianity is the most targeted religion for persecution?
I can't understand why, if you are going to be an atheist, you would have morals. Seriously, if you're not believing in anything, and you're not living for anything but for yourself, others, and the moment, why have morals? Think of how much fun you could have. But what do you even try to base those morals on? A feeling in your heart that tells you, "Hey, maybe you should do this. That would be a good idea." OK... once again, where does that feeling come from? But basing a moral on a feeling is dangerous ground for yourself and those around you. I, for one, know how unstable feelings are. One minute you may say, "Hey, I am NOT going to touch that girl because... well, I don't know why, but it somehow just seems wrong is all." But what about when it's really late? And you're tired. What if she's wearing a really tight skirt, or a low cut shirt? What if she's just looking especially beautiful that day? What if she leans forward? Are your feelings changing now? Basing a so called "moral" on a feeling will most certainly hurt you, and will also those around you. My morals are based on convictions I have from the Bible, which is one of God's ways of communicating to me. Basing your morals on someone elses convictions doesn't work either, because either that persons convictions may change, or, like I stated earlier, you might get tired... you can't trust your own feelings.
Does all this make you uncomfortable? Does it scare you? It scares me. I don't think these are little questions. They're huge, life changing questions, and the answers, according to an atheist, are very vague, if not impossible. I could go on for quite a while, but I think the imagination is the most creative way to form any idea, so I'll leave the thoughts up to yourself. I don't have all the answers. I don't have hardly any of the answers.
Why am I not an atheist? Because I can't answer the question, "Why?"
Doesn't That Contradict Itself?
10/18/06 11:27 AM
As I was walking the
halls of Kirkwood today, something interesting caught
my eye. I was heading from the library to Linn Hall
at a pretty quick pace, and I rounded the corner of a
hallway to the entryway of Benton Hall. I was booking
it towards the doors to head out into the rain when I
noticed a sign posted on the bulletin board in the
opening to the book store. It said:
FREE T-SHIRT WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY SWEATSHIRT*
*Offer only applies to certain purchases
Wait, how does that work? First it says I get this free, sweet T-Shirt (sporting a fancy Kirkwood Community College logo, no doubt) with the purchase of ANY sweatshirt in the Kirkwood Bookstore. Then, directly below that, it contradict itself and says that I have to buy the right sweatshirt to get the T-Shirt. I pondered this all the way to my Comp II: Technical Writing class. I should have told my teacher about it. She would have been apalled.
FREE T-SHIRT WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY SWEATSHIRT*
*Offer only applies to certain purchases
Wait, how does that work? First it says I get this free, sweet T-Shirt (sporting a fancy Kirkwood Community College logo, no doubt) with the purchase of ANY sweatshirt in the Kirkwood Bookstore. Then, directly below that, it contradict itself and says that I have to buy the right sweatshirt to get the T-Shirt. I pondered this all the way to my Comp II: Technical Writing class. I should have told my teacher about it. She would have been apalled.
Is That Relevant?
09/26/06 08:20 PM
I'm in a programming
class at Kirkwood. Every day I wake up sometime
between 7:00-7:20 a.m., get ready, and head to
Kirkwood for my 9 o-clock class. Pardon me for saying
this, but the class is filled entirely with nerds.
Now, I'm a big lover of computers--all types. I'm
down with a PC, Mac, Linux, whatever floats your
boat. Hey, if it works or if it stretches your
knowledge of computers, go for it! But why is it when
you enter into the classroom of a programming class,
EVERYONE is checking the system configuration of the
PC in front of them. You come in the first day and
you see 15 "Network Configuration" windows open on
various monitors. Of course, it being the first day,
everyone is twenty minutes early, and having nothing
else to do they pour over the configuration of the
computer, staring at it like there's a secret lying
deep within the numbers and letters. Occasionally
they nod and grunt, then click open a new window.
Excuse me...the network configuration does, in fact,
achieve a purpose. If perhaps the computers network
is not functioning properly, or you need to get the
IP address of the network you're on to set up a new
computer to get on the same network, then I
understand you opening the network configuration
window. If you don't need the information then what's
the point in looking at it? Do you really get
amusement out of a 12 digit number? Apparently these
people are trying to impress the people who happen by
with their vast knowledge of the
inner-system-workings of a computer. I'm not
impressed...I only question you!
In these same classes, these students who know "all too much" about computers ALWAYS seem to think they have the right answer. Chances are they don't. Friend, you're in this class to learn, so take advantage of that! What's with students constantly trying to correct the teacher. Does it every ACTUALLY happen? Apparently you're trying to show your superior knowledge to the teacher by correcting him, but you don't look any smarter when the teacher shuts you down. Worse yet, half of you KEEP arguing with the teacher after you have already been disproved by the teacher. Finally, you "submit" to the teacher by shrugging and saying something like "we must be talking about two different things," or "oh, right, that's not what I thought you were talking about." That's as good as saying, "I have no idea what you're saying, but I don't want to look like a moron, so I'll just duck out of this carefully." For some reason you keep correcting the teacher though. Want my opinion? If you are one of those who try's to correct the teacher, when he comes back with his defense, leave it alone! Look at it this way--it's what the teacher knows, so it's going to be on the test. You'd better submit and learn it his way, even if he is wrong (which is unlikely), because otherwise you're not going to do good on the test. Better yet, don't correct the teacher at all...just accept his lecture as fact. It probably is.
Questions--there's a whole other story. For that, I turn you over to this wonderful flow chart of "How to Properly Ask a Question." It's a wonderful thing. Please, take it to heart.
In these same classes, these students who know "all too much" about computers ALWAYS seem to think they have the right answer. Chances are they don't. Friend, you're in this class to learn, so take advantage of that! What's with students constantly trying to correct the teacher. Does it every ACTUALLY happen? Apparently you're trying to show your superior knowledge to the teacher by correcting him, but you don't look any smarter when the teacher shuts you down. Worse yet, half of you KEEP arguing with the teacher after you have already been disproved by the teacher. Finally, you "submit" to the teacher by shrugging and saying something like "we must be talking about two different things," or "oh, right, that's not what I thought you were talking about." That's as good as saying, "I have no idea what you're saying, but I don't want to look like a moron, so I'll just duck out of this carefully." For some reason you keep correcting the teacher though. Want my opinion? If you are one of those who try's to correct the teacher, when he comes back with his defense, leave it alone! Look at it this way--it's what the teacher knows, so it's going to be on the test. You'd better submit and learn it his way, even if he is wrong (which is unlikely), because otherwise you're not going to do good on the test. Better yet, don't correct the teacher at all...just accept his lecture as fact. It probably is.
Questions--there's a whole other story. For that, I turn you over to this wonderful flow chart of "How to Properly Ask a Question." It's a wonderful thing. Please, take it to heart.
