Archived news items from March 2004
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newer old news from April 2004
Actually late Friday night....
I got the kids through the week after Spring Break without too much trouble. Turned in progress reports on Tuesday, but didn't do much grading this week otherwise, so I was up at the school until after 9pm catching up. I think I've made it an unofficial policy to not go home for the weekend with any grading left to do. (Except for CS-3 stuff, of course, you guys don't actually expect me to grade your things, do you?)
It's been a fun week. This week I've been doing sorting in Computer Science I, which I like teaching, and in Computer Science II it's been complexity analysis (and Big-O notation) and I introduced binary search trees today.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to go to the music store and see if I can pick up some drum heads and an amp for church. But otherwise spend a fairly lazy day reading and going to my 40 Days of Purpose small group.
Dear semi-regular reader,
In order to preserve your sense of well-being, I didn't update yesterday. You're welcome.
Yesterday I got up moderately early (for a Saturday, anyway) and went up to the church for rehearsal (since our drummer was out of town until then). Then I stayed afterward for half an hour or so working on trying to fit two 25' XLR cables through a 25' sheath of 3/4" heat-shrink tubing. We ended up having to desolder one of the connectors, and once the talented Jeff puts it back on, we should be in business.
Then I went to Wal-Mart and spent about $35 on plastic containers and shelves. Now folks, it's amazing what a difference a determined enemy of clutter can make in a 700 square-foot apartment with just $35 worth of containers. I've got almost all my horizontal spaces clean, and I'm pretty near there being a place for everything.
I ended up staying up until after midnight (not usually wise on a church night), but I was on a roll and so I didn't want to quit.
About the only thing left is to buy several more stackable plastic tubs so I can retire the several boxes of junk packed in the storage room. I figure I'll throw about half of it away and consolidate the rest and have something that's more durable, easier to carry and waterproof to boot.
But alas, it's the last evening of Spring Break, so that'll have to wait until another time.
Today was the fifth Sunday in our 40 Days of Purpose, and things went very well. Afterward I was at church until about 4:00 with a programming team meeting, and we covered a lot of ground there, too.
I continued straightening, did laundry and vaccumed the place, and now I'm ready to read for an hour and then get to bed.
Okay, don't have a heart attack, faithful reader, but I'm going to update twice in as many days. I won't make a habit of it, though. :)
Today I got up relatively early and went down to the weight room in my apartment complex to work out, and then had a long, slow morning of reading, breakfast, devotional time, etc.
Then I took off to run errands. I dropped off my bike at the shop for a tune-up, got my address updated on my driver's license, donated blood (and got lunch out of the deal), got a haircut, picked up some heat-shrink tubing so I can combine two 25' XLR cables into a single stereo cable, picked up a fresh spool of blank CD-Rs and got into a long conversation with another shopper about the quality of digital music and then the state of churches in America today, and got some replacement shoelaces.
I should mention that as I was just entering the daunting line at the DPS to get my license updated, I noticed a flyer hanging on the wall saying you could take care of such things online at www.TexasOnline.com. And so I trusted the flyer and immediately left for my next stop. And here at home, much later, I just confirmed that the flyer was reliable; you can, in fact, get it done online. And it was quite painless; I highly recommend it. You can also renew your vehicle registration there, and other Texas government sorts of things.
I'd left the house around noon, and got home close to 9:00. Of course, giving blood and getting a haircut aren't exactly quick errands, so it would have been much faster otherwise.
And while waiting in line today, I started reading Chuck Colson's Loving God, which I'd bought who knows when (and at Book People, no less), but haven't yet read. It looks to be a good one.
Brief recap of the last two weeks:
I've been keeping up at school, with generating material and grading. This is harder than it sounds because of the four preps.
I went up to Palestine for the first several days of Spring Break, and got to see my two cute nephews and mostly just laze around and watch movies. I watched School of Rock, Lost in Translation, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Carribean (again), much of the Led Zeppelin DVD I got Dad for his birthday, and the Stevie Ray Vaughan Austin City Limits DVD which I own.
For photos of the kids, you can see my Dad's new revamped photo site at http://www.pbase.com/mitch026/.
During my stay, I never got up before 8:00 and didn't leave the property in four days.
I got back home to find my cats (and my apartment) had survived 96 hours unsupervised, which is more than I could say for most dependent mammals out there.
Today I spent most of my free time trying to get a spreadsheet to accurately predict my payoff date for my student loan. If things go well, I'll have it gone by the end of 2005, nearly two years early.
Oh, and the 40 Days of Purpose at Lakeline has been going very well.
Actually late Sunday night....
Just got home from watching "The Passion of the Christ". It wasn't pleasant, but it's worth seeing. And if you consider yourself a Christian, it's virtually mandatory.
Kids shouldn't see it; the brutality of the violence is far too intense.
I'm reminded of something I wrote in my journal about seven or eight years ago:
I come into His presence simply. No illusions, no masks, no excuses. He knows me piercingly, and nothing is hidden. Yet He loves me without condition or explanation. To know that perfect love, in spite of what we both know I am on the inside, fills me with awe. God is good.
February 2004
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