Back For a Second Round

Well, I survived. I made it through my first semester as a full time college student, and now I'm back. I am definitely excited about the new opportunities of this semester. In fact, it's really really nice to be starting the semester with an identity. When I first showed up, I was either "Jacqueline's brother" or "the 16 year old." Now, I actually have a name and a few friends, which is quite beneficial. 

This semester is going to be different though. I have 18 hours of classes, which is the same as last semester except they are all on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then since I don't have any Tuesday-Thursday classes, I should hopefully be getting a job soon. So, my class schedule for this semester is as follows:

MWF 8:00-8:55 AM - Basic English Composition

MWF 9:00-9:55 AM - U.S History (Second Semester....I didn't fail)

MWF 1o:00-10:45 AM- Chapel

MWF 11:00-11:55 AM - New Testament Survey: Gospels and Acts

MWF 12:00-12:55 PM - Evangelism and Discipleship

MW 1:30-3:00 PM - College Choir (The official choir of FWBBC that travels to different churches to perform and brainwash influence high school students to attend FWBBC)

M 7:00-8:30 PM - Choral Union (The group that sings at Christmas on Richland and performs the Spring Musical - Which happens to be "The Sound of Music" this year)

W 3:00 - 4:00 PM - Chapel Choir (The choir that focuses on the basics of choral singing and performs in chapel once a month)

F ????????????? - College Algebra (This class changed days and times so the time on my schedule isn't right and I really have no idea what time it is)

That's my schedule....add a 6-10 campus job and a Tues-Thurs part time job, and I'm gonna be pretty busy. I am excited, though. I have a really good feeling about this semester and I'm looking forward to the challenge. Sadly enough I still don't have a class that actually applies to my major. 

Failure Isn't Always A Bad Thing

So Luke has been trying lately to get 100 comments on a single blog post. Then on the last day of 2008, he accomplished that goal (Congrats, by the way) and even passed it, going all the way to 117. I have to say, though, it brought up some interesting questions for me. Probably the biggest one I have is, "Is it really a significant accomplishment if your readers know what you're doing?" I've started paying attention to the number of comments I get and trying to push the conversations on further and further. My problem though, is that most of my friends don't actually read my blog. Reading a blog post takes time. However, something that can be read quickly (or not at all) seems to be the perfect thing to coax comments on. In fact, over the course of a couple days, I got 64 comments on my facebook status that simply read "Caleb is trying to be optimistic about this year.....but I'm not entirely sure what that means." The only person that I told about the extreme numbers was Luke, and he added 3 of those comments. Even if you take out those and my replies to those comments, it was well over 50. I also have pushed the comments on a picture of the college choir to 80 comments. The difference there is that I mentioned shooting for 100 and some of the posts are obviously left only for the sake of the numbers. SO my conclusion to all of this is -- The number 100 is not a goal to strive for. The goal should be to communicate. Then if you want numbers, count them based on how many unsolicited comments you get. If you post a goal and the comments stop shortly after that goal, the comments were probably only added because of the goal. 

Let's face it; we like to meet our goals. I know I do, anyway. But if every goal we set can be met, then we're most likely not achieving our potential. I think we should set goals sometimes that we don't necessarily expect to be able to meet. Then if we succeed, that's great! And if we don't, it's okay. You never find out how much you can accomplish until you push yourself to your limits and beyond. 

Or that's the way I see it anyway. What do you think?

Now Wait Just One Second!

Now, I'm just as excited about new year's as the next guy, but I really don't see why we celebrate it as a holiday. Okay, so maybe that's not true. I am probably not as excited as most people. But, for those of you that were counting down the seconds until New Year's Day, you're just going to have to count one more second. It looks like because of the earth's rotation, the experts have decided to add a second to 2008. Go figure.

12 Days of Christmas

Have you ever wondered what in the world the 12 days of Christmas have to do with Christmas? My aunt sent me an interesting email that explains what exactly the song means.

 

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

 -The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

 -Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

 -Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

 -The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

 -The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

 -The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

 -Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching,  Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

 -The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

 -Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness,  Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.

 -The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

 -The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

 -The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

 So there you go....the 12 days of Christmas

Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone  

Tag....I'm it

So, I am confused....I was tagged by Tabetha to do one of those list [insert number here] things about yourself things, but I really have no idea if I'm supposed to do 5 or 7 things. So I guess we'll....who's we? me and the ants in my pocket? I'll just start and see how far I get before it becomes difficult to think of something. Now, whether there's a list of 2 or 5,781, you'll at least know why. I'll try to make it at least a little bit interesting anyway.

1. I graduated high school at 15 and waited a year before starting college, thus making me a 16 year old freshman lovingly known as "the kid". However, contrary to popular belief, I am not a genius. I was just very motivated and had little to do besides schoolwork.
2. I have a heart condition called "Insignificate Mitro Regurditation." Don't bother trying to google it, though. It won't bring up any results. That is the name that my doctor wrote down for it when I was diagnosed, but every other description of my condition I have found calls it "Mitral Regurgitation." Either way, it's not serious. It's a common teen thing that basically means that my body grew faster than my heart and sometimes it can't keep up. For instance, if I'm lying on the couch, and I hop up, the blood sometimes doesn't reach my head fast enough and everything fades to black for a few seconds. I have only fully fainted once.
3. I climb. If it can be climbed, I will climb it. I don't know why, I just enjoy it. One thing that is great about climbing up to a perch high up somewhere is that there is a great view, and one of my other favorite things about it is being able to get away from everything. There are not many people that follow you up.....
4. I had 3 sets of teeth on my bottom jaw. After I lost my baby teeth, I started losing what we thought were my permanent teeth. In fact 2 of my front teeth came in behind my other teeth kinda like a shark. Needless to say, the dentist removed the extras so it wouldn't mess up my mouth......I don't know what good it did though. I still had to have braces. 
5. I am very musical. I love to sing, play guitar, and just listen to music. I have a knack for learning music quickly. I sing in the FWBBC Choir, and have won several awards at our national convention

I think I will have to stop there. I really have no idea why you would need to know this stuff, but then again, who really knows why we do anything? I guess if nothing else this got me to actually post a blog. 

Now....to choose my victims...... *suspenseful music*

In hindsight, it would've been good to comment on the blogs I read. Mainly because I can't tag any of those people because they have no idea who I am....

1. Jacob
2. Derek
3. Paul
4. Jon-marc
5. Rebekah

Now....would someone who actually reads this please enlighten me? Am I supposed to comment these people to let them know they were tagged? I'm almost positive they don't all read this....

Count Your Blessings

I have not had the best week so far, and I'm only two days into it. I may not be the wisest person you've ever met, but I have learned one thing: when nothing seems to go your way, count your blessings. I am reminded of the old hymn that says "Count your blessings; name them one by one. Count your blessings; see what God has done." It's a lot harder to be upset about things going wrong when you're being thankful for the many things that go right. So, I thought I'd just take a few minutes to do that. This is my submission to Luke's group writing project.

I am thankful for:

1. My salvation
2. A family that loves me.
3. Friends that are there for me no matter what.
4. My church
5. This country and the freedom we have been blessed with
6. The opportunity for an education / my school
7. All of the small things I sometimes take for granted (warm bed, food, etc.)

Obviously there are many many many more things that I could add, but for the sake of keeping it short and sweet, I'll stop there.

Rigged Election!

I think most would agree with me that the election for the President of the United States is an important event. The President holds a lot of power that could be very useful or very dangerous depending on who holds it. As most of my readers probably know, I did not vote -- not because I didn't deem it important, or because I thought my vote would not count. I did not vote because I can't. I am sixteen years old, so I am not allowed to vote for anything.

The question that I have is, simply, "Why?" Why shouldn't a 16 year old be allowed to vote? Why do we have an age limit at all? I am in college, but it is assumed that since I am young, I am also ignorant. You don't think I'm stupid because you seem to believe that in two years I will know enough to vote, but I would like to point out that there are adults that don't even know what they are voting for. I heard some statistics the other day from a survey of teens at a concert with questions like "How many senators are there?" and "Who is the Speaker of the House?" Not all that surprisingly, most teens failed miserably. However, another study was done of adults (around the age of 40 if I remember correctly) and they did only marginally better. So why does our culture assume that adults automatically know more? Along with those statistics was an article, and the main purpose was to say that if you are ignorant of the issues, you shouldn't vote.

Well, criticizing the system is useless if no solution is offered. So if you can't decide who can vote based on age, gender, or race, how do you decide who can vote? My answer is in the form of another question. Would it be too ridiculous to require a test on the issues and the candidates positions? Sure, it might be inconvenient, and politicians have that ability to dodge the issues sometimes, but it would get people involved. If you don't know what you're voting on, you can't vote. Period. People would be required to know the candidates, so candidates would be required to make themselves known. Then, as far as inconvenience goes, would you rather have to take an hour or less out of 4 years (35,064 hours), or have a president that you completely disagree with because a bunch of ignorant people voted just because they always vote Democrat, or always vote Republican?

I am not ignorant. I may not know everything, but if I had the opportunity to make my voice heard by simply learning a few more things, I would. So if someone who is capable of voting is refused a vote, does that make the election rigged? I think as a citizen of the United States of America, I should have a voice. Is that too much to ask?